Pawel Zerka
Let’s say you have a friend who fell asleep five years ago and has only just woken up. That friend asks you: “How is Europe these days?” What would you respond?
You would probably associate Europe with the EU, and you would perhaps recognise that the EU is in a delicate state; not just because of the wars surrounding it, the looming economic crisis and the fraying transatlantic relationship, but also because of its growing self-doubt.
Can it reconcile being a peace project with an ambitious investment in defence? Can it be faithful to its own ideals—of human rights and non-discrimination—when its citizens are susceptible to migration panic? Can it rely on diplomacy and international rules when the world appears to be returning to the law of the jungle? And can it survive in that predatory world—politically, economically and culturally? These are precisely the questions that feature in the current speeches of European leaders—from Ursula von der Leyen, to Emmanuel Macron, to Pedro Sánchez.
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