The need for a united Europe

This article was written by one of our passionate readers, Mr. Tomasso Merlo. The opinions expressed within reflect only the writer’s views and not The European Sting’s position on the issue.

The epochal political challenge of the European peoples is their unification and the birth of a common continental democracy. The European dream, however, is at a standstill due to the mutual distrust and selfishness of the member states.

We European peoples share centuries and centuries of common history and have been part of the same community for decades. We share the currency, the internal market and many rules and institutions, yet there is still incredibly little trust between us.

Stereotypes and clichés prevail. To build a new common democracy, trust is essential. Confidence in the capabilities and good faith of other member states, the confidence that by uniting politically our common future will be better. Much progress has been made, but the decisive political step is missing. Since the European project was born after the Second World War, we European peoples have lived the longest period of peace and prosperity. This fact no one can deny.

Despite this, selfishness still prevails among member states. National governments don’t want to give up their power, they don’t want to accept that their historical era has ended. This is the historical passage that is struggling to complete: the end of the national era and the beginning of the continental one. Instead of looking forward, member states look back. Instead of advancing, they defend themselves.

But history cannot be stopped. European nations alone are already inadequate with respect to the new global scenario. All the real problems that the European peoples have to face are global: economy and work, environmental crisis, mass immigration, health crises, challenges related to new technologies, security. If ideal reasons are not enough to convince member states to unite, pragmatic ones should suffice.

A politically united Europe is the minimum dimension to effectively address global problems rather than suffer them. Year after year it is increasingly evident that political unification is a dramatic necessity for Europe. But despite this, the construction of a common democratic home is no longer even on the political agenda.

Nobody talks about the United States of Europe or the European Republic anymore, but the member states negotiate their national interests with each other from time to time, always trying to get as much as possible and to give as little as possible. An exhausting situation. The hope to overcome this stalemate lies on the shoulders of the new generations of Europeans who are growing up in an increasingly interconnected continent. New generations of Europeans are traveling and interacting with each other like never before in continental history.

They are going beyond geographical borders but also mental ones. They are overcoming language and cultural barriers. When peoples unite and cooperate they evolve, when they isolate themselves they regress. Together, the new generations of Europeans can overcome the fear of change, they can look forward and launch a common policy capable of finally completing the European dream.

All the peoples of Europe would benefit from a finally united Europe, but also the whole world. The world needs a protagonist Europe, it needs its history, its culture, its wisdom.