The visionaries who dreamed of a peaceful and united Europe after the end of the Second World War — Robert Schuman, Jean Monnet, Paul-Henri Spaak and their ilk — must be looking down in puzzlement and dismay.
Schuman, the Luxembourg-born Frenchman who was the so-called Father of Europe, spoke in 1949 of “a great experiment’’. Six decades on, the complex political and monetary contraption of the European Union is still a work in progress.
The utopian ideal of a European whole that is greater than its parts remains essential to the rhetoric. This bolting-together of half a billion people in 27 nation states, many of which had waged war against each other, half of which are either former components of the communist bloc or former Right-wing dictatorships, and 17 of which now share a currency, is in many ways a triumph of co-operation and political tenacity.
Yet the reality is that the great experiment has developed stresses and pressure-points that must make even the most ardent Europhile wonder how long it can hold together. The financial collapse of Greece and the disintegration of the Schengen Agreement on passport-free borders vividly illuminate that risk.
And it is not a risk which Britons can watch smugly from over the water, telling ourselves how wise we have been to maintain a truculent attitude to everything emanating from Brussels, to have kept our island frontiers intact, and to have shunned the single currency. We would certainly prefer a financially stable Europe as our closest neighbour — a strong competitor perhaps, but also a prosperous customer for our exports. We recognise the value of a coherent European voice in world affairs. We do not want the continent to regress into internal strife and protectionism. (read more)