Will There Be A United States of Europe?
“We must build a kind of United States of Europe. In this way only will hundreds of millions of toilers be able to regain the simple joys and hopes which make life worth living.”
In the 21st century, the United States of America (USA) is the most powerful country in the world, dominating the global economy and the political agenda. But across the Atlantic, a collection of unified countries poses an increasing threat to the USA’s hegemony. The potential of this continent, which is similar to the USA in terms of economic prowess and natural resources, yet vastly different in terms of its global aims, means the USA’s interest could be in danger. The European Union (EU) has almost 2 million troops, and is home to some of the richest countries in the world, who may just be planning to create the UNITED STATES OF EUROPE.
The EU’s origin goes back to just after the Second World War, part of an effort to integrate Europe and prevent the growth of extreme nationalism, which has devastated the continent in the 1940’s. The main aim of this international organisation was to achieve closer political, social and economic ties among European countries, in order to bring lasting peace to the region, military security and economic growth. There are, currently, 28 member states in the EU, including 4 out of 7 countries that represents more than 64% of the net global wealth. These are United Kingdom (UK), Germany, France, and Italy, whose advance economy contribute to the EU’s growing GDP of $18.5 trillion (which is far above the USA’s GDP of $16.8 trillion) in 2015.
This collective prosperity has fuelled the economic growth across the continent, and helps to achieve the EU’s 4 main aims. They are 1) to establish European citizenship as a means to protect fundamental human rights, 2) to ensure freedom, security, and justice, 3) to promote economic and social progress, and 4) to assert Europe’s role in the world. These aims have allowed Europe lasting growth and welfare in the modern world. Recently, the relations and policies within the organisation has become increasingly complex. Events in recent decades to achieve these goals, including the formation of the Eurozone in 1999, have made it clear that the EU’s ambition is above all - political union. If it achieves this, then there would be a European confederation similar in size to the USA, which would have the largest economy in the world.
However, in an email interview the Quartz, Emma Bonino - Italy’s former minister of foreign affairs, claimed that “Europe is like a bicycle, you either pedal or you fall.” The problem, she says, is “we stopped pedalling.” On one hand, member countries, especially those in the Eurozone, do not have the full independence to steer their economies without interference. But when they run into trouble, like Greece did, their counterparts do not rush to their rescue, and some even believe that the medicine they recommended is worse then the disease. On the other hand, when faced with external pressures, like the burgeoning migration crisis, the EU has shown a similar lack of solidarity. Its institutions struggle to agree to quotas for hosting refugees, sharing the border across a region with the capacity to absorb the newcomers. Several states, mostly in the East, reject this notion outright.
Although 28 countries are currently members of the EU, with a queue of other more than eager to join, it is not the federation imagined by tis founders. Political integration lags economic integration, which is itself incomplete. The EU is a confused entity, with decisions made and enforced by a tangle of institutions at the national and pan-European levels. Some complexity is, of course, inevitable. Trying to coordinate an area with 12 different currencies, 24 official languages, and a mix of open and closed borders. But the current situation does not serve it citizen’s needs, and cannot go on like the status quo.
The most pressing obstacles standing in the way of the European expansion is the EU’s instability caused by the 2008 financial crises. This plunged the EU into its own economic catastrophe. Several EU member states, including Ireland, Cyprus and Greece, were unable to repay the debt caused by the crash. And the Eurozone is still recovering from this disaster.
In recent years, the influx of migrants across Europe’s borders showed that member states have little solidarity when fellow member states need help. While EU-level institution have also come in for criticism for riding roughshod over sovereign wishes, open borders have been closed, throttling the movement of both people and capital.
Disillusioned, many Europeans are calling for drastic change. Indeed, the government of one of the EU’s biggest and most powerful members, the UK, now wants to formally opt out from the commitment to a “ever-closer union” enshrined in the EU’s founding treaties. In 2016, the Prime Minster of the UK, David Cameron, scheduled a referendum on whether the UK should stay in the EU. So the organisation could lose one of its strongest members, despite its overall unity, political and military strength, the mosaic of different cultures and nationalities that constitutes the EU, might just mean the organisation is too diverse and fragmented to realise the ultimate dream of UNITED STATES OF EUROPE.
“We believe that more, not less, Europe is needed to respond to the challenges we face, both internally and externally…[Greater political integration] is needed to overcome the inherent weaknesses at the heart of the European Union and of the Economic and Monetary Union, and to provide Europe with the vision it needs to avoid stumbling from one emergency to the other”
The solution, many believe, is for the EU to knit itself together more tightly. In 2014, the Vice President of the EU’s European Commission, Viviane Reding, explicitly call for UNITED STATES OF EUROPE, a view shared by Winston Churchill. She asserted that all 18 Eurozone countries should form a full fiscal and political union to reach this goal. And with so many countries in the EU sharing common policies, the suggestion of a UNTIED STATES OF EUROPE is, not at all, implausible. In 2015, French President, François Hollande, called for a Eurozone government with a specific budget and a parliament to ensure full democratic control for all member states. Meanwhile, allied forces in Europe are poised to unleash the collective strength against growing security threats, like Russia and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The EU has already demonstrated its power by enforcing economic sanctions on Russia for the invasion of Ukraine. And the continent is also home to some of the most formidable forces, including Britain’s Special Air Service, France’s extensive military deployment, and Italy’s vast helicopter fleet. In 2012, the EU spent $281 billion on military defence, including joint projects like the Eurofighter jet, Typhoon, which is a multi-purpose jet fighter with a maximum speed of 2,500 km/h. The EU also commands more than 1.6 million active personnel and runs a joint armament procurement operation, which includes more than 500 active nuclear warheads.
The EU is the USA’s emerging rival, aside from its military strength, the EU’s population of 743 million people, its trading power, its diplomatic influence, and the strength of its currency, are all greater than that of the USA. But the EU does not flaunt its strength or operate on patriotic model like the USA. Instead, it operates calmly through traditional political structures. It is this skilful diplomatic approach, that enables the EU to take over the world, without becoming a target. And with every country that joins the EU, the organisation only becomes stronger.
While the organisation may never be seen as overtly dangerous to the rest of the world. Its power as a unified force against extremism and a legal military intervention, means that Europe’s rule in the west should continue for years to come.
Strangely enough, the prospect of a UNITED STATES OF EUROPE sounds almost as distant and utopian now as it did back in 1941, when the continent was considerably more fragmented. Back then, it took a world war to make the dream of a European Union a reality. Perhaps the pain and panic of this economic crisis will be the fuel to thrust Europe towards a UNITED STATES OF EUROPE.