AP reports: "Irish voters vetoed a painstakingly drafted treaty Friday that had been designed to streamline the European Union. Politicians from all of Ireland's major parties worked hard to sell the complex, deeply technical document to a confused and suspicious public."
Comment: Nationalism is not dead in Europe and voters continue to jealously guard their national sovereignty. What will the EU do now? They could ignore the Irish vote and proceed with the treaty anyway, but I'm not sure how that would survive a legal challenge. Most likely, they will continue on under the existing treaty arrangement while continuing to work for greater unity. It's possible that we may see the rise of a two-tier Europe, one where a smaller subset of countries (possibly ten?) forge a closer federal arrangement while the rest remain bound to the existing framework. I also plan to closely monitor the French plan to build a Euro-Med Union, which could be another potential fulfillment of the Ten Kings prophecy.
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