The famous quote about NATO was that it kept the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down. The European unification project, which culminated in the EU, was designed to do the latter two things, and succeeded. But times have changed. What is the EU for today?
Here are some possibilities:
- TO DEFEND LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC VALUES: Have you been to Poland or Hungary recently?
- TO PROVIDE A DECENT QUALITY OF LIFE FOR ALL EUROPEANS: I have just described a transfer union. The Germans, among others, aren’t into that.
- TO PROMOTE FREE TRADE AROUND THE WORLD: Wrong again! The EU countries have lots of protectionism in their DNA. It will become more visible now that the UK is gone.
- TO PROMOTE EUROPEAN CULTURAL VALUES AROUND THE WORLD: And what might those be?
- TO PROVIDE VITAL SERVICES TO ITS RESIDENTS: What, like vaccines?
Here is what the EU actually accomplishes:
- It provides a mechanism that effectively mediates disputes among its members, and thus prevents European wars;
- It permits the relatively free movement of people, goods, and services within its boundaries; and
- It is large enough to be a third major independent player in world affairs, along with the Americans and Chinese.
The modesty of those three rationales should tell you that any future efforts to deepen the EU in the future are likely to fail. The EU is what it is: a chaotic mess that continues to stagger forward because there is still a vital, if limited, place in the world for it. Appreciate it for that–not what it’s not, which is a nation-state similar to the US.