About 25 years ago it was written that the prominent personalities of the day, people like pop stars Madonna and Michael Jackson, propelled to superstardom by global marketing deals and the international media, and politicians like Ronald Regan, whose razzmatazz style perfectly mirrored that of showbiz contemporaries, became so large they were less like mystical giants and more like lumbering dinosaurs. 

Growing ever more detached from the people who endorsed or elected them,  it became impossible for them to connect with the people, but, by dint of their celebrity, they tried to get the people to adapt to them instead. But the people turned, sometimes with extreme venom, and even Reagan, allowed by the rules of office to withdraw from public view in ways that others are not, saw his legacy turn sour as the kind of free market economics he so brazenly endorsed and became synonymous with, have now plunged the world into financial crisis, provoking global anger where once there was global adoration. Something similar could be said of the European Union.

As the financial crisis looks set to continue indefinitely, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proceeds to fight for the European cause, and her message of solidarity at this particular time is not an unappealing one. Many agree with her, a significant number do not. But if the EU has itself joined the ranks of the prehistoric, then, as Merkel has repeated, the Union needs to change, or else perish. Unfortunately, it’s really not that simple; particularly if you choose to confuse the concept of adaptation with that of enforcement, and the pan-continental acceptance of austerity measures and  budget scrutiny. Essentially, the chancellor is correct to warn against sitting still, but her proposed solutions (and those of simpatico governments and leaders), rooting in a deeply conservative philosophy and with a wish to preserve groaning political superstructures, hardly seem like the best way to ward off extinction.

It shouldn’t be underestimated how seriously committed Germany, as well as France, two founders of what would eventually become the EU, are to its continuation and success. But as it grows larger,  and complete with more labyrinthine institutional arrangements, and further away from the citizen, no amount of abstract rhetoric will be able to save it. But both are now facing a backlash, much of it brought about by knee-jerk Euroscepticism, and a lot by a genuine anger, and, of course, they don’t always help themselves, with both governments now being perceived in many quarters as effectively bypassing the usual EU decision-making process and instead acting as a kind of dual monarchy, enforcing laws on whim. It is a simplistic and somewhat unfair summation, but an judgement that the two behemoths seem unable, or unwilling, to overturn. 

Many small countries joined the European Union in the belief that there would indeed by solidarity amongst nations. Now, those citizens seem themselves cut adrift while these two large countries throw their weight around. Like Ozymandias their works are mighty, and also like Ozymandias, they, and the Union they so long to uphold, is in danger of collapse, its ruins both a testament to once-fearful power and to the fragility of high politics, politics that dismisses the people. 

CDonnelly@NEurope.eu