As the EU Evolves, It’s Jerks Against Creeps
This week’s landmark summit deal in Brussels is a step forward. But it might not be enough to save the European dream in the long run.
Forged in crises.
Photographer: Francisco Seco/AFP via Getty Images
Europe will be “forged in crises,” said Jean Monnet, a founding father of what became the European Union. For decades it’s been a favorite quote of Europhiles, and this week’s pandemic deal in Brussels once again makes them feel vindicated. Thrashed out over four days by 27 sleep-deprived leaders, it foresees the EU’s first jointly issued bonds. This debt will finance what’s in effect an insurance mechanism to help the member states worst hit by the coronavirus, such as Italy and Spain, thus proving European “solidarity.”
But countering Monnet and his intellectual progeny, the EU’s many skeptics — including those, like me, who are pro-European — have long argued that Europe always does too little, too late. Whether it’s the euro crisis or the refugee chaos of the past decade, or indeed the coronavirus recession now, the EU never quite rises to the challenge.