Speaking at the Schloss Bellevue palace in Berlin, President
Joachim Gauck used a televised speech in February 2013 to make the case for
more European integration. At the time, calling for “more Europe” in terms of
shifting still more governmental sovereignty from the state governments to that
of the Union was not a very popular task. Further limiting the power of his
message is the fact that the German presidency is largely ceremonial , unlike
the office of governor in an American state. Nevertheless, Gauck was determined
to put the contemporary condition of the “European project” in favorable
perspective. The most striking—and even effective—aspect of his speech is his
repeated references to “European citizens.” Had he used “Germans” instead, he
would have subtly undercut his own message.
Acknowledging the fiscal and structural imbalances that gave
rise to the debt crisis in several E.U. states
and the problems entailed in “patching up” the problems by emergency
measures, Gauck nonetheless pointed to non-economic elements of the European
project that were also in crisis. “It is also a crisis of confidence in Europe
as a political project. This is not just a struggle for our currency; we are
struggling with an internal quandary too.” This problem is predicated on the
point that the strengthening of a European identity comes out of a recognition
of shared values, rather than in differentiation from other cultures outside of
Europe.
Too often, Europeans artificially delimit their values to their
particular state. Typically, Europeans will preface a self-referential remark
with, “In my country,” only to describe a custom or value that is by no means
limited to, distinctive in, one particular state. Even in saying “more Europe
means a European Germany,” Gauck risked falling into this trap, at least in
terms of keeping Europe as secondary. More in line with his thesis would have
been the expression, more Europe means
more European. More European in turn means more of a consciousness of
values that European citizens (and residents) share, whether or not people in
Africa, Asia, or America happen to esteem those values too. So the question
facing European citizens is this: What
values do you share?
From an American perspective, I notice the salience of the
value of solidarity held by Europeans because it is such a recessive value in
America. Ironically, World War II was perhaps the last time solidarity in terms
of “we’re all in it together” was explicitly pushed and acknowledged in
America. Even then, the value was more in terms of sacrificing for a common
purpose rather than seeing to it that the most vulnerable among us do not fall
through the cracks in terms of sustenance. In Europe, solidarity has more of a social welfare quality.
Moreover, whereas Americans tend to apply human rights only to
the harm caused by tyrants abroad, Europeans tend naturally to extend to the
value to covering the basic sustenance rights of one’s own fellow citizens as
well. The shift needed for a stronger European identity involves becoming aware
of the duty to apply the value domestically
to other Europeans rather than
merely to people in one’s own state, or “country.” So “European Germans” would
feel solidarity with starving “European Greeks,” for example. This is the
element that was largely missing from the austerity response of E.U. finance ministers
to the debt crisis from 2010 to 2012. Accordingly, “more Europe” involves not
only a stronger value-fueled-identity, but also more fiscal redistribution at
the federal, or E.U., level. Put another way, Europeans surely have more shared
values than that of austerity.
Source:
Ian Johnson, “German
President Joachim Gauck Uses Major Speech to Call For “More Europe,” DW,
February 22, 2013.
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