European Union

Paris. -- Self-inflicted wounds are the worst, and Western Europe today reels from them, wounds of uncalculated ambition and failure of foresight. The European monetary union has in recent days been battered again by speculators, but this has also been a consequence of the plan's own overreaching ambition -- an ambition the European governments have not had the means to fulfill.The danger now is grievous enough for some in Brussels to forecast the collapse of European unity itself, if currency union eventually goes.

Commentator Jules Witcover writes that President Obama "needs to put a bit of John Wayne in his words" vis-a-vis his handling of Russia over the Malaysian Airlines tragedy ( "The Obama doctrine under fire," July 25). Mr. Witcover acknowledges that interventionism may not be the best idea. But what is to be gained from a disparity between the president's words and actions he doesn't venture to say. The airliner was flying from Europe with primarily European passengers aboard.

LONDON -- Playing a high-stakes game to try to whip his own back-bench critics into line, Prime Minister John Major said yesterday that his Conservative government would resign and would call a new election if it failed to win a parliamentary vote Monday on payments to the European Union.The move was intended to overcome a rebellion by so-called Euro-skeptics in the party, those who are fighting to prevent Britain from merging into Europe, as called for by the Maastricht Treaty on European Union.

While tea party candidates underperformed against establishment Republican incumbents in recent U.S. primary elections, in Europe their conservative cousins have just scored some spectacular victories. Commentators are calling elections for seats in the European Parliament and local council seats in Britain a "political earthquake" and "revolution" as strongly conservative candidates made significant gains. In Britain, the UK Independent Party (UKIP) outperformed the established Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.

STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- At the end of a long and emotional campaign, Sweden yesterday voted solidly to abandon its Arctic isolation and join the European Union.Sweden's approval follows similar yes votes in Austria and Finland this year and is expected to give a boost to a referendum at the end of the month in neighboring Norway, where opposition has been strong.The addition of all four countries would make the EU the world's largest and richest free-trade bloc, surpassing North America, and could help speed the integration of the Eastern and Central European countries hoping to join.

PHILADELPHIA - The European Union is a wondrous construct. In five decades, it has made allies out of historic enemies and brought unprecedented prosperity to Europe. But it was created as an economic union, and its high point was the creation of a single currency, the euro. The idea that Europeans could create one super state, a United States of Europe, was a vast overreach. The EU has kept adding members, now 25, that include ex-communist states where people are willing to work for less than Western Europeans.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Today the Irish people vote on the Maastricht treaty of European union -- and on their past, their future, their national dignity, as some perceive it, and on the fate of the unborn Irish child.They have made the referendum to rescue the Maastricht Treaty, following its defeat June 2 by the Danes, a bigger thing than anyone ever intended.They have invested it with their anxieties over matters apparently far removed from the question at hand. They have been obsessed with it.On Tuesday, a man devastated by beer slouched in a hotel bar on O'Connell Street, wavering in his chair, and drawing stares from the waiters and patrons, nearly all French, German and American tourists.

"Whether they like it or not, and whether they know it or not, all nationals of the 12 member states of the European Community woke up [yesterday] as something which [Sunday] night they were not, namely citizens of the European Union."So editorialized the Financial Times of London, but it was largely a sardonic observation. On a day devoid of celebration of this ostensibly historic event, the 12 very sovereign governments involved could not even decide whether to call themselves a rather modest "European Community," which they have been for some time, or a more grandiose "European Union."

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- A hesitant but increasingly worried Western Europe took its first substantive action against Russia yesterday to register disapproval of Moscow's efforts to crush resistance in breakaway Chechnya.Speaking to a committee of the European Parliament here, European Union Foreign Affairs Commissioner Hans van den Broek announced that the EU would delay implementing an important partnership agreement with Moscow that would open the prospect of an eventual Russia-EU free trade agreement, improve the investment climate in Russia for EU-based private companies and establish regular political dialogue between Moscow and Brussels.

LONDON -- If Western Europeans look to the east, they see millions of people impoverished by almost a half-century of Communist rule, many of them ready to surge across frontiers in search of jobs and the good life in the West.If they look south, across the Mediterranean, they see more millions of desperate Arabs, who cannot find work and often chafe at living under autocratic governments, also ready to invade European shores.With 17 million Western Europeans out of work, more than 10 percent of the labor force, the prospect of a flood of migrants pouring in from either the east or the south is unsettling to all member states in the 15-nation European Union.

This year marks the passage of one century since of the start of the First World War. It is the year that will mark the 75th anniversary of the Nazi invasion of Poland, which launched the Second World War. It is also the year that will mark a quarter of a century since the fall of the Berlin Wall. The two world wars were catastrophic events in which Europe, motivated by parochial interests and fears, divided up against itself and unleashed the greatest violence ever known in history, resulting in the deaths of 76 million.

News about Ukraine is disturbing, but it's time the European Union takes control of the matter and the United States stays in the background ( "Moscow's Achilles heel," April 17). I don't like what's happening in the region, but there's no need for President Barack Obama to "wave the bloody shirt or rattle sabers. " We've seen what happens when this country leads the charge in far-off conflicts. Regarding your suggestion the U.S. and the European Union nations go after assets of wealthy Russian citizens, this should never be on the table.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's brutal war against his domestic opponents has taken some 70,000 lives so far and reduced much of the country to rubble, yet there's no sign either side has gained a decisive advantage in the two-year-old conflict. The European Union's decision this week to lift its ban against arming the Syrian rebels is ostensibly aimed at prodding the combatants into a negotiated settlement, but the effect could be just the opposite if it encourages both sides to dig in their heels even deeper.

The only difference between the U.S. and Greece is that the European Union stops Greece from printing money and going deeper in debt. When the U.S. dollar crashes, it will be worse than most of us have experienced in our lifetimes. We need all the Democratic tax hikes and all the Republican spending cuts, and we still won't get out of this hole. Dan Griffin, Perry Hall

With all the upheaval in the eurozone and the promise of more to come, what's an investor to do? Kick anything vaguely European out of the 401(k)? Baltimore money managers T. Rowe Price and Legg Mason say they both have relatively low levels of exposure to the eurozone: 4 percent of assets under management at Price, 5 percent at Legg. But they haven't pulled back in a big way from the region, which is struggling — to varying degrees, depending on the country — with debt and fears of a sharp recession.

As European leaders meet this week in an attempt to once again shoo reality away from the continent's respirator, countries outside the European Union are making it increasingly clear that they'll have no role in prolonging the charade. Cyprus has just asked for a bailout from the EU's ATM, joining Greece, Ireland, Portugal and, most recently, Spain. So what's the excuse this time? Apparently Cyprus' intimate exposure to the Greek economy was more than enough economic Ebola. So another beggar's cup starts rattling just in time for yet another summit of European leaders.

HARLAN Cleveland, a great internationalist and diplomat, once observed that he still had grave reservations about world government "because I might not like it, and it might not like me." But despite the globalization of commerce, nation states still define citizenship, identity and economic security.Today, citizens of the United States and Europe, facing hard times, are freshly questioning whether "one world," or even one continent, is what they really want. As a consequence, two treaties, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)

BERGEN, Norway -- The meeting was billed as a discussion on whether Norway should join the European Union, but judging from the number of "no" buttons, most of those crowded into the tiny hall in rural Os this week had already made up their minds.They listened politely while Ranveig Froyland, a member of Parliament, told them that they would be better off inside Europe.But when Hallvard Bakke, a former government aide who opposes membership, declared that Norway should never surrender its authority or its sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, the audience of farmers and retirees applauded enthusiastically.

During one of his stand-up routines, comedian and late-night host Jon Stewart told a joke that encapsulated the often misunderstood relationship between the United States and Canada. Said Mr. Stewart, "A Canadian came up to me and asked, 'What do Americans really think about Canada?' And I was like, 'We don't.'" Bingo. Joke, truth, and a growing problem, all spelled out in two words. In many ways, there is no country on Earth more important to the current and future welfare of the United States than Canada - and yet, many Americans and U.S. politicians barely give our neighbor to the north any thought at all. They should.

Just as the U.S. economy appears to be improving, four sets of forces could thrust America into an abyss rivaling the Depression. •First, for decades, Washington has pursued more open global trade and domestic deregulation. These unleashed great potential for innovation and growth; however, China and other nations have abused freer trade through export subsidies and import barriers to boost their economies at the expense of others. And, in some industries, a few players have amassed great monopoly power - notably, large financial houses on Wall Street and in Europe that now have an iron grip on lending.