Focus: EU Versus Revive the (Roman) Empire?
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NewsBrief
Edited by Melissa Prohs
Revive the Empire?
An idea floated in an article published 27th December 2002 goes something like this: "The EU as it is now won't work. To solve this, why don't we work together to truly recreate the Roman Empire; so she can again become the great power she once was?"
Only a couple of decades ago that might have been a rather shocking idea, today, in 2003, it's simply a rather ho-hum statement. After all, a European Union that already shares a governing structure, common currency, legal system, unfettered travel within its borders, police force and upcoming army is neither shocked by, nor unanimously opposed to, calls for a restoration of the bygone glory days of Rome.
However, the origin of this proposal is certainly extraordinary, coming, as it does, not from a German, French or English news source -- but from the Arab News -- Saudi Arabia's First English Daily.
The author, Amir Taheri, Iranian (Persian) by birth, was the Middle East editor for the London Sunday Times in the 1980s. He is a contributor to numerous major English, French and German publications as well as a regular columnist for the pan-Arab daily Asharq Alawsat and its sister daily the Arab News. Taheri is also a commentator for CNN and, because of his credentials, is frequently interviewed by other media including the BBC and the RFI (Source: Benador Associates, 2002).
Taheri hastens to clarify that what he was suggesting in that article is that the North (being the EU as it is currently evolving) needs to reunite with the ancient empire's southern portion. And he proceeds to explain why he feels this is so.
A Restoration Along North-South Lines?
"For over a thousand years, Europe, North Africa and part of the Middle East, that is to say the region around the Mediterranean, were components of a natural geographical entity with no internal frontiers. Peoples and goods freely circulated in that vast area, contributing to economic prosperity and cultural enrichment. … As long as an individual obeyed the law [referring to a period predating Christianity], the state didn't care about his race, ethnic background, sex, religion or economic status", writes Taheri.
He states, "All but four of the 15 original members of the European Union are facing a population decline". So since the North has the technical "know-how", along with other resources, and the South has an abundance of people, they should team up as they once did so successfully.
Taheri says it is strange that "a string of countries like Poland and three Baltic republics that were never part of the Roman Empire" are being admitted; but that the doors remain shut to "Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Morocco that were part of Rome before it extended its rule to present-day France and Britain". He adds, "What is now Turkey, Egypt, and North Africa produced numerous leaders for the empire, including at least six emperors".
This view of a past and future Roman Empire does, of course, cut across past speculation regarding Revelation 13:1-4, that the end-time "Beast power" will consist of two "legs", with five "toes" in Western Europe and five in Eastern Europe.
Taheri claims that if these Muslim countries joined an admittedly much expanded European Union, only some 250 million out of a total population of around 800 million would be Muslim. He therefore feels that many Europeans' fears of being overrun are unfounded.
Furthermore, he writes, "The Europeans, especially the French, pride themselves in having secular political systems. Thus there is no logic in treating the European Union as if it were an exclusively Christian club. It makes no sense for the European Union to court Georgia and Armenia as future members, simply because they are Christians, but slam the door in the face of Turkey and Morocco which are closer to Europe by geography and history".
View of the Future?
Much of the world seems to be merging into new large trading blocs -- including more involving former archenemies. This, no doubt, is in part a reaction to the global trading success of the present EU (Source: ProfMex).
With that in mind, the following trade alliances may be especially worth tracking. The emerging East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) consists of the 10 Association of South East Asia Nations (ASEAN) members plus Japan, South Korea and China. And, according to the Institute for International Economics, The Asia European Meeting (ASEM), a new cooperation between Europe and East Asia, promises to provide the Euro-East Asia bloc with a combined gross national product of over 50% of the global economy.
The ability to favourably buy from and sell to other countries is critical to a nation. Given the prospect of a strong Euro-East Asia trading bloc and the EU's current trading position, you can expect everyone else to be nervously scurrying to insure their economic survival. North Africa and the Middle East are certainly included. To Taheri, joining the EU itself looks like the winning ticket.
He writes, "A judicious mix of wealth and technology from the north and manpower from the south could turn the Euro-Mediterranean region into the biggest and most prosperous economy the world has ever seen".
Unlikely as it seems given the current EU attitude, could Taheri's "solution" gain acceptance in the right places? Will the European bloc open its borders southward to include its Mediterranean neighbours and, therefore, territorially look more like the Roman Empire of old?
The Islamic Middle East already enjoys a "not-so-secret" special relationship with the EU. While it remains to be seen how close these ties will become -- and for how long -- a tighter oil agreement and further alliances of some sort between the North and nations to the south do not seem that much of a stretch.
These southern Mediterranean lands, along with others not mentioned by Taheri, were anciently subjugated to the Roman Empire. All may again become part of another revival, but the outcome may ultimately be quite different from what Taheri might envision.
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Coming -- The World's Largest Economic Zone
"We have an agreement!" The words were pronounced by a clearly relieved and obviously content Danish Prime Minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The words marked the end of the Copenhagen summit, an enlarged Europe and one of the greatest diplomatic successes for any presidency holder of the European Union ever (EUobserver.com,14th December 2002).
An atmosphere of obvious exhilaration characterized the closing of the truly historical Copenhagen Summit Meeting that took place on 12th-13th December 2002. Throughout the watershed meeting, frequent references were made to "the whirr of the wings of history". The meeting followed several months of hectic activity and extremely difficult, and at times, acrimonious negotiations between the 10 applicant countries and the EU Presidency. The goal was to reach an agreement that would pave the way for an enlargement of the European Union from 15 to 25 member states and from 375 million people to ultimately 540 million. This would turn the EU into the world's largest economic zone, surpassing NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.
According to an article from the Telegraph Group Ltd on 14th December:
Europe's leaders struck a historic deal to create the biggest political trading entity in the world last night when they agreed to expand the European Union to the borders of Russia and the Middle East… If completed as planned, the enlargement will take the bloc's population from the current 375 million to 540 million in a decade.
Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia are now all set to join the EU in May 2004. If Bulgaria and Romania make further progress towards meeting the economic and political criteria set up by the European Council in 1993 in Copenhagen, they could enter in 2007, subject to the decisions made by the EU heads of state and government.
Some have called the aforesaid criteria the first focussed attempt to really define the identity of the European Union. They include:
"guarantees of democracy, the rule of law and human rights, and a functioning market economy which can deal with the market forces of the EU," plus "an ability to meet the obligations of membership, including adherence to the aims of political, economic and monetary union" (BBC NEWS, Q&A: EU Copenhagen summit).
Turkey could start accession talks in 2005 with a view to entering in 2013, bringing the EU population up to the mentioned 540 million.
Of the 10 new members entering in the first round, eight were formerly behind the old Iron Curtain and part of the old Soviet Bloc. This is why Anders Fogh Ras-mussen, Danish premier and head of the EU presidency, thinking of the cold war and the division of Europe at the closing of the summit, spoke of "closing one of the darkest chapters in European history and opening a new one".
The prospects of permanent peace, better access to a huge market, economic progress and adoption of the EU governmental system are all part of the accession package held out to the candidate countries -- as is the prospect of gaining greater momentum on the global scene.
On the financial side, the enlargement will cost the present member states 40.8 billion euros (£26.9 billion, $44.4 billion) spread over the first three years, which amounts to about 25 euros (£16.50, $27.00) per citizen.
The Next Stages in the Enlargement Process
If the exuberant optimism at the end of the summit is to remain unimpaired, a number of important steps must be taken:
In the weeks following the summit, lawyers will set down the details agreed on in Copenhagen in a 6,000-page accession treaty for the candidate countries. The treaty will then be translated into all 11 languages of the EU and those of the candidate countries, and the treaty will then, according to the planned schedule, be signed by all 25 leaders on 16th April in Athens, Greece, the birthplace of European democracy.
Next the enlargement will have to be ratified by the European Parliament, which, however, will probably only be a formality. And the expansion of the EU will have to be ratified by every member state of the present union.
And finally, the heads of the applicant countries have to convince their populations of the blessings of becoming EU members. This may prove to be a difficult task, as many former Eastern Bloc citizens fear the loss of sovereignty and newly gained independence, as well as the serious impact accession will inevitably make on the economic and employment situation in the technologically less-developed Eastern Europe. According to the latest surveys of public opinion, the citizens of many of the applicant nations are distrustful of becoming part of yet another large bloc.
In all cases except Cyprus, the ratification will take place only after a national referendum. In the present member states, there is in many cases a chasm between the visions and initiatives of the political leadership of the individual nations and their citizens. The recent outcomes of several referenda in Denmark and Ireland exemplify this.
In the coming months we will undoubtedly see an intense debate in the EU countries and the media concerning the prospect of seeing Turkey become a member of the European Union in a decade or so. The debate was started in the autumn of 2002 by former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the President of the Convention on the Future of Europe, who openly stated that Turkish membership would destroy the union. This proclamation has already spurred a very heated debate in many EU countries.
Greater Public Interest in "the European Project"
Similarly, the prospect of having a very real European Constitution overruling -- in some cases -- centuries-old, national constitutions in the very near future, is also increasingly becoming part of the public debate in Europe.
These debates indicate that the citizens of the European Union are at long last taking an increased interest in the future of this part of the world and are becoming more aware of the new reality that is governing their daily lives.
Will the high-speed process of the political leaders of Europe to create a second world superpower finally alert the "average Europeans in the street" to where their leaders are taking them? Will the people adopt their visions or will they want the process to slow down and/or change direction? What will be the reaction of the political leaders who have called for and allegedly want a greater public involvement in the "European project" if the coming national referenda go against their expectations and hopes? And how much will the coming constitution of the European Union change and assume to direct the daily lives of the citizens of Europe? The coming months and years will give a hint.
With the expansion of the European Union, there is no doubt that every major move it makes will be worth watching, for it will have an impact not only on its own citizens, but on the whole world.
Ib Jarlskov, Denmark
The EU -- A Christian Constitution?
News sources in late January stated that the Vatican continues to lobby the EU for a statement identifying the union as Christian. According to Roland Flamini, UPI's international editor, the Vatican wants a statement to that effect included in the preamble to the EU constitution now being drafted.
This is perceived as something dear to John Paul II's heart, yet it is in direct contradiction to the apparently equally heartfelt feelings of Amir Taheri (see Revive the Empire? on page 12).
Diplomatic sources say that the church has little chance of getting such wording added. One compelling reason for this is that many Europeans at this time desire a clear separation between church and state. Sources also point out that such wording would alienate the significant number of Muslim immigrants already in most EU countries. And they feel the EU is not embracing the idea because Turkey's longstanding, but still unsuccessful, effort to join the EU is currently a matter of heated debate in Europe. Turkey does not have an official state religion; nevertheless its population is predominately Muslim.
According to Catholic World News, if a reference to Christianity is left out of the preamble, then the Vatican will press the EU to at least include an explicit reference to God in the constitution.
The Catholic delegates may essentially lose this round, but the struggle between them and those in opposition to the concept is by no means over.
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http://www.church-of-god.org/cogn/cn0302/nwbrief.htm