One of the surprising things about the conference was the almost complete lack of idealism about the European cause, in fact I was surprised to find that the average Frenchman or German is equally as skeptical about the European project as your average Brit. There was the same kind of speculation about what the exact point of the program was and apathy toward advancing that program as can be found in most European dealings nowadays.
The cause of this apathy? A certain confusion toward what exactly it is that Europeans have as common virtues other than being mainly white-skinned and reasonably well-off. A definite feeling that Europe has met an impasse where it can neither go forward nor go backwards. A tired sense of deja-vu when it comes to the old European arguments, although there were those who still felt it OK to pin this on the British fouling everything up, most recognise that a sense that we need to have a real re-think about what the European goals are is hardly a British phenomenon.
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