-Analysis-
PARIS – The phrase comes from the French sociologist Dominique Méda, as written in the newspaper Le Monde “The EU suddenly appears as a familiar, reassuring, protective presence.”
It is one of the great paradoxes, and perhaps the only news in these troubled times that offers a bit of hope: in a world overtaken by “predators,” to use the term of Giuliano da Empoli in his latest book just out in France (L’heure des prédacteurs), Europe is virtually the last refuge of the rule of law, respect for international norms, and decency.
Despite all its flaws — and they are many! — the European Union finds itself, by comparison, adorned with qualities that are gradually disappearing elsewhere. How can these be preserved, and above all, how can they be made into a model capable of preventing a return to power struggles of imperial times, to the brutality toward which we all suddenly appear to be heading?
It is obviously the fascinating and frightening spectacle of Donald Trump’s presidency that suddenly casts this glowing light on a Europe we loved to criticize in proportion to the disappointments it provoked. The 47th president of the United States’ hatred for European integration is a fact we struggled to grasp, but which has sparked a much-needed awakening on the continent.
European urgency
With its limits: there can be no unanimity when Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, and a few others have long displayed their preference for autocrats at the expense of their European partners; and the political forces that Trump, J.D. Vance, Elon Musk and their friends support in Europe are sometimes on the brink of power, trying to gloss over the immense contradiction between their “patriotism” and their sympathies for the predators of Moscow or Washington.
Having followed European affairs for decades, from the smiling days of Jacques Delors at the head of the Commission, I have rarely felt such a sense of urgency, an existential reaction to the fact that the EU cannot afford to “fail,” to miss this rendezvous with itself, to begin with.
It was about time, because the accumulated delays, for example, in technology, in common defense, in the ability to protect itself from commercial or financial aggression, weaken the continent in the face of rising dangers.
Trump dreams of dismantling common EU policies, particularly digital regulation and trade
These accumulated delays cannot be fixed with a stroke of a pen, but the first steps are encouraging. Just as we can only welcome the “return” of the United Kingdom, disappointed by the American disengagement, into a closer relationship with its European geographic allies.
A new world order
Europe has a lot at stake, first in its survival against an American administration that only dreams of dismantling common policies, particularly digital regulation and trade policies, to more easily lord over states individually.
But also for “the world after,” because no matter what happens, we won’t return to the status quo ante. A new world order will have to be built on the ruins of the one that was born in 1945 from World War II, and it is crucial that the EU is at the decision-making table. To do this, it must survive the current chaos while preserving our freedoms and renewing a model that showed signs of fatigue, even though, by comparison, it remains attractive.
But Dominique Méda is right: in the face of the growing threats of this world, the EU is “reassuring,” and it took Donald Trump and his excesses for us to realize it.
