A “cold-blooded” “political animal” between nationalism and federalism: this is how Piero Graglia, full professor of History of International Relations at the University of Milan, defines the European Union in a contribution published on the “Common Good” website, which reports a dossier on European elections and community integration. “The title could well represent the nature of the European Union today. An entity – states Graglia – which is often the victim of generalization, about which a lot is written but about which very little is known, and often the people who write about it coincide with those who know it less”.
The professor speaks of an “institutional subject that is not passionate”. “Once a colleague, an important historian of international relations, confided to me: ‘I don’t like taking a course on the history of European integration: it’s too boring a history; little blood flows. We know that historians – said Marc Bloch – are like the ogre in fairy tales, they are attracted by human blood; but perhaps it is an exaggeration to define the history of European construction as boring. It is certainly not the histoire bataille dear to generations of classical historians, but it also holds some surprises. Especially today when the EU is emerging, laboriously, with many second thoughts and hesitations, from its long phase of a purely economic-commercial construction and, unfortunately thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic and international tensions and conflicts, it is being called upon more forcefully to play a political role, never so vehemently.”
“The pandemic and the lock down have accomplished the miracle of modifying political positions and changing the opinion of the leaders of the countries of the Union. When it came to discussing a colossal post-pandemic European aid plan, for a total of 750 billion euros, which were added to the 2021-2027 budget perspective which already amounted to 1,074 billion, the European Commission and the European Parliament imposed themselves on the Council of unruly national ministers, and we had the NextGenerationEu, largely financed by issues of European public debt”.
Graglia then addresses various issues, including foreign policy and common defence, and then states: “States claim to continue pretending to be sovereign even if, in fact, they have simply lost both the tools and the size to be global. And this applies to each of the EU member states, from Germany to Malta. How surprised the average citizen would be if he knew that the Union’s decision-making process is in the firm hands of the 27 national governments who keep their representatives – the national ministers – in the Council. […] The Union is today held hostage by 27 national governments who are undecided about everything, who enjoy the objective improvement in living conditions that has occurred in the territory of the Union over the course of these eighty years, but who do not accept to drink the water to the dregs ‘bitter cup of realization that they can’t do everything alone. If we ask for ‘more Europe’, that is, for the Union to be more effective in areas in which the Member States struggle to manage what exists, the Union must be given the powers to intervene, leaving the management of those aspects to the Member States of government that they can better manage at local and national levels”.
, for a stronger and more effective EU, giving the Union the necessary skills){kind=link}