EU marks 50th birthday amid uncertain future

(BRUSSELS) - The European Union this week celebrates its 50th birthday toiling to win back public confidence in its policies, its ambitions and who should be allowed into the 27-nation club.

Fifty years after the signature of the Treaty of Rome on March 25, 1957, which laid the foundation for today's EU, the bloc is to commemorate its birthday with glitzy concerts, exhibitions and sporting events based around a summit in Berlin this weekend.

But beneath the veneer, and despite serving as a model of integration to the world, EU leaders are battling to conclude a declaration that can mark past achievements and reassure citizens about the future.

They agree that union in Europe has brought peace, the world's largest open trade area, widespread border-free travel and a single currency that people can spend from Andalusia to Lapland, but disagree about the best way ahead.

At the heart of this malaise lies the failure of the planned constitution, ratified by 18 nations but which has been in limbo since French and Dutch voters struck it down in referenda almost two years ago.

The rejection of the blueprint was a stark warning about the gulf between EU elites and citizens, and exposed disenchantment with enlargement, especially the efforts to bring mainly Muslim Turkey aboard.

But the crisis also has deeper and often contradictory roots, and much depends on whether your European glass is half-empty or half-full.

"Half the people want more Europe and half the people think there is already too much Europe. That's your European crisis," noted Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, one of the EU's longest-serving leaders.

Amid high unemployment, French people see too much competition and not enough social policy. Germany and Belgium fear a flood of labour from the new states, mainly former communist nations in Eastern Europe, that joined in 2004.

The Dutch and British are worried about losing sovereignty to an EU super-state, and some Scandinavian and eastern European countries would prefer just to reap the economic benefits of a free-trade area.

Even enlargement means different things to different folks. France and the Netherlands fret about loss of European identity by bringing Turkey in. Britons and Poles see it as a chance to export democracy toward the Middle East.

"The historic benefits of European construction have been overshadowed by a rise in fears among the public of many member states about their economies and identities," said Michel Foucher, at the Schuman Foundation think-tank.

Yet those benefits far outweigh Europe's downsides.

Germany has been unified, thanks in no small part to EU funds that have also helped boost the economies of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain; increasing prosperity and improving the balance between member countries.

The EU is also omni-present in people's daily lives, through consumer and environment laws -- witness the ambitious climate change accord sealed at the last summit -- fair competition and low-cost airlines or even student bourses.

Despite this, European politics rarely enters family homes and turnout for EU elections is often poor.

The current leadership vacuum does little to improve matters.

French President Jacques Chirac and British Prime Minister Tony Blair are leaving, Italy is again in political turmoil, new governments are in place in Austria, the Netherlands and Sweden, and Bulgaria and Romania have just joined.

Ironically, the "Berlin Declaration" was meant to restore public confidence by giving new impetus to efforts to resolve the EU's constitutional problem, but there is real concern that the text may be a let down.

"We all have the impression of being at a crossroads," the head of the Socialist bloc in the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, said last week.

"Either we continue successfully down the road of European integration, or we head off toward an uncertain future."