Europe : Time for Relaunch and Reform

Since France’s “no” vote in the referendum of May 29, 2005, the European Union has been in a crisis. The French presidential elections that have just taken place, awaited since then by our European partners, must at last be the opportunity for France to take up its proper place in Europe once again. To achieve this, priority must be given to hauling the Union out of the political and institutional impasse into which it was thrust by the rejection of two of its founder members: on this depends the efficiency of the EU and its legitimacy in the eyes of public opinion. In order to do so, the adoption of an “ordinary” treaty, essentially limited to the institutional reforms approved in the context of the ill-fated constitutional treaty, is a realistic objective, acceptable both to the eighteen member States which have already ratified it and to the nine others. The real issue, however, stems from the “loneliness” of competition policy, which cannot meet all challenges, in particular those of a social or “strategic” nature. In the absence of any additional appropriate instruments to cope with such challenges, this policy has unjustly become a symbol for Brussels’ shortcomings and dogmatism. It is, therefore, high time for the European Union to equip itself with legislation allowing it to intervene on certain takeovers from outside the Community in sectors considered to be of strategic importance, on the model of the US Exon-Florio legislation. Similarly, the setting up of various instruments to counter globalization’s social impact at the European level would release the pressure currently exercised on competition policy, and weaken the nationalistic reflexes of member States.