LONDON — The European Union is again entering stormy seas. Like a ship with a mutinous crew it is drifting dangerously while above and below decks arguments rage about how Europe should be run. The EU has weathered past crises and often emerged stronger, but this time the rocks ahead are very large, and blinkered policies being steered by some of Europe's leading statespersons have made the chances of striking them very substantial.

Fingers are once more being pointed at Britain as being at the heart of the trouble, and it is undeniable that British objections to parts of the currently proposed European Reform Treaty are causing much of the tension.

But this time it is not the British who are wholly to blame. The real cause of all the aggravation is the determination of certain EU leaders to push ahead with plans that transfer substantial further powers away from member states and into the hands of central EU institutions. This was tried before, a few years back, when EU leaders put forward what was labeled a new constitution for the EU — which received a resounding "no" from both French and Dutch voters when it was put to a referendum (and would have done so from the British as well if the whole project had not then been dropped).