The Fall of the Berlin Wall,
the end of the Soviet system in Europe
WHAT SHOULD BE EUROPEANS' MAIN CONCERN AFTER THE GREAT EUROPEAN REVOLUTION?
Key ideas from Schuman's speeches can be found in the study: 'New
Cold War or Common European Home? The question of the millennium' by
D Heilbron Price. (The expression 'Common European Home' was used by Robert
Schuman in the 1950s and in the 1980s by Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president
of the Soviet Union, to express the historic opportunity given by Perestroika
for European unity; 'new Cold war' was used by various Russian leaders
including Defence Minister Igor Rodionov at Nato in 1996. In December 1999
Russian Defence Minister, Marshall Igor Sergeyev said relations with Nato
are 'entering a new phase of getting colder.') The book, Russia and
the danger for the European Union, provides a detailed analysis of
how Schuman's ideas could be applied in the period after Europe's Great
Revolution of 1989-91 and the consequences of the present politics.
Could the
Schuman Plan have ended the Cold War in 1950?
On 9 May 1950 Robert Schuman said the European
Community would be open to all European countries. A journalist asked:
'Is Russia European?' Schuman answered: 'Yes, of course.'
The Americans queried whether Mr Schuman really meant to leave the Schuman Plan open to nations of the Soviet orbit.-- Was he proposing to help win the Cold War or proposing to end it? (James Reston, New York Times, 12 May 1950). Robert Schuman replied that he doubted very much whether the Kremlin would, in the existing circumstances, permit any of its satellites to join but if it did permit any of them to do so, so much the better since this would tend to unify more of Europe and bring a greater part of its war potential under supranational control.
When
did Schuman say Soviet power in Europe would collapse?
In January 1959, Robert Schuman told three young members of the European
Parliament in Strasbourg that the collapse of communist system and its
power structure before the end of the century was certain. 'I may not live
to see it,' he told them, 'but you should if you live a normal lifetime.'
The young politicians were more embarrassed than impressed by his conclusion.
In 1959 the Soviet Union was at the height of its power. Its grip on central
and eastern Europe seemed secure far into the future. In 1957 the USSR
had astounded the world with the launching of the first satellite, the
Sputnik. With it the USSR opened the space age and but it also created
the fear that such an achievement could easily be used to dominate the
world.
See New Cold War or Common European Home? page 7
Was one
of the main reasons for creating the European Union to help the countries
of central and eastern Europe? Was it based on the certain fall of Soviet
power?
'We must construct Europe, not in the interest of the free peoples
alone but also to be able to welcome in it the peoples of the East, who
freed from the repression that they have been subject to until the present,
will ask us for their adhesion and for our moral support. ... We consider
as integrating part of a living Europe all those who desire to rejoin us
in a reconstituted Community. We pay homage to their courage and their
faithfulness as well as their suffering and their sacrifices.'
New Cold War or Common European Home? p vii
What was Schuman's
warning to European political leaders about post-Soviet Europe?
'It is our duty to be ready' to receive these countries
into our Community, their best guarantee for peace.
More than a decade after the fall of the Berlin Wall, these countries
are still waiting. The European leaders are asking the poorest and least
able countries to get ready by passing and applying 80,000 pages of Community
legislation. A new wall of paper has replaced the Berlin Wall. Will the
unity of Europe have to wait till the smallest condition is fulfilled--
as US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright asked, 'until the tomato farmer
of central Europe start using the right kinds of pesticide?' Is this
an adequate, humane response to the 60 million war dead of this century,
the maimed and wounded, the victims of concentration camps and gulags,
the broken lives-- and all the sacrifices for a better, freer, fairer vision
for Europe? For Schuman political action was defined by analysing the realities,
the possibilities and the duties.
New Cold War or Common European Home? p 10 ff
What did Schuman
say about similar approaches to European unity in his time?
'European construction can no longer wait. Otherwise it will come too
late to save Europe by itself and for itself. By multiplying the number
of preliminary conditions for this unity, we render unity itself
impossible.'
New Cold War or Common European Home? p 12
What did Schuman say about this
policy of demanding perfect conformity to complex conditions?
'Lack of completeness is no reason to put off till later an endeavour
for unification. Bold action is better than resignation; expectation of
perfection is a feeble excuse for inactivity.'
New Cold War or Common European Home? p 12
What
conditions should be applied today?
Saving Europe must include the full participation of former 'Eastern'
countries, not just as clients or beggars at the EU table. It is a joint
task, requiring joint efforts. 'Europe will be saved by itself and for
itself.' The sole conditions to initiate that task should be the same as
in 1950: respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and the total
willingness to accept the supranational form of government and solidarity
in a form most fitting for today's challenges.
Comment:
The Czech President, Vaclav Havel, compared
the magnitude of events of 1989-91 historically with the fall of the Roman
empire. Europe is faced with a political challenge of equivalent proportions.
Ten years later we are facing two parts of Europe becoming more antagonistic,
with mafias, corruption, ethnic conflagrations and wars as by-products.
Schuman's efforts led to the European Union as a pole of stability in Europe's
bloody history. Yet even the candidate countries are becoming more and
more disillusioned and about joining because of the lack of vision
and bureaucratic inflexibility of European politicians. Schuman
called this the prime danger faced by our supranational services.
Many candidate countries are now witnessing majorities against joining
the European Union. Respect for law and human rights has reached crisis
proportions in some countries. It may shock today's politicians that Schuman
spoke of 'reconstituting' the European Community on supranational principles
in order to heal post-Soviet Europe. That is how one relates to equals.
How should we go about European
unity?
There are two separate problems: the peaceful unity of
Europe (our greatest priority) and full membership of the European
Union. The principle of supranationality enables countries to solve common
problems together. The supranational response should respond to the most
urgent needs of the people. Thus they can create a community based on key
sectors or interests.
Coal and steel was the first sector to create the initial momentum.
It made war not only 'unthinkable but materially impossible.' The European
Coal and Steel Community Treaty could be renewed so that it could be used
as the initial learning community for prospective full members. (The rule
of law is not as solidly based as in the West. Some countries have passed
the new European legislation -- but do not apply it.) Immediate application
would be an act of trust in the exemplary performance of both sides. Then
fresh common goals can be set. New synergies between the two halves of
Europe could then be created supranationally in other sectors. Many of
these potential sectors could save huge amounts of resources and money
that could create employment and unity. They would be in effect a self-funding
Marshall programme.
Russia and the danger for the European Union, chapters 15, 16.
The problems of the present policy is apparent. Demanding that former
Comecon countries attain the same levels before integration as market economies
with over half a century of cooperation has delayed the historic healing
of Europe by more than a decade. Some countries are finding it increasingly
difficult to fulfill the European Union's conditions. The cancerous rise
of corruption and mafias in some countries will make even their eventual
adhesion dangerous for other member states.
New Cold War or Common European Home? p 24
Equality and human values
Schuman said our duty was to be ready to welcome those other Europeans
in a reconstituted Community. The principle of supranationality is aimed
at building a peace-enhancing Europe together. It is based on equality
of value of each human being in our common European civilization. The aim
of supranationality is to find common solutions to common problems based
on supranational government. Are some politicians confusing today's historical
challenge of the unity of Europe with the idea of their joining a rich
man's club, the European Union?