EUROPE BOLDER
Deniz Akkan*
Social incoherencies, cultural differences, language barriers, long-established prejudgments, democratic deficiency, lack of communication, etc… - the bottom line of all of EU’s troubles is economic. High unemployment and slow growth rates in most member States cause people fear change – for fear of facing worse. Constitution, enlargement, liberalization of markets - they are only crossed out because people fear they will take away from them what they have now.
What the EU needs to replace in its citizens is trust and confidence – in their lives and in their futures. The people should be granted the freedom to take risks, to be able to try and take risks, and keep on taking risks despite failures. The EU should not only be the land of freedom of speech and freedom of thought, but it should foremost be the land of freedom of taking risks.
The EU itself should take risks. It should implement radical economic reforms, be decisive and announce how much carbon each Member State is allowed to emit, and dare to face public disturbances for the sake of longer term comfort, peace and success. Member States should take risks and tackle political challenges for the sake of the future of the entire EU – not just themselves, or the current government. They should take full responsibility and implement policies on time and without any exceptions. They should take risks and compromise on the most difficult areas – like foreign policy - for the sake of seizing benefits on the longer term.
Entrepreneurship should be the main part of the European business culture and the most important asset the EU should pass on to young Europeans. The EU should mean the freedom to set up a business in any part of Europe, with no red-tape, to get a loan from any bank, to be able to employ whomever; to be able to travel wherever and whenever, and have the same regulations applied everywhere.
The EU should encourage interaction – among its citizens of all ages - and embrace “the other”, not position itself against it. “The other” used to be the “Communists” then; it is the “Islamists” now; there will always be others tomorrow as long as the EU identity is based on “an other”.
The EU has coma a long way since the signing of the Treaty of Rome and has provided an unimagined peace and prosperity for almost 5 generations of human lives. The frontiers of the freedom and the liberal democracy the EU has marked, has reached a sharp edge where the next turn will decide on the future of the whole continent.
The EU Presidency, held by Germany, has organized weekend-long ceremonies to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the EU and invited to Berlin the Heads of State and Government of the 27 EU Member States – but not the candidate States. It is a clear message for all – the candidate States are not wanted in the family picture of the most important event of the century.
This act alone shows the graveness of the inconsistency and the depths of the existentialist crises the EU is facing. The challenge is not crossing a border between Europe and Asia and choosing between Christianity and Islam; it is the identification of shared ideals among the people of Europe which is missing. The rejection of the candidate states as future members is the reflection of the state-of-the-mind of the EU itself. Rejecting Turkey, namely, will not solve any crises the EU is facing now nor avoid any crises in the future.
On the contrary, embracing Turkey could bring not only democracy and peace thru soft power in the Middle East, which is of highest strategic region for the EU, but it could also bring dynamism and a clearer definition to its identity. Despite various obstacles along the way, the EU is maybe not so much as running anymore but still heading forward, though with a lame. Lets all hope that the next 50 years will be a tackle-free sprint by young, motivated and excited Europeans.
*Deniz Akkan is a PhD in EU Economics at Marmara University of Istanbul
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