Are you in or out?

This week’s headlines brought to life another of those quirky British traits. Despite living on an island barely 35 kilometres off the coast of France, the British have an odd and often divisive love-hate relationship with the rest of Europe. At times belligerent nationalism and latent animosity towards Europe is considered healthier than embracing it. I’ve always struggled to comprehend why treating the rest of the continent with such distain is seen as progressive and endearing. As an outsider looking in, I'd argue that the opposite is true.

French and the German citizens are far more comfortable reconciling nationalism and trans-regional passion in equal measure. The British in contrast seem to struggle with the concept of being equally national and equally European. Even their language reflects this sentiment. People regularly talk of, “flying to Europe for the weekend” as if the United Kingdom wasn’t part of the continent.

Personally, I consider the European Union (EU) a glorious experiment in supra-national federalism. At University I once wrote a paper about its steady expansion from the initial Treaty of Rome to the accession of Spain and Portugal in 1986. I found it fascinating to watch the EU's jurisdiction expand across more and more territory, while progressively harmonizing pages of national legislation and introducing a common currency. The EU seemed a perfect anecdote to the zealous nationalism that had dragged the entire globe into two bloody wars.

This week the EU took another, somewhat tortured, step toward greater union as the Lisbon Treaty was ratified by the last of its 27 member states. This treaty has been almost eight years in the making. As the new millennium dawned it was clear that integrating nations of the former Soviet Bloc into the EU would make it unwieldy unless its voting practices and institutions were reformed. The original intent was to pull together the EU’s numerous treaties and agreements as a single Constitution. However, the document eventually produced was soundly rejected by French and Dutch voters in 2005.

Two years later European leaders stripped back aspects of the Constitution, reducing it to a treaty able to be ratified without referendum in all but one nation, Ireland. This new treaty, known as the Lisbon Treaty, was subsequently rejected by Irish voters in June 2008, but ratified by all other national parliaments. On Tuesday, Vaclav Klaus, the President of the Czech Republic finally signed an accession law previously passed by the nation’s parliament. His was the last signature required after the Irish Republic passed a second referendum in support of the treaty on October 3. Next month the treaty will officially become law across the EU.

Here in the UK the week has been filled with headlines as the British Conservative Party finally dropped its opposition to the treaty. The media also speculated on the possibility of local candidates filling two posts created by the Treaty of Lisbon; President of the European Council and, High Representative (effectively the EU’s new Foreign Minister). Former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is being touted as the first President, while the current British foreign secretary David Miliband is considered a front runner for High Representative. I cannot help but note the irony of a nation that keeps Europe at arm’s length, while keenly lobbying for its citizen’s to fill the EU’s most coveted roles.