The European crisis doesn’t end with its terrible management of the single currency, its shameful negligence in the refugee crisis and its complacency on foreign policy issues.
He convincingly made the case that a repeat of Poland’s success story in Ukraine, or any other of Russia’s former satellites would present Russia with truly existential problems and that therefore a quick amicable end to the civil war in Ukraine seems a highly unlikely proposition.Īs if this weren’t enough, almost all sectors of public policy-making within the EU are also facing tremendous challenges. The eminent Ukraine expert Timothy Snyder has described this conflict as a contest between ‘those who wish to oppress civil society and those who wish to embody it. His aggression is not merely directed at the country but equally at NATO and the EU and hence ultimately the model of civil society and rule of law that the latter represents. It is from here that Mr Putin intends to continue to destabilise Ukraine. Meanwhile, on Europe’s eastern flank, Russia’s occupation of Crimea and the Donbas has created what Rebecca Harms, president of the Greens–EFA group in the European Parliament, recently called a ‘launch pad for distortion’. The logic of diverging national interests dominates the issue, with no common solution in sight all while the sources for this massive migration go unaddressed and the human suffering continues unabated. Yet, when it comes to formulating a coherent strategy to tackle Europe’s dismal situation, our political class stays silent and one cannot help but think: maybe there simply isn’t a plan at all.Īt the same time a refugee crisis of unseen proportions rattles Europe and its neighbours. But with Europeans slowly waking up to the fact that time is indeed an expensive commodity, all over the continent the question arises: in what exactly are we investing and what kind of new Europe is it that we have bought time for up to now? Demanding an answer to this question is what unites German taxpayers who will eventually have to foot the bill for bailout after bailout on the one hand, with an entire generation of European youths that is bearing the brunt of the austerity policies imposed on the eurozone’s so called ‘periphery’ on the other. So far this modus operandi has been successful in what it was designed to do: buying time. Every couple of months Europeans are told to rejoice that yet again catastrophe has been averted by way of the latest last-ditch effort designed to temporarily tame financial markets and keep the single currency alive. Ever since the Global Recession fully enveloped Europe in 2010, the EU’s decision-makers have been operating in crisis mode.
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