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Stand for Europe
by Thanos Kalamidas
2009-03-23 09:00:41 |
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The world has definitely changed after 9-11 and it is not only the terrorist attacks that changed it but the economic problems that suddenly proved that they were much deeper than what we could see at the time. I think at the same time everything worked like the domino effect inveigle the one piece after the other and from one day to another the problems emerged one after the other; education, behavior a whole society in crisis.
Europe has been for long time, actually for centuries, the crossroad of all these problems and often felt the pressure or the results; actually that’s what led the leaders of Europe to create the European Union in the early seventies, inspired and motivated from the power this crossroad could earn. Suddenly a continent could escape from the role of the observer and become a player with the power of the people, their will and strength to change first of all the economic situation acknowledging that most of the war in the future would be economic wars. That was one part, the second has to do with semantics, at the time the world was shared in two influence poles and everything in between was becoming just the battlefield and the third was that despite the share of the world and the geopolitical interests of the great powers the European have much more that united them than the ones that separate them despite petty prejudice.
The best way to unite the continent was based on the cultural and economic power the states' members could offer and the result is that today twenty-seven European countries constituting the second bigger economic power on earth and probably the one that can truly guarantee and lead freedom and equal rights. I emphasized those two because I think that these two should be the center of our interest and not the arm’s power and readiness for conflict.
Nearly five hundred million people the last account in an area that covers nearly four and a half thousand square kilometers, a crossroad between east and west with a civilization that has influence and influenced from both sides. Only that gives the opportunity as the right to Europe to become the mediator between west and east. The same applies to economy. Five hundred million people can be an unbelievable economic power especially when this population is consuming aware and living under promising conditions like the Europeans do.
What I’m saying here is not to emphasize some kind of Europe-centered ideas but to lay out facts and motivate your imagination on what Europe could have accomplished if Europe was really united under a serious leadership mainly to show that to accomplish that the European union had and still had the right foundations, what is lacking is the right use of them. You see to start from the economics despite the fact that Europe had a strong economy with really strong exchange and I’m referring to the main three, the British pound, the French franc and the German mark and combined the three of them in the form of the Euro they could replace any other. The combined industrial power and production in quantity and quality could shadow any other and it was obvious when the first economic conflicts started with US in the beginning and the production of iron and with China and Japan later with the production of clothes and technology respectfully.
So instead of following the one way that could establish Europe as main player the European leaders ducked under the political pressure exchanging the European power to a petty follower of the interests of American administrations. What followed was that instead of leading become the poor followers in every aspect. Instead of standing as the only possible mediators since they really understand both sides in the Middle East problem Europe became the numb undecided follower who’s expecting the boss to take the decision. Then they became comfortable with the position, you see when you don’t take the decisions, you don’t take also the responsibility of the result and it I just easy to avoid the blame game weakening even more anything Europe stands for centuries.
And with all that we arrive in the euro-election which will happen in a few weeks. It will be the chance for the European citizens to elect their representatives in the European parliament, a parliament that has the base and fundaments to explore the dream of a real united Europe but not the power since when it comes to the final decision is overpowered by the council of the prime ministers and the European condition led from a group of people that represent the worst in the European history led by the most ineffectual than any other before Jose Barroso.
The financial crisis that has hit Europe the last year is a result of wrong executing the obligations and the instruction put form the European parliament. The European parliament for long has warned about the greed and wrong doing of the banks and the financial centers in Europe and the other side of the Atlantic, the European parliament has often tried to make laws to protect the European citizens from all that but nearly everything had to deal with the veto of the European leadership and naturally the president of the commission who is not elected but appointive from those often motivated from personal political agendas did nothing about. Actually that’s why they chosen him so they can control him. Oddly this is exactly what the new European constitution was trying to change but it became a victim of the reaction to the status quo all these have created.
Something has to change and this something has to happened soon before the European Union drifts more from been the spineless follower to the poor neighbor everybody ignores. By the way and this is the irony, everybody wants to see the European union strong with Russia and the Middle East leading this wishful thought. People like Jose Barroso must become a bad parenthesis and never come back and the only way to do that is if the people who try to be elected in the European parliament be the ones who understand the importance of the union and its future and the same time can transmit that to the people they represent and not continuing the status of politicians with agendas and personal interests. The people who are going to the European parliament must work for Europe and not for the petit political agendas of their parties. Then there might is a hope.
financial+crisis Europe Finance EU Economy |
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