Europe Is Still Possible: Political Adventures in the 21St Century

By Maria Joao Rodrigues

This is a thriller and an essay about Europe and the world in the twenty-first century, with a European woman called Maria as the central character dealing with many renowned personalities.

Several inside stories of recent European history are revealed, from the invention of a European strategy for a new kind of growth to the troubled negotiation of the current EU treaties, the establishment of new relationships with the emerging powers of China or Brazil, the reform of global governance in the face of climate change and the financial crisis, and finally, the painful Eurozone crisis, leading to a major transformation of the European Union as a unique economic and political entity.

The final outcome is an exciting and amusing patchwork of stories, where behind-the-scenes politics are interwoven with the collective invention of new political ideas and some touching personal events, taking place all over the world, from Brussels, Berlin, Paris, London, Rome, and Warsaw to Washington, Brasilia, Johannesburg, and Beijing.

This essay was written as an e-book, easily digested in short paragraphs on Kindles, tablets, and laptops, wherever you are.

After this reading, the current Europe and European Union will become something easier to love or to hate and hopefully something easier to understand and to change.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris UK
• Release date: Aug 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483670935

Maria Joao Rodrigues

The author, Maria João Rodrigues, a European woman born in Lisbon and living across Europe for fifteen years, has been involved in different fronts of European politics, with several hats as minister, member of EU presidencies leading bodies, special adviser in the EU institutions, counsellor to other governments and international organisations, as well as being a renowned expert, conference maker, and professor of European economic policies. Among many of her publications are: Europe, Globalization and the Lisbon Agenda, Edward Elgar: Cheltenham, UK and Northampton, MA, USA, 2009 European Policies for a Knowledge Economy, 2003 The New Knowledge Economy in Europe: A Strategy for International Competitiveness and Social Cohesion, 2002.

Book preview

Copyright © 2013 by Maria Joao Rodrigues 307427-RODR

ISBN: Ebook 978-1-4836-7093-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 08/06/2013

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CONTENTS

PREFACE

MY QUESTIONS ABOUT EUROPE

A European Turning Point?

A Personal European Experience

From a Financial Crisis to a Crisis of European Integration

Scenarios and Big Choices

CHAPTER A

A EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR A NEW KIND OF GROWTH

Turn of the Century

A Political Opportunity

Preparing a Bold Proposal

Defining a New EU Strategy

Adopting a Strategy

Out of Europe

CHAPTER B

PUSHING FOR GROWTH AND JOBS IN EUROPE

European Creativity at Full Speed

A Difficult Implementation of the Strategy

A Controversial Midterm Review

Keep the Balance!

CHAPTER C

A EUROPEAN TREATY: FROM DEATH TO REBIRTH

Preparing a New European Treaty

Death and Rebirth of the European Treaty

The Final Negotiation of the Treaty

CHAPTER D

EUROPE AND CHINA

China Opening to the World

Europe Rediscovering China

Developing the Strategic EU-China Partnership

In Search of a Win-Win Game between Europe and China

CHAPTER E

LESSONS FROM BRAZIL

A Man and a Woman in Brazil

In Search of Strategic Planning

Europe and Brazil—Where Are the Lessons?

CHAPTER F

EUROPE AND THE WORLD

In Search of a Global New Deal

A Turning Point for Global Governance

Europe and Globalisation

New Instruments for External European Action

CHAPTER G

DEEP CRISIS

Financial Crisis and Recovery Plans

The Greek Crisis

A Systemic Crisis in the Eurozone

EPILOGUE

BUILDING NEW BRIDGES

EUROPE IS STILL POSSIBLE

POLITICAL ADVENTURES IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Cover design and artwork by Margarida Oliveira.

IT Engineering by Vasco Barba

Francisco told me when he was four:

‘Human beings need to believe in the future.’

PREFACE

MY QUESTIONS

ABOUT EUROPE

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A European Turning Point?

Is the European Union at an irreversible turning point? Is its economic, political, and international decline unavoidable? Is it reaching a dead end or preparing for the future?

By 2007, the European experience was still inspiring many other countries all over the world as a laboratory for supranational governance, for a new growth model, and for an advanced concept of quality of life.

China’s five-year plans have adapted ideas from many European policy fields. So have Brazil’s development plans. Elsewhere, there are several cases of regional integration programmes using the European example as a benchmark.

Suddenly, Europe started being internationally regarded as the main threat to the global economy, as a weak political bloc unable to solve its own problems, and worse, as a continent with mounting internal rifts and on the verge of breakdown and collapse.

By 2007, Europe seemed to be working, building on a stable common currency, on a diversified economy, on a skilled population, and on the largest single market in the world, with the free circulation of goods and services, capital, and people.

Europe’s political system had just been updated to create a more effective and democratic decision-making process and to ensure stronger participation in global governance.

The need to adapt the European model to globalisation was the momentum behind a general drive for a new, more innovative and inclusive, and greener growth model. A quite large renewal movement in this direction was involving governments, organised civil society, experts, and citizens in most of the EU member states.

But then this European transition to a new growth model was hindered by a complicated, unpredictable, and still-evolving Eurozone crisis, with recession and unemployment spreading across Europe.

Internal splits within and between various member states are still seriously undermining European integration and triggering potentially dangerous miscalculations and clashes. This pro-European movement is losing ground and being replaced by Euroscepticism or anti-EU movements. Many new questions about Europe are emerging.

A Personal European Experience

I was involved in many episodes of the previous promising period, proud to be European and excited about playing a role alongside many others, and in the unfolding experiment of European integration.

As member of several EU presidency teams, I was in charge of developing the European strategy for a new growth model and following up its implementation in many member states, including the newest from the former Eastern Europe, which joined in 2004.

I travelled across the world, to China, Japan, and India, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, the USA, Canada, and South Africa, as well as Russia and Turkey, to hold conferences and contact policymakers, scholars, and civil society leaders. I prepared EU summits with many of these countries, in the process of exchanging Europe’s experiences with theirs.

I also played a part in the birth of the new EU treaty, the Treaty of Lisbon, the city where I was born and where I still spend much time even though if I am currently also living and working in Brussels.

Now I am faced with this European crisis and stalemate, and it is clear that something is fundamentally wrong and that drastic action is needed.

Suddenly, the European growth strategy has stopped in its tracks. Efforts to combine innovation with sustainable development can no longer be carried through in many member states. Many European citizens no longer believe in Europe, and Europe is seen as an international problem.

The answer should not be to restore European ‘glory’ and dominance in the world. That is almost certainly gone forever, and rightly so, because the world is being rebalanced towards a more polycentric structure: Europe is just one player among many others.

The aim should rather be to put Europe on a sustainable and self-governed path, able to develop its own project according to its own values and culture, able to provide prosperity and hope to its citizens, and able to make a positive and active contribution to global governance.

The most appealing feature of European culture seems to me the quest for inner harmony, which is also open to others’ different quests and maintains a sense of self-questioning.

From a Financial Crisis to a Crisis

of European Integration

We need a deeper analysis of the real nature of the current crisis and a clearer assessment of its implications and potential consequences in order to shape a bolder vision for a collective solution.

We also need an ability to understand the different national views at stake. Without such understanding, building bridges and closing the widening gaps between member states will be impossible.

When the financial crisis erupted in 2008, I was, like many others, following Barack Obama’s presidential election campaign in the USA. Like many others, I was excited about the political and emotional implications of this American shift. I was also recalling my previous visit to Washington in late 2006 to prepare a European initiative on New Skills for New Jobs when I decided to visit Washington’s obelisk and I was led to ask, while touching it, ‘When will this country shift? When can we work together?’

Ironically, I had plenty of time to observe the impressive Obama’s call for change: after chairing a European high-level group to propose a new Erasmus programme for students’ international mobility, I broke an ankle and was forced to stay at home, giving me more time than usual to watch the American political—and economic—drama being played out on television. I would never have guessed that two years later, I would be preparing a report on a new EU-US partnership for growth and jobs, which was the central topic of the EU-US summit when Obama visited Lisbon in November 2010.

Initially, many felt that Europe would be reasonably well shielded from the American banking crisis. After all, Europe had sounder banks, public finances, and welfare systems.

When the recession also hit Europe, the most prescient thing we could say was either we deepen European integration to overcome this crisis or this crisis will undermine European integration.

But no one imagined anything to match the scale of the current Eurozone crisis.

In the years since 2008, I have embarked, with many others, on this political journey of sailing in unchartered waters: first dealing with this unprecedented financial crisis, and second with this catch-22 of the Eurozone crisis.

On one hand, I was trying to influence the outcome of successive and very frustrating meetings of the European Council in Brussels. On the other, I was working with many others across Europe to devise and build more effective solutions.

One important moment came after 2012, when German Foundations invited me to prepare reports on possible scenarios and solutions for the Eurozone crisis, which they wanted to discuss in Germany and the other EU member states. This was to be followed by a tour of conferences in all European capitals and abroad.

As a European, I relished this challenge proposed by the German actors. After many hundreds of conferences about the European promise across Europe and abroad in recent years, holding conferences to bridge the differences would be much more difficult.

After concluding a report on the most complex issue I can remember, I started a tour of capitals to test its main ideas with very different audiences, while keeping