The expert warned the EU against sliding back to the politics of the 19th century, when large countries decided the fate of small ones
About what Europe could be like without the EU, and what signs of this process there are already now, says for Euractiv, Michael Meyer-Resende, director of the Berlin-based NGO International Research on Democracy. “Even today, following the practice of the nineteenth century, when issues of small states are resolved by large ones, Russia is deciding the fate of Ukraine without the participation of Ukraine itself. And in the Normandy format it is not the European Union that is represented, but France and Germany separately,” he points out.
Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook, Classmates or In contact with
The expert believes that the collapse of the European Union will turn Europe, as it was in the 19th century, into a “concert of states” with the main parties of the big powers. This is an extremely shaky, unstable international policy, which will depend mainly on the personal qualities of certain statesmen or diplomats, and not on the establishment of general rules of the game, as was the case in the European Union.
“When German Emperor Wilhelm II dismissed Bismarck as prime minister in 1890, the special relationship with Russia immediately ended. Today we see such instabilities on the rise. Yesterday, Presidents Erdogan and Putin were in strained relations, today they are best friends, as their common interests outweigh their differences,” the author writes.
“The EU's founding fathers, who grew up before the First World War, were well aware of the risks in the instability of the late 19th century that led Europe to self-destruction. After two world wars, they set out to create something more lasting, in the form of the European Community. “Nothing is possible without men; “nothing lasts without institutions,” said Jean Monnet, one of the founders of the EU,” the article says.
“The nineteenth century is the century of diplomatic poker games with high stakes, because no one doubted that one day war would come. The question is when and where this will happen or not. Diplomacy positioned its country for this occasion. The EU has turned this dangerous poker game into a coherent, ongoing negotiation process based on agreed rules. Less interesting, but much more stable, conserving massive political-diplomatic energies and reducing risks to such an extent that war between EU member states has become unthinkable.”
“Back then, the leading European power was by definition a world power. Currently, no EU country is a world power. The 19th century situation cannot be in the interests of any Hungarian, Slovak or Dutch nationalist. Globally, all EU member states are more likely to be subjects than objects unless they unite. In the cold light of geopolitics, no one in the EU should be interested in the world of the 19th century." – concludes Michael Meyer-Resende.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.