Independent together, or separate ‘colonies’?
If the European Union is to survive it will have to concentrate all its energies to this end. This means that member-states will have to give up a larger part of their sovereignty to reinforce the whole. However, the global and regional earthquakes that demand ever closer union also strengthen forces which preach a return to a nonexistent idealized past of national greatness. (This virus of aggressive, nationalist nostalgia is not contained to Europe, of course.) And so, Europe has a difficult riddle to solve. And how it manages this will determine the EU’s survival, and, in turn, the security and prosperity of each member-state: The EU has to marshal all its powers to deal with today’s challenges (from economic problems to the wars on its borders, the climate crisis and immigration); but these difficulties embolden the forces of isolationism, protectionism and disintegration, which makes unification ever more difficult.
For governments to take difficult decisions, they and their voters need to understand that things must change
It will take an accurate assessment of the situation, the right proposals and coordinated and determined efforts by the member-states and the European institutions for the EU to be able to take measures before the domestic situation in many countries makes this impossible. In this, the recent reports/proposals by two Italian former prime ministers are most valuable. In April, Enrico Letta presented, among other ideas, strategies to modernize the European Single Market. In September, Mario Draghi presented his report and proposals on how to make the EU more competitive. A common element of the two reports is the need for a collective effort and joint tools so as to make the best use of member-states’ scattered powers.
For governments to take difficult decisions, they and their voters need to understand that things must change. Europe can no longer depend on Russia for cheap energy, nor on the United States for its security (Donald Trump made that clear when president).
A few days ago, Letta noted something that is just as important but little known to the general public: The United States’ domination of the global payment systems and their ownership of European citizens’ banking data mean that the EU is increasingly becoming a “financial colony” of the US. “What for me is strange is that in all the different [EU] countries, there’s a race to raise our national flag. [But this is akin to] raising our own flag as colonies,” he said at an event hosted by Bruegel, an EU policy think tank in Brussels, as reported by Euractiv. “So, we have to work on our side and to leave the status of a colony, for instance, of the financial system, and to integrate,” Letta added. A dramatic statement with a clear message.
