European Parliament With the European elections approaching many in Europe fear the Union might loose its cohesion forces. While the British are struggling with the Brexit, many other Europeans vote nationalist parties into their politics. A trend that could break up the Euopean Union.
An open letter french by French president Emanuel Macron has provoced whidespread reactions througout Europe. His guest commentary appeared in leading newspapers across all 28 states of the European Union . In it he calls for a fresh start for Europe: Member states should work together more closely on matters of security, trade and social policy.
For European Renewalhttps://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2019/03/04/pour-une-renaissance-europeenne
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Lara Marlowe of the Irish Times sees in Macrons inititative an attempt to to get people directly behind his ideas. A „replay of the 2017 French presidential election, on a Europe-wide scale“.
Simon Tisdall of the british Guardian on the contrary gets alarmed by the ideas of the French president. More than anything the british people should get through with Brexit, he warns. No need for grand ideas without any realistic way of beeing ratified in all 28 union countries.
In Denmark Per Svensson of Dagens Nyheter sees in the open letter the ambition of Emanuel Macron to replace Angela Merkel as the new informal leader of the union.
The French liberal online medium Contrepoints notes the self-staging of Macron as the noble fighter in the front row against all perils the European Union might encounter. „The main danger is that in trying to conceal the disturbing lack of thoroughgoing reform and the absence of any improvement in France’s ailing public finances, and in misleading the public with words (which cost little but have no impact on reality), (…)“
Macron’s letter doesn‘t offer any new ideas, Yves Thréard of French daily Le Figaro points out: “Some of his proposals have already failed repeatedly (the reorganisation of the Schengen Area), while others seem utopian in view of the immense divergences between governments (defence pact and the defence of social rights).“
In Luxemburg Nicolas Klein of the daily Le quotidien points out that the antipode in the European Union are not necessarily the nice progressifs and the mean nationalists. Progressif can also come in form of a mean Thatcherism he commentts.
German radio broadcaster Deutschlandfunk notes that two things are crucial: The European Union must be founded on democratic principles and the election is about domestic not foreign politics.
Meanwhile in eastern Europe the fear of too many political ambitions of the union is widespread. Wouldn‘t it be enough to concentrate on the benefits of an economic union? The Romanian Radio Europa Liberă puts it this way: „… the Eastern Europeans saw the EU as a sort of cash point. The refugee crisis showed just how serious the lack of understanding is, and rapidly turned into a solidarity crisis. The Western Europeans expect solidarity in the context of European integration.”
To Adelina Marinifrom Bulgarian daily Sega Macron’s proposal to create an European agency for the protection of democracy is a good thing that doesn‘t go far enough.