WORLD VIEW/Paul Gillespie: In their joint statement agreed at the special European Council on Monday night in Brussels, EU leaders said they were "committed to the United Nations remaining at the centre of international order".
Their objective for Iraq "remains full and effective disarmament . . . . We want to achieve this peacefully. It is clear that this is what the people of Europe want" (my italics).
Reportedly that last sentence was inserted on an Irish initiative, following the huge demonstrations throughout the continent and the world last Saturday. Intriguingly, it refers to the "people" - not the "peoples" - of Europe. Launching the first draft of his constitutional treaty for the EU earlier this month, Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing said: "The people have a common position, whatever position their leaders take. The people want peace."
How depressingly right he was has been demonstrated by a week in which these divisions deepened immediately after the united position was agreed in Brussels - largely because President Jacques Chirac berated the 12 candidate states for signing two letters supporting US policy on Iraq. This was "infantile, dangerous, not very well behaved", he said, adding that they were "badly brought up" and "had missed a great opportunity to shut up". Their action could "reduce their chances of entering Europe".
Coming on top of a letter from Mr Tony Blair briefing the candidate states on his view of the summit outcome, which stressed its tough language and praised "the leadership you have shown on these issues", it is difficult to exaggerate the wilful ineptitude of the two leaders who had just agreed a common position.
Both Mr Giscard d'Estaing and Mr Chirac criticised those failing to heed an obligation laid down in the Maastricht Treaty: "Member-states shall support the Union's external and security policy actively and unreservedly in a spirit of loyalty and mutual trust." As the Economist pointed out last week, the following alternative version comes closer to the reality: "Member-states shall actively undermine the Union's external and security policy in a spirit of loathing and mutual mistrust."
In political theory the Greek word demos refers to the people making up a political community, usually a nation. In modern usage it is commonly used to identify a community of citizens linked to each other by strong cultural and democratic bonds and pressing for more effective control over government.
There is a major political and theoretical battle under way about whether the "European people" qualify as a demos. If they do, the political logic at the Convention on the Future of Europe, currently preparing a draft of a new constitutional treaty, would seem to point to a federal conclusion. A federal EU would be a state-like entity with the European people as its demos. In contrast, those who reject the idea that there is such a united people also reject federalist conclusions precisely in the name of democracy.
The draft text steers a way through these political rapids in Article 1: Establishment of the Union, as follows: "1. Reflecting the will of the peoples and the states of Europe to build a common future, this Constitution establishes a Union ... within which the policies of the member-states shall be co-ordinated, and which shall administer certain common competences on a federal basis. 2. The Union shall respect the national identities of its member-states.
"3. The Union shall be open to all European states whose peoples share the same values, respect them and are committed to promoting them together."
The f-word has predictably made British government representatives and some others jump up and down; but most of the amendments flooding in concentrate on other aspects of the draft, or seek to affirm the EU's unity in its diversity.
Reference to federal methods is strictly constrained by a listing of competences necessary to appease German opinion but which usefully sub-divides the EU's legal powers. A number of them deal with the need to strengthen the obligation to create a common foreign policy. (The draft treaty and the amendments may be found on the convention's website http://european-convention.eu.int).
Political communities are constructed just as much by conflict and argument as by agreement and consensus. The historic compromises between antagonists necessary to save major European states from civil war built up the welfare states which developed the "European social model", to be distinguished from the US model of society. In the same way the agreement to pool sovereignty after the second World War contributed mightily to the rescue of the nation-state in western Europe over the last 50 years.
The huge demonstrations for peace throughout Europe and the world last Saturday are also part of this process. They are a vivid manifestation of "globalisation from below", responding to transnational media capable of broadcasting key events such as the UN Security Council report from Hans Blix and Mohamed ElBaradei and the subsequent debate on them.
Such demos can make a demos. They help to construct a transnational public sphere reflecting and expressing common continental or global values - or disagreements.
The media have an important role to play in this process, whether by international reportage or transnational co-operation. I recall a colleague from El Pais telling a cautionary tale about attending a meeting representatives from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Le Monde and L'Indice in 1990 in an attempt to develop co-operation. He returned to Madrid committed to using a 10,000-word manuscript by French philosopher Jacques Derrida, entitled L'Autre Cap (The Other Heading), about the imminent reunification of Europe.
That is an exceedingly long article. But reading it recently underlines its enduring value. Derrida, a great fan of Joyce, would appreciate the wordplay of demos and demos. It contains many references to Paul Valéry's essay on Europe, published in 1939. Its major plea is that Europe must be open to internal and external others: "What is proper to a culture is not to be identical to itself." Chirac and Blair, please note.