Can Europe Overcome its Demons?
Europe stands on the precipice of one of its historic crises of disunity and internal conflict. Since the end of the Second World War, Europe has known a time of peace and general prosperity. From the massive reconstruction after the war to the end of the Soviet Union, Europe has gone from strength to strength. But we now risk losing all of that.
Through its history, Europe has known a cycle of unity and disunity. No peace or good time has ever been truly lasting. Catastrophes like the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Thirty Years War or the two World Wars have tended to give way to moments of peace and harmony but in turn those moments of respite would eventually fail as national rivalry and division rose to the fore once again. The value of unity is a lesson that Europe has been stubbornly unwilling to learn. The post-1945 period of European integration distinguishes itself by its success. It has not been perfect but it has comfortably outstripped previous attempts. By finally recognising that our fate lay together, we have been able to build bonds between the peoples of Europe that at one time would have been unthinkable. Border regions have become open and gradual rather than places of aggressive dichotomy - one side or the other. The idea of conflict between European states has become so detached from our daily experience that we feel embarrassed to credit our Union with the peace we live in, scarcely being able to openly suggest that it could be any other way.
And yet through the complacency of normality, we are seeing a return to the backwards thinking of the past. Right across Europe there are those who want to undo the progress we have made and to push us into a future of authoritarian populism. They are pushing national antagonisms, declaring that only the nation-state can ever be democratic, working to undermine the European unity that has helped us develop and prosper.
If we fail to stop them then the consequences will be serious. It most likely won't mean war but that doesn't mean our security won't be impacted. Europeans are afforded great protection by increasingly integrated security and defence services. The European Arrest Warrant has made it much harder for criminals to escape the rule of law simply by crossing a border and Europol has been very successful in tackling drug networks, preventing terrorist plots and bringing down people smugglers. At the very least, a backwards slide in Europe's unity and increasing national conflict will prevent the continued development of these institutions that help guarantee the safety of European citizens. However there is a real danger that it will make things worse and that people's safety will be compromised. Already the worsening situation of the rule of law in Poland is leading to questions around the applicability of the European Arrest Warrant. Meanwhile the entry of Kremlin-backed far-right parties into national governments, often taking control of the interior ministries, is hampering intelligence sharing as partners no longer want to risk sending sensitive information that could be passed on to Russia. Austria in particular has been suffering from this issue and Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Chancellor, is having to personally intervene in the usual government processes in order to cut across his far-right coalition partners and prevent Austria becoming a black hole in the European intelligence-sharing network. A commitment to European security that would be more admirable if he had not invited the wolves into the chicken coup in the first place.
Greater disunity and conflict will also prevent the necessary economic reforms that Europe needs in order to bring back true growth. Without the solidarity that comes with unity, various states are no longer willing to undergo sacrifices or to question their own dogma for the sake of the general European interest. This is not an attack only on profligate populists in Italy either. Though their mismatched economic policies (which are transparently aimed at rewarding their electoral constituencies more than fixing Italy's economy, for which they have no real credible plans) are certainly doing damage, the hawkish fiscal conservatism of the Netherlands or Germany is creating just as much of an imbalance within the European economy. Fixing our economy requires a collective effort and a rebalancing within the economic and political reality that exists, not towards some imagined archetype of the 'balanced budget', whose usefulness and economic rationality is limited to only specific places and times even in the best circumstances. A true rebalancing means not only privatisation and cuts where necessary (and yes, some countries do waste a lot of public money) but also that in some areas we will have to spend more, in parts of our economy debts will have to be consolidated and that there needs to be a flow of money throughout the Union, rather than only from the periphery to the core. This kind of collective, European plan could give all European governments more economic credibility, attract greater outside investment and spur internal innovation, demand and growth. Yet none of these things will be possible as long as countries engage in endless point-scoring, demeaning others and portraying one another as the source of all the economic woes. European disunity and populist spending promises will not bring back economic growth, it will only worsen the internal dysfunction.
The rise of nationalist particularism in Europe will also prevent us from developing a coherent and ambitious approach to foreign policy. As governments claim to guard their national sovereignty ever more closely and jealousy, so we will see our actual ability to influence events in the world and to push for the kind of international system we want to live in reduced. It will prevent us from being leaders on the global stage. Though Europe has made progress in pushing for a more environmentalist approach to global politics, the recent UN report on humanity's alarming impact on the global ecosystem tells us that we still need to do a lot more. The ambition of some European states to push for a more aggressive target of carbon neutrality by 2050 is the right one and would place Europe at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Yet while some countries disagreed with this goal outright, what was even more galling was the reaction of the right-wing populists in Italy who by their own admission agreed with the goal but simply did not want to give a win to Macron, who has been leading the initiative. Is there a better example of nationalist pride and competition hurting the interest of our community? Even outside of the realm of leadership, without a unified European response, there is no response at all. If we are split then there is little we can do to stop the major global powers from riding roughshod over European interests. This has been more than proven by the United States' ability to unilaterally kill the Iran deal and Europe's limited ability to push back.
And beyond the structures of Europe itself, the encroaching nationalist corruption is set to threaten whole groups of people living in Europe. The illiberal heart of a Europe at war with itself brings back social attitudes that are reactionary and hostile to the progress that has been made in the last few decades. Right-wing populists in Spain have come out on the offensive against feminism and women's rights. In Poland they portray themselves as the leaders of a fight against equality for LGBT people. And in Hungary the anti-Semitic and Islamophobic campaigns of the government have become infamous. A Europe that is not at peace with itself is a Europe in which the nation-states prioritise homogeneity and uniformity. It is a Europe where governments crack down on those who are different and who refuse to act when those people are subject to harassment and violence from their fellow citizens. It is a Europe where women are denied their bodily autonomy. The much-vaunted 'Europe of Peoples and Nations' is not simply a politically neutral (or politically open) opposition to European integration, a desire to abolish the EU and return purely to a Europe of nation-states. It is a holistic manifesto aimed at rolling back the entire liberal political order that has been built in Europe over the last 60 years.
This is the dark side of Europe. We fight and hate each other over centuries' long rivalries. We ruffle our feathers at perceived slights and demand retribution from those who may have wronged us at some point in the past or in the present. We allow ourselves to become entirely focused on petty disputes and seek to elevate ourselves above all the others. Unable to accept equality in difference, we seek to impose and dictate, engaged in a ruthless game of national supremacy. We see our own nation as intrinsically superior, more moral, more dignified, more truly destined to rule than the others who could never comprehend our particular ways. Can we stop this? Can we break the cycle of history and stop ourselves from falling back into the darkness? Or is this who we are? Beneath the cloak of modern technology and civilisation, have Europeans become peoples of better character or are we no better in our moral standing than our forebears who would kill each other to claim this or that piece of land?
I believe we have become better and we can be better still, but we have to act on it. The first step is a perspective shift. It is not enough to believe that you are European, you have to live and act as a European too. First and foremost this means investing in the well-being of Europeans outside your home state, caring about the rest of Europe and recognising each other's struggles as your own. If Poland's Law and Justice continues to erode judicial independence and attack LGBT rights, we are losing. If Hungary's Fidesz continues to bring all the media under its political control, we are losing. If the Slovakian neo-Nazis continue to rise in support, we are losing. Indeed, even beyond the EU's borders, if Serbia continues to turn to Nationalism and to court Russia, we are losing and if Ukraine's eastern provinces continue to be destabilised by Russian aggression, we are losing. Only when we truly understand that we are locked in a pan-European struggle, that the losses of other Europeans, and their victories, are our own, will we have even the right frame of mind to be able to stop the regressive turn that lies ahead in the current version of our future.
From here, we can understand that European politics can't be an afterthought. We have to recognise it as one of the key realms of political contest. Winning power at the European level has real tangible effects on all our day to day lives. As such, the balance of power within the European Parliament and the Council matters just as much as the balance within our own national Parliaments. Europe has important political tools at its disposal, the failure to use them or allowing them to fall into the wrong hands will do serious damage. We cannot build 'progressivism in one country'.
In other words, there is no pulling out of European politics and the European economy - for all countries in Europe this is a reality they have to engage with. The dichotomy of being in or out of the EU matters but it is not the start and end of political debate in Europe and in many countries it is not part of the debate at all. A grand collapse of European integration is less likely than the rotting of the system. We are more likely to see decay than destruction. To counteract this, part of our message must be a renewed push for European integration. Yet this cannot be a blind rush towards centralisation. At the core of the Single Market is an assumption that standards across European countries are the same and can be mutually recognised without any need for further laws or regulations. We can do more in this direction, expanding it to services and professional qualifications.
More generally, we need to move away from a constraining, rules-based approach to European integration. Too much of recent integration has been proscriptive - directing towards a single policy outcome and banning alternatives. This is not a healthy approach and will cause only damage in the long-run. Further European integration should create the framework for politics (starting at the right of legislative initiative for the European Parliament or banking union at one end and moving all the way towards a full European government with full fiscal powers at the other end) but it should not determine the end result of that politics (the Fiscal Compact, as one example, needs to be seriously revised).
Europe has long struggled with its demons and is caught in a constant battle between unity and conflict. We are tied to each other whether we like it or not and if we do not act to restore European unity and purpose then we will see the spread of corruption, structural problems will go unaddressed, and European interests will be fractured as ruling elites are bought out by America, China or Russia. To save ourselves we need a strong and united Europe. We need a Europe with a liberal democratic core of values. And we need to fight together, as Europeans, taking our vision not just to London or Paris or Berlin but right across Europe.
Image via Flickr
Through its history, Europe has known a cycle of unity and disunity. No peace or good time has ever been truly lasting. Catastrophes like the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Thirty Years War or the two World Wars have tended to give way to moments of peace and harmony but in turn those moments of respite would eventually fail as national rivalry and division rose to the fore once again. The value of unity is a lesson that Europe has been stubbornly unwilling to learn. The post-1945 period of European integration distinguishes itself by its success. It has not been perfect but it has comfortably outstripped previous attempts. By finally recognising that our fate lay together, we have been able to build bonds between the peoples of Europe that at one time would have been unthinkable. Border regions have become open and gradual rather than places of aggressive dichotomy - one side or the other. The idea of conflict between European states has become so detached from our daily experience that we feel embarrassed to credit our Union with the peace we live in, scarcely being able to openly suggest that it could be any other way.
And yet through the complacency of normality, we are seeing a return to the backwards thinking of the past. Right across Europe there are those who want to undo the progress we have made and to push us into a future of authoritarian populism. They are pushing national antagonisms, declaring that only the nation-state can ever be democratic, working to undermine the European unity that has helped us develop and prosper.
If we fail to stop them then the consequences will be serious. It most likely won't mean war but that doesn't mean our security won't be impacted. Europeans are afforded great protection by increasingly integrated security and defence services. The European Arrest Warrant has made it much harder for criminals to escape the rule of law simply by crossing a border and Europol has been very successful in tackling drug networks, preventing terrorist plots and bringing down people smugglers. At the very least, a backwards slide in Europe's unity and increasing national conflict will prevent the continued development of these institutions that help guarantee the safety of European citizens. However there is a real danger that it will make things worse and that people's safety will be compromised. Already the worsening situation of the rule of law in Poland is leading to questions around the applicability of the European Arrest Warrant. Meanwhile the entry of Kremlin-backed far-right parties into national governments, often taking control of the interior ministries, is hampering intelligence sharing as partners no longer want to risk sending sensitive information that could be passed on to Russia. Austria in particular has been suffering from this issue and Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian Chancellor, is having to personally intervene in the usual government processes in order to cut across his far-right coalition partners and prevent Austria becoming a black hole in the European intelligence-sharing network. A commitment to European security that would be more admirable if he had not invited the wolves into the chicken coup in the first place.
Greater disunity and conflict will also prevent the necessary economic reforms that Europe needs in order to bring back true growth. Without the solidarity that comes with unity, various states are no longer willing to undergo sacrifices or to question their own dogma for the sake of the general European interest. This is not an attack only on profligate populists in Italy either. Though their mismatched economic policies (which are transparently aimed at rewarding their electoral constituencies more than fixing Italy's economy, for which they have no real credible plans) are certainly doing damage, the hawkish fiscal conservatism of the Netherlands or Germany is creating just as much of an imbalance within the European economy. Fixing our economy requires a collective effort and a rebalancing within the economic and political reality that exists, not towards some imagined archetype of the 'balanced budget', whose usefulness and economic rationality is limited to only specific places and times even in the best circumstances. A true rebalancing means not only privatisation and cuts where necessary (and yes, some countries do waste a lot of public money) but also that in some areas we will have to spend more, in parts of our economy debts will have to be consolidated and that there needs to be a flow of money throughout the Union, rather than only from the periphery to the core. This kind of collective, European plan could give all European governments more economic credibility, attract greater outside investment and spur internal innovation, demand and growth. Yet none of these things will be possible as long as countries engage in endless point-scoring, demeaning others and portraying one another as the source of all the economic woes. European disunity and populist spending promises will not bring back economic growth, it will only worsen the internal dysfunction.
The rise of nationalist particularism in Europe will also prevent us from developing a coherent and ambitious approach to foreign policy. As governments claim to guard their national sovereignty ever more closely and jealousy, so we will see our actual ability to influence events in the world and to push for the kind of international system we want to live in reduced. It will prevent us from being leaders on the global stage. Though Europe has made progress in pushing for a more environmentalist approach to global politics, the recent UN report on humanity's alarming impact on the global ecosystem tells us that we still need to do a lot more. The ambition of some European states to push for a more aggressive target of carbon neutrality by 2050 is the right one and would place Europe at the forefront of the fight against climate change. Yet while some countries disagreed with this goal outright, what was even more galling was the reaction of the right-wing populists in Italy who by their own admission agreed with the goal but simply did not want to give a win to Macron, who has been leading the initiative. Is there a better example of nationalist pride and competition hurting the interest of our community? Even outside of the realm of leadership, without a unified European response, there is no response at all. If we are split then there is little we can do to stop the major global powers from riding roughshod over European interests. This has been more than proven by the United States' ability to unilaterally kill the Iran deal and Europe's limited ability to push back.
And beyond the structures of Europe itself, the encroaching nationalist corruption is set to threaten whole groups of people living in Europe. The illiberal heart of a Europe at war with itself brings back social attitudes that are reactionary and hostile to the progress that has been made in the last few decades. Right-wing populists in Spain have come out on the offensive against feminism and women's rights. In Poland they portray themselves as the leaders of a fight against equality for LGBT people. And in Hungary the anti-Semitic and Islamophobic campaigns of the government have become infamous. A Europe that is not at peace with itself is a Europe in which the nation-states prioritise homogeneity and uniformity. It is a Europe where governments crack down on those who are different and who refuse to act when those people are subject to harassment and violence from their fellow citizens. It is a Europe where women are denied their bodily autonomy. The much-vaunted 'Europe of Peoples and Nations' is not simply a politically neutral (or politically open) opposition to European integration, a desire to abolish the EU and return purely to a Europe of nation-states. It is a holistic manifesto aimed at rolling back the entire liberal political order that has been built in Europe over the last 60 years.
This is the dark side of Europe. We fight and hate each other over centuries' long rivalries. We ruffle our feathers at perceived slights and demand retribution from those who may have wronged us at some point in the past or in the present. We allow ourselves to become entirely focused on petty disputes and seek to elevate ourselves above all the others. Unable to accept equality in difference, we seek to impose and dictate, engaged in a ruthless game of national supremacy. We see our own nation as intrinsically superior, more moral, more dignified, more truly destined to rule than the others who could never comprehend our particular ways. Can we stop this? Can we break the cycle of history and stop ourselves from falling back into the darkness? Or is this who we are? Beneath the cloak of modern technology and civilisation, have Europeans become peoples of better character or are we no better in our moral standing than our forebears who would kill each other to claim this or that piece of land?
I believe we have become better and we can be better still, but we have to act on it. The first step is a perspective shift. It is not enough to believe that you are European, you have to live and act as a European too. First and foremost this means investing in the well-being of Europeans outside your home state, caring about the rest of Europe and recognising each other's struggles as your own. If Poland's Law and Justice continues to erode judicial independence and attack LGBT rights, we are losing. If Hungary's Fidesz continues to bring all the media under its political control, we are losing. If the Slovakian neo-Nazis continue to rise in support, we are losing. Indeed, even beyond the EU's borders, if Serbia continues to turn to Nationalism and to court Russia, we are losing and if Ukraine's eastern provinces continue to be destabilised by Russian aggression, we are losing. Only when we truly understand that we are locked in a pan-European struggle, that the losses of other Europeans, and their victories, are our own, will we have even the right frame of mind to be able to stop the regressive turn that lies ahead in the current version of our future.
From here, we can understand that European politics can't be an afterthought. We have to recognise it as one of the key realms of political contest. Winning power at the European level has real tangible effects on all our day to day lives. As such, the balance of power within the European Parliament and the Council matters just as much as the balance within our own national Parliaments. Europe has important political tools at its disposal, the failure to use them or allowing them to fall into the wrong hands will do serious damage. We cannot build 'progressivism in one country'.
In other words, there is no pulling out of European politics and the European economy - for all countries in Europe this is a reality they have to engage with. The dichotomy of being in or out of the EU matters but it is not the start and end of political debate in Europe and in many countries it is not part of the debate at all. A grand collapse of European integration is less likely than the rotting of the system. We are more likely to see decay than destruction. To counteract this, part of our message must be a renewed push for European integration. Yet this cannot be a blind rush towards centralisation. At the core of the Single Market is an assumption that standards across European countries are the same and can be mutually recognised without any need for further laws or regulations. We can do more in this direction, expanding it to services and professional qualifications.
More generally, we need to move away from a constraining, rules-based approach to European integration. Too much of recent integration has been proscriptive - directing towards a single policy outcome and banning alternatives. This is not a healthy approach and will cause only damage in the long-run. Further European integration should create the framework for politics (starting at the right of legislative initiative for the European Parliament or banking union at one end and moving all the way towards a full European government with full fiscal powers at the other end) but it should not determine the end result of that politics (the Fiscal Compact, as one example, needs to be seriously revised).
Europe has long struggled with its demons and is caught in a constant battle between unity and conflict. We are tied to each other whether we like it or not and if we do not act to restore European unity and purpose then we will see the spread of corruption, structural problems will go unaddressed, and European interests will be fractured as ruling elites are bought out by America, China or Russia. To save ourselves we need a strong and united Europe. We need a Europe with a liberal democratic core of values. And we need to fight together, as Europeans, taking our vision not just to London or Paris or Berlin but right across Europe.
Image via Flickr
Comments
Post a Comment