EU Give us the Pint but Keep a Seat

The thing I find amazing about Europe is how it manages to do something which, in the grand scheme of things, is relatively small and see it taken on a much higher importance. They almost did it with the pint yesterday as the Commission relented on imperial measurements in the UK and Ireland. They have been at the whole standardisation buzz for a long time now and its something clearly close to the hearts of those in Brussels to integrate the last vestiges of euro-scepticism, a British system of measurement.

Political sense prevailed for once, as the EU backed away from this inane endeavour, realising that there are perhaps more important things out there, like publishing a guide for translating measurements in the eurozone. Enough of the euro-baiting but it raises and interesting point that also applies to the European Parliament represantation issue. Europe is a massive expanse of issues. Its institutions defy definition any traditional sense but it is increasingly to be found involved in a network of issues that increases in perpetuity. More often than not, in the absence of another category under which to think of Europe, its identity becomes bound up with these issues.

See the potential for damage in the whole pint debate should not be underestimated nor, to a lesser extent, should the potential for the seat row to do damage be under considered. Ireland is the only country that will hold a referendum on the reform treaty, despite the best wishes of the Daily Telegraph. Eamon Ryan has pledged his Green Party into a potential volte face and will support the moves to get the treaty through for the first time in Green Party history. Yet I wouldn’t like to have been a Green member on the door trying to sell a document/vote for the organisation that got rid of the pint and replaced it with the half litre.

I know it sounds ridiculous that a reform treaty on the future organisation of Europe would be potentially boiled down to an issue such as the pint but the more I think about it the more the commission managed a near miss on this one. Too many people are too aware of the EU as a busybody, issue based network. If gripes over seats become a larger issue than at present, where we keep our current number but receive no new ones, this is the only country that can punish the EU for that in the Treaty vote. At present I cannot see seat numbers becoming as big a deal as the potentially lost pint but the potential for some seemingly small issue from Brussels to come and do damage to the Treaty vote is likely to keep Roche and Ahern exercised for long periods in the coming months.