At the European summit in Cannes the great and the not-so-good swapped proposals over iced Evian water for two days without agreeing to a single thing of substance. Plans abound. Realisation is absent.
Europe's capitalist powers cannot decide upon a collective future. The leaders of all the main countries are at odds both with one another and their own populations.
Since the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of the regimes in the east, Europe has been the site of the most Algeria! fierce political contestation in the deyeloped capitalist world.
East, south or across the USA. Atlantic - strategies and schemas abound. None of them look like coming off.
The political bloc created out of the second world war that became known as "Western Europe" is redundant. But there remains no agreement outlined: over what is to replace it.
Its component parts continue to disagree about both its internal functioning and external relations. The sordid self interest has been made visible recently by all the squabbles over "aid".
Zones Germany, ever keen to coopt the countries of central and eastern Europe, wants to extend its traditional zone of pean powers. influence. nomic space".
France, and, to a lesser extent, the European countries of the Mediterranean, are more concerned about the Magreb. Mitterrand even proposed that the EU hold an international conference in The key here is the relationship of the new Europe to the Now the Americans are looking more to the far east for economic relations a number ence. of proposals are on the table. Spain has declared US-EU relations its priority in its presidency. Three plans have been • A Transatlantic Free tion put together in Trade Area (TAFTA). This the aftermath of the would fit in with the US enthu- second world war siasm for regional trade pacts. in order to stabilise But it would not end the big capitalism. It exproblems over textiles and ag- pressed the world riculture that seven years of dominance of the battles in the Uruguay round USA. have so far failed to resolve.
Such an arrangement Framework would probably only serve to It is important to accentuate the differences be- note that this domitween the USA and the Euronance was not determined by the • A transatlantic "ecoUSA's industrial This is little capacity or effimore than a codification of the ciency, but by its already existing plans of the capacity to set the Organisation for Economic overall framework Co-operation and Develop- of politics and ment for global investment. trade. This is less • A transatlantic charter. and less the case. This "great leap forward" During the Cold would be of little value how- War it could use its ever if it did not cover military military might as a means of policy - something that cannot political intervention into be dealt with until the 1996 Europe. NATO was its device -intergovernmental confer- a political tool to ensure supremacy. This is what makes The political impact of the policy discord between the these negotiations on the USA and Europe over Bosnia European working class is as important as the divisions profound. Western Europe within Europe itself. was always an artificial creaThere remain huge obstaNew sections swell Fourth International Congress SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No 87 July 15 1995. Page 8.