What Europe has accomplished is no small feat in this day and age, nor can it be taken for granted by anyone who knows their history. We are a continent without war, a major global economic force and a positive magnet for our values and way of life. Someone who was an adult in the 1950s may wonder at how the French and the Germans travel without a passport, and have a joint currency and common market. To a large extent, this was made possible, of course, because the Europeans effectively outsourced their security to the Americans and lived in a predictable, linear world. Now, as the rest of the world increasingly turns into a jungle, Europe’s “garden” is under threat. Europe will either have to change or come to terms with the prospect of a prolonged decline.
The discussion about what needs to change has been had – again and again. The alarm bell has been sounded, loudly, and no one – no citizen or politician – has the right to say they weren’t warned. US President Donald Trump has done everything he can to shake Europe awake.
There is a lot of resistance to the changes that need to be made, however. The European Commission has evolved into a vast bureaucracy with its own interests and pace. It has become a Byzantine system in its own right, unable to relinquish its role as a champion of overregulation or as an overzealous guardian of the environment, even as it becomes clear that, in doing so, it undermines production in Europe and hampers its ability to compete with the US and the rest of the world.
It even serves as a convenient alibi at times for governments to add more domestic bureaucracy to its already burdensome rules. It is certainly not in a position to act as a catalyst or an instrument for rapid change. Europe needs a shock at a time when its bureaucratic mandarins, acting in a world of their own, are focused on maintaining the status quo.
Then come national egos and powerful business interests, which are, at times, reinforced by trade unions. The fact that France and Germany, after so many years of discussions, still cannot agree on a joint next-generation fighter jet is perhaps the most telling illustration of why Europe is struggling to grow up, economically and geopolitically. Airbus is a prime, vivid example.
What we are clearly missing is political leaders who will cut through the European Commission’s bureaucratic resistance and the egos or insecurities of their “national champions.” We urgently need determined leadership, figures like Margaret Thatcher, who – remarkable as it may sound today in the wake of Brexit – pushed through in 1986 what remains Europe’s most significant change: the single market.