Today is Europe Day, chosen by the European Council in 1985 as a symbolic commemoration of Robert Schuman's proposal to pool French and German coal and steel production made on May 9th, 1950.
It has become part of the European Union's symbolic repertoire, along with the emblem of 12 gold stars and the anthem from Beethoven's Ode to Joy that meeting also adopted. They have become embedded in the EU's public face over the last 21 years, expressing a real identification alongside national ones. This makes the day an appropriate occasion to reflect on where the EU stands and where it should be going.
Two major issues dominate its current agenda - the continuing effects of the EU's enlargement from 15 to 25 member states at a moving ceremony in Dublin on May 1st, 2004, and the failure so far to ratify the constitutional treaty finally agreed under Ireland's EU presidency in June of that year. Widening membership and deepening structures have gone hand in hand in the history of the European communities. The Common Agricultural Policy came in the 1960s ahead of Ireland, Britain and Denmark joining, the social and regional funds accompanied Greece, Spain and Portuguese membership in the 1980s, while the structural funds, the euro, the common foreign and security policy and European citizenship were agreed at Maastricht before the accession of Finland, Sweden and Austria in 1995.
The big strategic question facing the EU now is whether a similar formula can be found to bind it together for a new generation which takes for granted the remarkable achievements of peace and prosperity made by Schuman, his colleagues and successors over the last 50 years. It is a very different world now - partly because the EU's projection of these values within and beyond its borders has made it a better one. But there is no inevitability that such progress will continue to be made. The wrong choices could undo those achievements. They cannot be taken for granted unless they are built upon constructively with the community of its new citizens.
This will require further effort to give the new member states access to the rights and freedoms of membership. Ireland has benefited enormously from this process, but other states are much more hesitant. Bulgaria and Romania may now see their accession delayed because of ill-preparedness and there is another round of prevarication about access to labour markets. This is triggered by deep uncertainty about economic recovery and social protection in some of the oldest EU member states, reflected in the French and Dutch rejections of the constitutional treaty last year.
A lot more needs to be done in these areas to make the EU more relevant to its citizens. The debate on the constitution, when revived, has to engage national democracies. The European project has to involve ordinary voters. When the political opportunity comes after the French elections next year citizens, as well as leaders, have to be prepared to revisit the issue.