A long-sighted Europe

Europe is in crisis. All papers are repeating it. They speak of a Byzantine, divided Europe, of an opposition of selfishness attitudes, of a Europe that does not know what it wants or even where it comes from, since it refuses to acknowledge its most obvious roots. This pessimistic and even desperate view is cast every day by the media that almost exclusively place emphasis on what doesn’t work. At best Europe is ignored and not spoken about. Problems cannot clearly be denied. And yet! What progress has been made in the last 50 years since the Treaty of Rome signed by 6 countries, and in the last 60 years since the Marshall Plan! Who would have imagined, amidst the survivors of the Second World War, that in less than half a century Europe would have been at peace, in other words that it would have become a peaceful area, within which war has even become unimaginable? That it would have been a unified area, from the Atlantic to Russia, within which the frontiers would no longer be obstacles, and people and goods would have been able to freely flow, where a large part of its States would have equipped themselves with a single currency, where genuine solidarity would have been established among the regions, an area ruled by democracy?There are certainly disagreements; national selfish attitudes are still voiced; the limits of the building of Europe are clear: poor common defence, no common diplomacy, lots of technocracy, few ideals. But it is no less clear that its accomplishments and progress are huge. Europe has slowly extended from 6 to 9, then to 12, to 15 and finally to 25 and 27 countries. This raises quite a few problems of balance and operation, probably because the accessions, especially the latest ones, have taken place without adequate precautions. Yet they express a formidable progress in terms of peace (the end of the cold war), of democracy, with the disappearance of unbearable dictatorships and the dismantling of the shameful iron curtain, on which thousands of people who dreamt of peace and freedom have been murdered.What is missing in Europe today, and individually in its rulers, is just the knowledge of its historical depth and the ideal vision of its founders who just after the war, when the European countries might have plunged back into the abyss of nationalism, of a longing for revenge and hatred, aimed high and saw the big picture. Now we have to carry on, bearing in mind some basic principles: the irreplaceable importance of the French-German driving force, without which nothing can be done: the recognition and respect of the national cultures: Europe is not a sort of machine which smoothes everything out; the pragmatism and prudence that do not rule out the ideal.We have to accept the idea that it takes time to bring together nations, each of which has a long history, sometimes glorious, sometimes chaotic, a language, a culture, some traditions, a view of the world. All this is heavy to handle. It has taken nearly 15 years to get to the Treaty of the Elysium (1963) and finally reconcile France and Germany. The recent history, from the failure of Ced (1954) to the failure of the referenda on the Constitutional Treaty in France and Holland (2005), shows that, every time we wanted to rush things or go too far, we had to step back.Should we share the pessimism of the media? Certainly not. But we need a project, prudence, political vision and beliefs. The Europeans cannot forget that in a world that is torn apart by so many humanitarian tragedies, by so many wars and violence, Europe is a model and an example. Never before in the history of mankind had the States decided to turn their backs on their fates of conflict and build a region of prosperity, peace and freedom.