Desire for division amidst the eulogy of European unity
While countries of Eastern Europe which once made up the former Communist block are knocking on the door of entry into the European Union, the very members who form the core of that union are having difficulty in coming to terms with the Maastricht Treaty. Not only the countries whose economic situations are most precarious, such as Italy and Spain, but even France and Germany, the two countries which, in theory, were supposed to serve as the economic locomotive, will doubtfully be able to adhere to the treaty in its entirety. Moreover, as the Europeans struggle with deciding whether to execute to the letter the terms of the treaty, many countries in Europe are struggling with the concept of maintaining unity within their own borders.
Seven years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the integration of the Continent, East and West, seemingly made possible by the disappearance of the former ideological blocks, is far from becoming a reality. The pan-European geopolitical situation has been casting more shadows than rays of light for its united future. The Eastern countries were quite naturally impatient to catch up to their Western neighbors. However, the economic situation in Europe has not been as favorable as it was at the end of the eighties and the good intentions of the West to offer economic aid to its eastern neighbors has been preempted by the West’s preoccupation with struggling to maintain its own status quo. It is not surprising then, that one by one the people of these countries have exercised their newly acquired right to use the democratic process to turn the power over to the members of the former Communist parties who had denied them that very right for almost fifty years. More than a vote of confidence for the ideology of Communism, theirs is a vote of protest against the haste of the changes that have been imposed on them and the fact that they have been suddenly stripped of all social securities: jobs, housing, health insurance, as meager and dissatisfying as these services may have been.
The Eastern European countries are not the only ones protesting against the loss of social securities. Workers in France paralyzed the country for practically the entire month of December last year in protest against the extreme measures proposed by the French government in order to balance its budget in time for the terms of Maastricht. The breath of economic crisis has been breathing down the neck of Germany as well. Industrial production is down and unemployment has been over 10%, a record low since the formation of the German Federal Republic in 1949 with four million people out of work. These grave problems are taking place in the two countries considered to be the solid economic nucleus of the European Union.
The behavior and attitude of European politicians has been compared to the courtiers in Anderson’s fairy tale, "The Emperor’s New Clothes." The comparison is not at all far-fetched, but perhaps right on target. The Maastricht Treaty is like the nude Emperor and the politicians are the courtiers who look on and see the problem, but continue in their obsequious homage, not daring to speak out and say the obvious. It is not their hypocrisy which will save Europe and it is questionable whether a Europe with no growth, galloping inflation, and sky-rising unemployment is worth saving.
As the politicians of Europe struggle with meeting the terms of Maastricht and refuse to consider the possible necessity of modifying its terms or postponing the date of the implementation of European monetary union, many countries in Europe are threatened by separatist movements from within. From the North Sea to the Adriatic Sea, there is hardly a country of the Old Continent which is immune to this desire of division amidst the eulogy of European unity.
From the dissolution of the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the dismemberment of the former Yugoslavia, the desire for independence seems to be a universal one, whether the pretext be nationalism, religion, ideology or outdated colonialism. Even the inveterate democracies of Western Europe cannot be considered invulnerable to this trend. Since the 1970’s, the IRA in Great Britain, the Basque terrorist group in Spain, and the members of the Corsican separatist group in France have been planting the seeds of violence in their respective countries. Even the quiet and neutral country of Belgium has difficulty in settling the differences between its Dutch speaking Flemish and its French speaking Walloons. In Germany, both East and West are not without regret and doubts concerning the benefits of the unification of their country. And in Italy, recent years have seen the birth of a party called the Northern League which preaches Federalism, but in its more extreme moments threatens to fracture the country in two, dividing the industrial north from the impoverished south.
These are issues which particularly concern the individual nations of Europe. However, if the European Union is to be more than a fictitious and utopian dream, these questions should implicate the interest of all Europeans. For four years Europeans witnessed their own paralysis and inaptitude in resolving the problems in the Balkans. Now European nations are united in their efforts to instill peace in the region, but they arrived at this not without the aid and efforts of American diplomacy. Moreover, Europeans cannot allow themselves to be indifferent to the fact that an island in the Mediterranean would like to detach its political roots from those of France or that the Basques would like to cut the Atlantic Pyrenees from the Spanish map. The violent and destructive means that these terrorist organizations use to reach their questionable ends affect everyone.
One incident earlier this year illustrates how such seemingly national problems may have international repercussions that can jostle the harmony even among EU members. This regarded Belgium’s refusal to extradite two presumed Basque ETA members to Spain. The affair was hardly an encouraging harbinger. Furious with the decision of the Belgian State Council, the Spanish government announced that it would no longer adhere to the clauses of the Shengen Convention that concern judicial and police cooperation. Brussels may have been acting within its rights, but its refusal can hardly be considered a reflection of the spirit of the Shengen convention which is to create a unique judicial area. This event demonstrates the need to create rules of arbitration concerning such matters. More recently, the problems within the British beef industry have put the EU’s ability to settle its differences to the test.
The Maastricht Treaty should be the tool that helps the various nation members to better the lives of its citizens, not the weapon that serves in implementing their social and economic destruction. Europe is becoming a very private and elite club with only one country holding the right cards for proper membership, Luxembourg, the smallest country of the Union. It is pointless to create a game whose rules are so difficult that nobody is able to play without risking self-annihilation. If the political leaders do not open their eyes to the changing realities and find the courage to speak out against terms that are too strict and which require a price of sacrifice perhaps too high to pay, not only the countries of central and eastern Europe, but the citizens of the countries who make up the very historical core of Europe, may begin to question the advantage of belonging to such a union. By looking the other way these leaders risk eliminating the social services that have long been the mainstay of European civilization and leaving the gate open to the many ghosts of near-sighted nationalisms.
April 1997
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