A EURO-PARTY! WHAT FUN!

Europe comes together in fear and trepidation (Dominique Moisi, International Herald Tribune, 30/04/04)

In fact, Europe, old as well as new, is in the midst of a deep identity crisis. How can we be secure about what we are bringing, when we no longer know what we are? We do not know where our continent ends. Is Turkey in Europe or not? The question goes to the heart of our identity debate. Is Europe about the value of geography or about the geography of values? Turkey is clearly not in Europe, but that must be balanced against the risk of saying no to the only example of a modern, democratic and secular Islam.

More than ever, we ignore our institutional future. We can no longer be sure than we shall have a constitution ratified by all, with a preamble encompassing all the values we are so proud of. And we do not know - especially with the war in Iraq and our fundamental divisions with respect to Washington and the future of trans-Atlantic relations - whether we can have a common foreign and security policy.

Even if we ignore our geography and our institutional and diplomatic future, we know too well the depressing state of our demography, which makes of us - in contrast to that other West, the United States - an aging continent, with a need to integrate others, who most likely are not going to be Europeans. We realize also the decline of the European ideal. Europe may have become a growing and expanding reality, from the euro to the Schengen Accords, but it is less and less an enthusiastic dream, a project that can mobilize us. Even among us, in the old West, one can perceive signs of regression in the form of a re-nationalization, if not a retribalization of political exchanges.

We must avoid any form of arrogance when we confront the question of what we will bring to the new members, but we should also refrain from too negative an assessment of ourselves. In comparative terms, and perhaps in spite of ourselves, we in Western Europe are still a very attractive reality, one that should be more secure with itself. We should be more conscious of our achievements, and therefore more ready and willing to share them with others.

There is nothing new of substance here, but the tone is reminiscent of the speech by President Carter that opens Miracle on Ice. Here is one of Europe’s most distinguished foreign policy experts celebrating the doubling of the EU in a tone that sounds like the captain of the Titantic's final address to his crew.

Can anyone imagine a North American politician telling the public to be resigned to the challenge of integrating people “who most likely are not going to be American” (or Canadian)?