And it was, of course, established to deal with all those challenges the nation-state cannot. And I think that it also have two side effects. And they are, let’s say, the best EU members in this regard and the best partners for European Commission—sometimes against France or Germany or U.K., which would like to create its own energy policy and have some special relations with Russia, OK? And so I think there is—inevitably, Germany has to play a stronger role, also, as far as the political formation of the EU is concerned. Thanks again to Rita Hauser for her support for this and many other important ventures at the Council. And he said our beloved Deutsche Mark we will give up so that Germany will never make war again, that it will be locked into Europe by its money and by everything else. So I think, for the first time—and that’s also something which, of course, is interesting for academia—is the question whether this is the end of this kind of functional spillover effect, so always looking forward in making some progress in some sectors. Edward Heath described the book upon publication as ‘Preposterous… A hideous distortion of both past and present’. From one side we may say that Europeans often vote against European Union. And there is, of course, the question whether there is a mandate for the European Union to also interfere in domestic politics, and that’s quite new. And on the one hand, we may indeed notice some anti-European rhetoric. And then, of course, there is this tendency then by some institutions or member states to go ahead, to go forward. And that’s why they’re a little bit—much more positive than a few years ago. And this sort of overlapped now with the refugee and migration crisis. And in every crisis, or in many crises—from the origins of the European Union with the European Coal and Steel Community, to the launching of the European Economic Communities in the Treaty of Rome, to the movement toward the Single European Act in the 1980s, and then the Maastricht Treaty—in every case, there was a sense that unless Europe moved forward it would face increased crisis, and that the centrifugal forces would be too great. I just wanted to pick up on the notion of a halfway house that you had mentioned. The European project's antecedents go back centuries, but in our times, was revitalised by the disaster of the first world war, the Versailles Treaty and its commitment at least verbally to the idea of national self determination, the experience of an ineffective League of Nations in the face of … Many thanks to the Council on Foreign Relations for having me today. You don’t hear David Cameron saying he wants Britain at the heart of Europe. So this is one of the major problems. And, of course, it’s a little bit irritating for Germany or in other countries that we want, you know, to take some profits and not just, you know, contribute to the European Union. And they do not deliver. And I think that this is something which we achieve in our history, that indeed people can freely find jobs and change countries. As some of us know all too well, divorces can be messy, they can be smooth. And it’s not by chance that the most-integrated countries in the EU are Baltic States, or Visegrad countries as well, because for them to be, you know, in the EU and very well integrated, being good Europeans means be protected also, although EU is not a security alliance. Search nearly 14 million words and phrases in more than 470 language pairs. One is obviously the financial crisis. And there’s no doubt that this security integration, what Barbara said, it was very problematic from the very beginning, OK, in the ’50s, and nowadays as well. In 1947, Richard Coudenhove-Kalergi, founder of the Paneuropean Union in the early 1920s, decided to unite these Members of Parliament in the European Parliamentary Union (EPU). What Germany has to learn is playing the geopolitical game. And I very much refer to this triangular sort of leadership formation, for which Germany needs also the U.K., given the tensions between Paris and Berlin on many—in many policy areas. And I remember a dinner with Helmut Kohl where they were just giving up the deutschemark for the euro. February 17, 2021. It was always a different kind of European Union, and overall the system was still robust. So that’s why we may say that, under this leadership, Germany are very responsible and very European. But maybe one of the questions is whether the environment in which all this is taking place is too rapidly changing for the European Union to really respond in a productive and effective way. A question asks for information rather than imparting it. PATRICK: I think the most immediate problem has to be to get a handle on the migrant crisis, and to come up with a common means of processing refugee and asylum applications—not merely processing them, but let’s say this deal with Turkey sticks despite some ethical and international legal questions about it. Because you mentioned a lot of contingent factors. So that’s why I think that there is some kind of excuse that, OK, EU is not so much effective in terms of its external foreign and defense policy, but EU as member states, almost all these countries are in NATO. And among, then, the less-optimistic are countries who are still outside the eurozone—so, U.K., Denmark, but also Poland and a few other countries. And, Stewart, let’s start with you and then just come down to Jaroslaw and Barbara. PATRICK: Thank you, Walter. And so we see the rise of an explicit anti-liberalism there, both on the refugee issues and other things. And I just wonder if we aren’t underestimating the resilience of the European Union, given three very large shocks that it has withstood in the last few years. While reconstruction was an immediate priority in the post-war period, many people advocated the creation of an autonomous European entity. By focusing on the constant tug and pull between state governments of member countries and EU institutions, the speakers aim at discerning the fundamental structural flaws at the core of the union and how the push for integration is jeopardized by the ongoing economic and migratory crises. … Q: All right. So you have huge, huge debates there. So it’s very important to distinguish the rhetoric. MEAD: Anybody want to take that question? European citizenship through the Treaty of the European Union, which aimed at creating a closer Union among the peoples of Europe. Both projects are halfway houses. So both scenarios—U.K. Question mark. And this is something I wanted to underline; that we are talking about crisis, we are talking about different speed of integration, but definitely for Central Europe, the European Union and economic integration is an element of its own security. This event is made possible by the generous support of the Hauser Foundation. by Jacob Lew, Gary Roughead, Jennifer Hillman and David Sacks But I think what we now see is that you can only have a strong European Union when you have strong member states, politically and economically. Jaroslaw mentioned, and I think Barbara also to some extent, that the Eastern Europeans have actually been more committed to the EU as an institution than the West. I think the latest estimates are over 25 dead, almost 100 people injured. Net Politics. I mean, the first one is just a need to articulate our Central European own interest. PATRICK: Yeah, very quickly, I think, in addition to Helmut Kohl, of course, Francois Mitterrand played a very strong role at that time too. As you know, before referendum, the U.K. signed a special agreement proposed by the president of European Council, Donald Tusk. You couldn’t have all the compromises in the Maastricht Treaty with all of the member states—and it were only 12 at that time, not 28. The idea of Europe is a modern idea from the eighteenth century that was a response to an earlier religious idea of Christendom contains a number of ideas from Enlightenment thought, and draws on a range of often competing cultural ideas is based on a geographical area, which was communicated through maps and other visual representations And we’re looking increasingly at, inside Brussels itself, this—the problem of European institutions that seem to have a harder time processing problems. This is part of our Campus Spotlight on Europa-Universität Viadrina. And that is something which, of course, is very much up to the member states to address it. New "ancient-DNA" research sheds light on the networks that existed across the whole of Europe and northern Africa 5000 years ago. April 2, 2021 And now we see, with the—with the refugee crisis, but also when you look at the economic situation in many of the member states—with low growth, with huge unemployment, in particular when you look at younger people—that they expect more from the European Union. So one could argue this is the European normal, to cope with crises. The next session will begin promptly at 9:45. And my strong speculation will be that it will move more into some looser arrangements and also some—you know, people have been talking about even, you know, core Schengen or core Europe. So here we made a very good example in the energy sphere. This is true for both cases, refugee crisis and eurozone crisis. IDEA is an advisory service that provides innovative ideas and a unique space for research and collaboration on core Commission priorities. March 31, 2021, China's Huawei Is Winning the 5G Race. I think, yes, I think he’s absolutely right in this. And I think we have the third panel on the different—on a different Europe, where all these options, which are on the table again and which are maybe not only academic debates about scaling down, for example, the European—. There was never one single European idea, but obviously, in the aftermath of the Second World War and the tremendous carnage created there, there was an effort to try to—and largely, it had discredited nationalism and the nation-state—with the important exception, I might add, of the United Kingdom. And we’re, in fact, the ones that pushed during the Marshall Plan era for a united states of Europe and were more religious than the pope on that score for quite some time during those years—passing congressional resolutions; stating it was the sense of the U.S. Congress that the united states of Europe be formed, et cetera. And yet the Eastern Europeans seem to be increasingly less committed to some of the core Enlightenment ideals behind Europe. Please turn it off completely. Otherwise, they could interfere with the sound system. MEAD: All right. Is public opinion prepared to work with and support a process that inevitably is going to be less than lightning quick? And yet, they retain their independent fiscal policies, which obviously is—and often very wildly inconsistent fiscal policies. What motivated these networks? This meeting series is presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies. And I feel like we don’t see that now. Definitely, to analyze public opinion perception about European Union, this is a very difficult task. I think that’s the most pressing matter. MEAD: You seem to be using the past tense there often, perhaps ominously. And here I think that, in particular, the Barroso Commission did not perform very well. And he even wants Britain in Europe still, but he wants it on sort of a little bit more of the margins. And, for example, the Polish government decided to join the eurozone, but without a specific date, OK? It's the idea that only 18 hand picked top teams in Europe can create entertaining football. The question more is whether or not it moves in a little bit more of an articles-of-confederation direction, which that—you know, to use an analogy to U.S. history—versus more of a federal constitution direction. And, indeed, it’s quite problematic for EU as such that it’s not enough, you know, to wait—waiting for developments and to take on some profits. So they didn’t want a more integrated Europe. I mean, many people from this region, they try to find jobs in Western Europe. Russia? MEAD: Great, Stewart. It’s one thing to create, you know, a customs union and an internal market, and it’s quite another one to endow Brussels-based organizations with major super-national powers, particularly on the political side of things. Am I correct that—from your remarks, all of you, that the United States is largely irrelevant to the kinds of problems that you have discussed and that you are quite pleased that the U.S. is not pushing any American proposals or solutions? Do not—that does not mean just turn it to vibrate. ‘The Tainted Source: The Undemocratic Origins of the European Idea’ by John Laughland was originally published in 1997 and has been out of print for the past eighteen years. C. Peter McColough Series on International Economics, To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that CWIEK-KARPOWICZ: Definitely people in Europe, they are much more preoccupied with their economic situation, and problems like terrorist attacks or migrants, than, let’s say, the European idea and the future of European integration. That is why the Commission has the power to take the initiative. The ideal of European unity, which had already been popularised by certain elite circles during the inter-war period, spread rapidly just after the Second World War. It’s a great privilege to be here. It’s a time also to contribute and take responsibility. But in the meantime, the United States has not come up very often in this discussion of Europe’s future. And early proponents of European integration, evoking an idea of “Eurafrica”, called for pan-European cooperation in the colonization … But certainly both President Obama and Secretary Kerry have come out strongly in favor of Britain, for instance, remaining within the European Union. THE EUROPEAN IDEA THE EUROPEAN IDEA Miller, J. D. B. The Russian threat in Ukraine has so far led to a united response. The European Union, the free market and the single currency were all plans originally dreamt up by high ranking Nazis, including Hitler himself. in or out of the European Union—are quite risky for European Union. And I think even in Britain, the exits deal that Britain struck suggests that the European Union remained in a fairly strong bargaining position, and a country as large as Britain brought up a fairly slim deal that others may not be likely to follow. The debate … PATRICK: Christopher, I think you make an excellent point. But production challenges, vaccine nationalism, and new virus strains are all presenting hurdles. Today, however, European unification is no longer considered to be a step forward, nor for many people even a real necessity. He wanted Britain at the heart of Europe. Following the catastrophe of the First World War, thinkers and visionaries from a range of political traditions again began to float the idea of a politically unified Europe. Second is that, in contrast to the days of Monnet, where compromises could be found behind closed doors, we now have, I think, a very strong involvement of the public sphere. So I would not place it in the same category. PATRICK: Yeah. Is that a success or a failure? But I think the way—how we do it is very important, and I think there the preference should be that we should do it together with 28 as long as it—as it takes and when we can make some progress. So please do that. Please note that the meeting will begin with a prerecorded address by the IMF Managing Director, followed by live conversation. And in Central Europe, of course, we underline that there is strong need not to overlap with NATO, and that we really would—and, as you know, majority of EU countries are also NATO members. Same with the refugee crisis, where you have the incompatibility, on the one hand, of a Schengen Agreement that has removed the internal border controls amongst its members, and yet there’s no external EU-wide strong border force or customs force. I think that what you describe is quite correct, that Germany is now propelled in some sort of leadership role. And something—at least I think—I believe at the end of February they had only resettled about 500 of them, after several months. It has always been reluctant to take on this role. It overlapped not only when you look at the timing, but also when you look, for example, as one of the countries most hit by the refugee crisis, which is Greece, again. The European idea. I think both the eurozone crisis and the refugee crisis have in common that this is a crisis of a non-functioning governance system with regard to monetary union and with regard to migration/asylum policy. (Laughter.) Can we thank our panel, please? Proof The European Union Was Hitler’s Idea. And that’s why we cannot exclude the political challenge in this country, and then a completely different role of Germany in the EU. So there needs to—there needs to be a lot more alacrity with that. What Is the World Doing to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines? Yes, Rita. But when there is a time for decision, everyone is voting together because no one wants to—you know, to disintegrate the union and no one wants to weaken the European Union. We shouldn’t forget the single market has persevered throughout this crisis. But what Barbara said about Central European perspective I think is very important to underline because now, among 28 members, almost half of them, they are Central European countries. It could accommodate many different solutions. Does the EU need a common external enemy in order to coalesce around a common purpose? by Claire Felter The question is whether, over time, that threat needs to be externalized rather than remain internal. 3. It’s not going to fly apart. the european idea THE sudden surge of interest in Britain's future in Eurdpe is most welcome. The system has been robust and flexible. And I know that, coming from Germany, that unilateral actions taken, for example, by Germany are not very well appreciated. The EU’s common currency is the euro. That was an element of the European idea; and picking up on what Stewart said earlier, also differentiating that on an elite and a mass level, the university versus the construction trades. So we should be getting a variety of viewpoints here, and I can’t think of three people who would have anything more interesting to say on the topic. It’s important to note that this vision which inspired many of the early moves towards European integration—institutions like the Council of Europe or the European Coal and Steel Community, which began the entire process of European integration—was from the beginning and remains largely an elite-driven phenomenon. Quite suddenly, the idea of the “good European” — one that, at least for Nietzsche, was defined against almost everything German — has become someone who keeps a … I mean, after crisis 2008 and ’(0)9, when definitely many Europeans had some doubt about common currency, since 2013 we observe a positive trend, and more and more countries and citizens believe in the euro currency, especially those who adopted euro currency quite recently. But this time maybe it could be different. 2. I’d like to ask about the relationship between two ideas that you’ve brought up. What do you have to say about that situation of Germany within Europe? And there’s a good chance that this one could be quite messy indeed. And it seems to me that the structural nature of the crisis derives from politics. I don’t know if I’m allowed to do this, Chair, but I’ve got a comment and a disagreement. And, obviously, also we have terrorism and migration issues. Well, with this I’m afraid we’re coming to the end. Thousands of young people dreamed of a united Europe, sometimes even of a unified and peaceful world. It means that if Brits votes against European Union membership, we have European—we have United Kingdom outside the European Union—no associated, nor in some links with European Union. Again, this is a particularly timely moment for that, so. There are no airplanes until tomorrow. I think the question going forward really is whether or not, in the wake of these crises—there are two ways you could go; at least two ways you could go. This is an example of 2005 and referendum in the Netherlands and in France, and Dutch and French people voted against European Constitution. When you look back at all of the crises, there are always charismatic or likeminded leaders in the major European countries that drove things forward. I think that this is part of this internal tension. (Laughs.) 1958-06-01 00:00:00 University of Leicester EUROPEAN integration is a question which lends itself readily to symposia and joint authorship. The market goes from strength to strength. I’ll say that much. ISIS? LIPPERT: So thank you, Chair. During the interwar period, the press kept discussing common European interests in the colonies (Greiner 2014: 300-323). ‘European integration studies’ collection, ‘Oral history of European integration’ collection, Historical events in the European integration process (1945–2014), Europe in ruins in the aftermath of the Second World War, The Marshall Plan and the establishment of the OEEC, 1950–1954 The formation of the community of Europe, 1955–1957 The European revival and the Rome Treaties, 1969–1979 Completion, deepening and widening, 1980–1986 Enlargement to the south and the Single European Act, 1987–1997 The European Union in a Europe in the throes of change, 2010-2014 European integration in a time of global challenges. It abandoned the idea of a European Constitution. And when we analyze some European member states and then societies there, we might say that definitely Central Europeans are much more positive about European Union, and they still perceived EU as the only way not only to create its own foreign policy, but also to have prospects for better economic development, and also for its own security. They discuss questions of politics, religion, commerce, law, language, literature and affectivity. So all of us, I’m sure, are with the people of Brussels and Belgium in our thoughts. And we have a reception afterwards that goes for the next 15 minutes. I think, however, what’s become apparent is that this irresolution, in a way, or contradiction between a supranational Europe, with authority going to Brussels institutions, versus intergovernmental vision of Europe, the tensions and contradictions are increasingly apparent. Ahead of the annual IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings, please join IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva for a discussion of the economic outlook in the post-pandemic world and the actions needed to drive the recovery. Thank you very much for that very helpful opening historical survey. In order to avoid the world being divided into two antagonistic blocs and to prevent the inevitably ensuing war, it seemed essential to establish a third European pole. The “European Idea:” Historical Contexts, Debates, and Mental Maps on Europe as a Concept. by Amelia Cheatham, Claire Felter and Zachary Laub The problem is that, in European Union, you have so many, you know, languages, cultures, heritages, and we really would like to create a common space where people may freely change their location. Why are these crises so severe? It seems to me that the easiest way for a disparate group of people to coalesce around a common purpose is to unite in defense against a common enemy. Very often, many national governments try to underline that we serve our national interests—we are against superficial, artificial European, you know, demands or values. with Betsey Stevenson We are just a few weeks after regional elections where Alternative für Deutschland—that’s the anti-European party—gain quite great results. First of all, I would say that, starting with the sovereign debt crisis, which then escalated into the crisis around Greece, for the first time it was put on the table to kick out a member state, so the Grexit problem. Twitter 1.7k Facebook LinkedIn Email Reddit Telegram. They are seen as—well, as putting pressure on others, dominating them. It’s a total disintegration. And what she got was not solidarity at all. And then you have all the problems, again, in looking for the consensus of the 28. And that’s why we observed the process of unification of standards in education and the labor markets, and it’s going deeper and deeper. One of them would be towards more Brussels and more centralization in a way, and the other would be to move more in an intergovernmental direction. In the early 1920s a range of internationals were founded (or re-founded) to help like-minded political parties to coordinate their activities. supports HTML5 video, Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program, Council on Foreign Relations, Head of Research Office, Polish Institute of International Affairs, Director of Research, German Institute for International and Security Affairs, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP), James Clarke Chace Professor in Foreign Affairs and Humanities, Bard College. President Trump sent U.S. troops to the border with Mexico to supplement the work of authorities there. And then, of course, you think about alternatives. And I think that what you’ve seen is less vigorous leadership on the part of France in more recent years. The EU was created by the Maastricht Treaty, which entered into force on November 1, 1993. For example, where European Union is thinking about sanctions against Russia, we heard from Central European leaders some voices that maybe we should deal with Russia, we should not impose sanctions. No doubt Germany plays a leading role in the European Union. But whenever things that impact directly on national electorates is concerned, then consensus becomes harder. 1.7k. The history of the European idea, obviously, goes back centuries, if not perhaps even millennia, but has been particularly gripping and compelling to Europeans since the end of the Second World War. Or, to put it another way, the EU has been a feeding trough for plutocrats and the worst kind of cronies to ever besmirch the good name of crony capitalism.It’s a contentious issue, and while of course there are good and bad things about the union, it’s a dead duck. Economical trade, migrations of people, or a transfer of ideas from one community to the next? I worked a lot on—in particular, on the eastward enlargement, and what I see now also, when I go to Warsaw or Budapest or Prague, there is some kind of estrangement between the member states. And the same is with euro currency. I wonder if that means that the cost of maintaining institutional coherence for the EU is losing a kind of intellectual or even moral coherence for Europe. The ideal of European unity, which had already been popularised by certain elite circles during the inter-war period, spread rapidly just after the Second World War. ), OK? And this continued over decades, this kind of tension. And then we have a problem of other countries who also would like to follow U.K. in this regard, that they also would like to negotiate some special status. And this is something what I observe now among Central European countries. The European idea, a 5000 years old concept according to the Bell Beaker culture. The European Union (EU) is a unification of 28 member states (including the United Kingdom) united to create a political and economic community throughout Europe. And that was, of course, the introduction of the euro. Ditto analysis. March 30, 2021 Jaroslaw? Angela Merkel was that indispensable woman, and then unfortunately, with the migration crisis, has really seen her own popularity and her own political leverage in her own country drop significantly. Jaroslaw Cwiek-Karpowicz, Head of Research Office at the Polish Institute of International Affairs; Barbara Lippert, Director of Research at Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik; and Stewart M. Patrick, Senior Fellow and Director of the International Institutions and Global Governance Program at the Council on Foreign Relations join Walter Russell Mead of Bard College to discuss the nature of the European Union: it’s creation, institutional effectiveness, approach to past crises, and outlook over the next couple of decades. I was wondering where that would come. And I don’t think that Britain is going to be the last country that decides that it wants a little bit of a—a little bit more of an a la carte Europe than it currently enjoys. When we heard the Hungarian prime minister, and unfortunately quite recently the Polish government, sometimes we heard some—(inaudible)—some kind of re-nationalization or some kind of this rhetoric. European federation. And obviously during the Cold War it was seen as—which is obviously related to the U.S. posture towards the Soviet Union, as well as the European—was a major driving force there. But I think that profits are so huge for public opinion, and citizens really want to continue this trend, that probably, despite the immigration crisis, EU would follow this path and would encourage Europeans to be much more flexible, mobile, and create many advantages for them for looking for jobs in different EU states. Europe is a regional economy with national politics, and it means it’s very, very good at creating a market but it’s very, very bad at tackling collectively anything that is directly salient to national electorates.