Andrew Stuttaford writes of the impending French NO vote on the EU “constitution”:
Luxembourg’s prime minister, the evocatively named Jean-Claude Juncker, has proved that, contrary to the rumours, that dour bunch of eurocrats, placemen and rentiers located down in the Ardennes really do have a sense of humour. He’s saying that the EU will “continue to develop” if the constitution is voted right (true enough, alas), but that the process will slow down and that as a result “we would lose two decades, during which certain parts of the world would move ahead by adopting Europe’s model, while others would catch up with us.”
Quite why anyone else should want to adopt “Europe’s model,” which is best seen as the Ford Pinto of economic management and the Rolls Royce of corruption, is beyond me.
Stuttaford’s description of the European model is correct, but he seems to miss the crucial implication of what Juncker is saying, namely, that other parts of the world are already working on adopting Europe’s supranational model. Now, what parts of the world could he be referring to? And is it possible, perhaps even probable, tht this just might have a little something to do with the Mexican minister’s mention last week of US-Mexican integration?