Die EU bestimmt unseren Alltag zu einem signifikanten Anteil. Wissen um ihre Institutionen, Prozesse und Wirkungsweisen ist wenig verbreitet, Beschwerden über sie dafür umso mehr. Mit dem EU-Experten Manuel Müller spreche ich über die Union, wie sie funktioniert, worin sie üblicherweise kritisiert wird und wie man sie reformieren kann.
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- Manuel auf Twitter. Manuel auf Bluesky. Manuels Blog.
- Stefan auf Twitter.Stefan auf Bluesky. Stefans Blog.
(Musik: Intro aus Accou – Sarabande BWV 1002 (Partita No.1 for violin solo in B-minor), Outro aus Accou – Bourree (I.S. Bach BWV 1002, Violin Partita No 1 in B minor))
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Shownotes:
The EU was the best idea Europe’s ever had. Unfortunately its implementation is the worst concept Europe’s ever come up with.
You know my standard disclaimer re podcasts. But I did look at that table with EU reform intiatives in the linked article by your guest. Seems the EU needs serious reforms in almost every (major ) area which I take to corroborate my statement above. And it all appears to be a rather herculean task, expecially given the snail’s pace of previous or current EU reforms.
„Worst concept it ever came up with“ seems like a great hyperbole, given our history.
@ Stefan Sasse 3. November 2023, 20:34
„Worst concept it ever came up with“ seems like a great hyperbole, given our history.
I agree with Johnson.
There is no doubt that the EU has done a lot to turn former enemies into partners or even friends. Seen in this way, the EU is the best idea Europe has ever had.
But the EU is divided, unable to act, paralyzed on every point that is even remotely important. So the EU is a very poor implementation of a very good idea.
„So the EU is a very poor implementation of a very good idea.“
THAT’s what I should have written. Thank you.
Poor implementation I’d agree with.
I’m not saying that the current system is great, we have no dissens on the merits. I just object to the hyperbole.
Poorly worded on my part – I was trying to say that the implementation of the EU took the worst form imaginable. Not that the implementation was the worst concept Europe ever came up with overall, obviously there were things many times worse in the recent and not so recent past.
Ah ok. I can still imagine much worse forms of implementation, though. Yes, the EU is dysfunctional, yes, a lot needs to be improved, but it’s not a train wreck.
Well, I don’t know. It’s been 30 years and it seems to me most of the progress re the EU has been on financial/currency matters, common markets and within EU mobility issues. Those, with the possible exception of the financial/currency issues, were and are mainly non-controversial issues.
Sure, but that is still a herculean task, and they didn’t do a bad job with it.
The transfer of nation-state tasks to a supranational entity is very complex in nature and, as becomes clear in the podcast episode, something new. In any case, this works better in the EU than in the UN or before that in the League of Nations. The starting point in Europe is different from the one that led to the emergence of the USA as a federal nation-state at the end of the 18th century.
I’d agree. Given what the EU has to work with, it doesn’t do all that bad.
Neither the UN nor the League of Nations are or were the equivalent of a supranational entity in the sense of what the EU is trying to be or become, or what the US became after gaining independence. And yes, the circumstances for the creation of the EU are very different and more complex from those of the US, but we are also talking about the late 18th century vs the 21st century.
We are probably talking more about very different mentalities that have developed over many hundreds of years. Italians, Poles, Germans, Romanians, Danes, etc. think, feel and act very differently. You don’t get that diversity captured in one state. Within Germany alone, it is not easy to unite North, East, West and South Germans in one state.
Yes. The EU can’t be measured against the criteria of a nation state.
That seems like an easy cop out to me. The EU had to decide what it wanted to be – a union of (sovereign) nations or a (sovereign) union state. It chose the latter but is behaving like the former, while saying (via Mr Sasse here) „hey don’t measure me against the criteria of what I set out to be or become“.