Why the EU is humanity’s greatest achievement and why we should not fuck it up

The EU is humanity greatest achievement! This is not an empty statement, nor is it a bombastic one. The EU represents the conscious choice of a group of developed countries to purposefully help less developed countries. The basic premise that stands at the foundation of the EU is that a healthy neighbor is not only good for business, but also good for avoiding conflict and strife — when your economy depends to a large extent on trade with your neighbors, you are less likely to start a quarrel with them. As such, the EU is as much an economic and political project, as it is a peace project — the most successful in the history of the European Continent.

But the EU is more than that. It is Humanity’s Most Efficient Development Machine. At no point in human history, and in no other place in the World, did so many countries manage to overcome the middle-income trap and make the transition from developing countries to high-income countries. This is an impressive feat by any standard, and the most successful and efficient development effort in human history.

To properly gauge how powerful the EU is, it helps looking at how different EU countries have performed across time. What few people know is that in 1950, Latin American countries (e.g. Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Peru) were more developed (they had a higher GDP per Capita) than Southern European Countries (e.g. Spain, Portugal, and Greece). However, once the countries in Southern Europe started the accession negotiations with the EU, their economy took off, and quickly surpassed those Latin American countries.

Forty years later, in 1990, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, these same Latin American Countries had a higher GDP per Capita than most Eastern European countries. However, upon starting the accession discussions with the EU, the New Member Countries from Central and Eastern Europe have managed to over-take their peers from Latin America. In fact, EU’s New Member States are among the fastest growing in the World, and among the most efficient at eradicating poverty and raising prosperity.

Now, the Western European countries have also benefited from the accession of countries in Southern Europe and Eastern Europe. The big problem in developed countries is the demographic decline, and, more importantly, the dramatic decline of the middle-class. When the middle-class shrinks, so do markets. And, when markets shrink, so does the economy. It does not matter if you produce 1 million extra Mercedes cars, if you don’t have anyone you could sell those cars too. Demographic decline and the decline of the middle class is the real problem of EU countries now — not immigration.

And here’s the clincher: the only way developed countries can sustain growth is to tap other markets. The EU project has achieved exactly this for them. As the economy of Spain, Poland, Romania, or Slovakia have grown, so have their markets; and, the growth of markets in South and Eastern Europe has enabled companies in Western Europe to remain competitive. In essence, as people have become wealthier in Poland, they could afford to buy the extra Mercedes cars produced in Germany.

Folks, we need the EU — not just in Europe, but everywhere! The EU is the only development model that has worked fast and efficient for developing countries, and it should not be questioned, but rather improved, expanded, and strengthened. It is not perfect, but nothing in life is. Please, let’s not fuck it up!

Joseph Ellis talks in his excellent “Founding Brothers” about the trials and tribulations the US went through after it gained independence from England. Like the EU today, the US in the early 19th Century was a construction with an uncertain future. There was a constant clash between the wealthy northern states and the relatively poor southern states. Although the American Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal”, northern states have stalled a decision on the abolition of slavery for 70 years, to avoid a split of the US in two. The decision eventually was resolved in a dramatic fashion, through the 1861 Civil War and over 600,000 casualties.

The same way slavery has divided the US 150 years ago, so does immigration divide the EU today. However, there is no need for another war to resolve the immigration issue in the EU. We need to be strong and allow reason to win over populism and nationalist tendencies. We are better together! We are stronger together!