In the past week the media has focused on two very different international conferences: the meeting of European Union leaders on the region’s economic crisis and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth. The latter got a lot of our attention because it was opened by the Queen, but the most important gathering by far was the meeting of EU leaders.Because of the EU’s economic power - it is a union of 27 states with a population of 500 million - its economic crisis carried global implications and threatened all major trading powers, including Australia. Also at stake was the Euro, which had become one of the world’s most stable currencies. To the relief of all major nations, the EU members have come to an agreement on how to deal with the situation. The way the EU has developed, politically and economically, has been an inspiration to the world at large.The key to the success of this latest agreement is the staying power of those stalwarts of European integration - Germany and France. It will also test the social discipline and political stability of weak economies like Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy.The outcome is a lesson to those sceptics who were predicting the collapse of the EU, forgetting there is more to it than economic integration. The idea of an integrated Europe emerged from the ashes of the Second World War, when support grew for the development of an integrated European economy, a region of peace, democracy and respect for human rights, in which there would be no repeats of the wars that had dogged Europe for more than a thousand years. Inspired by these ideals the EU has been bounding ahead.The new economic measures that have been agreed will hurt, and may lead to more of the industrial unrest already seen in Greece, as welfare services and pensions are reduced and governments take the necessary, painful action to get their houses in order.The agreement reached will be politically difficult to implement, and is bound to cause some unrest. However it is in all our interests that the EU should survive. This was not always understood by Australian politicians, some of whom had little enthusiasm for the development of a body they saw as threatening our economic and political links with Britain. Some politicians were keen for Australia to join the then European Common Market, when it was first initiated, but it soon became clear that could not happen. Then some became hostile, fearing the impact of its protective agricultural policies.We tended to ignore the vital political importance of what is now the EU, in securing peace and promoting democratic and humanitarian standards in the world at large. The CHOGM conference was a much less inspiring event. It is a useful forum for leaders from a wide cross-section of the world community, broadening their international understanding, but, as the Perth meeting showed, it has serious limitations as a force for the advancement of democracy and human rights. The conference’s cool response to the Eminent Persons’ Group report was particularly disappointing, and there was a disinclination to tackle reported abuses in Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka.Disappointingly, opposition to reform came from major members like India and South Africa, leading reform advocates to question the relevance of CHOGM in the 21st century.