Tony Blair e o rumo da União Europeia

It's Tony's Turn, por Carlo Lottieri.

Before the establishment of the welfare state in Western societies, it was possible to unify a nation without causing undue tensions. In the empires of old, for instance, very different cultures and traditions could live together, and the relations between them were usually relaxed, since the areas subject to public decisions were restricted. But the logic of the social-democratic state radically changed this circumstance.###

Today, state agencies manage health, social security, research and charity, and they thus benefit some groups and damage others. The basic unfairness of redistribution can be accepted ? as it happens in the nation-states ? only if it is impossible to ascertain who exactly are the taxpayers (the victims) and who are the tax-consumers (the exploiters).

In Europe, however, we know reasonably well which nations are benefiting from the budget and regulatory arrangements, and which are paying for them. These latter (especially United Kingdom) are opposed to repeating the mistakes of the past. The British desire to cut the budget shows that Euro-skeptic forces have more influence than they did a few years ago. In such conditions, only a reconceptualization of Europe as an ?open space? (as opposed to a ?superstate?) can satisfy all the member states and open a new future to European institutions.

(...)

The French and Dutch votes show that the membership of new countries and the ratification of a Constitution cannot continue. Embracing poor and culturally different countries, and endowing Brussels with more powers are two mutually exclusive endeavors.