Rethinking the European Integration Process Mikuláš Dzurinda

EUROPeAN VIew (2017) 16:183–184 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12290-017-0466-2 EDITORIAL Back to the drawing board? Rethinking the European integration process Mikuláš Dzurinda Published online: 13 December 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication In 2004 the EU witnessed a momentous occasion at Áras an Uachtaráin, the Irish presi- dential palace. There it celebrated its most extensive enlargement as 10 new members joined the Union. This included my home country, Slovakia, of which I was then the prime minister. At this same time the Union was discussing further political integration, an aspiration symbolised by the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. The EU was then a Common European House. In confrmation of its optimism, the integration process would be extended several years later to include still more countries. Fast forwarding to approximately a decade later, we fnd that the Common European House looks like a different place. It is confronted with not only external challenges but also deep division among its members. As opposed to Dublin in 2004, the integration process now requires rethinking and a new vision for cooperation among its members. This issue of the European View examines in depth the ways in which the EU member states can work together on some of the sensitive challenges the Common European House faces today: cooperation on defence and foreign policy, migration, eurozone M. Dzurinda (*) Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, Rue du Commerce 20, 1000 Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] 183 1 3 EUROPEAN VIEw (2017) 16:183–184 reform and internal cohesion. The central question this issue explores is how the EU can reform itself in key strategic areas with a view to the future of the integration process. This question is in line with the soul-searching that the European Commission launched with its White Paper on the Future of Europe. The topics this issue covers range from EU foreign policy and external action to security and defence, migration, eurozone reform, internal cohesion and political participation in the age of technology. Submissions go beyond the technicalities of policymaking and provide important political input as to how today’s and tomorrow’s challenges can be met. They provide inform- ative material on how to shape our Common European House. As mentioned by Wolfgang Schüssel in his contribution, we must retain our sense of identity and preserve our European values, which bind us together, in the process of rearticulating our common European narrative. The integration process should avoid excessive centralisation as this fuels popular resentment and may lead to a reversal of the progress the Union has made since its inception 60 years ago in Rome. Instead, the different responsibilities on the national and the supranational levels should be clarifed based on the principle of subsidiarity. On this basis the recent developments towards increased cooperation in security and defence are welcome, and I look forward to further progress in this area. It is natural to compare the blue sky over Áras an Uachtaráin in 2004 to the cloudy skies that currently hang over the EU. It is precisely at this time that we need both a sectoral and an overarching vision of how to settle our internal divisions so that we can overcome the challenges which history has placed before us. It is with this in mind that I invite you to engage with this issue’s contributions. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Mikuláš Dzurinda is President of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies. 184 EUROPeAN VIew (2017) 16:185–190 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12290-017-0469-z ARTICLE Europe’s protective power Wolfgang Schüssel Published online: 18 December 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication Abstract The EU has weathered the fnancial crisis but continues to face a host of challenges: its role in international politics, the scope of security and defence cooperation, the question of how to redefne the concept of ‘sovereignty’, the societal impact of technological disruption and migration, and the general anxiety among the EU’s population in relation to globalisation. In this context it is important for the EU to remain conf- dent in itself and its sense of identity. Keywords European integration | European identity | Europeanism | Culture W. Schüssel (*) Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies, Rue du Commerce 20, 1000 Brussels, Belgium e-mail: [email protected] 185 1 3 EUROPEAN VIEw (2017) 16:185–190 Introduction Has Europe fnally overcome its crises or are we still in the midst of them? Have we made it through the fnancial crisis reasonably well only to overlook the tsunami of prob- lems that is rapidly approaching? Everyone can understand the sigh of relief heard in Brussels and the capitals of Europe after the elections in the Netherlands, France, Germany and Austria. Everyone, of course, is hoping to see a quick and reasonable outcome of the Brexit negotiations and a compromise in the Spanish–Catalonian constitutional dispute. We all wish Presi- dents Juncker and Tusk every success in the coming rounds of talks with the Visegrad countries. A great deal will depend on the revived French–German community of action and the personal chemistry between Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel if the EU’s clout in international competition is to be strengthened within the framework of the exist- ing Treaties. This includes a deepened internal market; more precise and, above all, supervised rules of the Stability and Growth Pact; the development of a secure Banking Union and Capital Markets Union; the protection of external borders; and a common foreign, security and defence policy. Looking to the future, what can we expect? Europe’s role in the world Let me start with Europeans and their place in tomorrow’s global village. Until 1800 the world population was quite stable at just under one billion people, whose life expectancy was around 26 years. One third of the world’s population lived in Europe and generated approximately half of the global GNP. A hundred years later, there were two billion people: one ffth of them lived in Europe, where they had a life expectancy of 40 years and produced 40% of the global GNP. By 2000 population fgures had surged to six billion, with Europe accounting for no more than 10% of the world population but still generat- ing 25% of the world’s GNP. Our life expectancy has doubled. By 2030 there will be 8.5 billion people living on this planet, and the fgure may well rise to 10 billion by 2050. The number of people over the age of 60 will increase from 800 million to 2 billion. All this will not necessarily be disadvantageous, but it means that we need to concentrate intensively on the development of our strengths and talents. Brain power will be the true raw material of the future. Europe will have to fght for its place in the global village— both as a business location and as a model for a way of life. Those who prefer to ride on the nostalgia train run the risk of ending up in the local history museum. 186 EUROPEAN VIEw (2017) 16:185–190 The changing security landscape Security cannot be taken for granted: our world is no planet of peace. At present, 400 armed conficts are on record in the global village. The UN is supporting 60 million off- cially registered refugees through the World Food Program and other specialised agen- cies. In reality, however, two to three times as many people have lost everything and are now struggling to stay alive. At the same time, a gigantic arms spiral has been set in motion. Purchases of weapons worldwide have increased by 50% in recent years. The US is spending the incredible amount of $600 billion a year on armaments. The Chinese have increased their military expenditure from $93 billion to $235 billion and want to build a ‘world-class army’, according to Xi Jin Ping (The Economic Times 2017). Over the past 10 years, Russia has doubled its military budget, which now stands at $70 billion. In contrast, military spending in the EU is stagnating, even though Europe is anything but a military giant. In the past a common defence and security policy seemed like a far-fetched idea. This seems to be changing. However, there is another sphere in which Europe has excelled: the art of diplomacy, of mediation, and of economic and cul- tural cooperation. It must have been the traumatic experience of centuries of wars and conficts in Europe that led us to develop new, more cooperative and sustainable view- points and strategies. These are indispensable for the future: hand-in-hand cooperation instead of head-to-head confrontation. Nevertheless, if our ‘soft power’ were supported by professional military capacities, it would be even more effective. The concept of rapidly deployable ‘battle groups’ could be transferred to humanitarian relief operations abroad and civil protection at home. Sovereignty in a globalised world What does the notion of sovereignty stand for in the twenty-frst century? In his ground- breaking work The Globalization Paradox, US economist Dani Rodrik argues that globalisation, democracy and national sovereignty are fundamentally incompatible.

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