There are many projects for Europe
A page has recently been turned to our continent. The old division between anti and pro-European no longer exists. Today, all political parties are more or less Europeanist, even though there are great differences of opinion.
Indeed, there is nothing in common between those who want a federal Europe that brings together the founding states, those who want the same thing but are still expanding eastward, those who are satisfied with the current organisation and finally the proponents of the minimum, i. e. the euro and cooperation between states, or even simple common projects.
Europeans are mainly pro Europe
The logic of these new political cleavages is that today many Europeans believe that only the “United States of Europe” will be able to exert influence on the international stage, free us from US-Chinese domination, face globalisation and safeguard the European social model.
More recently, the economic crisis of 2008 and the current migration crisis have made it more urgent for citizens to build a political Europe. Finally, euro area Europeans are very attached to their common currency.
A Europe that is still undemocratic
Nevertheless, how can we not nurture a certain Euroscepticism? Citizens are kept out of the European debate, confiscated by governments and the European Commission. For its part, the European Parliament, the only institution directly representing citizens, does not have enough power.
Moreover, the functioning of Europe is too complex. The Treaties which organise cooperation between the governments of the EU Member States form an opaque, cumbersome, technocratic system. Only lobbies and multinationals benefit from this situation to the detriment of us European citizens.
Europe, a political cause that challenges the legitimacy of states
As Ulrike Guérot (1) – a German academic – points out, European integration is neither neutral nor peaceful. It is a popular revolution that places the European citizen in a movement to challenge the established state order.
The European fight is a way of challenging the poor management of the traditional central state. The nation-state by its fundamental inability to transfer powers to the European level, is now powerless to deal with crises, especially the financial crisis of 2008 and current migration. It also fails to take adequate measures to allay the fears associated with globalisation: economic competition, relocation, migration, loss of identity.
A new citizen for a new Europe
To paraphrase Julien Benda in his “Letter to the European Nation”, Europe will not be achieved with quotas, directives or institutions. Europe will be built with high intellectual and moral imperatives. Strong demands for justice, truth, equality and freedom.
Just as such a project can only be supported by women and men who have overcome a national vision of politics, activists capable of defining and fighting for a general European interest.
Affirming one’s particularity to the world
The European project has a singularity in it. We believe in a European cultural fund and a European civilisation that must be defended.
The time has come to make Europe a real state and redefine its contours around a federal core. Without reaction, Europe will be diluted and its history swallowed up.
(1) « Der neue Bürgerkrieg: Das offene Europa und seine Feinde » Taschenbuch – 2017
