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United States of Europe
Politicians, economists and writers alike have envisioned a European country with a federal structure. Joschka Fischer, former German Foreign Minister even declares that "the creation of a single European state bound by one European constitution is the decisive task of our time"(qtd. in Laos 184). The bold vision does not seem to match the grim reality that Europe faces today. Yet again, journalists like Alexandra Babiarz teaching at the Annenberg School of Communication, must announce ever new rescue plans to the highly indebted Greece. At the end of October, the European Union and International Monetary Fund promised Greece another $140 billion after various loans were given since May 2010.(Babiarz). These bail out packages became necessary after Greece was unable to repay its debts, leading to what is now known as the Greek debt crisis. Director of Qwest Investment Management Ltd., Cam Hui, explains that the crisis unveils a more important, underlying problem of Europe: Economic Integration without political integration. Suddenly, the Greek debt crisis puts the endeavor of a “United States of Europe” in a new light: Political integration is more important than ever to keep up with economic integration and resulting challenges.
The economic integration of Europe was rapid and effective. Economics expert Hui even argues that it was completed with the Schenghen Agreement in 1985. The Schengen Agreement provides that member countries share one single market ensuring the free exchange of goods, capital, labour and services. For a citizen of the European Union, that means that everyone can work, live, claim social care and even start a company in any of the member states indicated in blue (see Figure 1). As of 2011, all European Union Member States (with the exception of the UK , Ireland, Romania and Bulgaria) and the EU non-member states Norway, Iceland and Switzerland belong to a single market.
While Europe has achieved an economic union, the lack of political integration is partly responsible for the Greek debt crisis. Lord John Eatwell, professor for Economics at the University of Southern California joins the critique by saying, “the most important thing for anybody to take away [from the Eurozone debt crisis] is that ... you cannot step away from the need for effective government in running monetary policy [and] in running fiscal policy” (Eatwell). In this example, the European Union can not determine the monetary policy (which deals with activities of the central banks such as determining the central banks interest rate to which it lends money to banks) through the European Centralbank while leaving the fiscal policy (dealing with taxation and government spending) to Greece. Economist Eatwell further explains that Greece had accumulated more debts than treaties of the European Union admitted. Greece’s fiscal autonomy to borrow more money than it would be able to pay back brought about the debt crisis.
What are the solutions to the disparity between political and economic integration with regard to the Greek Debt crisis? One possibility is that Greece either leaves the Eurozone, which spans the countries having the Euro as currency. Another solution is bringing political integration to the same level as economic integration to prevent future incidents like the Greek Debt crisis, as Lord Eatwell proposes. The first solution would be disastrous for the Greek economy and a major setback for the European Integration as a whole. One could argue that this could be a precedent for any situation where a state within Europe is less strong than it neighbors and is therefore forced out of the community. If this is to happen Europe would lose its very fruitful integration process, that brought about so many freedoms and economic advantages to the European citizen. Specifically, Europe is the largest economic free trade bloc and the Schengen-Agreement brought many advantages: investment in Eastern European countries and Western European countries welcome much needed labor.
Hence, if we cannot afford to sacrifice Greece, we must make sure, in Eatwell’s words, that Europe pushes on political integration creating a United States of Europe. If a United States of Europe was founded as a sovereign country, it would have political control over all people and assets. For instance, it would have the right to tax the people or sell assets such as natural resources within its territory. Granted, the idea that Europe takes control over a nation’s people and assets will sound alienating to the individual nation, but it would certainly have prevented the Greek debt crisis in two ways.
Economics professor Lord Eatwell explains that the debt crisis could have been prevented if the European Union had acted earlier, because in January 2010 the Greek debt was at around $ 50 bn. This is in comparison a minor sum considering the $ 608 bn. bailout fund as of November 2011 (Babiarz). Journalist Beat Balzli from the renowned German journal Der Spiegel adds that Greece had the fatal autonomy to circumvent European treaties determining a maximum debt by purchasing very complex financial instruments that involve the trend of currency values (Balzli). A Europe that had the right to control Greece’s finances would have prevented taking further loans, demanded more taxes from the Greek, and possibly would have bailed out Greece earlier. But with the rights over the people and assets come several responsibilities. One responsibility crucial to all countries is securing the borders of the territory. In fact, the attempt of a United Europe to solve border issues would alleviate another crisis born in the Mediterraneans, the landing of ten thousands African immigrants annually on the Italian island Lampedusa.
As journalist Sabina Castelfranco emphasizes in her article, Italy gets little help from the EU to deal with masses of African immigrants that land on the Mediterranean island. Only within the first three months of 2011, 18.000 African immigrants landed on the 700 people island (Castelfranco). A country such as France or the UK might argue that it is simply not in their economic interest to be responsible for the whole European territory and therefore would reject that claim. The Italian government has an appropriate answer for that as well: The immigration emergency must be dealt with by the whole of the European community, which must find adequate solutions for these people. “All of Europe, [...] has a debt, not just from today, towards Africa” (Castelfranco). If Europe was responsible as one country for all European borders today, many problems associated with the immigration would be solved. Immigrants could find a new home in different European states and other European states would support Italy financially in securing the immigrants health after their landing. However, for the French wanting to help the Italians in solving this humanitarian crisis, a sense of connection would be required.
This connection might come with a shared European identity, which is key to a United States of Europe: the sense of being one people. Critics of furthering European integration regard that as something undesirable. If one believes the Dutch socialists, then Europeans would be in danger of losing their national identities. For instance, the Dutch would gain a greater European identity, but subsequently feel less connected to the Netherlands. According to an article by the British Broadcast Company (BBC), the fear of a fading national identity was one of the reasons for Dutch socialists to reject the European Constitution in a referendum in 2005 (Mulvey).
Malta is a good example of keeping national identity in the midst of change. The Mediterranean island joined the European Union in 2004 and a sociology study observed the shift of sense of belonging in the following years. The sociologist Anthony Abela who published the study reported that Malta is a country with traditional strong national and regional identification. In recent years, Abela reports, there was an increase of a “more regional, European, Mediterranean sense of belonging” (Abela, 15). Nothing however changed with the strong national pride. Now, the majority of Maltese people claim to have a national-European identity as well as a Malta-in-Europe identity. So, a national identity per se is not in danger with the creation of a United Europe.
A more frequently voiced criticism of the European Union is the lack of transparency and democracy. The former European Commissioner Fraser Cameron evaluates in his book The Future of Europe that there is continuous power struggle between member states that leads to a misrepresentation of interests. Take the European Minister Council and the European Commission. The institutions are made up of the 27 subject specific national ministers of the member states and 27 Commissioners appointed by the member states, respectively. That also means that a commissioner from Luxembourg, who represents approximately half a million Europeans, has the same political power as the German commissioner, who represents 82 million Europeans. This problem is avoided in the European parliament in that it is voted for directly by the population.
A great milestone for transparency would be if the population would also get to vote for the other institutions directly. These reforms could be introduced if a united Europe was founded with a strong and directly elected government. Days of misrepresentation and claims of a lack of democracy would be over. The national governments only have to waive their rights to decide for the European people on the European government and let the people vote directly for a European government. The loss of rights on the side of national governments seems to be necessary in many aspects of the political integration process. However, it is possible that the national governments can achieve their goals better if they pass rights to a higher entity. Certainly, in foreign relations and military operations a United Europe would be more effective than several individual nationalities.
Former European commissioner Cameron reminds his readers that a European army is integral part of a European country. Furthermore, the larger army will be more powerful than several smaller armies. An example Cameron uses is the Kosovo crisis in 1998-1999, when Serbian forces launched a crackdown on separatists in Kosovo. During the war, the NATO intervened with the bombing of Serbian military facilities. Although Kosovo is in the heart of Europe, 90% of all air strikes were flown by Americans (Cameron 71). This is partly because the American Air Force and Navy had much larger resources than any of the European countries and it was centrally organized - a feature that could be gained if European armies are organized into a single large European one.
And just as a larger army will be more effective in combat, a larger voice will be better heard in international politics. Establishing foreign relations with other countries is the last significant attribute of a sovereign nation. European politician Piris argues that the European Union has already benefitted largely from combining its actors on the global political stage. “In the globalized world an individual member state does not have the leverage to negotiate with the USA, China or the WTO” (Piris, 197). This is probably the reason why the European Union remains attractive for other countries in Europe.
In January 2012, the EU welcomes Croatia to the group and in the last decade several applications from Turkey and other Balkan nations such as Serbia and Macedonia have been received. The European Union has succeeded in uniting what was split apart by the Iron curtain and has brought about many economic and political advantages. Going beyond the union to found a United States of Europe a is a bold act and it requires national leaders to give away powers. As the former German Commissioner to the European Union says, “It is a great challenge, but we have no alternative”. We have no alternative if we together want to form a Europe that can resist and prevent crises and has a strong appearance in a globalized world.
Bibliography
Abela, Anthony M. "Shaping a National Identity: Malta in the European Union." International Journal of Sociology 35.4 (2005/2006). Web. <http://www.jstor.org/ stable/20628747?seq=6>.
Babiarz, Alexandra. "Eurozone Reform Needed To Prevent Another Greek-Like Crisis." Neon Tommy. Annnenberg School for Communication and Journalism, 2 Oct. 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2011.
Balzli, Beat. "Greek Debt Crisis: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask Its True Debt - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International." SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten. 02 Aug. 2010. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. <http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/ 0,1518,676634,00.html>.
Cameron, Fraser. The Future of Europe: Integration and Enlargement. London: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Castelfranco, Sabina |. "Tensions Rise in Lampedusa As Immigrant Influx Continues | Europe | English." News | English. Voice of America, 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 09 Nov. 2011. <http://www.voanews.com/english/news/europe/Tensions-Rise-in-
Lampedusa-As- Immigrant-Influx-Continues-118885554.html>
Hui, Cam. "European Crisis in Context." Web log post. Humble Student of the Markets. Cam Hui, 1 July 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2011.
http://humblestudentofthemarkets.blogspot.com/2011/07/european-experiment- in-context.html
Laos, Nicolas K. Foundations of Cultural Diplomacy: Politics among Cultures and the Moral Autonomy of Man. New York: Algora Pub., 2011. Print.
Piris, Jean-Claude. The Constitution for Europe: a Legal Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2006. Print.
Rome, Sabina Castelfranco |. "Tensions Rise in Lampedusa As Immigrant Influx Continues." Voice of America, 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 07 Nov. 2011. <http://www.voanews.com/ english/news/europe/Tensions-Rise-in-Lampedusa-As-Immigrant-Influx- Continues-118885554.html>.
Ssolbergj. Schenghen Agreement. Digital image. Wikimedia Commons. 17 Dec. 2010. Web.
<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Schengen_Agreement_map.svg>.
Mulvey, Stephen. "Varied Reasons behind Dutch 'No'" BBC News. 1 June 2005. Web. 08 Nov. 2011. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4601731.stm>.
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