Abilities are a crucial element of life, but wills are no less so. In a world of steel wills – Russia’s to rebuild the empire, China’s to become a reference power, the US’s to retain its primacy – the EU suffers from a problem of will. To begin with, for a structural issue: despite growing integration, it is still a group of 27 countries with different interests. But, also, due to the inability to build a clear narrative that clearly convinces its citizens that essential interests are common, that these are more important than national interests and that they require efforts. This citizen conviction would facilitate the actions of politicians. But there is not enough of it.
This important question has surfaced spontaneously in different debates at the Grand Continent Summit conference, organized by the pan-European magazine of the same name in the Aosta Valley last week, an excellent forum to take the pulse of Europe’s future. Pierre Heilbronn, France’s special envoy for aid and reconstruction in Ukraine, referred to the issue, the challenge of working on narratives, recalling the words of Pascal Lamy – another participant in the conference – who considers it a problem that Europeans do not yet have common dreams and fears. These are the true fabrics of a unitary political and geopolitical dimension.
Along these lines, historian Ian Garner pointed out the strength of the Russian narrative, distorted but mobilizing, which maintains that Russia is “in a great metaphysical combat with the West, a war on which its own existence depends.” It’s not true, but it is powerful. “What narrative do we have in Europe to respond to that?” the historian then asked. In another session, Josep Borrell also touched on that key, pointing out that a lot of pedagogy is necessary for Europeans to understand why it is necessary to support Ukraine. He then invited us to imagine the scenario resulting from the lack of support: Russian tanks in kyiv, Kremlin soldiers on the border with Poland, Russia controlling 40% of the world wheat market. To this we should add the global emboldening of regimes that calculate that illegal things can be achieved by force.
The polls show that there is an embryo of European sentiment that supports new common constructions. The latest Eurobarometer shows the highest levels of trust in the EU since 2007. A survey commissioned by The Grand Continent and carried out by the consulting firm Cluster 17 in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, indicates consistent support for deepening integration and a surprising preference for a common European Defense over NATO or having only the national Army (with France in the countertrend in both cases). But this basic provision is not synonymous with full support for certain things that seem essential to do, such as strengthening defense or carrying out strong investments that guarantee greater autonomy for Europe in certain industrial and technological areas. Investments that require either new debt or reducing other items.
The truth is that in order not to become an irrelevant space and, what is worse, dependent, the EU must do many things that require a lot of effort. The list of what can happen if we don’t do it ranges from — very soon — a deal on Ukraine sealed between Trump and Putin (with Xi as a close godfather) over the heads of Ukrainians and Europeans to leaving us exposed to the benevolence of others. in terms of strategic raw materials or key cutting-edge technologies. From Putin’s decision to continue rebuilding his empire by attacking another country because he knows that defense is soft to Xi’s cutting off key supplies in the context of trade and geopolitical disputes.
What should that narrative be like, the one that convinces us to do what is necessary? Of course no one has the perfect answer, and this little column certainly does not. But it is likely to have to do with a balanced mix of Lamy’s two concepts: common dreams and fears. And, thinking about it, some can focus. Do you like the idea of a space of prosperity, freedom and social cohesion? Are you terrified by the idea of violence as a tool to subjugate other peoples and change borders? If you are European, that dream and that fear lead to the same response to be realized (the first) and avoided (the second): it is more European integration, with considerable efforts. Somewhere between those two axes is the narrative to forge the will necessary to achieve it.
