by Monnet Matters After the formation of the new European Commission under its new president, a renewed sense of hope emerged. In deed, we all hoped that after so many lost years under José Manuel Durão Barroso’s leadership, the European Union would finally start to concentrate more on its own reinforcement, as well as to elaborate and impose a new policy aimed at underlining its will to solve its functional problems at home and strengthen its role abroad. At the European level, the previous European Commission started its mandate with a strong eurosceptic tendency in many member states. But after five years, it left the EU struggling under a strong wave of Europhobia. The previous Commission opened a period of crisis in Ukraine that created problems for many member states and which the EU does not seem capable of solving. This task was left to national foreign policies, manly German foreign policy. In the Middle East, the chaos provoked by the civil wars in both Syria and Iraq, and having the appearance of being a new European problem, has not been adequately addressed. The emergence of European Jihadists finds the EU unprepared to act as an important player in the international arena. After Barroso’s period, everybody expected a new period for Europe’s future would open. But, instead of this there is a new period of introversion that has started. France, Greece and the United Kingdom are several member states that are questioning their future of the EU. Starting with Greece, we notice that Brussels’ involvement in the Greek electoral campaign is actually provoking the opposite result among Greek voters. By warning that Greece could exit from the Eurozone if the Syriza party wins at the polls and forms a government, they are provoking a negative sentiment among Greek citizens. They are also showing a totally undemocratic face. In the case of Greece, the ‘danger’ is that Greece will be cast out of the euro club and will adopt another currency, as after all many other member states do. But in the case of the UK the situation is quite different. The UK is not part of the Eurozone. The UK has always been critical about the integration of EU. In the UK, despite the fact that Brussels sacrificed – in the name of unity – many of its principles, public opinion remains strongly in favour of the country’s exit from the EU. The Conservative Party is eurosceptic and the UKIP, a party in electoral ascent, is Europhobic. In France, the situation will be dramatic as well if the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, is elected President in 2017 and if she keeps her promises concerning the European future of France. Is it necessary to mention other cases (there are many) that are jeopardising the future, not only of the Eurozone but of the very existence of EU? Just looking at polices adopted by the member states, it is easy to discern more centrifugal tendencies than centripetal ones. Why is that? Is it because the EU is in deep crisis and its political leaders don’t know how to react? Is it because it is easier for demagogues and populists to attract voters by shooting down the already fragile European dream? Let’s not forget the hysterical way Brussels reacted to the possibility of an independent Catalan and an independent Scotland by declaring that they would immediately find themselves out of EU. This shows us that Brussels was ready to start the disintegration of the union on its own initiative. We are at a very critical moment in time and the European leadership must act and assume a real leadership role. The leadership of the European Union has a great responsibility. It has the responsibility of keeping the EU united and to prevent any kind of exit, from the Eurozone or from the EU itself. The methods it’s been using up to now are not the right ones.
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