EU faces new future with less rigid links
ROME Posing with Pope Francis before Michelangelo’s masterpiece The Last Judgment at the Vatican, European Union leaders have started their weekend pilgrimage in Rome hoping that a visit to the cradle of their unity project can somehow rekindle the vigour of the bloc’s youth.
More and more, it looked like the EU’s future would have less unanimity and more areas where groups of EU nations advanced on their own when faced with resistance from others on specific issues, Prime Minister Xavier Bettel of founding EU nation Luxembourg said.
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the signature of their solemn bond in Rome, which started with six founding nations but steadily grew to 28. But the biggest setback in the EU’s history looms next week, when Britain will officially trigger negotiations to become the first nation to leave the bloc.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is staying away from this weekend’s ceremonies.
Francis said the EU was called ‘‘to care for the ailments that inevitably come with age, and to find new ways to steer its course. Yet unlike human beings, the European Union does not face an inevitable old age, but the possibility of a new youthfulness’’.
At the Sistine Chapel, EU leaders posed with Francis in front of the Michelangelo fresco, which depicts the end of the world. Six decades ago, few would have imagined that the end of the EU could even be discussed. Now others, beyond Britain with its divorce plans, are looking for more of a ‘‘living apart together’’ relationship.
The EU’s Rome summit, while vowing unity, could instead be a watershed moment in moving away from it and toward a more practical road of partial alliances on certain issues.
‘‘I’d rather have a two-speed Europe than a dead end and no speed,’’ Bettel said. ‘‘When a country says, ‘I don’t want to’, I can say, ‘Well, too bad. Don’t block me. Let me get on with it with others’.’’
Bettel said the two-speed idea, first pushed by Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, was catching on.
‘‘We were alone at the beginning with the Benelux. Then we had country after country, because we saw that certain ones tried to take us hostage,’’ he said, referring to the Polish government, which sought to sabotage the last summit two weeks ago by refusing to approve conclusions because the 27 other EU nations appointed Donald Tusk, a local political rival, for another term as EU president.
Bettel said this would be unworkable in the future. ‘‘Can you imagine, 27 or 28 around a table and each, for an appointment, or because he disagrees with a sentence, refuses and blocks Europe and 500 million citizens? If they are unhappy, they should tell us.’’
With Britain not showing up this weekend in Rome, leaders will be looking at France, a major EU power, with concern. French President Francois Hollande will be leaving in May, and there is the spectre of a possible presidential election victory by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, another anti-EU populist.
Further down the road is Germany’s general election in REUTERS September, where the far-right Alternative for Germany could become a factor.
Even in the heart of Italy, another founding member, the EU is no longer at peace. The 5-Star Movement founded by comic Beppe Grillo is riding high in the polls and wants a referendum on whether to stay in the 19-nation eurozone.
Even Francis sensed the unease. ‘‘Sadly, one frequently has the sense that there is a growing split between the citizenry and the European institutions, which are often perceived as distant and inattentive to the different sensibilities present in the union,’’ he said. AP