One week ago, more precisely on Saturday 25th of March the European Union celebrated its 60th anniversary, so this post is a tribute to this wonderful idea of integration and inclusion, peace and harmony, shared values and common ideals. I hope this idea can spread for all the world and one day we can celebrate the creation of a World Union, but like the European Union putting democracy and human rights at the top of its policy. This post is a summary of four articles. The first was published at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/03/25/happy-60th-anniversary-to-the-european-union-okay-maybe-not-so-happy/?utm_term=.e642095d77ae. The second was published at https://europa.eu/european-union/eu60_en. The third was published at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/23/eu-60-generation-europe-berlin-barcelona The fourth was published at http://johnmccormick.eu/2013/09/ten-reasons-why-the-european-union-is-a-good-idea/
The treaty of Rome, which founded the European Union was signed 60 years ago. However, the E.U. is in a state of crisis and show just how difficult it is to secure legitimacy for international institutions. During the run-up to the U.K. referendum on Brexit, the call to "take back control" resonated more with British voters than other political arguments. These views are popular in other countries too. According to Eurobarometer polling data, 45% of citizens are not satisfied with the way democracy works in the E.U. A majority is dissatisfied in 7 out of the 28 E.U. member states. Is the public right to hold these views? Some research suggest that the E.U. has given too much power to supranational institutions, international bodies that operate independently of national governments. However, it is misleading to claim that the E.U. is a runaway supranational institution. We argue in a recent book that the E.U. is better understood as a collection of institutions, between governments, above governments and beyond governments, that battle it out over E.U. policies. Through its case law, the E.U. Court of Justice established that European law is superior to national law and helped build the world's largest single market. The European Central Bank manages the euro, a global currency used by nearly 400 million E.U. citizens in 19 countries. E.U. institutions that operate above the states are powerful, but those that represent national government interests are even more so. The European Council is the real locus of authority. These summits began as "fireside chats" in 1974 but in recent years have become the E.U.'s last resort for dealing with its all-too- frequent problems. The European Council has been condemned for riding roughshod over Greek democracy, failing to forge a collective solution to the migration crisis and not making the U.K. a better offer to stay in the E.U. And yet, by the standards of global governance, the European Council embodies intergovernmental cooperation at its most consequential. The G7 and G20 meetings bring heads of state together for little more than an annual photo opportunity. The European Council meets up to 11 times per year to make substantive policy decisions across a host of policy areas. From the decision to add former Warsaw Pact 10 states to its membership in the 2000s to the 2016 Turkey refugee deal, the European Council shapes politics in ways that the executive bodies of other international organizations do not. The E.U. is also the most ambitious attempt to establish international institutions that derive authority from sources other than governments. In 1979, the European Parliament became the world's first, and to date only, directly elected transnational legislature. Large numbers of E.U. citizens may be dissatisfied with democracy in the E.U. However, survey shows that the same citizens have been as unhappy or unhappier with the state of democracy in their own country. Historian Mark Mazower has argued that, "Europe has rarely just been about Europe." The E.U. has been a prototype for international cooperation, and it remains the most ambitious attempt to legitimize governance beyond the nation-state.
Sixty years ago in Rome, the foundations were laid for the Europe that we know today, ushering in the longest period of peace in written history in Europe. The Treaties of Rome established a common market where people, goods, services and capital can move freely and created the conditions for prosperity and stability for European citizens. On this anniversary, Europe looks back with pride and looks forward with hope. For 60 years we have built a Union that promotes peaceful cooperation, respect of human dignity, democracy and solidarity among European nations and peoples. Now, Europe's shared and better future is ours to design.
There is a good reason that lots of people in my generation think the E.U. is all right. Our upbringing was tinged with an opening up to all things European. Not just Abba and Jeux Sans frontières. But exchange programmes and pen pals, InterRail and espadrilles, pizza and Chianti. Europeans, it turned out, were normal, cool, interesting and interested. this was a huge comfort to those of us who paid attention in history. The first things children of the 1970s and 80s learned about Europe was how beastly everyone had been to each other over the past 1,000 years. Waterloo, Travalgar, the Somme and Agincourt. Crécy and D-day. War without end, and how all those little nations were forged by obsessed emperors and tsars and kings and despots who slaughtered anyone and everyone who did not think like them. If the 80s marked the real beginning of British vacationing in Europe, the 90s was the decade that we moved there in masses. We explored the continent in ways that our parents never could. If you felt it and could afford it, you could just jump on a train and go live in Berlin, or Bordeaux or Barcelona. Eurostar, budget flight and cheap car rental. No visas, no hassle. Pick up a job on a building site, in a bank, in a bar. Oh the irony: to us Europe meant an absence of petty rules and regulations, not an accretion of them. We got to know Spanish and Dutch, Finns and Italians. The telling thing was we had so much more in common with these foreigners than with many of our compatriots. It really felt like nationality did not matter, it was just a lousy trick of the past, an instrument for bad rulers to deflect criticism and give people something to cheer, however empty. And while Britons relished Europe, Britain itself became more European: Culturally, we remained pretty Anglo-Saxon (notwithstanding the music of Kraftwerk, the novel of Houellebecq and the films of Kieslowski and Almodóvar). But socially we were more European. Where did it all go wrong? Looking back, it is clear that this Europeanisation was perhaps only relevant to an outwardly focused, to people interested in a world beyond the end of their street. The tide turned in the 2000s, though it is still hard to pinpoint precisely why. Or perhaps simply that those who talked down the E.U. were just better at doing so than those who talked it up.
We have heard a lot of late about the problems of the E.U. so much so that the supportive voice are being drowned out in a cacophony of negativism. The E.U. is imperfect, to be sure, but so is every large institution or network of institutions. The achievements of the E.U. need closer study and greater promotion. European integration has worked and made life better for Europeans and non-Europeans, but here is a brief top ten list of why we can like the E.U: 1) Helping bring a lasting peace to Europe. 2) Promoting prosperity, innovation, opportunity and choice. 3) Raising standards and expectations. 4) Helping Europeans understand their shared values. 5) Reducing regulations and red tape. 6) Replacing self-interest with shared interests, and exclusion with inclusion. 7) Promoting democracy and free markets at home and abroad. 8) Allowing Europe to speak with louder voice. 9) Offering a benchmark model of civilian power. 10) Encouraging a rules-based approach to international affairs.
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