E3G

Europe in the World: Summer Briefing

By Chris Littlecott

We’ve prepared a little light reading for the beach.

Following below is the text of our summer briefing paper, which sets out the narrative emerging from our discussions around Europe. It culiminates in the identification of a series of choices that Europe needs to face up to if it is to secure its security and prosperity in our interdependant world.

A pdf version is also attached, and all comments are welcome!

About this briefing

This political briefing paper summarises the main themes which have emerged from E3G’s extensive conversations with senior political and policy professionals across Europe. This work has been financially supported by the Italian Ministry for Environment and Territory.

E3G Briefing: Europe in the World

Europe’s stasis

Europe has stalled. The momentum that successfully carried Europe forward through the last fifty years of the 20th Century has dissipated. The political will that drove its members from the Common Market to the European Community and on to the European Union is no longer evident.  It delivered five decades of increasing security and prosperity. But it is increasingly clear that Europe is failing to make the political choices needed to ensure the security and prosperity of Europeans in the present century.

Europe’s achievement in building, preserving and expanding a realm of peace and prosperity for its citizens is remarkable and often overlooked. So, too, is its unique record of enabling the difficult transition to stable democracy in so many countries. This process necessitated an inward focus on the internal workings of European Institutions that has at times seemed obsessive. These internal challenges are not now its most pressing problem, and they no longer provide a compelling political focus for European citizens.

Globalisation has dramatically expanded the realm of interdependence. The choices Europeans make have consequences beyond our geographical borders; just as increasingly the choices of those outside these borders have direct consequences for Europeans. If we want to stay secure and prosperous in the 21st century, we must learn to manage those consequences. Otherwise we shall find ourselves with few options but to react to their increasingly unpleasant effects. This would set us at odds with those very same deeply held values that have been the foundation of our prosperity and security.

These impacts appear daily: the increasing numbers of deaths of African migrants in the Atlantic; the tensions between EU members over gas imports; growing droughts and floods driven by climate change, growing fears that competitive pressures will undermine the social contract. Only by acting together to address the root causes of economic instability, poverty, environmental damage, conflict, and the illegal trade in drugs and people, can Europeans maintain their security and prosperity. In a world of porous borders the building of ever higher walls only gives the illusion of security.

Solving the profound challenges that will be faced as world population approaches 8 billion will require a pooling of sovereignty. Europe is the world’s most prolonged and successful experiment in learning how to share sovereignty. A successful Europe is a necessary model to inspire and reassure the world. But, at the very time when it should be building on its achievements, Europe has stalled. It has stalled because there is no vision of what it is for. It used to be about avoiding the past. Now it must be about building the future.

The future is in a globalised world. To lead, Europe must show that it can address the core challenge of maintaining the social and environmental foundations of prosperity under the stress of an unprecedented acceleration of change.

Europe needs a modern prospectus for its citizens built around a clear vision of its place in the world. Europe must become a pathfinder for the global transition to sustainable development. This must be reflected in our policies, legislation, in the way we raise and spend money and, over time, in our notion of who we are as Europeans. We need to show how a modified European project of this kind can open new political ground in the debate about competitiveness, reform, and the European social model, and thereby address the immediate concerns of Europe’s voters and taxpayers.