International Groupings: big states and small states

The future shape of Europe will be decided at a convention which began in Brussels on February 28 under the chairmanship of Giscard d'Estaing of France. It will be plagued by the problem of big states versus small states. Finland's prime minister Paavo Lipponen said that smaller EU states and the European Commission (EC) may be bulldozed by big states at a constitutional convention to decide the union's future. He charged that preparations for the EU Convention had got off on the wrong foot and lacked transparency. The Convention, has one-year mission to suggest how the 50-year-old, 15-nation EU should run after up to 10 new, mainly east European states join from in 2004.

The Organization of American States (OAS) sets an unpromising precedent. It has no security council, and all votes count equally. Since Latin American countries have an ingrained tendency to blame the US for its woes, meetings often degenerated almost into kangaroo courts trying the United States. As a result, the OAS has become largely discredited and ignored in the US. Latin Americans would reply that the UN sets a poor example. The US has veto power in the Security Council to block anything it does not like, and it ignores UN resolutions when it pleases, particularly in regard to Israel's violations of them. The US faced a similar constitutional problem and solved it by giving every state two senators, while representation by population is the rule in the House of Representatives. This can scarcely serve as a model. Imagine the OAS developing into a body with a senate in which each country had two senators. The problem in Europe is not as bad, but let us see what the EU comes up with after a year's deliberation. Wait and see. What??

Ronald Hilton - 3/1/02