The United States of Europe?

The expectations of the participants from the Summit of the EU countries, which took place on November 15, were extremely clearly formulated by Jose Manuel Barroza: from a meeting in Washington, one should not expect an immediate miracle, but at the same time it should not become a failure. Miracles did not happen ... However, the solution of issues fundamental for modern Europe does not require excessive insight.

Today - November 27 - a meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU countries should take place. The main question is the global economic crisis.

Apparently, the main European problem today is not financial regulation, but disagreements within the EU members. The main topic of discussion is the construction of a completely different model of "financial architecture". The trouble is that, even given the agreement on the degree of state intervention in the economy, the opinions of the community countries diverge about which strategies should be applied to each specific case. So it turns out that everyone agrees with the need for consolidation, but no one knows who to entrust its organization. Meanwhile, according to the IMF, at the end of 2008 the world growth rate will significantly decrease, a small rise will begin only from the second half of 2009 . Against this background, moderate European isolationism, if just such a strategy is chosen, will lead to the creation of the United States of Europe. This is not another memorial service for the European community, rather a tribute to the upcoming social stress. So far this did not happen, let's look at the near future.

The agenda of the meeting of the Council of Ministers, apparently, will not shine with diversity. On Wednesday, November 26, the European Commission introduced a package of measures aimed at stimulating the European economy, which is facing a recession. At the meeting on November 27, we will talk about the need to reduce value added tax for the sake of stimulating purchasing power. A week earlier, within the framework of the new economic program, the agricultural sector was discussed - issues of reforming a pan -European agricultural policy. The conversation was about reducing direct financial assistance to farmers with increasing subsidies to the general development program of the agricultural sector and to solve environmental problems.

The issue of migration in the EU deserves special attention. Last Friday, the European Parliament approved the project of the Blue Card Directive, which may well become an analogue of the well -known American Grinkart, that is, official residence and work permission. In turn, the Council of EU ministers on Thursday must approve the draft legislative proposal of the European Commission in the final version. The council, as we understand, is not great, although the European Commission recommends that the EU states with highly qualified personnel from the third world countries be paid, 1.7 times higher than the average national rate of wage. Previously, this coefficient was 1.5. I will recall that the reason for the introduction of the “blue map” project is the active aging of the inhabitants of Europe. However, it is not difficult to guess about what will happen to low -skilled employees. At the same time, according to Eurostat, the total September level of unemployment in 27 countries - EU members rose from 6.9% in August to 7.0% in September, remaining unchanged compared to the same period last year.

Another important theme of the meeting of the Council of Ministers of the EU countries will be an unexpectedly updated topic of development of natural resources at the North Pole. Of course, the global financial crisis is pushing the next discussion of this topic, but how the advice will ratify the territorial claims of Sweden, Denmark, Finland or Canada is not completely clear. In addition, full discussion and decision -making on the Arctic is possible only in the presence of Russia, which is difficult.

For almost a year, an epic with a Lisbon agreement has been going on for almost a year, according to which it is also high time to make at least some decision. The need for mandatory ratification of the contract by all parties to the process has already played a cruel joke with the EU: the Irish spoke out against the document. And judging by the absence of high -profile statements on Tuesday - the control day - the Czech Republic will delay the solution of the issue for an indefinite period. The national egoism, which threaters the existence of the EU, was formulated by the most clearly President of the Czech Republic by Vaclav Claus: “ If a real agreement enters into force, both the international position and internal relations in our country will change. The weight of the Czech Republic in the European Union will be weakened. This will change the conditions of our country, with which the citizens of our country, entering into the Union, agreed during the referendum .”

If with the agenda of the day on the Council of Ministers it is more or less clear, then it is not worth expecting some unanimity on November 27. First of all, because politics, in the end, is only the quintessence of the economy, and with the latter, for a couple of recent months, everything is very bad. The situation is likely that the almost agreed (against the backdrop of the Georgian-Ossetian conflict) Europeans will again be closed at national economic egoism. Although not everything is so bad: the bilateral meeting of Nicolas Sarkozy and Angels Merkel recently took place, on which the leaders of the two countries, even if they did not come to an agreement on the necessary measures to overcome the crisis, but still could agree on what should not be done. And this is a step forward. By the way, Russia should inspire this fact with some optimism. Indeed, unlike the Poland conflicting with Russia, the tandem of Sarkozy - Merkel is so far the only union in Europe that really united in order to stabilize its own markets.

In any case, it is expected that the Council of Ministers of the EU countries will approve of the decision on the priority of the new economic program of the European Union today. It is hardly possible to demand more from the Council today. But if you also manage to ratify the Blue Card project, then you can forget about internal disagreements for a while. And there, even to political compromises, a stone's throw.