Europe doesn’t need more Germany, more France or more of any specific country to succeed. It badly needs the Germans, the French and every other European people willing to build a better future. A solid European democracy of well crafted institutions getting legitimacy directly from its citizens can save the European project.
It is a striking fact that Germany has come to ‘lead’ Europe, be it by will or necessity. It has no clear mandate to do so and should not take or promote such a dominant role in Europe. Along those last years, the country has often decided what’s good for Europeans creating unneeded discord. Neither the Greeks or Italian Matteo Renzi have managed to change Germany’s mind. Let alone Hungary or Poland fiercely opposed to what they feel as being a European dictate imposed on them. France was rebuked all the same. Even recently, it is not clear how much Germany will ‘allow’ France’s pro-European Macron to foster change in Europe following his Sorbonne speech.
In 2015, Angela Merkel has allowed a million migrants to enter the Schengen area. Was the decision unilateral? Were those people obliged to stay in Germany by law and did they stay? It seems that some of them have since then applied for asylum elsewhere in Europe after being refused this very right in Germany. It needs a bit of faith not to think that Germany has kept the most able of the ‘refugees’, probably those who can contribute positively to the future of the aging German economy. Even in the event it didn’t happen this way, it is still clear that such a brave move — allowing one million people to enter the European Union — does greatly involve other Europeans, not solely Germany.
But even abuse of power from European sovereign states doesn’t make a case in favor of an overly direct democracy from the people of Europe. Recent aspirations to freedom of Catalans, Lombards and Venitians don’t prove to be very constructive. Such movements are fed by the same worrying selfish spirit which led in part to the departure of the United Kingdom from the E.U. or America First’s thinking of Trump supporters: I don’t need you and I don’t care about you. I won’t share. I decide in my own interest. Another reason is political. If you cannot get the European Union to go anywhere when you are 28 sovereign countries, how are you going to succeed at anything with 50 ‘ethnic’ states aspiring for more freedom sooner or later? Chances are at most slim, at least for the moment.
In this respect, I agree with Macron. There is only one way to save local or shared European values in face of a growing international competition for commerce and culture: a stronger European citizenship.
Indeed citizenship is a very strong feeling in the United States of America. There are no ethnic states in the U.S.A, there are strong ethnic communities and sentiment though. Of course, it doesn’t make per se a good example for a democracy but it is a good example for a stable and powerful country. Another illuminating and contrasting country is China. Very centralized, not what could be called a democracy: a precisely planned economy by a powerful technocracy, executing an astonishing economic development. Less democracy can lead to more efficiency it seems. By the way, who has ever seen an ounce of democracy in the iconic human organisation of our times: the enterprise? More technocracy is not a road to failure if correctly implemented and used.
I have been using the word democracy here so far in its pale modern acceptance: the direct will of the people. That is in this name that Theresa May has been pushing the U.K. outside of the European construction. It is in the name of democracy that Catalans justify independence from Spain too, not Spanish absolutism. This kind of democracy is not a possible future for Europe as I said previously. But the current imperialism of sovereign states over the European project has proved it leads nowhere either. So what could?
Citizens of Europe could, if they are allowed to of course. The major restrain to a functioning European Union is not more Union or less Union, it is the constant intervention of States. The current framework of the E.U. institutions seems to keep the commission constantly under the scrutiny of member states, especially the most important ones, not the scrutiny of the people of Europe. This is an important flaw. Imagine any government subdued to a little club of decision makers with varying and opposed needs/objectives. In the case of the E.U., those decision makers have a strong mandate from their national citizens. On the contrary, the E.U.’s ‘government’ — the Commission — has no mandate from the European citizens there are supposed to take decisions for. This lack of balance is not welcome. The Council is the little club, Angela Merkel thinks she is allowed to rule it. Does she has a mandate from Europeans? Absolutely not.
Only when Europeans have a mean to approve or disapprove the E.U. political actions directly, at least partly, the European Union will be saved. Until then nobody is happy except a few. Something has to change quickly before the European Union disintegrates. There is little chance it will happen for 27 countries at the same time.