American Chronicle, CA
March 18 2007
The three Europes
Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis
Within a few days, European Union’s 27 member states’ leaders will
meet in Berlin to feast in commemoration of the signature of the
Treaty of Rome, on 25 March 1957. The German presidency wants to push
ahead with two projects, a ringing declaration about the European
values and a resuscitation of the quasi-defunct European Constitution
project. What is true and what is possible for the European Union in
the years ahead?
European Union: a great achievement
The progress of the European Economic Community was sterling indeed;
the early 6 members (France, Germany, Italy and the Benelux) became
gradually 9 (Denmark, Ireland and the UK) in 1973, 10 (Greece) in
1981, 12 (Spain and Portugal) in 1986, 15 (Finland, Sweden and
Austria) in 1995, 25 (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary,
Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Malta and Cyprus) in 2004, and
27 (Bulgaria and Romania) in 2007.
The expansion was not horizontal but vertical as well. The early
Customs Union turned out to become an Economic Union, as the single
market is still a work in progress. It became – partly – a monetary
union, with the introduction of the Euro (currency in use in 13 of
the member states so far, in Andorra, in European micro-states such
as Monaco, San Marino, Vatican, as well as in Montenegro and Kosovo).
It formed a political union evolving around the European Parliament
that is the Ovidian metamorphosis of the `Common Assembly’ of the
European Coal and Steel Community (first established in 1952), with
members elected since 1981. The European legislators expanded beyond
the economy, on social affairs, environment, and welfare, gradually
unifying the member states’ legal systems. Common policy is in the
making, and has so far covered home affairs, security and justice;
common foreign and defense policy seems to be a most problematic
field but steps have been made so far in this direction too. European
policy making left already an impact on global issues as diverse as
Lebanon, Congo and Indonesia.
European Union: a biased project
1. A wrong economic and political model
Can we truly consider as success the materialization of the
aforementioned? It depends. Most of Europeans however do not! The
European economy has been the victim of highly ideologized French
dirigisme, and the political prospect of a European federal state is
fully rejected by numerous states across the continent. The French
and Dutch referenda gave a lethal hit to the incredible and
extraordinary manipulation of European History as stipulated in the
disreputable Preamble of Giscard d’ Estaing’s `constitution’.
2. European peoples: misinformed and disoriented
European peoples have long been fed with panaceas and welfare state
myths; not only will these myths lead to an unpleasant awakening but
they are deeply immoral and racist of nature. The German – French
economic model collapsed in front of the booming American
consumerism, and the rise of great markets in China, India and soon
in Brazil. The European myth composers had not taken the rise of the
Global economy into consideration, and their answer has been to raise
barriers, forming the legendary European fortress.
3. European Union: immoral to themselves and to others
The disastrous situation of the African continent is precisely due to
this European attitude of protectionism. Furthermore, Europe has been
formed through immoral negotiations, whereby the economically weak
had to accept the directives of the economically and politically
powerful tandem `France / Germany’, ignoring the consequences for
them and for the entire continent; they only needed European funds!
4. Any nation building project imposes debates on the National
Identity.
For 50 consequent years, there has never been a serious debate about
the European Identity. This only would be enough to let many realize
that the project was biased. In the beginning, Europe `meant’
Continental Europe; we have not yet forgotten Charles de Gaulle’s
comical reactions to Britain’s candidacy! After France rebelled in
May 68 against that paranoid, `democratic’ dictator, Europe got rid
of the French anti-British exclusivity; under Pompidou, Britain
joined the 6.
However, few analyzed how for a significant part of the French
establishment, Germany was a natural partner of France and the
European project, and Britain was not! It was left to be believed as
a curiosity of an old statesman. Quite unfortunately, it was not!
Later on, Europe `signified’ Capitalist Europe, as the Iron Curtain
still divided the continent. The project consisted in sheer rejection
of a part of the continent only because of undemocratic practices. It
sounds correct and moral, but it was not! Why? Simply because the
antidemocratic practices of the Socialist bloc were not viewed as
such by sizable populations of the Western European countries, namely
the followers of the Communist parties, more particularly in Italy,
France, Greece, and elsewhere. Let’s go back to 1973. Why should one
consider Franco’s Spain as `European’ and Soviet Union as `non
European’?
Spain was not accepted in the European Union until the country became
a fully fledged democracy, but this is not the main point; no matter
what sort of political establishment, monarchical or democratic,
Japan would never be considered as a European country. This says it
all; what mattered in the 60s, the 70s, the 80s, and what matters now
is still the same.
Irrespective of regime, what country can/must/is to be considered
European and what country cannot/must not/is not?
This clear cut question was never a matter of preoccupation among
European statesmen, politicians, legislators, intellectuals and
academia. Why Europeans avoid the basic question for their identity
and future may take volumes to analyze, but within the limits of the
present article we will try to eschew the past and foresee the
future.
The First Europe – A Berlin / London axis for a Universal Europe
A European re-launching that goes beyond past dramas. A Berlin –
London axis replaces the God damned Paris – Berlin ineptia. European
administrations and legislators understand that the angular stone of
all democratic ideas and concepts is the Right of Peoples to Self
Determination. The unconditional recognition of Kosovo as an
independent state triggers the welcoming of Transnistria and the
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to Europe and therefore to the
International Community.
Ukraine, Turkey and Russia as accepted as indispensable member states
of the European Union, and a Great Chart is prepared to identify
Europe as the continent of coexistence of numerous religions,
Judaism, Christianity in all its denominations, Islam, and various
pre-Christian religious systems, along with the faiths of the 20th
century immigrants, Singh, Hindus, Buddhists and Africans. Europe is
defined as equally East and West, and a European integration plan is
made to provide all the states of the European continent the means to
achieve economic and political unification with the European Union.
All the minorities on European soil are officially recognized a such,
and offered the necessary tools for linguistic, educational,
cultural, and religious survival. The existing `unique’ national
languages are therefore abolished in countries with minorities,
whereby the languages of minorities are promoted to the level of
national language.
Vicar of the economic liberalism, European Union abolishes all sorts
of barriers, and acknowledges the European responsibility for crimes
perpetrated by the colonial practices of several European countries
on African, Asiatic and American soil. Reunified, and with its
various populations well integrated, Europe cancels permanently any
chance of disputes, wars and conflicts either on European soil or
elsewhere. With the Euro in use from Vladivostok to Lisbon, the
European stock exchanges unified, and the liberalization process
completed, Europe can enter into discussions with North America in
view of an advanced global integration.
This Universal Europe has slim chances to become a reality.
The Second Europe – A pale and immoral power center at Brussels
With Chirac and Blair bidding farewell, with the German governmental
coalition ailing, with Romano Prodi unable to bring forth imperative
changes, and with Zapatero having lost his momentum, the European
statesmen prove for one more time that they are political dwarfs and
intellectually miserable. Without any vision, they try to find a way
to sign a minimal constitution that defines nothing, let alone the
European Identity, they do their best to perpetuate the problems of
Kosovo, Macedonia, Voivodina, Sandjaq, Thrace, Transnistria and
Cyprus. Georgia remains explosive in its opposition to Russia,
Armenia is supported against Turkey, and Belarus is kept in the
quarantine; Ukraine is declared as non European country, and the
negotiations with Turkey end in a definite divorce. It becomes known
that the Western Balkans were never European, and so they are offered
special status.
Fortress Europe rejoices with the African genocides and starvation,
with the American failure in Iraq, and with the Chinese
socio-economic collapse; an over heated economy would end like this,
sooner or later. With Iran as nuclear power, Afghanistan and Somalia
out of control, and the rise of Islamists in parts of Africa, the
traditional colonial diplomacies shape the European Union’s policy
turning Palestinians against Israelis, Moroccans against Algerians,
and Muslims against Christians in Lebanon, Syria, Nigeria, Abyssinia
and Iraq.
Europe itself is devastated by the social unrest, political clashes
between religious and secularists, and regional wars, Albania against
Montenegro, Turkey against Cyprus and Greece, Kosovo against
Macedonia, Moldova against Transnistria, etc. To keep Islamic
extremists happy, Dante is banned. The treaty of Rome is still valid,
and Brussels bureaucrats are happy with American isolationism. Euro
was never accepted by more than 17 countries, and the anti-Euro
parties in Italy represent the majority. Last but not least, Europe
pays a very high political price for its dependence of Russian
energy, and in this way Moscow lives in the days of a state
capitalist tyrant who proved to be worse than Stalin. In a world of
conflicts, Europe or a part of it still survives.
The Third Europe – The religious – political axis Berlin / Moscow
The political dwarfism of the European legislators was definitely
unbearable. Several parties across Europe realized that speaking of
Islam on European soil meant European disfiguration. They went on
specifying that Europe or Germany could not be victimized forever
because of the mistaken policy of a ruler who governed Germany only
for 12 years (1933 – 45). They identified the European values as
those of the Catholic Christianity and they made a pact with
representatives of Orthodox Eastern Europe. They rejected secularism,
gay marriages and parental adoption, abortion and nudism. Specifying
that the Family is a Value, they demanded the end of civil marriages.
They rejected that England could ever be European, and they demanded
apologies for the Irish Genocide as they demanded the same from
Turkey for the Armenian Genocide.
In the beginning, they formed a 20% minority party in most of the
European countries, but when the clashes with the Islamic extremists
started, they got moment and rose to power. A great leader made a
pledge for a new Europe, and brought together the Roman Pope and the
Patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow. Europe was reunified first
at the religious level, and then at the political. The entire
continent with the exception of England and Scandinavia turned around
the German – Russian axis and a war was undertaken in the Middle East
to kick the Turks and the Muslims out, and to bring Constantinople
and Jerusalem under Christian control again. The clash with America
was therefore unavoidable. The old lesson of the Horatii and Curiatii
was never learnt!
The three Europes stand before us; and it is up to us to choose as
early as possible!
(This article was earlier published in:
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