Europe 1989-2014: From one wall to another
This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. But we have a very sad way to celebrate one of the few positive events which history has bestowed on us: we are rebuilding this Wall.
Sinking into cynicism, one might wonder if 25 years have not only been a stage of the Cold War, whose purpose was to believe in a truce to retake the territories from the Enemy.
The reality is more common without doubt: in 25 years that Europe that was born in 1989 failed to grow up, get out of his lab, transform this opportunity of independence, assume its responsibilities, stand resolutely in the world .
For that, one should have gone to the very end with the liberating act and stop all these tools of the Cold War (NATO, US political domination, etc ...) that were meaningful only in the previous configuration and are now trying to recreate the circumstances justifying the extension beyond all reason for their existence.
It is true that Europe was well protected by its Eastern Wall and Western umbrella. And this vast multi-polar world that is emerging on the horizon is frightening. So the temptation is strong for some to return to the good old days of the cocoon of the beginning of the adventure ... and the benefit to others particularly obvious.
But the reverse gear is not part of the options of history, how much those, who populate the European political circles these days, enjoy the nostalgia of their youth. And the reconstruction of the Wall poses a mortal danger to Europe and the world.
This Europe that emerged from the rubble of the Berlin Wall had the characteristic of being led by three European powers: England, who was not part of the founding group and has acted almost exclusively as a sock puppet of the United States and obstruct the emergence of a true continental power; Germany, politically paralyzed by guilt thoroughly maintained by the Western camp gathered around this great humanitarian cause; and France, neutralized by its concern to be "modern" throwing to the winds all principles of continental independence of Gaullist legacy in favor of a militant Anglophilia that culminated with the Sarkozy era.
This disastrous combination resulted in an impressive series of failures in the management of the continent, the most iconic is the abandonment of the project of political union, cause of all the other failures: failed Neighbourhood Policy (of which Ukraine of course is the most clear example) failed enlargement (20% participation in the European elections in the Czech Republic in 2014), failed way out of NATO (and of course failed replacement by a European defense), failed adaptation of the institutional system to the post-Maastricht realities (failure of the proposed governance reform in 2001), failed connection to the dynamics of the future related to the BRICS (when will there be a Euro-BRICS summit?), failed democratization of Europe , etc ... the list is unfortunately way too long.
The "good" news (it's sad to say ... when you're French or German or English), is that in this year 2014, it is clear that these three powers are de facto going out: the departure of the United Kingdom, the marginalization of France and the isolation of Germany are the concomitants of the first half of 2014.
The departure of the UK, although not yet established in the history books, however, is already a reality: Britain is only trying to bother Europe (as in the Juncker’s nomination) out of old habit, reflexively, but she already has her eyes turned to other masters (especially China, which already uses the City as offshore platform in its Yuan transactions) that do not require her, for now, to sabotage the continent's efforts to organize itself sovereignly.
The marginalization of France is the result of 25% for Marine Le Pen. And of course the isolation resulting from all this for Germany, which as economically powerful as it is, can not afford to govern Europe alone without exacerbating anti-European and anti-German feelings in the same movement.
Faced with this collapse of all European policy capacity for action, parallel to a explosion of distrust vis-à-vis a Brussels administration beyond European control, the rest of Europe is faced with a dilemma: let go, surrender to American political and military tutelage and its attendant lobbies, abdicate all ambition to self-determination, return to domestic small business and leave the "big" (China and the United States now ) run our business ... until they make war ... on our territory no doubt. Or find in all this display of failures the creative energy for a re-start.
The optimism of the will requires us to anticipate two forms re-start.
On the one hand, the mobilization of Small and Medium-size European countries. These countries, which have for too long let the "big" rule all alone, discover now that their interests are not protected by the former. For many years, these countries have been especially busy complaining about the English Euroscepticism, that helped to justify their own reservations against further integration, about the economic domination of Germany, which allowed them to cheaply sell their treasury bills, and about the french anti-Americanism which actually reassured their own protectionist sentiments. Now they no longer have to complain about the interference of these countries; on the contrary ... They even see themselves forced to play their full part in the European concert.
Thus we hear the Czech Republic and Slovakia to express loudly their refusal to see American military forces to settle on their territory (because France did not say anything), Austria and Bulgaria rebel against American pressure to divert the South Stream pipeline (because Germany did not say anything), the Netherlands abandon on the run their atavistic English ally in the Juncker affaire (because England is disconnected) ... in short, the European Small and Medium-size (SMC) countries take their destiny in their own hands, they do it as Europeans, they now add their voices significantly to the orientation of the common European destiny. And in doing so, Europe comes again to life!
On the other hand we have the mobilization of European citizens. The Europe of Nations, even reinforced by the SMC, will never be a democratic Europe alone, will never be a Europe of the peoples. And if the loss of influence of the three large countries (UK, DE, FR) can be compensated by the SMC, the lack of legitimacy of the European institutions can only be resolved by a common re-start of the citizens of Europe.
The time is ripe for this awareness, the understanding of the problems, and the invention of solutions. But the first stones of the new Wall have already been put. There is no time to waste to remove them and pour the asphalt of the roads of an open future.
Marie-Hélène Caillol
Leap/E2020
N'Platform meeting in Berlin July 5th 2014
Sinking into cynicism, one might wonder if 25 years have not only been a stage of the Cold War, whose purpose was to believe in a truce to retake the territories from the Enemy.
The reality is more common without doubt: in 25 years that Europe that was born in 1989 failed to grow up, get out of his lab, transform this opportunity of independence, assume its responsibilities, stand resolutely in the world .
For that, one should have gone to the very end with the liberating act and stop all these tools of the Cold War (NATO, US political domination, etc ...) that were meaningful only in the previous configuration and are now trying to recreate the circumstances justifying the extension beyond all reason for their existence.
It is true that Europe was well protected by its Eastern Wall and Western umbrella. And this vast multi-polar world that is emerging on the horizon is frightening. So the temptation is strong for some to return to the good old days of the cocoon of the beginning of the adventure ... and the benefit to others particularly obvious.
But the reverse gear is not part of the options of history, how much those, who populate the European political circles these days, enjoy the nostalgia of their youth. And the reconstruction of the Wall poses a mortal danger to Europe and the world.
This Europe that emerged from the rubble of the Berlin Wall had the characteristic of being led by three European powers: England, who was not part of the founding group and has acted almost exclusively as a sock puppet of the United States and obstruct the emergence of a true continental power; Germany, politically paralyzed by guilt thoroughly maintained by the Western camp gathered around this great humanitarian cause; and France, neutralized by its concern to be "modern" throwing to the winds all principles of continental independence of Gaullist legacy in favor of a militant Anglophilia that culminated with the Sarkozy era.
This disastrous combination resulted in an impressive series of failures in the management of the continent, the most iconic is the abandonment of the project of political union, cause of all the other failures: failed Neighbourhood Policy (of which Ukraine of course is the most clear example) failed enlargement (20% participation in the European elections in the Czech Republic in 2014), failed way out of NATO (and of course failed replacement by a European defense), failed adaptation of the institutional system to the post-Maastricht realities (failure of the proposed governance reform in 2001), failed connection to the dynamics of the future related to the BRICS (when will there be a Euro-BRICS summit?), failed democratization of Europe , etc ... the list is unfortunately way too long.
The "good" news (it's sad to say ... when you're French or German or English), is that in this year 2014, it is clear that these three powers are de facto going out: the departure of the United Kingdom, the marginalization of France and the isolation of Germany are the concomitants of the first half of 2014.
The departure of the UK, although not yet established in the history books, however, is already a reality: Britain is only trying to bother Europe (as in the Juncker’s nomination) out of old habit, reflexively, but she already has her eyes turned to other masters (especially China, which already uses the City as offshore platform in its Yuan transactions) that do not require her, for now, to sabotage the continent's efforts to organize itself sovereignly.
The marginalization of France is the result of 25% for Marine Le Pen. And of course the isolation resulting from all this for Germany, which as economically powerful as it is, can not afford to govern Europe alone without exacerbating anti-European and anti-German feelings in the same movement.
Faced with this collapse of all European policy capacity for action, parallel to a explosion of distrust vis-à-vis a Brussels administration beyond European control, the rest of Europe is faced with a dilemma: let go, surrender to American political and military tutelage and its attendant lobbies, abdicate all ambition to self-determination, return to domestic small business and leave the "big" (China and the United States now ) run our business ... until they make war ... on our territory no doubt. Or find in all this display of failures the creative energy for a re-start.
The optimism of the will requires us to anticipate two forms re-start.
On the one hand, the mobilization of Small and Medium-size European countries. These countries, which have for too long let the "big" rule all alone, discover now that their interests are not protected by the former. For many years, these countries have been especially busy complaining about the English Euroscepticism, that helped to justify their own reservations against further integration, about the economic domination of Germany, which allowed them to cheaply sell their treasury bills, and about the french anti-Americanism which actually reassured their own protectionist sentiments. Now they no longer have to complain about the interference of these countries; on the contrary ... They even see themselves forced to play their full part in the European concert.
Thus we hear the Czech Republic and Slovakia to express loudly their refusal to see American military forces to settle on their territory (because France did not say anything), Austria and Bulgaria rebel against American pressure to divert the South Stream pipeline (because Germany did not say anything), the Netherlands abandon on the run their atavistic English ally in the Juncker affaire (because England is disconnected) ... in short, the European Small and Medium-size (SMC) countries take their destiny in their own hands, they do it as Europeans, they now add their voices significantly to the orientation of the common European destiny. And in doing so, Europe comes again to life!
On the other hand we have the mobilization of European citizens. The Europe of Nations, even reinforced by the SMC, will never be a democratic Europe alone, will never be a Europe of the peoples. And if the loss of influence of the three large countries (UK, DE, FR) can be compensated by the SMC, the lack of legitimacy of the European institutions can only be resolved by a common re-start of the citizens of Europe.
The time is ripe for this awareness, the understanding of the problems, and the invention of solutions. But the first stones of the new Wall have already been put. There is no time to waste to remove them and pour the asphalt of the roads of an open future.
Marie-Hélène Caillol
Leap/E2020
N'Platform meeting in Berlin July 5th 2014
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