“To reanimate Europe after the rejection of the Constitution”

Despite the fact that a considerable part of the population rejected the European Constitutional Treaty in France and Holland, this does not mean that the population of these two countries is anti-European. Their votes were the result of worries about the evolution of Europe, not a rejection of Europe. Most Europeans want a strong and supportive Europe able to defend our values and interests in the world, but they believe they are not consulted.
The European Council decided to have a period of reflection to reactivate the European Project although this should not be an attempt to reactivate a Constitutional project that neither the French nor the Dutch supported. This period must be used to think about the problems that demand European answers: prosperity, security, immigration, the relationship with emerging powers, energy supplies, global warming. None of these problems can be solved by a single State. If we let Europe keep dealing with just secondary issues or if the European construction is guided only by fear, then the European Union would be paralyzed.
However, all matters do not need a European solution. Our creed should be: to solve at the national level what can be solved at that level, to solve at the European level what should be solved at that level. We might also wonder about the possibilities of “renationalizing” some spheres that depend on Europe. In November, Holland and the United Kingdom will hold a conference in The Hague about subsidiarity that will signal the beginning of the debate on the competences of the Union. But, things are not only about solving matters at the European level. Having a community action proportional to the problem must be kept in mind.