Slightly off topic, but two points:

*** Point 1 *** News today of rioting in Gothenburg (where the EU is holding a meeting). I know that most of the rioters are the usual anti-globalisation rent-a-crowd with whom I've little sympathy, but is it just possible that some of them are there protesting at the powerlessness of European citizens in the face of an arrogant, bloated and corrupt politico-bureaucracy? I heard today, for example, some French politician who, pressed by his interviewer, admitted that France would never offer the French a referendum on the Nice treaty because they could never win it. And Irish representatives have apparently told the EU meeting to go ahead with Nice because the Irish would vote "Yes" in the next referendum; if I were an Irish voter, that would make me very cross indeed. But what can I do? I haven't been offered my say in a referendum on Nice, and nor have the vast majority of my fellow Europeans. I shall continue to rant against the EU (I spit on the EU) here.

*** Point 2 *** Quaintly, the EU presidency circulates among member nations. Currently, the presidency is Sweden's (which is why they are meeting in Gothenburg now), and the Swedish premier has just said that he favours a strong EU as a balance against American cultural and economic hegemony (again, I'm paraphrasing from memory of a news report)! So there we have it: Europe's raison d'etre is not anything positive, but is merely anti-Americanism. Not sharing his anti-Americanism, I've always wondered what the point of the EU was.

*** Point 3 *** (Like the Spanish Inquisition, isn't it?) No one has yet come up with any arguments for enlarging the EU: does that mean there aren't any?