The three Europes

Three - very different one from another - types of Europe stand before us; and it is up to us to choose as early as possible!

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Within a few days, European Union’s 27 member states’ leaders will meet in Berlin to feast in commemoration of the signature of the Treaty of Rome, on 25 March 1957. The German presidency wants to push ahead with two projects, a ringing declaration about the European values and a resuscitation of the quasi-defunct European Constitution project. What is true and what is possible for the European Union in the years ahead?

European Union: a great achievement

The progress of the European Economic Community was sterling indeed; the early 6 members (France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux) became gradually 9 (Denmark, Ireland and the UK) in 1973, 10 (Greece) in 1981, 12 (Spain and Portugal) in 1986, 15 (Finland, Sweden and Austria) in 1995, 25 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus) in 2004, and 27 (Bulgaria and Romania) in 2007.

The expansion was not horizontal but vertical as well. The early Customs Union turned out to become an Economic Union, as the single market is still a work in progress. It became - partly - a monetary union, with the introduction of the Euro (currency in use in 13 of the member states so far, in Andorra, in European micro-states such as Monaco, San Marino, Vatican, as well as in Montenegro and Kosovo). It formed a political union evolving around the European Parliament that is the Ovidian metamorphosis of the ‘Common Assembly’ of the European Coal and Steel Community (first established in 1952), with members elected since 1981. The European legislators expanded beyond the economy, on social affairs, environment, and welfare, gradually unifying the member states’ legal systems. Common policy is in the making, and has so far covered home affairs, security and justice; common foreign and defense policy seems to be a most problematic field but steps have been made so far in this direction too. European policy making left already an impact on global issues as diverse as Lebanon, Congo and Indonesia.

European Union: a biased project

1. A wrong economic and political model
Can we truly consider as success the materialization of the aforementioned? It depends. Most of Europeans however do not! The European economy has been the victim of highly ideologized French dirigisme, and the political prospect of a European federal state is fully rejected by numerous states across the continent. The French and Dutch referenda gave a lethal hit to the incredible and extraordinary manipulation of European History as stipulated in the disreputable Preamble of Giscard d’ Estaing’s ‘constitution’.

2. European peoples: misinformed and disoriented
European peoples have long been fed with panaceas and welfare state myths; not only will these myths lead to an unpleasant awakening but they are deeply immoral and racist of nature. The German – French economic model collapsed in front of the booming American consumerism, and the rise of great markets in China, India and soon in Brazil. The European myth composers had not taken the rise of the Global economy into consideration, and their answer has been to raise barriers, forming the legendary European fortress.

3. European Union: immoral to themselves and to others
The disastrous situation of the African continent is precisely due to this European attitude of protectionism. Furthermore, Europe has been formed through immoral negotiations, whereby the economically weak had to accept the directives of the economically and politically powerful tandem "France / Germany", ignoring the consequences for them and for the entire continent; they only needed European funds!

4. Any nation building project imposes debates on the National Identity.
For 50 consequent years, there has never been a serious debate about the European Identity. This only would be enough to let many realize that the project was biased. In the beginning, Europe ‘meant’ Continental Europe; we have not yet forgotten Charles de Gaulle’s comical reactions to Britain’s candidacy! After France rebelled in May 68 against that paranoid, ‘democratic’ dictator, Europe got rid of the French anti-British exclusivity; under Pompidou, Britain joined the 6.

However, few analyzed how for a significant part of the French establishment, Germany was a natural partner of France and the European project, and Britain was not! It was left to be believed as a curiosity of an old statesman. Quite unfortunately, it was not!

Later on, Europe ‘signified’ Capitalist Europe, as the Iron Curtain still divided the continent. The project consisted in sheer rejection of a part of the continent only because of undemocratic practices. It sounds correct and moral, but it was not! Why? Simply because the antidemocratic practices of the Socialist bloc were not viewed as such by sizable populations of the Western European countries, namely the followers of the Communist parties, more particularly in Italy, France, Greece, and elsewhere. Let’s go back to 1973. Why should one consider Franco’s Spain as ‘European’ and Soviet Union as ‘non European’?

Spain was not accepted in the European Union until the country became a fully fledged democracy, but this is not the main point; no matter what sort of political establishment, monarchical or democratic, Japan would never be considered as a European country. This says it all; what mattered in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and what matters now is still the same.

Irrespective of regime, what country can/must/is to be considered European and what country cannot/must not/is not?

This clear cut question was never a matter of preoccupation among European statesmen, politicians, legislators, intellectuals and academia. Why Europeans avoid the basic question for their identity and future may take volumes to analyze, but within the limits of the present article we will try to eschew the past and foresee the future.

The First Europe – A Berlin / London axis for a Universal Europe

A European re-launching that goes beyond past dramas. A Berlin – London axis replaces the God damned Paris – Berlin ineptia. European administrations and legislators understand that the angular stone of all democratic ideas and concepts is the Right of Peoples to Self Determination. The unconditional recognition of Kosovo as an independent state triggers the welcoming of Transnistria and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to Europe and therefore to the International Community.

Ukraine, Turkey and Russia as accepted as indispensable member states of the European Union, and a Great Chart is prepared to identify Europe as the continent of coexistence of numerous religions, Judaism, Christianity in all its denominations, Islam, and various pre-Christian religious systems, along with the faiths of the 20th century immigrants, Singh, Hindus, Buddhists and Africans. Europe is defined as equally East and West, and a European integration plan is made to provide all the states of the European continent the means to achieve economic and political unification with the European Union.

All the minorities on European soil are officially recognized a such, and offered the necessary tools for linguistic, educational, cultural, and religious survival. The existing ‘unique’ national languages are therefore abolished in countries with minorities, whereby the languages of minorities are promoted to the level of national language.

Vicar of the economic liberalism, European Union abolishes all sorts of barriers, and acknowledges the European responsibility for crimes perpetrated by the colonial practices of several European countries on African, Asiatic and American soil. Reunified, and with its various populations well integrated, Europe cancels permanently any chance of disputes, wars and conflicts either on European soil or elsewhere. With the Euro in use from Vladivostok to Lisbon, the European stock exchanges unified, and the liberalization process completed, Europe can enter into discussions with North America in view of an advanced global integration.

This Universal Europe has slim chances to become a reality.

The Second Europe – A pale and immoral power center at Brussels

With Chirac and Blair bidding farewell, with the German governmental coalition ailing, with Romano Prodi unable to bring forth imperative changes, and with Zapatero having lost his momentum, the European statesmen prove for one more time that they are political dwarfs and intellectually miserable. Without any vision, they try to find a way to sign a minimal constitution that defines nothing, let alone the European Identity, they do their best to perpetuate the problems of Kosovo, Macedonia, Voivodina, Sandjaq, Thrace, Transnistria and Cyprus. Georgia remains explosive in its opposition to Russia, Armenia is supported against Turkey, and Belarus is kept in the quarantine; Ukraine is declared as non European country, and the negotiations with Turkey end in a definite divorce. It becomes known that the Western Balkans were never European, and so they are offered special status.

Fortress Europe rejoices with the African genocides and starvation, with the American failure in Iraq, and with the Chinese socio-economic collapse; an over heated economy would end like this, sooner or later. With Iran as nuclear power, Afghanistan and Somalia out of control, and the rise of Islamists in parts of Africa, the traditional colonial diplomacies shape the European Union’s policy turning Palestinians against Israelis, Moroccans against Algerians, and Muslims against Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Nigeria, Abyssinia and Iraq.

Europe itself is devastated by the social unrest, political clashes between religious and secularists, and regional wars, Albania against Montenegro, Turkey against Cyprus and Greece, Kosovo against Macedonia, Moldova against Transnistria, etc. To keep Islamic extremists happy, Dante is banned. The treaty of Rome is still valid, and Brussels bureaucrats are happy with American isolationism. Euro was never accepted by more than 17 countries, and the anti-Euro parties in Italy represent the majority. Last but not least, Europe pays a very high political price for its dependence of Russian energy, and in this way Moscow lives in the days of a state capitalist tyrant who proved to be worse than Stalin. In a world of conflicts, Europe or a part of it still survives.

The Third Europe – The religious – political axis Berlin / Moscow

The political dwarfism of the European legislators was definitely unbearable. Several parties across Europe realized that speaking of Islam on European soil meant European disfiguration. They went on specifying that Europe or Germany could not be victimized forever because of the mistaken policy of a ruler who governed Germany only for 12 years (1933 - 45). They identified the European values as those of the Catholic Christianity and they made a pact with representatives of Orthodox Eastern Europe. They rejected secularism, gay marriages and parental adoption, abortion and nudism. Specifying that the Family is a Value, they demanded the end of civil marriages. They rejected that England could ever be European, and they demanded apologies for the Irish Genocide as they demanded the same from Turkey for the Armenian Genocide.

In the beginning, they formed a 20% minority party in most of the European countries, but when the clashes with the Islamic extremists started, they got moment and rose to power. A great leader made a pledge for a new Europe, and brought together the Roman Pope and the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow. Europe was reunified first at the religious level, and then at the political. The entire continent with the exception of England and Scandinavia turned around the German – Russian axis and a war was undertaken in the Middle East to kick the Turks and the Muslims out, and to bring Constantinople and Jerusalem under Christian control again. The clash with America was therefore unavoidable. The old lesson of the Horatii and Curiatii was never learnt!

The three Europes stand before us; and it is up to us to choose as early as possible!

(earlier published in: http://www.tiraspoltimes.com/node/671)
By Prof. Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Published: 3/18/2007