Charlemagne

摘要

This weekend in Copenhagen, the European Union will sign and seal its largest-ever expansion. Barring last-minute mishaps, ten new members, mainly from Central Europe, will be invited to join the 15 already in the club. But while new entrants crowd into the Union, back in Brussels the finest minds at the European Commission are concentrating on a different problem: how to kick countries put. A draft European constitution, code-named "Penelope" while being drawn up in secret for Romano Prodi, the commission's president, and released just a week before the Copenhagen meeting, dwells in loving detail on the idea that any country that fails to ratify the new constitution should be booted out of the club.