Diplomat to U.S.: European Union is far more than ceremonial

Americans need to wake up to the rise of the European Union, which we tend to hear about only in trade flaps over airplanes and wine. Meanwhile, Europeans see the EU as nothing less than a means toward their desired end of being a superpower to rival the United States. “I don’t think the (U.S.) State Department is paying enough attention,” said Leslie Lebl, who served as minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. mission to the EU in Brussels. Now retired from a 24-year foreign service career and living in Connecticut, Lebl recently visited The Eagle editorial board when she was in town to speak to the Wichita Committee on Foreign Relations on “EU-NATO Cooperation.”
What would lead European nations to unify politically and economically is hard for unilateral-minded Americans to comprehend. But, Lebl said, “If you join the EU, you get wealthy, you have stability, nobody invades you.” Even after the failure of French and Dutch voters to ratify the European Constitution this year, the EU is gathering strength and relevancy, she said.
What’s of special concern, though, is that the EU and its European Parliament lack democratic legitimacy and are turning the national parliaments into “pass-throughs.” Maybe President Bush’s second-term agenda of advancing democratic ideals ought to include Europe.
Posted by Rhonda Holman

7 Comments

  1. JUSTA GUY
    Posted September 25, 2005 at 8:44 am | Permalink

    No oil in Europe.

  2. J M Walker
    Posted September 25, 2005 at 12:03 pm | Permalink

    Have the French ever joined anything?

  3. Galahad
    Posted September 25, 2005 at 3:50 pm | Permalink

    Uh, yeah, JM. They joined the coalition to fight Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. They’re still there too, fighting and dying along side our guys.

    Funny how the Bush media forgot to mention that in the “freedom fries” hysteria leading up to the Iraq invasion.

  4. Joe C
    Posted September 25, 2005 at 3:51 pm | Permalink

    “If you join the EU, you get wealthy, you have stability, nobody invades you.”In other words the US will lend their Military if we can only suck them in again.”unilateral-minded Americans” ?Wake up Rhonda! They only call us names until they want something from US. Who is threatening them now?

  5. Ian Santiago
    Posted September 25, 2005 at 5:40 pm | Permalink

    Th EU is headed for the same disaster as we are. Unless of course the far right comes to power in Europe and they remove all the filthy blacks and muslims that are ruining the great European Nation!

  6. Galahad
    Posted September 26, 2005 at 9:52 am | Permalink

    Ian–

    You’re the only guy in the world that can look at Naomi Campbell and think “filthy black.”

    True wacko . . .

  7. Ian Santiago
    Posted September 26, 2005 at 12:06 pm | Permalink

    Galahad, yo dawg i b trippin fo shizzle!