Since the carnage of the Second World War, the democratic states of Europe have been forging ever closer bonds between themselves. After three major wars in a row, France and Germany decided to co-operate with one another so as to make a future war impossible. Other democratic states decided to join. We Europeans decided to stop destroying our societies and send entire generations of young men to their deaths. We wanted a permanent peace.
Our Europe is a relatively small continent that contains many talented populations, scenic beauties, historical treasures and natural resources. In this relatively small space, most states traditionally coveted what other states possessed. Before 1945, European states attempted to fulfil these desires by waging wars of conquest or plunder on their neighbours. From the end of the eighteenth century onwards, nationalism provided a stronger dynamic for such wars. A century later, public education saw entire populations indoctrinated in the mystique of their nation. Whole populations united in a collective will to kill other nations. War was presented as desirable. These developments made divisions between nations deeper and more durable. The European states of the past shared a history of killing each other. Between 1870 and 1945, more than a hundred million Europeans died during armed conflicts. Some seven million persons perished in one of the biggest crimes ever committed against humanity. No more!
Every single European nation suffered grievous losses. I am a Dutchman with a German family name. In three wars, the German branch of my family was essentially annihilated on successive battlefields. Through my mother’s Huguenot family, I lost relatives on the French side too. During the Second World War, Dutch relatives were killed in battle or locked up in the German concentration camp Buchenwald and in several Japanese internment camps in the Dutch Indies. One of my mother’s Jewish classmates disappeared in the Holocaust. When I was born, the Netherlands was still reeling in poverty from the consequences of the war. Few Dutchmen know that in 1940 the Netherlands narrowly escaped the fate of nations such as the Poles and the Czechoslovaks, where the Nazis decided to exterminate all intellectuals. Such nations suffered even more. More than 100,000 Dutch citizens, who happened to be Jewish, were murdered. More than 2 million Polish Jews were murdered.
Against this background, European democratic politicians, businessmen, and intellectuals decided after 1945 that the killing had to be stopped once and for all. Instead of killing, they proposed to share. The first impulse of the new European project was economic in nature. Sharing coal and steel was instituted to take away the instruments of warfare. Further steps were taken to form a shared economic community. The famous freedoms –of people, products, services and capital— showed, however, that further integration was necessary to make the European Community a success. In the event, it took a generation for a political union to begin to take shape with a shared European Parliament. Before that, the EC had been a mostly bureaucratic, intergovernmental organisation. In the past thirty years, the European Union has sought to change that. By developing better democratic structures it has tried to come closer to ordinary people. Through its policies, it has also brought Europe’s peoples together in a single zone of peace, freedom and wealth, which most young people take for granted.
The past fifteen years have shown, however, that an essential element is lacking in the European Union. For all the things we share, we lack a popularly shared European identity. We lack a view for the future. That is why in 2005 countries such as France, the Netherlands, and Ireland voted down the European constitution. That is why the 2010 financial crisis saw divisive nationalism and populism flare up in many EU member states. Persons in the different member states are still raised in the backward looking national traditions of their own respective countries without much attention for the future of our European Union. We profit from the promising future of the EU, but we live in our own mental worlds of the past. In so many ways, we do not understand each other. Our nationalisms offer us different worldviews. France with its tradition of the French Revolution, the “laicité” and its devastating feud with Germany, Germany with its democratic rebirth after its unification and its horrific modern wars, Hungary with its nationalist fight against the Habsburg Empire, the loss of most of its territories after the First World War and the Soviet oppression, democratic Spain with its past of isolation and Fascist dictatorship. I could go on for a while. How will that help us for a European future?
We need a unifying message for all Europeans. So far, Europe has largely been an affair of the elite. If the EU wants to be a democracy, that will have to change. There is an emotional need for all of us to understand why we are building a common Europe. We need to realise we are increasingly growing into communities that share certain precious values and aspirations that will make Europe a safe and wealthy place to live for our children. This goes far beyond the often stale and rational human rights theories that the EU is setting forth. We need a story that tells us what we want Europe to be as a home for all us. In short, we need an idea of Europe for a common future.
Surprisingly perhaps, a basic idea of Europe could come from a merger of the different nationalisms within an overarching framework of democratic principles. In this way, Europe can acquire a popular identity for ordinary people. This could be a practical approach towards the creation of a European idea. Nationalism, or call it patriotism, can be a sign of a healthy society, which is proud of its past and its achievements and confident for the future. It gives citizens an identity that is more than a set of rational explanations. But it can be more. Besides focusing on a story for a particular country or ethnic group, a healthy nationalism can also contain an underlying history of what all Europeans share and aspire to. To varying degrees, we have all been influenced by Christianity, the Renaissance, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, nationalisms, democracy and the scientific and technological revolutions of the past century. In art, literature, philosophy, and political movements no coherent story can be told without reference to several or even most European countries. At a popular level, we have amongst many other things a shared culture of football, fashion and outdoor life. European thought and culture is the envy of the world. This could form the basis for a common and confident view of what Europe wants to be in the future.
Nationalisms actually do not need to be exclusive. Europeans can be familiar with each other’s stories in a way that doesn’t make nationalism a zero-sum game. This can be done by respecting the stories of others and being honest about the less appealing aspects of one’s own. As in democratic politics, there should be room for diversity and mutual respect. In many countries that may mean a process of reconciliation with both other countries and the own past. But that is not enough. It is important to provide a common idea for the future. How do we take Europe from here? Europe should be a land of promise, where shared dreams and aspirations can be fulfilled. Based on that, perhaps, an inclusive idea of what Europe for all of us means can emerge.
I have no doubt that formulating an idea of Europe will be a complicated process. We are a very diverse continent. Politicians, opinion makers and intellectuals should have a role in this, but so should ordinary people. There should be more debate about the need for an emotional commitment to Europe. After all, the world is fast growing smaller. Larger countries, such as China and India, are increasingly making themselves heard. In order to matter for the future, Europe needs to draw together. The question who we are as Europeans and what we stand for is more pressing every day. This should draw attention too to the need for more bilingual and multilingual Europeans. We need to speak and read each other’s languages and cultures to draw closer to one another. The example of Switzerland shows that it can be done.
If the European Union is to survive into the next century and the member states are serious about their commitments, the formulation of an idea of what Europe exactly is to ordinary people will have to receive the urgent attention that it deserves. The EU has weathered an impressive amount of crises and setbacks in recent years. In spite of popular movements calling for the rolling back of the EU, national majorities everywhere, with the exception of the UK, have continued to support the EU. People, however, want more than cold policies and agreements from Brussels, that often feel very distant from their daily lives. People want ideals and emotions, that will uplift good times and see them through the difficult ones. We need to be proudly aware of Europe in our daily lives. It should be an idea of Europe that we can warm to and hold a promise for the future. It should be an idea that is spread at schools, pubs, markets, internet, politics and in the media. In short, it should become our shared idea.