France, the very country that has been a leading force in the European Union's development, voted decisevely against a move to ratify the EU constitution today. This is very bad news for the Union, and puts its future into question.
The EU is such a fascinating project. What is the Union? A geographic entity? A political entity? A philisophical entity? It's not entirely clear. Many Frenchpeople indicated they voted against the referendum because of their staunch opposition to the inclusion of Turkey, a country ideologically very different from the other EU nations. Turkey's inclusion does call into question the definition of the EU. How big can it really get before its boundaries are meaningless?
A commentator from BBCNews interviewed a representative of the Turkish government argued that the inclusion of a Muslim state into the EU would help ease tensions between Muslim and Non-Muslim European nations by bringing them to the same table. But this argument begs the question: can a country so philisophically different from the EU ever really become fully integrated? It's not entirely clear. Talks with Turkey begin October 3rd, and are likely to last many months if not years.
In any case, I believe that time will bring some form of Union in Europe. It seems to me to be the next logical step in globalization. And I think it's a good one - if markets are increasingly outgrowing the unit of nation-state, then regulation to control those markets has got to come from a body that is supernational. The European Union is the fist real project that aims to meet the demands of the global political economy. It's demise would be, I believe, devastating.
For LGBTQ People, the EU is especially promising because it could create a singular human rights policy for 250,000,000 Europeans. Same-Sex marriage could well be a part of that policy, especially as more and more European nations extend benefits to same-sex couples. Immigration problems that plague same-sex couples could potentially become a thing of the past for Europe. The global legal precedents possible here are tantalizing. The same is true for other human rights issues - for women, people of color, and many more. I, for one, hope the EU makes use of this potential.