This month's article comes from Geneva - which provides an interesting perspective from which to write about the European Union.

After all, Switzerland constitutes a mini-EU in itself where different languages and cultures co-exist within a distinct identity.

It would seem, however, that this compact and very particular union is sufficient for the Swiss. Following a recent referendum, there is consensus that Switzerland will not even consider joining the EU for ten years at least.

By that time, the EU will certainly look very different to how it is today with a considerably larger membership, which will make its management even more complex.

There is no more visible example of the political complexities that characterise the EU than the regular summits of Europe's leaders to discuss its future development.

At best, EU summits make just a temporary splash in the UK headlines.

At worst, they come and go with hardly a mention. So one can easily be forgiven for missing last month's EU summit in Stockholm.

As summits go, it was always likely to be more of a patch-up and make-up affair than anything else. After the Nice summit, which saw Europe's leaders hammer out the basis for a new treaty and agree a re-weighting of political influence between EU member states, no one was in the mood for more dramatic developments.

Political relations between the two main founding members of the EU, France and Germany, had hit a post-war low. The Germans demanded, and eventually got, more seats in the European Parliament.

A rekindling of the Franco-German relationship was one of the most important "informal" objectives in Stockholm. A typical EU paradox saw the achievement of this aim become the main reason for failure to achieve one of the key stated objectives of the summit - the opening up of the electricity industry.

In other areas too, such as the long-standing proposal for an EU patent to help protect intellectual property rights and the liberalisation of postal services, agreement could not be found or was put off.

But the summit was not an entire failure. The most important development saw a deal being reached on the regulation of financial markets that will go some way to avoiding the fragmentation that exists and including a fast-track procedure for the implement-ation of EU-wide legislation.

This a major advance in itself and, in the eyes of some, it constitutes a model for legislation in many other areas.

Speeding-up of the EU lawmaking process is seen as a prerequisite to the EU successfully managing its enlargement process which will see membership reaching beyond 25 states in ten years.

Martin Manuzi is senior executive in the Brussels office of the Institute of Chartered Accountants