Today is Europe Day, which was established in 1985 as a day for commemorating the Schuman declaration of 9 May 1950. This day is ignored by most Europeans, except for the Europhiles and Eurosceptics who take the opportunity to honour or ridicule the European Union.

Personally, I’m a very critical friend of the European project. I like the idea of a federal Europe and think a new, minimalist constitution would be the best way to set the limits for the EU’s federal, supranational parliament and commission. Unfortunately, the bureaucrats and politicians writing the treaties have a very different idea about the EU than I have.