Europeans still Positive about EU Enlargement but Anxious about Impact on Jobs

Abstract

When voters in France and the Netherlands rejected a proposed European constitution in nearly back-to-back votes last spring, the European project of political and economic union seemed to have hit a dead-end. Shocked EU leaders asked for a “period of reflection” to ponder the defeat’s implications. More than a year later, the soul-searching continues. EU leaders, meeting this week at a summit in Brussels, have decided, again, that inaction is the safest course, postponing decisions on whether they should revise the proposed constitution and on whether the bloc has the “absorption capacity” to admit new members.