Our World in 2017

ISSUE#1193 | January 2017
QUO VADIS EUROPA?
NEW EUROPE: OUR WORLD IN 2017
Page-11
www.neweurope.eu
Europe’s Values
by Donald Tusk
President of the European Council, was
Prime Minister of Poland (2007-2014).
Are Its Best Defense
BELGIUM - BRUSSELS
The year 2016 will go down in European
history as a time of striving to maintain the
political, systemic, and social unity of the
European Union as a community of countries,
people, and values. It was a time of uncertainty
and highly visible failures. But it was also a year
marked by real achievements.
Above all, the United Kingdom’s vote
in June to exit the EU stands out as a bitter
disappointment. And yet a new pan-European
consensus on the protection of the EU’s
external borders, together with the conclusion
of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade
Agreement (CETA) with Canada, warrants
cautious optimism.
Most of the problems the EU has been
grappling with for some time now have not
been fully resolved. The migration crisis,
tensions with Russia over Ukraine, and other
external and internal security threats continue
to test our unity and efficiency – and will
continue to do so in the year ahead.
What we know from 2016 is that great
change lies ahead – disconcerting, still
unidentified, but nonetheless clearly palpable
change. Indeed, the type of change that has
been happening, and will happen in the future,
is baffling political forecasters. It has been
a long time since reality made such a cruel
mockery of pundits and pollsters’ predictions,
even in the short-term context of upcoming
elections or referenda. Politics has become as
unpredictable as the weather in Brussels. And,
as with weather forecasts, if any predictions are
proved correct, they are the pessimistic ones.
The political tectonic shifts (and what
else can one call a huge island’s sudden lurch
away from the continent?) now occurring
are not just aftershocks of the 2008 financial
crisis. Their source and essence are deeper
than the anger of unemployed youth or the
dissatisfaction with stagnant economic growth
among European and American middle
classes, although no sensible person would
downplay these sentiments. But we all feel
that these tremors may signal a more profound
change: the end of an era, which in Europe
could be called the Era of Great Stabilization.
It is an era that has lasted 70 years, sustained
by three pillars. The first is an international
order that, defined by the West’s ability to
command respect for rules and agreements,
has protected Europe against global conflict.
The second is liberal democracy. And the third
is the relative prosperity of European societies.
The widespread anticipation of change
should not frighten or, still less, paralyze us. As
historians know all too well, it is stability, rather
than crisis, that is transitional and short-lived.
And, just as it is beyond our power to prevent
crises (which are, by nature, inevitable), it is
not in our interest to cling to the status quo,
as stabilization sooner or later enters a phase
of stagnation, when expectation of change
Protestors hold a banner with a slogan reading: 'Right to Stay for All' during a protest against the deportation of rejected asylum seekers from Germany, at the
theater square in Dresden, Germany, 17 December 2016.
EPA/ARNO BURGI
The foundations of European solidarity remain
fragile, and the real tests lie ahead. Without
solidarity, Europe will have no influence over the
direction of future changes, becoming their victim
rather than their coauthor
becomes universal. This does not necessarily
lead to catastrophe. But it may.
Everything depends on our collective
ability to navigate stormy seas. The first
prerequisite is to maintain the EU’s basic unity.
I will repeat this like a mantra: an internally
broken EU will be incapable of rising to any
of the challenges it faces, as will its member
countries, including the largest.
The foundations of European solidarity
remain fragile, and the real tests lie ahead.
Without solidarity, Europe will have no
influence over the direction of future changes,
becoming their victim rather than their coauthor.
In order to avoid this bleak scenario,
we must once again seek what connects us,
what we have in common, what we are ready
to defend with full determination, equal to
that demonstrated by our opponents. We
must once again define our territory, not
geographically, but in a civilizational, cultural,
and perhaps even symbolic sense.
What we are observing today is that people,
nations, and states are discovering the power of
myth and simplification. This may foreshadow
a politics that is more brutal – closer to nature
than to culture. The most important thing
will be to distinguish accurately between
what is shallow and unimportant in European
tradition and what is lasting, valuable, and
unique – what the historian Jacob Burckhardt
called the freedom of spirit.
It is in culture and freedom, where we
will rediscover the essence of Europe. In
politics, this means that we must be prepared
for change, on the condition that it does not
restrict freedom as a core value. Before we
overhaul the EU’s structure, before we start
solving fundamental dilemmas about the
extent of integration, we must all agree that we
want to carry the ideal of Europe as a continent
of freedom from the past and into the future.
Today’s world is full of barbarians, for whom
freedom and culture, as we understand them,
have become targets to attack. Europeans will be
able to overcome their current challenges only
when we agree that we will not compromise in
this confrontation. Symptoms of barbarity are
around us, among us, and within us. If we give
in to external pressure and internal weakness,
the coming changes may thwart Europe’s most
important political realization: that together –
and only together – can majority rule, the rule of
law, and limited government guarantee human
freedom and civil rights. This is why we must
bravely and consistently defy those who stand
against our freedoms, whether from within or
without.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2016.
www.project-syndicate.org