Europe and the west have lost their balance. The war in Europe was the inducement to recognise that the world was experiencing a break with the past and that all over the world the cards are being reshuffled.
Inside the European Union (EU), in some states the temptation to emulate populist promises is increasing, in others we are witnessing the breaking of partnership rules to the point of the elimination of democratic principles. Nationalistic tendencies develop against common tasks, supply bottlenecks are everywhere the result of too voluntary dependence in the globalisation of the economy. Europe watches the surge in migration with no ready solutions.
On the outside we witness the struggle of the great powers for geopolitical and military dominance and placement in a “post-Occidental” world, which means nothing more than stopping the influence of the west, as Indian President Modi said at the opening of the G20 summit 2022 mid-November in Bali.
The EU faces the crucial question of how to deal with the Union’s own European sovereignty; whether it gives up the intention as a community to play a decisive global role in politics in the 21st century or whether it wants to become a pawn between the US and the authoritarian Chinese regime in their quest for dominance.
While the US, despite a domestic political and social crisis, is already emerging as the winner of the crisis in terms of energy and autonomy in feeding its population, doubts remain about the status of Europe. Due to Putin’s war in Ukraine, the ranks of the NATO countries have closed and the US is again a real leading power in NATO, which at the same time has hammered down new geopolitical pegs in Southeast Asia with the security guarantee for Taiwan. With the renewed solidarity of the Europeans in NATO, the United States has managed, without particularly pushing, to undermine the EU’s efforts to acquire greater autonomy in security and defence. Europe appears to be prioritising its role as the dependent European pillar in NATO. And the fact is, that wherever Europe has previously interfered in complex crises, it has lost, not because it was too weak militarily, but because Europe has lost its diplomatic creativity in dealing with the US, which is today no longer the model it was until the middle of the 20th century. In the meantime Europeans have recognised that the development of strategic autonomy means immense efforts and that ultimately cannot be achieved without reference to the US.
Europe does not seem to be able to find a common political line, but acts technically and abandons politics for cooperative strategies that can build up into dangerous north-south contradictions, as shown by the dispute in the Union on capping energy prices, where Germany and some partners from the north in particular have long campaigned against. Above all, how money is handled shows how heterogeneous north and south are. The financially sound north has opted to support its industry and households, while the indebted south, oriented to France, has opted to cap prices.
Such differences have so far been resolved by the Franco-German engine, which is currently sputtering, with the risk of the Union splitting “ideologically” into a north pillar led by Germany and a south pillar led by France.
It is therefore now important to remember what we have in common and to give priority again to collectivity and to suppress national egoism. Therefore, the Franco-German engine must be restarted to avoid damage to the Union.
