Christian - I have always enjoyed hearing your views on things European.

Over here I heard that the primary reason for the French repudiation of the
EU Constitution was what was called in France the "Polish Plumber Problem" -
that is, the French, comfortable in their system of high payments for
unemployment, 35 hour work weeks (much like the Germans) didn't want people
from Eastern Europe coming in, working more for less, and generally
"upsetting" the status quo.

I also heard of the 300 page EU constitution - as Bill Shakespeare said,
brevity is the soul of wit" - I would think that the constitution would have
a much greater chance of acceptance if the member states sent
representatives of their legislatures much like our Philadelphia
Constitutional Convention of 1789. It would seem too that the EU
Constitution
was an attempt at a confederation, much as the US was prior to our Civil
War.

The other thing I heard (not necessarily related to the repudiation) is that
the EU administration is a bureaucratic nightmare of micro management. An
example given was in Sardinia the locals love this cheese that has small
worms in it - don't ask me how they eat it - with or without - but the EU
bureaucrats have decreed that they cannot make this cheese that has been
made for centuries. .

On another note - apart from the repudiation - is how "Old Europe" will fare
in the coming years with the emerging global economy - believe me we here in
the US have certainly taken some hits with it - seems half the consumer
stuff we buy these days comes from China, outsourcing to India (been
discussed here a time or 2 ;-) ) - How does Germany (and France) expect to
compete living in an insular society? We are having a hard enough time of it
here...

Bill (with the boringly reliable 917)

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