EU budget commissioner in Greece: Triggering the European Dream!

I am writing this in the light of the recent proposal to put EU budget commisioner for Greece (source: BBC). Belonging to the European Generation-Y, thus having been raised as European as much as Greek, I feel obliged to pinpoint the need for prudent approaches and decisions regarding EU's future.

In his famous allegory, Plato described the role of “philosophers” (leaders) in the modern society requiring them to attempt to enlighten the “prisoners” (people) by offering them vision for a better life. All modern achievements were made possible when the leaders (the philosophers) provided strong vision to the people (the prisoners) and managed to engage them in revolutions (social, political, economic, industrial etc) to build what is nowadays known as modern world; open societies as opposed to the previous regimes of closed societies, like tribals, nation-towns in ancient Greece and so on.

Karl Popper, in his “Open Society and its enemies (1945)” notes that: Our civilization has not yet fully recovered from the shock of its birth — the transition from the tribal or 'closed society', with its submission to magical forces, to the 'open society' which sets free the critical powers of man […] The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.

It is now, in the middle of the turmoil and on the verge of a complete European fiasco, that we have to step back and recapitulate the achievements of the attempt for a United Europe. Nations, like humans, tend to close-up to themselves during severe crisis, exhibiting a behaviour known as nationalism. Twice in the modern history the oldest continent of the world has suffered from augmented nationalism, resulting to equal World Wars. The vision of one European nation was then conceived to achieve this transition from closed societies (nations) to an new form of the European, open society and is now tested for the first time. In this crisis however, Europe could rely upon some of the most powerful tools met. A whole generation of young people has been raised up baring a common culture, even in the absence of the most important cultural element; the common language. Even this weirdness helped European Generation-Y to travel a lot and exchange cultures, so that nowadays almost everyone within EU knows and respects the main customs and particularities of each partner-country.

The Euro-project allowed us to get a glimpse on how Europe could share a common culture. It was understood that when dealing with the global community every European country is a small country. We HAVE built together a European Union, a remarkable construction in which European nation-states, some even long divided by protracted conflicts, decided to be “united in diversity” and form a Commonwealth, a Community in the true sense of the word. Retreating from the present setting could be destabilizing, and even cause chaos and unrest to future generations. Doing a step forward is something we ought to our children and to history. The proposal of putting European commisioners in Greece (and potentially around Europe's countries facing sovereign debt crisis) can only be interpreted as a step-back, and could only bring memories of the past when Europe imposed Otto in Greece. Europe (under the leadership of the North) should not follow this path, that would lead into extreme friction among the Nations, if not a new War.

Maybe on the most critical point of the short-lived attempt of the European Union, I feel obliged as a young European academician (i.e. belonging to the science academy) to offer my point of view in order to tackle the forthcoming unrest. Europe has to resist to the growing Eurosceptisism and apply the aforementioned approaches by Plato and Popper to complete transition to an open society. I therefore urge us (the people) and the leaders to take a leap of faith, and complete the European dream. Create an open society that will, according to Popper, "set free the critical powers of men". Unite the European countries politically and culturally, by designing a new -European- education system for the generations to come. Under the correct guidance, Europe could reclaim the role of the cultural beacon of the world, a role rightfully belonging to her. We have learned to respect each others culture and language, thus facilitating this next step. European culture is based on diversity, exactly the same way as Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Greece -and so on- are based on their people's diversity.

It is long accepted that people cannot be governed only with financial rules and penalties, but mainly through ethics and culture. European nations can tolerate 2-3 years of austerity measures and structural reforms, but only if provided with a vision that will allow them -and future generations- a better living. One Europe, that will provide freedom in the form of common culture, common ethics, common financial policies. If achieved, this should be a stable scheme, relieved from sceptisism and nationalism. “We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure (Karl Popper).”

I'm wrapping up borrowing the closing part of the Spinelli Group's manifesto: “Nationalism is an ideology of the past. Our goal is a federal and post-national Europe, a Europe of the citizens. This was the dream the founding fathers worked so hard to achieve. This is the Europe we will go for. Because this is the Europe of the future.”