International

'It's pleasing to hear the government now enthousiastically stating that we have seen the back of the European Constitution, the road to a European superstate is closed and significantly more power will have to be given to national parliaments in relation to the European legislative process. It must be said that we had heard otherwise. But for us as the SP the watchword remains, "seeing is believing".' So said SP Senator Tiny Kox during Tuesday's debate on the imminent European Council summit in Brussels, where a possible new EU treaty to replace the Constitution rejected by the electorate in the Netherlands and France two years ago will be on the table.

Since Saturday the SP has found itself with new neighbours. In Berlin, in a celebratory atmosphere, the new party ‘Die Linke’ (The Left) was formally established. The existing 'Linkspartei-PDS', which garners the vast majority of its support in the eastern Lander, merged with the western Lander-based Voters' Alternative for Social Justice (WASG) to form the new grouping. The party had already established a joint parliamentary group in the Bundestag and according to opinion polls is Germany's third party after the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats, the parties which currently form the so-called grand coalition government.