The Teen Crisis Of The European Union

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Category: World News - Europe

Published on Saturday, 03 November 2018 20:03

Written by Olivier Longhi

Announced as a cataclysm, the exit of Great Britain from the European Union is perhaps the perfect opportunity to rethink Europe and reconnect with its origins without obscuring the idea that this Brexit also reflects a form of crisis of Europe's political growth.

I missa is!* Mass is said at Westminster. Britain will come out of the European Union. In the meantime, History certainly reserves us a political pass of arms between English, Welsh, Northern Irish and Scots, the latter being eager to remain members of the European Union.

Naturally, in the aftermath of the results, it is not surprising that politicians favorable to the construction of Europe sink into pathos and catastrophism just as it is normal that the anti-Europeans (essentially composed of populist parties) rejoice at the defeat supporters of keeping Britain in the circle of the Union.

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And if, in the end, this outing, to which no one really expected while dreading it a little bit, was, if not good news, at least an electroshock with saving virtues. An explanation is needed. For years now, the European Union has been moving away from its citizens who blame it for its inertia, its lack of transparency, its complexity and other ills that have made the Union, for some in any case, the enemy to be defeated.

Why not then seize the Brexit (which now belongs to history) as the opportunity to recall the foundations of the European Union, these principles and its objectives. In short, remember what it was built for, how it was and how it was the situation of the continent sixty years ago.

Caprice Of Rich Country?

This effort would have two consequences: to enable citizens to reconnect with the origins of the Union and to understand the aims and advantages it has enabled us to acquire; to allow the political leaders in charge of European affairs to deviate from the all-economy that has become the Union to the detriment of those who compose it: all of us. To use a sports metaphor for which one will excuse the license: to go back to basics is essential to develop and produce an effective and pragmatic game.

Then why panic in front of this Brexit? Let's be honest for a moment. The British, with the exception of the Scots (oil rich in the North Sea which is not totally uninteresting either for the Union if Scotland persisted in its desire to remain within Europe), have never really played the game of European solidarity.

Those who voted yes to the Union membership were made after David Cameron, the former Prime Minister, obtained from Brussels a special status for Great Britain and without calling into question the Treaty of Lisbon. What would they have voted if the Prime Minister had not gotten that special status he was clinging to defend the Yes? Caprice of rich country would say some!

So why panic? Frankly, looking at it more closely, there are only economic issues that come into play. From the economy again! But this is what the Europeans in Brussels complain about: Being obsessed only by the economy. The stock markets will collapse some time, Sterling and Euro will be tossed but for the most part, the trade routes will continue, in different forms certainly but they will continue.

Because Britain needs the European Union more than the other way around and the newfound freedom of the British allows them to compose their own scores but also allows other countries of the Union to compose the one that sings to them. place of the British. After the economic question, let us focus on the European Union as such. Would not this exit paradoxically be a form of good health.

We forget it because cradled every day by the benefits it provides us (peace, social stability, technical progress, single currency, ...) but the European Union and before it the EEC, are still very young Of the history.

Youth and Avatar

On March 25, 2017, we celebrated the sixty years of the Rome Treaties that founded the EEC. Barely sixty years old! And when we look at the achievements that political Europe has allowed us to achieve in such a short time, it would be an exaggeration to throw everything away. Good health, were we saying? Why ? Because the European Union, like any other group of this type, crosses with this Brexit, a form of crisis of growth.

Like a child who suddenly springs out of his box to become a teenager: shoes, shirts and pants have become too narrow. Why not see the release of the United Kingdom if not as a chance, but as an avatar to a still very young construction and looking for its marks in a changing world. The object is not to know if the British are right to go out. They feel overwhelmingly uncomfortable in the Union as it is today.

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Reason or wrong, they launch in Brussels a clear warning that does not call into question the European construction but the direction it has taken. Others think so but will not go to the exit. The domino effect will not happen because the Union is finally bringing more than it takes away and the British exit from the Union is also linked to domestic political issues unresolved by David Cameron, let alone by Theresa May .
Nevertheless, this crisis of growth, which also highlights how the European space is a space of dialogue and democracy (Brexit also proves that the people can fully express themselves thus disavowing those who accused the Union of a form despotism), should not be experienced as an insult or an announced chaos but as the necessary obligation to put on the European Union new clothes ... At the risk of seeing it eventually finish all naked!

* Latin for "Go the dismissel is made."

Olivier Longhi has an extensive background in European History, a seasoned journalist with fifteen years experience, he is currently a professor of history and geography in the Toulouse region of France. He has held varies positions within the publishing field including head of agency and chief of publishing. A journalist, recognized blogger, columnist and editorial project manager he has trained and directed editorial teams, worked as a journalist for various local radio stations, a press and publishing consultant and communication consultant.