Five Nations of the EU call for a de-centralization of decision making

In an unprecedented letter, Poland, Germany, France, The United Kingdom and Ireland are calling for a reduction of EU powers, claiming that the Union is too centralized. "The EU is dealing with too many and too detailed issues, causing the huge success of European integration not to be reflected in social support," wrote the Foreign Ministers of the five countries. They propose the establishment of a new body to verify whether the EU directives currently being drafted as part of work on the "European Constitution", are not dealing with issues which would be better left decided at the national level. The letter's publication may prove to be a breakthrough in the debate on the future of the EU as, until recently, Germany was strongly in favor of maximizing European integration and the letter appears to be quite a s ignificant turnaround. (Rzeczpospolita, June 15-16, p. A3) T.J.