Reflections on an integrating Europe

As a common Schengen Visa takes a traveller from one European country to another in an almost borderless journey, it8217;s hard to imagine that this was the continent that fought fierce wars to settle border and territorial disputes and, ultimately, precipitated in the last century two World Wars

I am writing this column from the tranquil town of Lariano in Italy, a 90-minute drive from Rome. An invitation from the Pope8217;s Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Vatican to participate in an international conference has brought me here. The subject of the meeting is somewhat sensitive8212;assessing the reality about conversions.

I take it as a measure of candour and earnestness of the Vatican-promoted inter-faith initiative that I, a Hindu, have been invited to this dialogue. But since the deadline of this column cannot accommodate even the beginning of the meeting, which opens later today Friday, I can write about it only next week. However, the journey to Rome, via Paris, itself has been sufficient to provoke many streams of thought about the past, present and future of Europe.

It8217;s amazing how the history of a mere six decades can change the identity and even the destiny of an entire continent. These days anyone who visits any country in continental Europe does not really visit that country as such. He visits a constituent of a new 8216;8216;nation-in-the-making8217;8217;, which may well adopt the name 8216;United States of Europe8217; some day. He lands in Euroland, where the common currency has replaced most national currencies, where a common market has breached the protectionist walls of national markets, and where common laws are steadily replacing national laws.

With Germany set to assume the presidency of the European Union in January 2007, its first woman chancellor, Angela Merkel, in a policy-setting speech on Thursday, called for scrapping at least 25 per cent of the 8216;8216;obsolete8217;8217; EU laws. More significantly, Merkel has pledged to make adoption of a common constitution a priority of her EU presidency. An earlier attempt in this regard failed after referendums in France and the Netherlands rejected the proposal.

Forget US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld8217;s self-serving division of 8216;8216;Old8217;8217; Europe and 8216;8216;New8217;8217; Europe to drum up support for the Bush administration8217;s criminal8212;and predictably disastrous8212;attack on Iraq three years ago. He had called those countries supporting the US war on Iraq 8216;8216;New8217;8217; Europe, and dismissed the critics as having missed the bus. The truth is, all of Europe is now New Europe, or one that is in the process of renewing itself, shedding the divisions, animosities and even memories of the bitter wars of the past, and embracing a road that is destined to take it towards greater integration and a stronger European identity.

As a common Schengen Visa takes a traveller from one European country to another in an almost borderless journey, it8217;s hard to imagine that this was the continent that fought fierce wars to settle border and territorial disputes and, ultimately, precipitated in the last century two World Wars, the deadliest of all the wars mankind has witnessed. To me, the most important transformation that history has produced is in making Europe a zone of peace. Pacifism has taken stronger roots in the European mind today than perhaps anywhere else in the world. This bodes well for the future of mankind.

But Europe8217;s road to a stable future is going to be far from smooth. Transition and uncertainty are writ large over many things in Europe. Paradoxically, the two biggest sources of uncertainty and social unease in Europe today8212;immigration and globalisation8212;are both largely creations of its own history. Almost all their colonies gone, European nations now have significant immigrant populations from their former colonies8212;and also from elsewhere in the world. As a result, the notion of 8216;8216;foreignness8217;8217; is becoming increasingly ambivalent. At the same time, concerns of native populations about their national culture and national identity are becoming acute. As is only to be expected, this process of integration between the 8216;8216;self8217;8217; and the 8216;8216;other8217;8217; is creating new challenges and problems at many levels8212;in civil society, governments and politics. The recent immigrant violence in France sharply highlighted this challenge.

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A dominant aspect of Europe8217;s concerns over integration and identity is the growing presence of Islam all across the continent. Not a day passes without the major European newspapers, journals and TV channels debating this issue. I came across this in a newspaper yesterday: 8216;8216;Women wearing headscarves and men with skull caps and beards are an increasingly common sight throughout Europe today. This is the new Europe, one in which a rapidly growing Muslim population is making its presence felt in societies that until recently were largely homogeneous. Muslims are still very much minorities in Western and Central European countries, making up roughly 5 per cent of the European Union8217;s total population. But Islam is already the fastest-growing religion in Europe. Driven by immigration and high birthrates, the number of Muslims on the continent has tripled in the last 30 years. Tensions also have arisen over religion.8217;8217;

Many feel that successful integration of European Muslims is crucial to the future of Europe. Thus, the debate over Turkey8217;s entry into the EU has decidedly religious overtones. In this context, what the late John Paul II had said about the 8216;8216;Christian roots8217;8217; of Europe is notable. 8216;8216;I cannot help note that Europe is going through a crucial phase in his history in enlarging its borders to new people and other nations,8217;8217; the former Pope remarked in 2003. 8216;8216;It is important that Europe, enriched throughout the centuries by its Christian faith, confirms its origins and re-establishes its roots.8217;8217;

Globalisation is the other big worry in Europe today. In most European countries, middle-class and working-class people feel that they have been deceived by the promises of a global market economy. Claude Smadja8212;who is not unfamiliar to Indians, having been associated with the CII8217;s partnership summits jointly with the World Economic Forum of Davos8212;wrote in Newsweek recently: 8216;8216;Over the last 15 years most European countries have been fighting one rearguard battle after the other8212;and losing. Growth is anaemic, structural unemployment is rising, pensions are increasingly at risk. Across Europe, people are disoriented, frustrated and deeply anxious about their lives and the future of their children. They feel cheated. Fifteen years ago European and US growth rates treaded along the same lines8212;about 2.5 per cent a year. Now they8217;ve sharply diverged: 3.8 per cent for America versus 1.7 per cent for Europe.8217;8217;

The life-or-death question for Europe now is how to regenerate high growth8212;and high employment. Many European companies are showing record exports and profits. Ironically8212;and this is the logic of globalisation8212;they are not creating jobs in Frankfurt or Paris or Rome but in India, China and South-East Asia. With the rise of Asia, especially China and India, the earlier pre-eminence of Europe in global politics or global economics is steadily weakening, and even the big and once-mighty countries like France and Germany know it. This too is a factor goading them towards greater European integration.

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8216;8216;Time does not wait, Europe has an important role to play in the new millennium until the Pacific-Asian world will dominate the future of this planet,8217;8217; says a declaration of the Robert Schulman Foundation, named after the French foreign minister in the 1950s who contributed significantly to Franco-German cooperation, which laid the basis for the subsequent European integration. 8216;8216;We believe that it is only by being united that we can be strong. We should look to the future with the greatest determination to create a truly united and unified Europe. A Europe that can meet the challenge and opportunity of the 21st Century.8217;8217;

Best wishes, Europe.

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