FACES OF EUROPE SEARCHING FOR LEADERSHIP IN A NEW POLITICAL STYLE

The resounding Dutch ‘Nee’ to the European Constitutional Treaty came with a singular paradox: the intense debate preceding the referendum vote has made all of us, sceptics and opponents included, a little more European. Since then, soul-searching with regard to the identity, culture, political mission and physical limits of Europe has developed into a permanent exercise. The referendum debate in this respect absorbed, focused and generalized earlier concerns about the Brussels technocracy, the introduction of the euro, suspected cases of fraud by europarliamentarians, the views of candidate-commissioner Buttiglione on marriage and homosexuality, and the future admission of Turkey. It was recently renewed in the wake of the conflicting reactions by leading European politicians to the ‘Danish cartoon crisis’ and the Lebanon war, which the Finnish presidency characterized as an ‘existential test’ for Europe. [C:\Users\Microsoft\Documents\Calibre Library]