There is an adage that says – if you notice a member of your household gathering and cooking suspicious mushrooms for his dinner, you will be doing yourself a lot of good by warning such a person. If you fail to, when the troubles start at night, even you that did not eat out of the delicious poison, might end up with a sleepless night. Your sleep will certainly be cut short when the paramedics arrive with the ambulance.
Angela Dorothea Merkel - She talks, they listen.
While their leaders pursued aggressive expansionist policy building a united Europe very appropriately called the European Union, most of the citizens, even in the most pro-European countries on the continent have been left behind to make whatever they would of the Union. Everyone loved the benefits of Europe. What price peace! The once volatile region that fought very brutal and bloody wars against each other not so long ago now stand shoulder to shoulder, united. Those that still bear the old animosities are dying off gradually. Those are memories written into history books which interest very few people.
As it goes, it is human nature to want the maximum benefits, while paying the least price possible. The case is true in Europe. In addition to achieving the priceless peace all round the continent, it is now possible to travel round 26 countries in Europe without any border controls. It would have been unthinkable some years back. In seventeen countries, the national currencies were exchanged for a single one. Businesses blossomed. Standardisation replaced painful and costly national practices. Respect for human rights became a norm, and national governments with tendencies towards oppression soon learned to keep in line.
Angela Merkel brought calm to the market. Her voice carried weight because it was backed up by guarantee of funds to save the situation. She had the power to undo Greece. But she chose to save it instead. At least for now.
No member of the European Union could claim not to have benefited substantially from being a part of the family. Those who came in with depressed economies were helped out by the others. Structural and regional funds were pumped into various underdeveloped regions. Others were able to make their structural adjustments by leaning on established members. Poland for example emptied most of its unemployed people on the rest of Europe, mostly the United Kingdom with mass migration of able-bodied people who took one way tickets out of the country. This made it easier for the Polish government to plan and execute programmes that within years, turned the fortune of the country round.
Germany paid, and has continued to pay a very high price for the Union. Yet, the benefits to its economy from the rest of the Union make the cost negligible. Countries like Ireland, Greece, Portugal, not to mention Romania and Bulgaria, can easily identify and quantify the benefits of the Union. If anyone had wanted an example of how synergy results from unity, they need not look further than the European Union.
Jean-Claude Junker, President of the Eurogroup
Yet, the Union has, for decades been like a marriage of convenience. It brought together different people with diverse cultures and expectations. Some of the member countries would like to have it both ways – take the benefits and avoid the costs. They play nationalist cards and claim that loose membership is the only way to preserve their national sovereignty. The United Kingdom has contributed significantly to the running of the Union. But like Germany, it has benefited immensely from its membership of the Union. Unlike Germany, it has played less constructive role than any of the twenty six other countries. It neither belongs to the single currency union nor to the Schengen free travel zone. It has nothing to lose by opting out of these key elements of European integration. Its negativity is sustained by a generation of so-called eurosceptics – a coalition of people who honestly view Europe with suspicion and those who have been badly dented mentally through a sustained campaign by a section of the national press against the Union. For many years, it was the one country that antagonised or stood in the way of progress in the Union. Until in recent years, its so-called special relations with the United States for example meant that it could not be a team-player in forging a European foreign policy.
The European Union would have worked perfectly. The concept was a good one, and it sets a model for many other regions of the word. But the management structure has been weak. A serious marriage should be based on a concept of for better, for worse. The concept of the Union allows too many opt-outs. This made it easy for some countries to treat the Union like some form of salad bar where they could pick and choose what aspects they adopt and which they ignore, even if such aspects are central to, and need active support of all members to make it work.
What is wrong with Europe? Why does it seem not to work the way it should?
There is no one single answer to that question. Two issues stand out like sore thumbs as root causes of the problems. The first is the lack of leadership. The second, which partly results from the first, is that Europe over-reached itself by its aggressive expansionist policy.
The last six years marked what could be described as the era of visionless leaders of the Union. The likes of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman would be turning in their graves if they were to be given full account of the performance or lack of it of the current leadership. The current problems are a manifestation of the mismanagement of the instruments of the Union and lack of anticipation. Resorting to management by fire-fighting in 2011 resulted from half-hearted commitment to the Union while each country did its own thing without consideration of the impact on the others, coupled with general confusion about who does what.
If you were to randomly ask five people on the street who the leader of Europe is, the answer is most likely to vary from one person to another. Of course you have Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission. Then you have another one named Herman Achille Van Rompuy, who is described as the long term and full time president of the European Council. Add to that Jean-Claude Junker, president of the Eurogroup. Jerzy Buzek who heads the European Parliament also has president as part of his title.
That title gives each of these four men (note that so far there is no woman) the right to speak for Europe – and speak, they all do! But is anyone really listening?
As long as there was no crisis, each of them could speak to its constituency and sound as the most important person in Europe. Troubled, confused and shaken by economic woes, Europe started to stammer. None of the four men sounded convincing any longer, and even with the four of them as presidents, the Union was operating like a headless chicken. There was only one voice that would count. Only one voice that everyone was waiting to hear. And it was not the voice of a man, and not one of a president either!
Angela Merkel brought calm to the market. Her voice carried weight because it was backed up by guarantee of funds to save the situation. She had the power to undo Greece. But she chose to save it instead. At least for now.
For some years now, the European Council has looked like a football team with a number of talented players who are local heroes in their own rights. Only trouble is, as a team, they simply do not fit together. Everyone plays his or her own game. Everyone wants to score a goal – even if it has to be an own-goal. It is like a orchestra in which nearly everyone is a conductor.
European Council 2011
Domestic politics coupled with personal problems keep many of the members of the Council from being effective. If during a financial crisis of this magnitude, a key player in the team is bogged down by such issues as legal worries over financial matters coupled with sex scandal involving under-aged girls, not much could be expected from that side. A key player representing a country of eurosceptics is not likely to be sounding constructive notes in support of Europe so as not to offend his home base. Nationalistic noises are to be expected from those in the middle of electioneering campaigns. Some of those noises could be toxic in these volatile days.
Yes, the leaders are talking. But they are simply talking to and among themselves. They are holding meetings. Countless meetings in which they talk even more. They move the venues around. But there is one thing that they are not doing. They are not talking to the people. It is as if the people do not count. The more meetings they hold, the more fear is driven into the psychic of the people. Meanwhile, people are confused. Most do not know what is going on. Some are in countries where there is talk of the whole country going bankrupt. People are demoralised. Those in employment do not know for how much longer. Even those with funds in the bank are not sure if their money is safe or not. Unemployment increases because business have become more prudent and layoff rather than take on staff. People do not spend other than on the essentials. Their governments are not explaining to them and calming their fears. As if they are clueless and visionless the leaders are holding meetings even at weekends and overnight.
You find yourself in a large ship on the Atlantic Ocean. You hear rumours that it has problem and might be sinking. Members of the crew of the boat are rushing round holding meetings. Hushing up and saying nothing to those in the boat. They do not calm your fears. They do not explain to you exactly what is happening. They do not reassure you. They do not tell you what to do in case the worse really happens. Instead, you see them rushing past you looking busy.
Ten years ago, the European Commission launched a massive coordinated campaign to introduce the Euro. You would have thought that that same institution has been disbanded. Today, Europe faces its worst crisis since the death of the original visionaries. Under the new leadership, there is no action on the part of the Commission to reach the people. No leaflets or information sheets reassuring them. No national campaigns of information. You see the president of the Commission in his usual suits talking to the usual people – on television.
In the absence of any information coming from official sources and addressed to the people, the only place they get their information from is the press. By nature, good news does not sell papers. So, to make news sell, sensations are created to add to the already bad news. People get even more worried. The leaders hold more meetings.
Can Europe survive? Yes, it can, and it will. Those who think otherwise will be proved wrong. But Europe that will emerge after this crisis will never be the same. Europe grew too quickly. By 2011, there should not have been more than 20 member countries. Those driving the expansion were hasty and short-sighted. They did more damage to the Union than good. As at today, there is no modality put in place to measure performance or to decide when a member country should be asked to leave the Union. There should be. There is no modality put in place for voluntary disengagement either. That makes countries like the UK feel that they are being forced to be part of a marriage that does not function.
Europe is passing through a very bad phase. This should be a time for sober reflection. The long term survival of the Union will depend on the courage of the leaders to undertake radical reforms. Trouble is, there are currently too many chefs and not enough real cooks. Europe has lost all its visionaries.
you are kidding.
Jose Manuel Barroso, Herman Achille Van Rompuy,Jean-Claude Junker Jerzy Buzek ? Never heard of them. If you asked my mother or siblings, they probably would not know either. And they live in Germany. Merkel we know. Sarkozy and Cameron we know too. Berlusconi as well(although for all the wrong reasons).You still have leaders in Europe.
[...] an earlier article titled Europe: Where are the leaders? published on this website, the author lamented the fact that the leaders, do not only appear not to [...]