European dream
European dream
Because we’ve now achieved in large measure the Europe that generations were striving for – a Europe which is mainly liberal democracies with freedom of movement, where you can wake up one morning and travel from one end of the continent to the other – it must be made clear that none of this is inevitable or secure. There is a war going on in Ukraine. Any part of Europe can very quickly go back to its bad old ways, to enter ethnic conflict, war and genocide.
Timothy Garton Ash, Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford, questions European leadership as for the first time, we have a generation of Europeans, most of whom have known nothing but a Europe that is largely whole and free. So, where are those leaders going to come from?
Christopher Brooke, Senior Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Cambridge reminds us that one of the leading ideas in the international relations of the 18th century was the idea of the balance of power – that no State would be powerful enough to dominate the entire continent. Back in the 18th century, the Abbé de Saint-Pierre imagined that the European union was aimed to be a way of preserving peace and preserving the independence, autonomy and sovereignty of the small powers of Europe.
Julian Jackson, Professor of Modern French History, Queen Mary University of London, insists on de Gaulle’s personal vision : a Europe where there would be cooperation without loss of sovereignty between European political leaders. Are we heading back to the “Europe des patries” (Europe of fatherlands)?
Antoine Vauchez, Research Professor, University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne warns us about the risks of a European Union which has accumulated public and political capacity with the paradoxical effect of deepening the private market with very few differences between public and private actors.
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