by Peter-Vincent Schuld

The credit crisis, massive flows of migrants, Greece’s debt problems and meddling in national regulations. It is a constant concern for the citizens of the European Union, and the citizens of Europe continue to grumble

In the Netherlands, the European Constitution was successively consigned to the shredder in referendums and a few years later a Dutch majority of voters said “no” to the association agreement with Ukraine. Whether the Dutch people who visited the polls actually knew exactly what they had voted for or against is highly questionable. Not long after, a small British majority of the electorate decided that Britain should leave the European Union.

In the meantime, many Britons are starting to scratch their heads over what they actually voted for.
The withdrawal could be much more detrimental to the British than they were led to believe.

The negotiations between the European Union and the United Kingdom have led
to nothing more than the failure of negotiations to get underway and a Great Britain delaying the withdrawal because the deadlines for the withdrawal procedure are not being met by a long shot.

UKIP leader and anti-European Nigel Farage had envisioned an additional investment in the British health service of some £350 billion. Money that the British would have left over from the exit.

Farage had “forgotten” to tell the voters that the bill for the exit, say the alimony that Britain has to pay to the EU, will amount to many billions. All this is apart from all the economic damage to the country. A division of property always costs money. You can’t just unilaterally cancel agreements and agreements, read treaties, without consequences. Have you ever committed a breach of contract, caused a divorce or paid off a mortgage prematurely? Then you probably know that the price tag was hefty.

Every time the European Union is the subject of controversy and disagreement among the people, the facts lose out to the emotions.
When the rational of feeling loses, this usually has nasty consequences where the trouble is on the plate of….? Right, you guessed it right….”the citizen”.

Thinking of a future in Europe Young people, like here in Kenya, but throughout the African continent, still have the idea that Europe is the ‘promised land’. (c) Peter-Vincent Schuld

Is the European Union merely a utopian utopian utopian state in the form of a fragrant rose garden without thorns? No, it is not at all. The European Union is far from a perfect project. The Union is made up of Member States. Member States that often disagree with each other, quarrel and roll around in the streets. “So what’s the advantage?” I hear some of you, dear readers, ask.
Remember the conflicts in the past, not so long ago, which were literally fought with arms. We will not be able to get back the victims who lost their lives unnecessarily, but it is the very hard price that was paid for instability and conflict.

We didn’t want wars anymore, so we opted for cooperation between countries in which differences of opinion, even if they are sometimes cursing and ranting, are fought out at the negotiating table and, if necessary, before the European Court of Justice. Yes, ministers and heads of government can also misbehave with each other in a communicative way and make fun of each other in the supposedly ‘national interest’ of the individual Member State they represent.

Distrust between countries, not just EU member states themselves, goes so far that in 2003 listening devices were found in the telecommunications systems in the European Council building so that confidential communications could be intercepted in the so-called “delegation rooms”.
It never really became clear which secret service was behind these wiretaps.

So you don’t be fooled by outward appearances of neat ties, horrible boring suits and amicable handshakes. The alternative, however, is chaos in which individual countries start behaving like rutting gorillas with a corresponding display of muscle towards each other.

No, rather than a tea party with accompanying gossip and backbiting, in which the representatives of the member states fight each other during a substantive get-together cum “bitch fight”. Usually followed by repair and restoration work in which the political make-up including lipstick is then filled again. When the political crocodile tears have dried and the mascara has been applied in a disguised way, the heads of state and government can take a family photo with each other again. Only the attentive observer notices the proverbial ladders in the fishnet stockings and the scratches on the high heels of the participating Member States.

Of course, citizens are annoyed by this Brussels soap opera on the basis of what politicians communicate to their supporters. Something that is then all too often accepted as factual and true.
Dutch Prime Minister Rutte recently stated in front of the cameras that he had difficulty with “vision”. That is precisely what has been preventing us in Europe from killing each other for a long time and what has resulted in the European Union.

The European Union is faced with an almost impossible task in explaining to its citizens why it exists and why it is ultimately to the benefit of its citizens. People flock to “Brussels”, but do people know what “Brussels” means? Why does the European Parliament sit in Brussels and the important part-sessions are held in Strasbourg? What is the difference between the European Commission and the European Council? Few people can give a conclusive and correct answer to that. As long as some newspapers casually proclaim that the European Court of Justice sits in Strasbourg when it is Luxembourg, that this judicial system is confused with the European Court of Human Rights that sits in Strasbourg and that this is not an EU institution but belongs to the Council of Europe, you cannot expect the public to know the difference.

It is not surprising that until a few years ago it was almost impossible to get extensive stories about the European Union in the newspapers. On many occasions, correspondents, who may or may not be permanently in Brussels, have been told by their editors that citizens are not interested in what is happening in Brussels. Until…. the moment when, among other things, the banking crisis came, Greece turned out to be as good as bankrupt and it was going to cost the European taxpayer money.

In the meantime, the worldview has become even more complex with the violence of war in Syria, a dictatorial regime in Turkey that once thought it could become a member of the European Union, a declining but never-ending flow of migrants and refugees, and let’s not forget the tensions in neighbouring Ukraine, which is on the EU’s external borders. You would think that through far-reaching cooperation, people would tackle the major problems in unison. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is no question of a common foreign policy for the European Union at present, there never has been, and given the different political views in the individual Member States, it does not look as if it will happen in the short term. However, geopolitical reality does teach us that it is important that, among other things, there is a high degree of cooperation between the defence apparatuses of the European Member States.

As much as the name suggests otherwise, Eurocorps, which was founded in 1992, is not a military initiative of the European Union. It is originally a Franco-German bilateral project with its de facto and symbolic headquarters in Strasbourg. In the meantime, the Belgians, the Luxembourgers and the Spaniards have joined as core Member States.

Does the European Union really have a proverbial big mouth without teeth? There are some “baby teeth” present with a limited bite force. The EU finally showed some capability by setting up the anti-piracy mission called Atalanta, which deployed naval vessels off the coast of Somalia, and the EUFOR peace and stabilisation force, which is still active in Bosnia. Because even though the war there ended almost 21 years ago, it is and remains a powder keg of mutual tensions and resentments that go back to the chicken that was stolen from the neighbor’s great-great-grandfather.

Old problems, new tensions and what lies ahead in today’s unstable and rapidly changing world. You only have to count a few graves in an average field of honour to understand that the alternative to cooperation results in the needless loss of life. “He who does not know his history does not know his future” according to the wise words of the 16th-century Italian philosopher, diplomat and historian Machiavelli.