Issue 9 - 1999
The treaties need radical reform
01 December 1999
Inter-governmental conferences (IGCs) are insufferably tedious and complex affairs. Each drawn-out negotiation helps to reinforce the popular impression that the EU is irrelevant to ordinary peoples' lives.
Pooling forces
01 December 1999
After many years of talking about boosting their defence capabilities but doing very little, the Europeans have made substantial progress in 1999. European governments have begun to develop the defence dimension of their common foreign and security policy.
Transatlantic tensions
01 December 1999
The friendship between the EU and the US is unusually strained, and the outlook appears bleak. Tension is most evident in the one area where the EU has a coherent foreign policy, trade (the EU's reluctance to implement WTO rulings on bananas and beef hormones has been shameful).
Europe's new economy
01 December 1999
Europe needs a new economic story. Its ability to compete in the knowledge-driven economy depends on how well it can translate science, technology and know-how into jobs, growth and economic success.