The European Union (EU) is having great difficulty in convincing individual European countries to ratify the Treaty of Lisbon. In a nutshell, the Treaty of Lisbon seeks to enhance EU institutions, and thereby, offer further legitimacy and power to the EU as well as allowing the organization to take an enormous step in adopting a Constitution. The people of Ireland, the only country to put the treaty to referendum, rejected the treaty and both the German and Polish presidents are refraining from signing the treaty. In the past, the people of France and the Netherlands rejected similar treaties. I will allow you to perform your own due diligence regarding the specifics of the treaty and the issues surrounding its language and policy implementations.
As an outside observer, I would like to focus on the psychology and philosophy behind the European Union as I find it more interesting than its inner politics.
The unification of Europe politically, economically, socially, etc. under the EU is a profound concept considering Europe's divisive history and size. However, with Europe's history, diversity, and size, is the EU destined to fail? Despite the negotiations, stalemates, agreements, disagreements and nearly everything in between since the EU's inception 15 years ago, the EU remains a particularly weak organization that has yet to prove the solidarity of Europe.
History demonstrates that nations and their political institutions are more efficient when the body that comprises them is smaller and less diverse. For example, is Europe too large and diverse to organize around democratic principles and jointly create and ratify a Constitution? Despite numerous treaties and attempts including the Treaty of Lisbon, fifteen years later the member states of the EU have failed to ratify a Constitution.
In contrast, the Constitution of the United States of America was written in 1787 and ratified by all states three years later in 1790. However, if the United States of America had been comprised of the other 37 states in addition to the original 13 states that ratified the Constitution, would the United States have a Constitution today? Or, if the original 13 states were as diverse as the country is today, would the United States have a Constitution today?
Can an organization unable to convince its populace to agree upon a set of binding principles be said to be strong and united? Will an organization be able to unite a territory as expansive and a people as diverse as Europe and Europeans? Or is progress being made? Are the treaties that have already been ratified and the influx of new member states an indication that the EU, if slowly, is progressing towards its goal of a peaceful, united and prosperous Europe? And most importantly, what does a study of the EU suggest regarding the feasibility of a peaceful, united and prosperous world? What will the process be and how long will it take, if ever?
