“Multi-speed”, “further integration” and “core group” are some key vocabulary you might want to keep paying attention to. As has been tracked here for a while, a newly formed United States of Europe with likely a dual-economy is coming courtesy of Germany’s Fourth Reich.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The prospect that economic and diplomatic heavyweight Britain might leave the European Union within two years has pushed EU leaders to consider concessions to keep the country in the fold.
EU founding members like Germany and France are moving outside their comfort zones, surprisingly receptive to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s call for change ahead of a referendum that will allow citizens to vote on whether to stay or go before the end of 2017.
With Europe’s top priority the very real risk that Greece might fall out of the euro single currency, Cameron has found a surprisingly open ear in many capitals of the world’s biggest trading bloc.
“If there are adjustments to be made, it must be in the interest of all – so, Europe – while allowing the British people to speak when the time comes,” French President Francois Hollande said.
“We have agreed to work together very closely,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting Cameron recently. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”
In the year since Cameron vowed to hold a referendum, he has not defined what changes he needs to argue for Britain to stay in the EU, which should leave room for compromise.
One thing is clear: there is no will for wholesale change since it would be impossible to modify Europe’s treaties and ratify them in 28 parliaments in two years.
But for the first time, EU leaders are weighing minor amendments to the preamble of those treaties – essentially Europe’s constitution – or a new protocol to add to them, which could be endorsed after the British referendum.
More of a “multi-speed” EU is certainly possible, with a core group moving faster toward the goal of “ever closer union” enshrined in those texts, while others limit themselves to specific areas of cooperation.
Full article: EU weighs unprecedented reform as Britain threatens to leave (AP)
Global Geopolitics 