So what do we do now? Now that we Europeans have forced Donald Trump to back down on the issue of Greenland, now that we have sent people there to show that we are ready to defend its independence, now that we have demonstrated that Europe can wield influence if it wants to, how do we convert this success and turn our unity into a political union?
The mistake we must not make is to open a debate on new treaties. That would immediately reopen our religious wars over a federal Europe and a Europe of nations and ultimately fail because, whatever the text proposed, it would be rejected by voters in more than one of the 27 Member States.
We need to act, not talk, and the first thing to do would be to organize, as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has just called for, a network of medium-sized powers that refuse to be vassals of China or the United States. We must know how to develop our relations with Latin America, India, and Africa, thereby creating a balance of power that will enable us to counter any diktat from Washington or Beijing.
At the same time, we must bring together within a “democratic entente” those medium-sized powers that are determined to respect and defend the rule of law, international law, and human rights. On the initiative of France and Great Britain, several of these democracies have already come together in support of Ukraine and around the Union in the Coalition of the Willing, which is thus a first draft of this Entente to be created.
Thirdly, we must integrate all the candidate countries into this future democratic front, even before their accession negotiations have been completed.
Fourthly, we must, without further delay, equip ourselves with an audiovisual and digital press, “The Voice of Europe,” affirming the fundamental values of democracy and the serenity of debate against the fury of demagoguery. The means and skills exist in several of the member states. We just need to bring them together.
Without the immediate need for new treaties, we must strive, fifthly, to rename the European institutions so that their names finally reflect what they are. The European Council is the Chamber of States represented by their presidents or prime ministers. Composed of elected representatives from each of the 27 member states, the Parliament is the Chamber of the Union. Let us give them the names “Chamber of States” and “Chamber of the Union” even before the texts do so.
Because democracy cannot survive if money, algorithms, and disinformation replace ideas, we must, sixthly, cap election spending, apply the same rules and prohibitions to digital networks as to the press, limit media concentration, and ensure the continued existence of public, politically neutral, and culturally high-quality audiovisual media.
Because there can be no democracy without social justice and cohesion, the Union must, seventhly, affirm its commitment to the treaties that define it as a “social market economy” that therefore respects the obligations of fairness, long-term thinking, and environmental protection.
Because it will not be sovereign without industrial giants capable of competing with those of China and the United States, the Union must, eighthly, stop weakening itself by countering public investment and industrial concentrations.
Ninth, the Union must give itself the means to become a military power and the world’s leading center of innovation by investing in and creating genuine European campuses linking research, defense, and industry in a common strategy.
These nine proposals are widely agreed upon. Their implementation does not require new treaties.
They only require political will, which we demonstrated last summer by rejecting the Russian-American plan to surrender Ukraine and last week by forcing Donald Trump to retreat in Greenland. So, Europeans, one more effort!
Photo by Christian Reinke
