Americans tend either to believe that Europe is finished anyway, or that a United States of Europe is so obvious and simple that they can't see why Europeans don't just go and do it; but that is to reckon without 27 different languages and cultures. Imagine uniting in one political federal nation with Canada, Mexico, and Brazil . . . Anyway, this piece by Dany Cohn-Bendit (a deeply likeable and intelligent politician) struck me as worth translating and presenting here.
‘THE SITUATION IS APPALLING BUT NOT IRREVERSIBLE’
We need Europe. And don’t think that this is simply a credo. For the first time in their history, the nation-states no longer have the capacity to resist the assaults of the economic sphere. They don’t admit it, but their leaders are no longer capable of keeping their promises. Common sense is enough to let us understand that individually they cannot manage to regulate the markets, control the financial sector, come to grips with climate worsening, or solve the social and economic crises.
Obviously, we didn’t get to this point by an act of God. The collective responsibility of the political leaders is well and truly involved. If only because they have not been able to gauge the degree to which globalization would destabilize things. Occupied entirely by their ‘internal affairs’, they have not wanted to see the opportunity offered by the European dimension to enlarge their political sphere of action. The situation is appalling but not irreversible. As long as everyone begins by understanding that globalization forces us into a change of scale.
Thirty years from now, no state of the European Union will be part of the G8. The influence of France will be no greater than that of Luxemburg. From now on, if we want to conserve our civilization’s heritage, have our democracies progress, defend the ideas of social justice and protection, prevent our culture from being swept away by globalization, we will need to fight the battle at the European level. And a battle is exactly what it is.
The accusations currently levelled at Europe are justified. Economic belt-tightening is no response to the recession: true. The criticism of the European Union’s faults and failures is right. But for heaven’s sake, let’s open our eyes! Believing in a national response is senseless. It’s only by way of Europe that we can remain in control of our lives.
If, in France or elsewhere, a government follows a bad policy, the normal response is that either the policy must change or the government must. This is equally true for Europe. It’s not Europe that we should dump, but those who are making it. Don’t be fooled: it’s not re-nationing the European continent that will get us out of the mess. Don’t give up. That would guarantee our inability to act positively in the world. Europe has brought about an incredible progress of civilization. In this space which has produced atrocious wars and totalitarianisms, the very possibility of a war has been removed from the political imagination. That is an extraordinary achievement, but it is no longer enough.
Open your eyes! Refuse a Europe of states left to a new war of economic powers. But for heaven’s sake don’t be trapped in the illusion of redemption by the Nation.
See the battle for what it is: a struggle to the death between visions of Europe linked to diverging models of society and opposing conceptions of politics.
It is evident that the European model of a Cameron is not that of a united Europe that bases its legitimacy upon a democratization of globalization, but rather that of a subversion of the European Union – and of the States – by the markets. His model of Europe is based on a conception of politics reduced to its simplest expression: to insure his re-election and to defend the interests of his City [of London]. Let’s not mistake the adversary: it is the failure of political will, alias the inaction of public power, that acts against the Europeans.
We are in an unstable situation with an uncertain outcome. But we need to take it in hand because it will not ‘naturally’ move in the direction of a Europe set up for the 21st century and structured according to our common interest. Get rid of ‘there is no alternative’ [NB: in English]. Let us have the courage of a European federalism. We must create the United States of Europe, demand a serious European budget that allows us to intervene in the recession, to guarantee unemployment insurance for the young and a health-care system worthy of the name. Such a goal may seem unattainable. But take France. It looks back to the Revolution as its founding moment. And yet it took more than 150 years to give women the vote and to become a genuinely democratic republic.
A political Europe that acts in the common interest in matters of economics, ecology, social development and education: there’s a utopia for this century. Get on with it, dissident Europe!
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