European unity at 50 - Print Version - International Herald Tribune

European unity at 50
Friday, March 30, 2007
Alot has been said and written over the past week in connection with the50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, the precursor to the EuropeanUnion, much of it about how this new-found togetherness finally put anend to European wars and genocides. There‘s more than a littlehyperbole in that - there was that Cold War, and the almost decade-longhorror in the Balkans, for example. And Europe is hardly united on along list of critical issues, like dealing with America, Russia, China,Turkey or Muslims, to name a few.
But let‘s not belittle what this union - including finally a truealliance and confluence of interests between France and Germany - hasachieved. The Common Market created a half century ago has evolved intoa highly functional economic and social union. Those of us who travelaround the Continent appreciate not having to show passports every fewhundred miles, and even happier when we can use our euros. And theexpansion of the Union has certainly served to spread democratic valuesand economic resources across the entire continent.
Yet Europe remains a not particularly harmonious patchwork ofdisparate nations and states, divided by language (23 are officially inuse in the European Parliament), history, tradition and the distinctimprints of the ideological camp in which they spent their Cold-Waryears. This diversity can be one of Europe‘s charms and even strengths,but at the same time most Europeans still have a rather fuzzy and notparticularly positive image of what their Union is all about.
The Eurocrats in Brussels may seethe at French voters for rejectingtheir "Constitution" in a referendum two years ago, but the fact isthat the misnamed collection of treaties was impenetrable, and theFrench were only expressing a lack of interest that most of theirneighbors share. Few Europeans know the difference between the EuropeanCommission and the European Council. The European Parliament (which forsome reason commutes between houses in Brussels and Strasbourg) isstill perceived largely as a dumping ground for politicians who didn‘tmake the cut at home. A new investigation into alleged corruption inthe Commission will undoubtedly strengthen these sentiments.
Some Europeans still like to see the EU as a civilized andmultilateralist counterbalance to the rude and unilateralist UnitedStates, but that holds rhetorical water only until the Europeans try toforge a common front of their own. The Europeans like to hold upAfghanistan as a model of cooperation. But that is really a NATOoperation and many of the 47 countries providing troops for theinternational force there have saddled their often-tiny contingentswith so many separate restrictions that most of the actual fighting isleft to Americans, Britons and Canadians. Other issues currentlydividing the Europeans include the unilateral American decision tostation its missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic, andRussia‘s aggressive efforts to dominate the European energy market.
Perhaps this is the only way Europe can function - forging commoncause where it can and speaking with two dozen tongues where it cannot. And perhaps the great achievement of the past half century is thatthe Europeans have formed so many internal links without creating apowerful federal government, police force or army. Come to think of it,this would make a great subject for one of the events commemorating theTreaty of Rome.
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