Macron will need more than a new acronym // Jamie Maxwell
President Macron’s new pan-European body is a step in the right direction but war in Ukraine remains an existential crisis for the continent
Macron, she told the continental press pack, was a “friend” of the United Kingdom’s – the real foe was Vladimir Putin.Precisely what Macron hopes to achieve with this freshly minted diplomatic initiative remains unclear. Traditionally, of course, division has been the norm in European life rather than the exception. I was reminded of that this summer when I read Postwar by the late Anglo-American academic Tony Judt and The Dream of Europe by the Dutch journalist Geert Mak.
Europe, he argues, is dysfunctional – a defensive coalition perennially unprepared for external disruptions.Judt was an ex-Marxist turned radical social democrat; Mak is a commentator in the mainstream of European liberalism.Of the two, Judt – who died in 2010 – is the better and more incisive analyst.
He has no time for the middle-class Catalans straining to break away from the “impoverished” Castilian Spain, nor the demented Brexiteers drunk on the idea of Britain’s vanished imperial past. “Instead, Putin chose the path of defiance, declaring that ‘Crimea is Russia’ and that if Ukraine joined Nato, European countries would ‘automatically’ be at war with Moscow.”If the West tries to upset its plan, “there will be no winners, and you will be drawn into this conflict against your will”.Indeed, one of the most startling consequences of the war thus far has been the rapid emergence of Europe as a major military actor.
“Neither of these options is ideal: an unreformed EU with 36 member states would be hobbled by veto rights, a bloated European Parliament, and a hopelessly fragmented executive branch.” A rapprochement of sorts is already beginning to take shape over the contentious issue of the Northern Ireland protocol.
Assuming a resolution for Ulster can be found, an important post-Brexit principle will have been established – Britain doesn’t need to be inside the EU in order to work alongside its European allies, and Europe doesn’t need Britain inside the EU in order to serve the material interests of its member states.
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