Thinking of EU at night,
makes me sleepless and contrite;
I can no longer close my eye
s
and hot tears flow until I rise.
(Heine Heinrich – Nachtgedanken – Source)
After one week in Southern Bohemia, I am now back in Münich. It was an intense experience to spend a week in Bohemia in the Czech Republic. For me, it was the first time in the country. Regardless of the distance being so small, it always seemed a far-away country.
And on arriving back home, I start getting thoughtful about Europe. Do we need a centralized Europe or a Europe of regions? Do we need a system of government levels, or do we need a Europe with autonomous administrations and regional cooperation? Do we need a Europe of cultures or of bureaucratic systems? Do we need a Europe with no end of laws or a Europe according to the principle of subsidiarity?
And then I notice that we are currently trying to form a Europe that cannot function in this way.
We abolished borders and customs duties. There are no longer any controls and products can be freely exchanged. Except that, perhaps, we did not spend enough time thinking it through. And we forgot that there are enormous differences. Not just cultural differences, but also economical differences.
And that in some countries people only earn a fraction of what they earn in other countries. And that our capitalist economical order takes advantage of everything that might help maximize the profit in some way.
When we introduced the EURO, we also completely forgot to use our brains. The one and only strategy was: a free run for the economy and its most powerful players – the banks and concerns.
And as soon as night came, you saw the consequences…
Of course, I am more than happy about European countries finally more or less no longer fighting each other. First it was the hereditary enemy, France, along with its French inhabitants. I myself experienced how in the mid-1960ies, when I stayed with a French family as an exchange student, their friendship with another family was terminated just because they were having me stay with them. The former friends simply found it totally beyond understanding how a patriotic French person could agree to a student exchange program that involved “sales boches” (dirty Germans).
And a few decades later, we also have made more or less our peace with the Poles and the Czechs. That, too, was a gigantic achievement. Even with the Serbs, we slowly make progress, as I experienced when I rode my bike to the Black Sea.
All those things were well done. Today, there seems to be a tendency in the opposite direction. Because once again we – at least from the perspective of other nations – are acting really “in the most significantly German way”. And then I realize what seems to be missing:
We have no social concept for this our Europe. All we do is defend a hopeless currency. More and more laws are introduced. We are torn between Big Power addiction and world lobbyism.
The only thing Europe seems to be concerned with is how to satisfy the economy. How to avoid a distortion of competition.
But we have no concept how to develop our Europe. Do we want a Europe that continues to be trodden down by cars? Or do we want a Europe where we count on a new and cooperative mobility? Do we, as Europe, want to continue putting all hopes in nuclear energy, without worrying in the least about how to get rid of the waste? Are we taking climate protection seriously?
Do we want a Europe with excessive abundance – or a Europe with less wastefulness? Do we want a Europe that means the survival of the planet and human rights? Or do we want a Europe that continues prospering by exploiting third parties and nature?
Is „economic growth“ really the ultimate benchmark? Or would it not be better for a new Europe if we had the motto “less is more”? Maybe it would be a good idea to get back to paying adequately for a job well done? And maybe it would be nice if people had to work less, instead of having to spendt most of their time doing things that, when all is said and done, not only fail to make them happy but even make them ill?
Of course, in an enlightened Europe, the future belongs to women in the same way as to men. But are day-care centres really the solution? Is it a good idea if mothers have to take their children there six months after the birth, because our economic system – which is based on wastefulness – needs their manpower? Can we not think of other models suitable to provide the right measure of ”life balance“?
Do we want a Europe where prosperous protectors of acquired possessions dominate, or where change is possible? Do we want a Europe for families? A Europe that tries to preserve the planet? Or a Europe excessively celebrating the last world-wide party on the doomed planet in make-believe prosperity?
These are the kinds of questions on my mind.
Yes, I would like to have a de-centralized, enlightened Europe of cooperative, autonomous and responsible regions. A strong Europe. But still a Europe without the ambition to be a super-power. In other words, I want a Europe that does not see itself as the police force of the world.
In my opinion, these issues are not necessarily something you need to vote upon. But you should discuss them. Because I believe democracy lives more through debates and discussions of values than through votes. And I also believe that, before coming up with wisecracks and stupid laws, you should take a closer look at what it is like to live in all those countries. Mind you, that closer look should happen from the bottom – not as a visiting dignitary.
Those are exactly the things I miss when travelling through the near and yet so far neighboring countries: a policy that understands itself as representing the interests of the people with their actual situation in life and driven by the richness of Europe’s cultures.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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