ABSTRACT
The capitulation of two major French armies was a curse and not a joke, but it can also be seen as a precedent to other misfortunes like the steady drifting of the EU towards a larger and worse group of states characterized by varying degrees of linguistic and economic nationalism. The aftermath of this policy of letting others decide ones fate is that in 2009 European citizens have no more confidence in, or respect for, the different political chiefs. As a 2007 poll conducted among the original 12 countries of the EU has shown, the most negative public reaction centred on two issues: unstoppable influx of migrant workers and accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU. Critics are right in saying that this is tunnel vision. Its aftermath is an unstable, one-dimensional approach further undermined by enlargement fatigue. The intervening decade's new perils have taken the spotlight.
