Monday 30 March 2015

European Nations

I just finished few days ago a book by Yann Fouere, titled Towards A Federal Europe, which really opened my eyes. Although the book was written in 1968, much of the content is still relevant today in the Europe of 2015. I suggest people to read this book because not only it explains the history of Europe by dividing it in three stages but also it gives a practical frame work for the Europe of tomorrow, a federal Europe.

Fouere in his introduction talk about the three stages of Europe. The first Europe being at the time of middle-ages, when the continent was united by a single religion. Obviously, at this time never existed a single European state, but rather many different kingdoms ruled according to feudalism. What Fouere, emphasizes on this period is that people were able to travel freely around Europe, and that most of the times when a great danger was facing the people of Europe, the numerous kingdoms would come together to form one army. The second Europe, according to Fouere developed as the numerous kingdom were integrated in larger states, the nation states. It was at this point that the equilibrium in continental Europe changed dramatically. The problem was that the new nation states were based on a single nation, the most powerful one, which imposed its culture to the rest. Some of these emerging states were France, Spain, England and later Germany and Italy. In the case of Germany the leading nation was Prussia, while in Italy it was Piemonte. However, the way these states developed was through an aggressive politics of expansion which would during the 19th and 20th century generate the worst wars ever experienced in the continent. Totalitarian regimes were according to Fouere, the extremism of a nationalist politics were the individual did not matter anymore, it was all about the state. Finally the third Europe, would be the federal Europe, which is seen by the author as the solution to wars and possible economic crises. Though, he strasses the fact that this Europe should not be based on national states, but rather on regional-states, which best embody the nations of Europe.

In this fundamental book, which anyone passionate about Europe should read, I believe the most important idea is to look at Europe as a collection of diverse nations (Bask, Scottish, Sardinians) rather then looking at the Europe of national states (Spain, U.K. or Italy). By doing this, we make a new map of Europe, and we break down the national states, which do not belong in naturally belong to the people of Europe. Infant, they were imposed form the powerful.

Then the map of Europe would more likely look like this. What Fouere suggested was a federation not of states but of region-states such as Bavaria in Germany or Catalunya in Spain. These region sates in order to have a peaceful federation and a government that works properly they should be small in size and as equal as possible. Obviously, these devisions would be made according to common culture, size of population and the economy. We can anticipate much discussion regarding where the line should be drawn but this was Fouere vision. The establishment of a federal Europe, based on small region-state of equal size, which are governed by a local government which take internal decision (education, health-care, local police, taxation) and a federal government which takes decision affecting the all member states (army, currency, criminal law..).

I think this would be the most effective way to have a more democratic Europe, where decisions are made at a local level and not by a centralized government. Also it would secure peace between states and make Europe strong economically as well as politically.




Saturday 21 March 2015

Natio-State is Outdated

"The truth is that the political organization of Europe, divided as it is at present into sovereign nation-states, is anachronistic. It can no longer face the problems with which it is confronted. Every European nation-state knows very well that it cannot defend itself against a possible aggression by a world power-e.g. Soviet Union-Without the help of the United States. Their home markets have become too small and they no longer enjoy vast colonial empires from which they could get their raw materials and where they could sell their manufactured products.Their role on the world stage has been reduced dramatically, and they have no great future nor any message of importance to give to mankind."

 Yann Fouere 1968. 

Friday 20 February 2015


Just to give you a brief introduction to the European Union I think this video is perfect, it also points out some of the complication we are currently experiencing in Europe.

United Europa

What is United Europa? 

United Europa is an idea of state and other possible names for it are United States of Europe, Federal Europe, Federal Republic of Europe and so on. Basically, we are talking about the formation of a single federal state out of the  28 EU member states that today form the European Union. Does it mean that UK, France or Spain will cease to exist? No! What will happen is a division of power. Take the United States of America for instance, it is composed by 50 states(California, Florida, Nevada ecc.) but the federated state is the United States. This system breaks down into two governments, the federal government  which deals with regulations affecting all states while state governments enforce and regulate laws in only a single state. Thus, the role of the federal government is to oversees all affairs which affect states as a whole such as national defence, foreign affairs and monetary policies. In other words the role of the federal governments is to provide the macro decision making for all states. On the other hand the local decision making is allocated to state governments which decide on affairs such as education, health care, infrastructure, taxes and so on. Although, to describe in details this system of government one needs to read several books, the key point is that this system provides an efficient model to arrange local and regional necessities which might be different from state to state and at the same time it secures coordination and unity through the federation.  Many countries adopted this system such as Germany, Russia, India, Australia, Canada and many others. 
I strongly believe this system to be the best option for a continental state such as Europe which is formed by many different cultures that need to be preserved and at the same time the great need for Europe to be able to make decisions promptly to effectively respond to any kind of crises.