E3G

The European project is in crisis

By John Ashton

On the 14th April, John Ashton participated in a debate in Bonn hosted by Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit (the Foundation for Sustainability) and Nordrhein-Westfälische Stiftung für Umwelt und Entwicklung (North-Rhine/Westphalian Foundation for Environment and Development) entitled “Thinking about world responsibility”.

The text of John Ashton’s speech follows below. A report of the event (in German) is attached - John Ashton’s speech is given in English on pages 5 and 6.

The European project is in crisis. Europe needs a new sense of purpose, as a driver of the global transition to sustainable development without which no continent will be able to achieve security and prosperity in the 21st century. We need to show in our dealings not only with the US but with our neighbours, with China and other partners, that sharing sovereignty need not undermine diversity, and that only a universalist approach to our common problems will deliver solutions.

I think as the next step in the European project we should build a mirror. But it should be a special kind of mirror. If any European looks in this mirror, they should be able to see the faces of 6 billion people looking back at them.

We can’t have a meaningful dialogue across the Atlantic unless we know who we are and what we stand for. Such a mirror will show us that, as Europeans, we can now only define ourselves, and derive our sense of purpose, by understanding the consequences of our choices for those outside Europe – by creating in other words a sense of Europe’s role on the world. Let me give two examples, from my own background, the world of diplomacy.

Some of the discussion tonight has reflected a very traditional view of international affairs. This holds that nations struggle with each other to maximise their power, their control over events. They have competing interests, in what is more or less a zero sum game.

But in a globalising, interconnected world that is striving for sustainable development, that is patently not an accurate description of reality. There is a whole range of interests – a stable climate, protection from global epidemics, the worldwide ascent from poverty and so on – that humanity holds in common. That is the meaning of all those those faces in the mirror.

Unless we can secure these goals, our narrower national interests – of course we have those too - make little sense: in the end they will be unattainable. We won’t be able to secure global public goods with a zero sum view of foreign policy.