To the Point

An Expanded European Union

Created in 1951 to coordinate industrial policy among six countries devastated by warfare, the European Union has grown and developed into an Economic Community and a European Parliament. With the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, it set the goals of monetary and political union. Saturday, the EU expanded from 15 to 25 nations, including eight former Communist countries, and it now stretches from Ireland to Poland. The new EU has more people than the United States and a bigger economy. Can prosperous Western European democracies really integrate with the former Communist East? Will America be faced with economic, political and even military competition? Warren Olney looks at the newly expanded EU with a former economist for the International Monetary Fund, an expert on global governance from the Brookings Institution, a Polish entrepreneur and a spokesman for the EU's delegation to the US. Making News: Sharon Defeated by Likud Referendum In April, President Bush gambled that supporting Ariel Sharon-s plan to withdraw from Gaza would create a breakthrough in the Middle East. Palestinians, other Arabs and Europeans were outraged, Yesterday, 60 percent of Sharon's own Likud Party voted to oppose the plan. Leslie Susser of the weekly Jerusalem Report says the defeat puts the Prime Minister in a real bind. Reporter's Notebook: Abuse of Iraqi Prisoners Images of American soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners have been published and broadcast worldwide. Those images raise a lot of disturbing questions. What-s the Pentagon doing to discipline those involved? What-s the State Department saying about the impact worldwide? We hear from John Hendren, Pentagon correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, and Robin Wright, who reports from the State Department for the Washington Post.