Is Timothy Learning?

Timothy Garton Ash, Europhile extraordinaire, makes a surprising statement about the French Riots in today’s Guardian:

Addressing their socio-economic problems is half the answer, but very difficult, since the key is jobs and jobs are being created in Asia and America more than in Europe.

True Timothy true. Its because they don’t have a supranational bureaucracy in Asia, dedicated to restricting trade. Hopes that he had realised this were dashed however when I read further:

Being European should be the overarching civic identity which allows immigrants and those of immigrant descent to feel at home. Indeed, it should, in theory, be easier to feel Turkish-European, Algerian-European or Moroccan-European than it is to feel Turkish-German, Algerian-French or Moroccan-Spanish, because being European is by definition a broader, more all-embracing identity.

So the answer is to be more European. Is there nothing that the EU cannot solve? Answer to the title question, No obviously not.