No United States of Europe

last updated 8 January 2015

Brussels

The European Union will not become a single federal state, to the great relief of Britain and France. The new E.U. constitution, unveiled this week, provides for a common president and a common foreign minister, but it preserves each country’s right to veto foreign policy. The British and French have both long sought a loose E.U. structure; their wishes grew more insistent after they clashed bitterly over the war in Iraq. Major foreign policy initiatives will require the unanimous consent of all countries—which may be even tougher to attain after the union expands next year from 15 to 25 members. “We are burying once and for all the fantasies of a Brussels superstate,” said Peter Hain, a British delegate to the constitutional committee.