The European Union lives between agony and
ecstasy. An agony related to the economic crisis and the trust of the citizens
in the EU institutions, but also an enthusiasm linked to the recent national
elections.
After a distressing year 2016, the March
elections in the Netherlands have isolated Geert Wilders, and the “Brussels
option candidate” has won the French Presidential election. Germany is going to
the polls in autumn, and has the choice being between Angela Merkel and the
mega-European Martin Schulz. "Europe is in good hands in Germany", as
they say...
2017 is crucial to bring the EU to reality.
There are no big words, but there is a need to a gradual reform of the European
institutions, a necessary evolution ... Brussels' voices anticipate a
consolidated Europe built around the euro. We will have a euro area budget, EU
taxation, a European economic policy, and possible Industrial European
champions. There will be no more speeds, we will have a big European Union, but
also a hard core called Euroland...
The European Union understands that an
approach based on European values is
good, but that is not enough to heat its citizens. It gradually comes back to
the idea of Europe from the 1950s, when the project of
"peace and prosperity" is being redeemed on the continent. The
resumption of the France-Germany economic binomial, or, more preferably,
Germany-France, is the desideratum of the current European construction. The EU
is experiencing economic revival through the German industry, industrial
revolution (Industry 4.0), through Macron's European vision, through the
gradual transformation of Brexit into advantage. With the departure of the UK
from the EU, the European Union returns to the matrix of bilateral
co-operation, but it also gradually progresses to an advanced European
integration.
Europeans are bored with complex projects
coming from the Brussels laboratories, which end up only as papers. If the
European Union is to restructure in order to have concrete answers to the
current crises, it will have a chance of survival; it will even become a global
model. But, if at the December 2017 Summit we will have the same story, the
"domino Brexit" effect will be triggered, we will witness the
demolition of the single currency, an implosion of the community structures...
The time of the small steps and half
measure has passed for Europe...
Dan LUCA / Brussels
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