Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer
The attempt to build a European super-state has hit rough water, being buffeted on the one side by the wave of migrants entering the continent from Africa and Middle East, and by the rise, in reaction, of ethnic nationalism in countries such as Hungary and Poland.
The greatest blow, of course, has been the decision of the United Kingdom to exit the union. Globalizers have been taken aback by this, and seem unable to comprehend the desire of many citizens in long-established nations to retain their own sense of cultural identity – and, not coincidentally, to recreate an economic order in their countries that privileges them over foreign labour and capital.
Meanwhile, the post-2008 Eurozone crisis has hit southern European countries particularly hard. Italy, Spain, and Portugal all chafe under a regime of austerity that benefits stronger economies like that of Germany.
In these countries youth unemployment now approaches 50 per cent and surveys report an unprecedented level of pessimism among them. Aimlessness and lack of opportunity have driven up the suicide rate.
Worst hit has been Greece: six years of financial and fiscal oversight by the Eurozone and the International Monetary Fund have brought a cumulative loss of 27 per cent of its economy, an unemployment rate of 24 per cent, and political instability. Since 2009, its governments have averaged seventeen months between elections.
Some of the blame falls on the shoulders of the country, of course. Governments were reluctant to cut the extraordinary waste of the Greek state; they were part of a political system known for its opportunism and complete lack of responsibility.
When the extent of its fiscal mismanagement became apparent, investors began to realize that unlike in other currency unions, there was no formal mechanism to support a distressed constituent government and that Eurozone members were unprepared to fully stand behind the liabilities of their weakest link.
So now that the bills have come due, creditors are offering the country no slack. The proliferation of social ills and the intensity of economic stagnation has fueled the rise of political extremists.
In eastern Europe, meanwhile, the electoral success of nationalistic parties such as Law and Justice in Poland and Hungary’s Fidesz also reflect the aftershocks of the financial crisis of 2007-2008, which turned many people against liberal elites. They also share the fear of a Muslim presence, one which is widespread in the region.
In the end, the EU may collapse because it doesn’t have the kind of support that individual countries take for granted from their citizens.
“Working mainly on societies where the state malfunctions,” writes the well-regarded Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Oxford University School of Government, Peter Collier, in the September 30 Times Literary Supplement, “I have come to recognize the value of an inclusive sense of shared identity: ‘whatever our political, ethnic and religious differences, we are all X.’” By this Collier means a collectivity with a sense of shared political consciousness, as if it were a large extended family.
“A common identity underpins the notion of the ‘common good,” and that in turn supports compliance with the taxation that supports public goods. In some societies X is an empty set. Most of Europe’s nations have an X; but lacking a common language and hence a common discourse, ‘Europe’ can never build an equivalent.
“By progressively stripping nation states of authority, ‘ever closer union’ risks transferring power to an entity that has the appetite to acquire it but lacks the legitimacy to use it: a political black hole,” concludes Collier.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, has urged the 28 EU member states to “fight against stupid populists.” This is how he insults those who worry about their future.
Rather than the shining hope of a united Europe, it seems the EU is becoming increasingly dysfunctional.
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