LONDON -- Three major speeches have been made recently by European leaders about the future of the European Union. The first was by Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, the second by French President Jacques Chirac and the third by Tony Blair, the British prime minister.
An important debate on the nature of the EU in the first part of the 21st century has begun. It is likely to continue for some time before a new European vision is formulated. In the meantime, the EU faces many important and difficult issues. It is impossible in a short article to do more than set out in very general terms what the issues are.
Regulations to set up a single market in traded goods have been generally successfully applied, but a single market has not yet been achieved in services, although progress is being made, e.g., in regulation of financial services.