Pause for thought

Date: 30/07/1998

AS EU politicians and officials clear their in-trays and pack their bags for the summer holidays, they could be forgiven for looking back on the first half of this year with a certain amount of bemusement.

It has been a momentous seven months, with the formal decision to launch the single currency taken at the May summit in Brussels, the start of negotiations with the countries queuing up to join the Union and the beginning of talks between EU governments on the internal reforms needed to prepare for enlargement.

Yet, despite the crucial importance of these events, they have failed to generate the sense of occasion which might have been expected. Each, in turn, has seemed something of a damp squib.

In the case of the enlargement negotiations and the debate now under way over reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy, regional funding and the way EU policies are paid for, this is understandable. In both instances, final decisions are some way off, although the Austrian presidency has vowed to try to inject new momentum into the enlargement talks process in the autumn and the spring 1999 target date for agreement on internal reform is - in EU terms - just around the corner.

But in the case of the single currency, the lack of a real sense of history in the making is more puzzling, given the profound impact it will have on member states both inside and outside the monetary union.

In part, the mood was dampened by the unedifying squabble over who should head the European Central Bank. In part, it resulted from the fact that all the other key decisions taken at the May summit were a foregone conclusion by the time EU leaders arrived in Brussels. But it also reflected widespread apathy about the Union and its future among the general public, an apathy which alarms those who believe that much more remains to be done if the goal of 'ever closer integration' laid down in the EU treaties is to be achieved.

Even among those who think integration has gone far enough, such apathy should be a cause for concern. For gone are the days when EU politicians could take decisions about the future without involving their citizens in the process.

Union leaders face some crucial decisions over the coming months, and the tone of the debate at the highest level will play a key role in determining the mood of the public when difficult choices have to be made.

That is something that both politicians and EU officials should bear in mind when they return from their summer break.