As others see us

NOW we have the old European battle order, with Britain mobilising against the rest of the Union. If one is right, goes the familiar London attitude, then everybody else is wrong . . . Hurd has not given an inch, which is especially piquant, because he is one of the few convinced Europeans in the British Cabinet. This is only surpassed by the irony that Britons were the most enthusiastic advocates of an enlargement of the Union.

Suddeutsche Zeitung, German daily

THE OLD European Community, now the European Union, is the history of a nation in reverse. In place of conquest, supranational sovereignty is the product of voluntary cession by states.

If, before, the veto of one country was enough to block some community decisions . . . it does not seem disproportionate that the opposition of three countries or of the representatives of 100 million citizens should be sufficient for the remainder not to impose themselves.

El Pais, Spanish daily

BRITAIN wants to keep the old system. If not, says London, power will slide from the hands of the big into those of the little . . . the rules of the game must be changed. London's thesis is paradoxical. It was Britain which pleaded with most conviction for enlargement, betting that the arrival of partisans of free trade, especially the three Scandinavians, would complete the dilution of the Union's community projects . . . The contradiction can be explained by John Major's domestic difficulties. To obtain the ratification of Maastricht by the Commons, the Prime Minister made promises that he is today too weak to break.

Figaro, French daily