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“Europe is liable to become the world’s Switzerland,” Guy Verhofstadt worries in an op-ed piece published in the Belgian dailies Le Soir and De Morgen on the same day. In the immediate aftermath of the failure of the Copenhagen Climate Conference (COP15), the liberal group leader in the European Parliament and ex-Belgian prime minister bemoans that “the major powers don’t listen to Europe any more”. Despite a Lisbon Treaty geared to give rise to a European diplomacy, the EU was actually excluded from the final negotiations. Verhofstadt warns: “Copenhagen is the signal showing the European Union has got to become a political union, a political federation. Ultimately, the EU member states don’t have a choice: either they make their voice heard through Europe, or they won’t be heard any more."
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