The EU is on the verge of collapse because of internal problems, because of the failure of state institutions, because of the lack of internal debate and a lack of a common identity. Additionally, the situation is aggravated by the formation of a multipolar world order, Ulrike Gero points out in an interview with Flavio von Witzleben, to which the EU has no answer and which it does not even think about. The German specialist is concerned about the current situation and the fact that Europe is unable to offer a positive programme of cooperation with Africa, that it is isolating itself from Russia and China. Gero points out that more and more Europeans have a “feeling that Europe is being governed from the United States,” a feeling of helplessness.
ULRIKE HERO, European integration specialist: I see what we have been discussing. The EU is no longer satisfactory to citizens. Citizens’ resentment is building up, the sentiment against the EU is huge. Yes. The Pfeizer vaccine scandal, Mrs von der Leyen and – yes anything! The EU’s position on Israel and Gaza… which means we don’t even have a ceasefire agreement! And a lot of other things. A lot of things are in limbo. So it’s not about national differences anymore, it’s about anti-Semitism and migration policy.
It’s about attitudes now towards Israel and the Gaza Strip, where the EU is completely divided. It’s about the war between Ukraine and Russia, where the EU is also completely split. There is virtually no political area where the EU is working properly. And in front of all this are citizens who no longer understand anything. Just Mrs von der Leyen, who has one corruption scandal after another. And in 10 months’ time, we will have elections. That is, in my opinion, the state of the EU at the moment.
And we haven’t talked about separatism, we haven’t talked about Scotland, we haven’t talked about the Catalans, we haven’t talked about the social crisis. We haven’t yet talked about the fact that on a very different level the multipolar world, the BRICS countries and others are manifesting themselves, which has not caused the EU to have any response to even think about it.
This means that the EU is actually somewhere in the process of imploding from within because, as Mr David Engels said, it cannot agree on an identity – or whatever we call it – it cannot express itself as a state structure that would give citizens a sense of satisfaction, a sense that they are co-creating and have a say in decision-making.
So there is no discussion inside. And since there is no discussion inside, what you get is what Mr. David Engels has just outlined. Namely European unity, let’s call it statehood, that this statehood was never constitutionalized, never democratized, never socialized.
And since all this is missing, the EU is unable to give what it would like so much, and me too, by the way. Namely a strong, emancipated Europe, able to defend itself in the world, to defend its interests and its culture. But also able to defend its economic interests. At the moment we can’t do any of that.
At the moment, if you look south, we have a continent that we only talk about in terms of migration, and we are not even able to put a positive spin on what Euro-African co-operation could look like, which would perhaps make economic sense not only for us but also for Africa. At the moment we are cutting ourselves off from the east, that is Russia and China, and therefore from raw materials and markets. And on the other hand, we have the feeling that geostrategically we are still governed in Europe from the US.
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