Our World in 2017

ISSUE#1193 | January 2017
EXERCISING LEADERSHIP
NEW EUROPE: OUR WORLD IN 2017
Page-36
www.neweurope.eu
by Foteini Kalantzi
Economist, International & European
Relations Specialist.
UNITED KINGDOM - LONDON
Europe and the US have been facing
fundamental changes in their political
structures in the last couple of years, a fact
that has been made more obvious with
seismic events like Brexit and the election
of Trump. Political uncertainty has almost
become synonymous with Europe and
the western world in general. For a while
now, electorates have been expressing their
dissatisfaction with a democratic deficit and
an economy that does not work for them
any longer. A key narrative from analysts,
politicians and the media has focussed
mainly on the effect of populism but fails to
accept the underlying failures of the political
and the neoliberal economic system.
Populism is the effect of these failures and
not the cause. This populism has had direct
effects on wider and interconnected issues,
namely migration; nevertheless if the West
had effectively managed migration flows,
the rising tide of populism may not have
had so much leverage. A recurring theme
across the world is the disregard for history
and denial of responsibility. In this case, the
continuous instability in the Middle East
has not happened in isolation. The West
with its economic and strategic interests in
the region has played a crucial role, would
ideally close the door and turn a blind eye.
Against this backdrop, there is an
observable destabilisation of the EU
system. The gap between the core and
periphery EU countries is widening, the
political divisions within the European
continent seem more prominent than ever
and national interests are more important
than the common European polity. ‘Never
before have I seen so much fragmentation,
and so little commonality in our Union’,
Jean-Claude Juncker said in his State of the
Union Address in Bratislava in September
2016. In this summit, EU leaders did not
come to any conclusions on serious issues
such as migration, the unstable economic
situation and the common defence policy.
The EU cannot claim anymore to be the
normative model of cooperation and
democratic values. Europe’s unease with
the continent-wide, democratic deficit has
resulted in punitive votes like Brexit, which
did not only happen because of populism
and demagoguery.
The biggest disgrace of recent years
is the shambolic way that migration and
asylum has been handled by the EU.
Political and media elites, or at least a
sizeable portion of them, have managed to
shift the dialogue from ‘how to handle the
refugee flows into Europe’ into a question
of ‘how to keep people out’. The word
‘security’ permeates migration discussions.
There is a continuous securitisation of
migration (i.e. addressing migration as a
security threat) and militarisation of the
borders. The security anxiety is clearly
The dangers of the
prevailing over humanitarian concerns.
There is no burden-sharing and there is
no evident will for burden-sharing in the
future. For example, Visegrad countries
have reacted fiercely against compulsory
quotas for asylum seekers. Germany has
obviously committed to the acceptance of
a large number of refugees. However the
Mediterranean countries have shouldered
much of the weight, especially Italy
and Greece. In the context of Greece’s
economic woes, the decision to gradually
western path
A BTR armoured personnel carrier of the Hungarian Army patrols the area along the temporary border fence on the Hungarian-Serbian border near Roszke,
180 kms southeast of Budapest, Hungary, 19 March 2016. EPA/SANDOR UJVARI
The biggest disgrace of
recent years is the shambolic
way that migration and
asylum has been handled
by the EU. Political and
media elites, or at least a
sizeable portion of them,
have managed to shift the
dialogue from ‘how to
handle the refugee flows
into Europe’ into a question
of ‘how to keep people out’.
resume Dublin transfers to Greece and the
cumbersome EU-Turkey deal will make
things even more difficult for Greece in
particular. Frontex has received astringent
criticism from NGOs for not acting against
human rights violations by border police.
The European border regime has resulted
in mortally dangerous routes and risks for
refugees and asylum seekers, i.e. people
already escaping conflict and violation of
their human rights.
Last year, the EU threatened Greece
with suspension from the Schengen system
because of alleged neglect of its obligations
to address migration and refugee flows at its
borders. Scapegoating Greece and striking
an ineffective deal with Turkey to receive
the refugees that Europe does not want, are
signs of the EU’s lost integrity.
The EU has shown an inability to
balance its security doctrine with its
principles of defending human rights.
Securitised migration discourses and
practices are in contradiction with the
EU’s humanistic ideals and its treaties.
The Lisbon Treaty states that ‘the Union is
founded on the values of respect for human
dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the
rule of law and respect for human rights,
including the rights of persons belonging
to minorities’. When we look at the Europe
of today, how much of this still rings true?
Looking forward, 2017 bears only
challenges for the European and Western
world’s societies in general. The economic
and political model needs a progressive
shift that does not promise unrealistic
paths like Trump’s protectionism or suggest
failed recipes like European countries’
nationalism.
The coming year will bring further
securitisation and criminalisation of
migration and this will be amplified even
further with the ascending powers of the
extreme right throughout Europe and the
recent terrorist incidents seen in European
cities. The continent that has served as an
exemplar of democracy, human rights and
cooperation is showing an objective decay
in its main beliefs and principles. Security
will undoubtedly continue to be at the core
of European discussions and policies.
The apparent growing reliance on
risk management policies with regards to
border security, biometric controls and
the overall technologisation of security
will be the accepted norm and solution
to migration and refugee flows. Even if
we accept that these systems are effective
against the central fear of terrorism, there
is no substantial dialogue in society about
these tremendous changes to methods
of border control and data collection.
The human body has become a source of
information, whose data is easily stored
and subject to investigation at any time
by Europol, Eurojust and local authorities
in European countries, which have the
ability to exchange information based on
the Schengen system and the ‘principle of
availability’. Benjamin Franklin once said
‘those who would give up essential Liberty,
to purchase a little temporary Safety,
deserve neither Liberty nor Safety’.