Unite the Europeans, Unite Europe.

Italy.
Europe Arena  1: “European Union: Should it be a Union of nations or an Union of people?”

Unite the Europeans, Unite Europe.

The European Union. The biggest bet ever made by an entire continent. A supra-national institution that received a lot of power from the member states. It was theorized for centuries (first mentions of it appear earlier than 1500), but the main motivation that led to it was that this was the only possible solution to stop the wars that were sweeping across the continent for centuries. Nations that for centuries were each other’s enemies, like France and Germany or Austria and Italy, in just 50 years became strict economic partners and collaborated with each other not with inside borders, but with a free movement of people and goods.

Now, 70 years after that fateful  25 March 1957, when with the Treaty of Rome it started the slow and unstoppable grow of the European Union (officially founded on the 1 November 1993, with the Treaty of Maastricht), the EU has a parliament voted on by over 500 million citizens of all the 28 nations that constitute it.

But what should be our future? Actually, the European Union is a union of nations, where the real power is detained by the national governments. The European Council and the European Commission are the main governmental instruments; indeed they have the executive power. The first is composed of the heads of the 28 member states and their ministers. The second is composed of 28 commissioners for different areas of policy, one from each member state. Commissioners are bound to represent the interests of the EU as a whole rather than their home states, and that properly constitutes the “government” of the European Union. But the main problem with this system is that if a nation doesn’t want the Union to have a strong role in some area, they simply send a person with no competence, or one that is “shady”, who never makes strong decisions.

Yes, it is also true that all the commissioners have to be approved by the parliament, but they can’t force the states to send stronger figures. So, in reality, the fate of 500 million citizen depends on the volition and different integrations of the European ideal of 28 governments. Maybe that could have worked for the first periods of the European Union when it was just an economic union based on the trade of steel and coal, but now? The EU has exclusive competence of the customs union, fishery, commercial policy, and competition rules; and shared, but almost exclusive, competence on freedoms, security and justice, transportation, energy, environment, agriculture, social policy and internal marketing. Too much power for just a union of nations.

The only solution for resolving this is to give more decisional power to the citizens, allowing them to vote on the commission, to give more legislative power to the parliament, to make the election of the President of the European Council directly voted on by the people and not by the governments. Coordinating the interests of 28 governments that always try to gain more benefits for themselves instead of collaborating to create a stronger union is not productive, especially in a world dominated by superpowers like the USA, Russia, and China. We need a union of people in order to count for something in the future and to preserve our welfare state and freedoms.

But the fault is ours. We have to think, what European Union do we want? It’s understandable to everybody that such a “hybrid” union can’t continue to run for so long. Do we want to go back to just an economic union and continue to move in our own different individual ways inside a globalized world? Or do we want to finally speak together with one single voice, defending our rights, our freedoms and our lifestyles from other nations and corporations?

We must be honest with ourselves: Italy, the United Kingdom, France, Estonia, Sweden, and Germany alone no longer count for anything. We’ll always lose more power if we act alone, but united we can make a difference. All European people united could even lead to a new golden age for the entire continent. A future green, sustainable, with a strong welfare state and great freedom for everybody.

If we unite the Europeans, we unite Europe.
Once and for all.

By F.P., Italy
20 years old