The Inevitable Re-Birth of European Integration
By rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, Ireland's voters once again demonstrated Europeans' deep-seated suspicion toward unifying initiatives that would make the EU an autonomous center of power. But socio-economic change will continue to force the EU to seek new forms of organization, combining inter-governmental and federal approaches.
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ATHENS – European integration implies successive transfers of national sovereignty to the Union. But, while member states readily comply with decisions that abolish protective measures – say, import duties – they hesitate to formulate or advance policies that would grant the European Union discretionary powers to take initiatives. Typical examples of this are the stalled Lisbon Strategy, the incomplete Economic and Monetary Union, and now, following the Irish public’s blocking maneuver, the uncertain fate of the new EU Constitutional Treaty (the “Lisbon Treaty”).