The hard-core midlife crisis?

(B2) Too often among certain European leaders, even the most perceptive, a refrain recurs. “Europe, at 27, does not work. We will have to move on, create a hard core…”.

To this, three remarks.

First of all, the rate of adoption of texts in the Council of the EU does not seem to have really slowed down since enlargement, if the Council services are to be believed. Admittedly, at 25 or 27, the round table is longer, the debates are less convivial and the slightly larger table means that “we don't really see each other”. But there are a significant number of first reading agreements with the EP. And if the “legislative machine” is in slow motion, the cause is rather to be found in the current policy of the Commission.

Then, referendum after referendum, if we feel a European fatigue, of the peoples as well as of the leaders, it is indeed in the countries "of the beginning", the Europe of the Nine, in fact. It is, first of all, in these States that introspection and reflection must take place in order to make the European project more visible and more exciting.

Finally, it would be necessary to explain to us why what was not possible yesterday at 9 or 15, would be possible tomorrow? Let's face it. If there was no hard core between the founding countries, it's because they didn't want it. There is no need to blame the newcomers. Or else we must restore the Berlin Wall…