On the first day of my class IR405: European Institutions and Enterprises, someone said: “I don’t get how the EU functions: it has a common currency, but it is comprised of different countries. I don’t think it will last.”
It was Churchill himself who proposed that there should be “something like the United States of Europe.” Well, my dear American friends, the European Union is nothing like your United States.
The EU is a common market, which means that there is free movement of goods, services and money among its twenty-seven member states, and what’s probably more interesting for you and me, citizens of the EU can travel freely, work, and live in any of the EU countries. Thus, you can find an Easy Jet flight from London to Milano for only €33. With its federal character, the EU is similar to the US, but its political structure is invariably more complicated and its population is more diverse. That is, the EU is comprised of very distinctive societies.
Take the euro coins for example. They all portray the map of Europe on one side, but have different national designs on the other. These are seventeen special designs that feature the national symbols of the seventeen countries that have adopted the euro, and thus belong to the European economic and monetary union. The euro design testifies that although we are economically and politically linked, Europeans are still to a great extent nationalists. This is why you wouldn’t hear a foreigner in the States say “I’m European,” but rather “I’m French” or “I’m Polish”. Interestingly, I’ve noticed that many Americans in London introduce themselves with “I’m from LA” or “I’m from Jersey,” which means that you too have greater allegiance towards the smaller political and economic unit that defines you.
Despite EU’s efforts to become more like “united states,” there is one giant obstacle: language. There currently are twenty-three official languages in the EU and many more unofficial ones. There is no common language policy, although every country encourages learning multiple languages (in Bulgaria, learning a foreign language is obligatory since elementary school , and most students take on a second foreign language in high-school). Open a euro banknote and you will notice two alphabets: the Latin and the Greek; when Bulgaria adopts the euro on Jan 1, 2013 (if we survive 2012, that is), a third alphabet will be added: the Cyrillic alphabet.
Another reason why Churchill’s idea might fail is the EU’s cultural and social diversity. Of course the USA is not at all less diverse than Europe (Fancy me and imagine a stereotypical Texan with leather cowboy boots and a bolo tie sitting next to a preppy Boston lawyer in a Starbucks). Still, in the States, different cultural groups have developed across vast territories due to great differences in climate, geography and lifestyle. In Europe, you can find very diverse populations in a very small area.
Naturally, major cities both in Europe and the States are affected by globalization, which allows cultures to permeate each other: only in South Kensington, there are so many Italian pizza restaurants, French patisseries, and Japanese sushi places. But the diversity of Europe is even more evident as we move away from the urban centers. The way people live in South France is very dissimilar to the way they do in Bavaria and is worlds apart from the way they do in Romania. There are different traditions, different professions, different levels of economic development, different worldviews. It is nothing like in the States where people speak the same language, watch the same TV, talk about the same politicians, and eat the same brand of ketchup.
You’ve already seen the proper and poised English; I encourage you to visit the hot-tempered Spanish, the practical Germans, the romantic French, and why not the hospitable Greek too. You might enjoy the different cuisines, fashion, stores, and entertainment, but don’t forget to make a note of these differences because they might be the key to why the European Union might never become “The United States of Europe.”
6 comments
Comments feed for this article
January 27, 2011 at 9:32 pm
Nzik
There is no need for EU to become ” one state-one nation-one language”. It enough to have common market, no borders for people, capital and business, synhronized legal system and to use its synergies.
The beauty and the strenght of EU is in its diversity.
January 30, 2011 at 9:47 pm
katley
The beauty of the European Union is in its diversity, and its willingness to work together for the common good.
What I like is the fact that people in Europe are encouraged to learn several languages. In the United States people don’t take learning a second language seriously; as a matter of fact the Tea Party with their “English Only” stance is very narrow-minded. Learning a second language is a window into a different culture and way of thinking.
My closest friend is a language teacher (French & Spanish, her native language is Hungarian) and she tells me her students do not take her course seriously because they feel it is irrelevant. She is on the verge of burnout because of this, and the administration does not support her. Unfortunately that is the attitude here in this country, at least at the high school level.
January 31, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Nzik
Learning a foreign language is quite an effort. Only people who see clearly the need for this effort are willing to do it. Many of those who live in US have never been outside of US, when they go abroad they expect that the others should know English.
In Europe everything is different – most of the countries and linguistic teritories are only 2-3-4 hours drive from one border to the opposite. Those who are travelling know that their neighbours speak a different language and have different meals for dinner….
January 31, 2011 at 10:08 pm
katley
Nzik, learning a second language is difficult for some, and I have to agree with you on this. Also I know many people who have never left the United States, and the few that do expect English to be spoken everywhere.
Here in the States, there are a number of cities with multicultural multi-ethnic neighborhoods, New York (where I was born and raised), Orlando, Florida (large Hispanic community), Boston, San Francisco, etc.
My upbringing involved people who were bilingual so that was normal for me, and that is why I think learning a second or third language is important. Unfortunately there are people in this country who strongly disagree with that.
February 1, 2011 at 10:23 pm
zikata
I just came back from a field trip in Brussels with my EU Business Environment class. We went inside the Chamber of the European Parliament. Above the seats of the 736 members, there were 23 booths with three translators in each, or one booth for each of the 23 OFFICIAL LANGUAGES of the EU (the most recently recognized of which is Gaelic, Ireland’s second official language). There are three translators in each booth, and each translator should know the respective language and one of the three most-spoken languages in Europe: English, French, or German. There is simultaneous translation every day, during every session, for every member of the parliament who is present.
It turns out that one third of the people who work for the European institutions are translators and interpreters!!! Every single document should be translated in all 23 official languages.
This arrangement reflects the fact that every citizen of the EU and every elected member of the EU institutions have “the right to read and speak in their native language”.
February 3, 2011 at 12:25 pm
theyenguy
A United States of Europe will soon be a reality.
Sarah Marsh and John O’Donnell of Reuters report Wolf Klinz, a member of Germany’s ruling Free Democrats (FDP) who chairs a crisis-response committee in the European Parliament saying: “Greece will not make it without a restructuring,” he told Reuters in Brussels. “It must be done quickly — over the next 12 months.”
Restructuring of Greek debt will come, that is a given. But first there will come a political restructuring of Euorope.
Team Europe provides the quote of european federalist Romano Prodi, EU Commission President, European Parliament, of October 13, 1999: “We must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political entity .. For the first time since the fall of the Roman Empire we have the opportunity to unite Europe.” This One Euro Govenment, a revived roman empire, will be will be a fulfillment of Daniel 2:29-42.
Bible prophecy is recognised by more and more people today, as being fulfilled in the news today. Yet when Garner Ted Armstrong proposed that the world would witness a coming together of the nations of Europe, into a “United States of Europe” in the late 1950′s and the 1960′s, his polemical message was unlike most other religious broadcasters of his day Wikipedia relates.
Bible Prophecy of Revelation 13 reveals that out of Götterdämmerung, that is an investment flameout, cuased by the Europan Sovereign Debt and Bank Debt impbrogio, a Chancellor, that is a Sovereign, Revelation 13:5-10, and a Banker, that is a Seignior, Revelation 13:11-18, will arise to provider order and moneyness.
The stage is being set for the emergence of the Sovereign. Soon he will step onto the stage and finalize what God has ordained. Work to prepare his coming is ongoing by many. Nasdaq provides the Robin van Daalen, Dow Jones Newswires report, that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet called for further reinforcement of macroeconomic and fiscal European policies in a television interview stating: “We are calling for a quantum leap in the reinforcement of the governance of the European economy, particularly in the euro area.” And Greece For You Blog relates that the Greek Prime Minister urges a single economic policy for Euro stating arguments in favour of establishing a unified economic policy within the European Union, during a speech made to a Euro50 Group working dinner held in Athens.
The curtain will soon be raised and the play will begin. The Sovereign’s time is almost upon us.
This Chancellor will be a strong leader such as Angela Merkel or Herman van Rompuy or John Redwood or Tony Blair.
And the Seginior, will be equally strong, someone such as Wolfgang Schäuble, or Olli Rehn, or Jean-Claude Trichet, or Gordon Brown or Jose Manuel Barroso.