Nationalism in Europe and the Lisbon Treaty

"Who do I call if I want to call Europe?" former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once asked. After the Irish rejected the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum, the question remains unanswered. Rather than being a one-time incident, the Irish plebiscite, which defeated the treaty 53.4% to 46.6%, is the latest evidence that nationalism is alive and kicking in Europe, regardless of repeated attempts by the continent's elites to turn the European Union into an enhanced political body, designed to play a bigger role in world affairs. Europe's citizens favor the free movement of goods, capital and, to a somewhat lesser extent, people throughout the 27- country union. They don't, though, want to surrender their legal traditions, change their tax structures or alter other parts of their national identity. In 2001, Irish voters defeated a proposal relating to the expansion of the then 15-country union into eastern Europe. The accord was later passed in a second referendum after Ireland's neutrality was assured. But it's not just the Irish. A Danish plebiscite in 1992 initially voted down the Maastricht Treaty, which laid out the eligibility criteria for joining the European common currency. Danes said yes the following year, after gaining concessions exempting them from a common legal system, immigration policy, citizenship, defense structure and currency. In 2000, the Danes voted against adopting the euro. The Swedes went the same way in 2003. French voters did say yes to Maastricht, but the 50.5% to 49.5% margin fell far short of an overwhelming endorsement. The German government didn't even give its citizens a chance to choose. If they had, there's no way they would have abandoned the deutsche mark to share a currency with Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. Referendums in France and the Netherlands killed the European constitution in 2005. Not willing to risk defeat of its warmed-over Lisbon successor, French and Dutch politicians are leaving ratification to national legislatures. And it's commonly accepted that had Britain given Britons the opportunity to vote on any of these, they would have roundly said no. Put simply, Europeans don't want to be part of a United States of Europe.