Taylor Green
The stars that once shone and emblazed a tasteful blue canvassed flag of the European Union. The
stars have only now, in the contemporary, lost this shine, fading bit by bit. The EU, a bloc
emboldened by their union to realise their potential as a force in the globe. Although these dreams
are all but lost. What happened to these stars, these states lumped together with so much promise
following the end of the Cold War, now leading to this most dissatisfactory present stage?
Well, starting off with the Schengen agreement. The pact allowed the free movement of people
across the continent. Such an arrangement hinged on the already developing neoliberal ideals the
continent had become borne into through the need to deregulate and privatise, along with
international organisations, to allow this to happen. However, despite this agreement being one of
Europe's finest achievements allowing a free flow of workers across the continent and new
opportunities for entrepreneurship and collaboration, it was ultimately its Achilles heel. The
agreement led to a complete brain drain, primarily for its developing member nations such as Poland
and Romania. Once they had joined, they saw large swathes of the population leaving their nations
for work in North-western Europe.
This, in relation, saw a decline in the staffing of hospitals and students at universities as well as a
drastic rise in the age of the average population. Professor of economics Krystyna Iglicka argued that "we are losing population, we are losing young people". So, while this was able to counteract
Western Europe's ageing population, it simply re-bounded this issue back to the East. Europe
supposedly could uplift all its nations; however, this significant inequality ensures that this union is
intensely problematic and benefits unevenly. These nations truly felt the effects of this further, with
stagnation, unemployment, and deprivation rife. And this would only lead to them becoming a more
significant burden for developed nations through aid.
The attempts at fostering and projecting liberal democracy across the continent, moulding nations
as a sophisticated bunch apart of a bloc allowing cooperation and diplomacy, has now been seen to
be a failure in these states, with increased radicalisation in countries such as Hungary, France and
Italy. More people became sceptical of the EU and saw it as the arbiter of all the insecurity that
European nations were hampered with. Moreover, all the EU's numerous crises caused it to further
lose supporters.
Moreover, this shift to insecurity and nationalism and populism saw the delegitimisation of the
European Union entirely. As well as the prospect of mass migration that saw those increasingly with
amassing economic issues complications founding an ideal scapegoat in refugees and immigrants.
This sudden influx created such reactionary ideas from individuals, and the great need for migrants
economically meant it was an issue that could not be reconciled. Only leaving the EU would be
enough for such political participants as the structure of outsourcing workers was altogether far too
necessary to inhibit.
Such feelings of nationalism and insecurity led to calls for Brexit. Moreover, Britain's sudden
departure from the bloc had more significant effects from sparking and legitimising discourse for
other nations exiting. In particular, Marine Le Pen's historical distaste for the bloc could lead her, if
she is to be elected to create a new exit, a Frexit, as it has been coined, of her own making.
Although currently across the continent, this has become a less popular stance, likely in reaction to the effects
it has imposed upon the UK economy as it has been summarised that its exit has made the nation
exactly "5.5 per cent poorer" Brexit has also led to broader issues with little need to speculate upon
such as losing a key trading partner in the bloc by essentially dislocating Britain from the European
market. In 2020 "EU imports from the United Kingdom decreased by 16.4%"; It has also led to a loss
in GDP in the EU and, as well as this, has lost some global legitimacy, security, and political power
with the loss of the UK as a member that was a nation able to perpetuate the bloc further with such
its influence.
The global financial crisis was the most significant shake to the European project's foundations.
Moreover, such busts experienced economically influenced the structures for disaster. Insecurity
stemmed from this with the loss of jobs, partly leading to reactionary political alignment and
Europe's decreasing presence in the world. Moreover, it led to "soaring public debt" which created
an environment for the Eurozone crisis to take hold.
The Eurozone crisis, as well as the crashing of other currencies in Europe, only heaped on the
insecurity that was felt following the global financial crisis and hampered the ability of Europe to
recover as a continent. The EU was unwilling to bail out the banks in Greece, which led to continued
deprivation and then finally humiliation for the EU as Greece was forced to seek aid from the IMF,
implementing strategies that caused stagnation in their public amenities and even a reduction in
medical spending which saw ravishing affects for an ageing population that requires increased
spending arguably in the medical infrastructure. Ultimately Europe still suffered the consequences of
the crisis of high debts in Greece with the interdependency between nations in the trade bloc. This
was eventually a significant shock and made the Euro a little bit more insecure from "gaps and
conflicts between the surplus and deficit countries."
Another blockage to success was Europe's inability to rival other superpower nations. The US, for
example, had a hold hegemonically over other states. As a result, the EU had to comply geopolitically
with the US. Moreover, China was soon viewed as a more significant trade partner and an
increasingly more valuable and dominant power through its huge manufacturing economy and
influence in the US economy. In contrast, Europe had become reliant on Russia, remaining outside
the EU and resistant and dismissive towards its demands and growth. Moreover, the relationship
fostered a dependency on Russian gas pumped across the continent due to the fact that the natural
resource reserves of EU nations remain far from sufficient enough to support rising standards of
living.
The oil crisis in the 1970s also hit Europe hard. The tremendous financial, banking, and energy crises
of the 1970s in Europe. This crisis led to increasing crude oil prices globally, further creating an
environment for stock market crashes, inflation and economic turmoil. This further hampered
Europe's progression and ultimately shook the continent. Up until that point, Europe was on the rise,
and this seems to be at least quite tragically the same narrative for most of the EU's crises where
before the matter, they appeared booming and operating positively as a continent with maybe few
issues and then looms great disaster that seems to affect Europe in a significant way more so than
other nations that can recover smoothly.
Europe was also unable to innovate to the degree the US has. While strong in number, Europe could
never rival the US in terms of innovation and influence. The US has been able to perpetuate itself
across the globe, whereas Europe cannot say the same. Therefore, they could not enact globally soft
and hard power in a similar fashion. They, throughout time, have had to follow the foreign policy
choices of the US, and the US was, in this crucial way, the decider of Europe's fate in global politics.
Other trade blocs have become more important also in global production cycles in ASEAN and
USMCA. And in every aspect, Europe lags behind many continents in its industry, marketing,
innovation and raw material supply. The EU was also fundamentally unable to specialise in any
source of hard or soft power sources through resources or military power. For the most part, the
continent has been second best and has seen all of its states significantly declining through its
multitude of economic crises and poor recovery.
Although, in recent years, there is still hope for the EU, it is, at this point, a more significant arbiter
for ethics and welfare schemes for its population, becoming potentially a great example for others. It
is a relatively sustainable bloc with much that can ensure that in its political power and alliance with
the US, hard power and some ability to project soft power across the globe. It also harbours
environmentally-centred schemes that improve the continent's international image. However, now
the conflict in Ukraine has led to increasingly tricky relations and stagnation across Europe with a
loss of natural resource supplies from Russia, with Europe currently pounded into a crisis by the
drying up of resources. It will be interesting to see how Europe sees and navigates itself from this
conflict up against its doors and whether Europe could ever be considered once again a potential
power.
Image: Flickr (Christopher Cotrell)
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