Too Big to Fail! Time to Bail Out European Civil Society.
Priya Basil
The EU flag, borrowed from a neighbour, unfurls in a dazzle of electric blue and gold stars, but casts a dark shadow in me. The familiar symbol — jewelry of officialdom, decoration of unity — seems so impersonal, so empty. Can I really do this? I wonder, trying to smile as a friend begins taking photos of me for a campaign I’ve started calling for a European Public Holiday.
Despite my engagement with and for the EU, its flag discomfits me deeply. I want to shoo the thing away, not pose like a politician beside it for pictures. The piece of cloth is too loaded with associations — good and bad — in which I’ve had no say and no hand. The alienating proximity to the flag underlines my sense that we need a dynamic new EU emblem. Something that expands European understanding of unity, that exemplifies community.
The camera clicks, and I manage a smile as I imagine a rollicking annual get together at which we Europeans — meaning those of us resident in the EU — celebrate each other, and our Union, on the last Monday in May and over the preceding weekend. I imagine some people staying in their own street, others moving on free public transport across the continent, yet all joining in various EU-themed cultural and political activities. In this way we will embody the peace and diversity, freedom and prosperity, openness and solidarity that are the ideals of the EU. Without such an official occasion our unity is disproportionately defined by the economy. A European Holiday will open up a space for our unity as citizens. It will start to foster a European civil society, which has the potential to transform each of us, as well as the EU, and thus improve our democracy.
The EUs symbols of togetherness are mere window-dressing
What other existing symbol — I ask myself — instantly, physically and universally signifies the Union? Only Euro coins and notes. Posing with those would be worse, I think as the camera whirrs into zoom. I almost grimace at the idea of using money to promote unity. Except — hold on — that’s what the EU has done ever since its inception! Conceived on the premise that closer trading ties between nations would reduce the likelihood of war between them, the EU has never been able to develop as much more than an economic bloc. Yes, there’s a shared legal and, to a lesser extent, social framework, but these are secondary to the trade structures. Yes, there are other symbols of togetherness besides the flag and Euro, including the motto “United in Diversity” and the anthem “Ode to Joy” — but these are mere window-dressing for the Single Market, which remains the true EU raison d’être and the guiding force behind all its political decisions.
Where economy is the dominant guiding principle even people eventually end up being treated as commodities. This is apparent in Britain’s reluctant guarantees for EU citizens on its turf. Instead of prioritizing and protecting individual rights, Theresa May’s government is using them as collateral in the Brexit negotiations: citizens are valuable only in so far as they can help shore up economic advantage. The EU, by contrast, has taken a laudably principled stand on this issue, but if nothing changes in the way the Union is organized it too risks the consequences of always privileging economy over society.
Six decades of peace, but economic ties are not enough!
So far, the gamble on economic ties as the key to European stability has to some extent paid off. Six decades of peace is nothing to scoff at. And now the messy Brexit negotiations are a salutary lesson on how hard it is to disentangle from the EU. But Brexit is also a warning that economic ties are not enough, people need other affiliations, a more personal and emotional stake in the project. This is why I’m proposing a European Public Holiday. A day to exemplify our “‘unity in diversity”’, which, so far, has never been expressed in any simultaneous, completely inclusive and public way across all member states.
I’m convinced that when the political class can see citizens celebrating the EU, developing a European identity, it will coerce them to act more in the interests of the Union, instead of acting always in the national interest on the assumption (or aspiration) that their people are wary of Europe. The tendency towards nationalism is still on the rise throughout Europe, and yet Emanuel Macron’s victory in France, after running an overtly pro-EU campaign, seems to be lulling some into a false sense of security about the future. Maybe the sight of the French president and the German chancellor at their first joint European Union summit press conference was reassuring. After all, the two stood cozily together, almost cooing to each other. But for anyone really paying attention, it’s obvious that these two are not singing off the same song sheet. Macron belted out an aria of transformation, full of bold measures to improve our unity, right down to transferring national competences, like tax collection, to Brussels. Merkel flashed her rhombus, and to the question of whether she would concede treaty change to achieve Macron’s aims gave an answer that’s still riddling in my head: “Wo es nötig ist, wird man es tun. Wo es nicht nötig ist, wird man es nicht erzwingen.”
Europe needs a European Holiday to get in tune
Wishy-washy deluxe, born of this certainty: now that various hurdles appear to have been cleared (Brexit is what it is, the refugee deal with Turkey is what it is, the Visegrad understanding of democracy is what it is …), and in the run up to the general election, Europe can be paid lip service, but not more. Under Merkel there isn’t, and never will be, a daring vision for the EU. Under Merkel the EU means Germany First. If we as citizens want a more imaginative, inspiring Union, if we want different values to guide European politics, if we want the compassion, inclusion and mutual trust, that are the true foundation of togetherness, we have to agitate for it ourselves — even if that’s uncomfortable.
Because a solo act, however virtuoso, — even from a French president who got voice coaching from an opera singer — won’t change the EU. Nor, I dare say, could a truly harmonious Franco-German duet play the EU towards greater accord. To succeed, this project needs a chorus. And a sure way to bring different national leaders into harmony is to get all their citizens in tune — with a European Holiday. This day could be the great polyphonic overture to the new composition of the EU that we so urgently need.
For those who worry about where the means for such an occasion can be found, I point to the scant 15 billion Euro excess expected in the German government’s budget between 2019 and 2021. Recent figures released by the Ministry of Finance show that this sum is as yet unallocated. I think Germany, with its thriving civil society, its commitment to remembering and its particular need to embrace Europe, has a special role to play in helping the EU flourish at the grass roots. Here the state invests in civil society, and I suspect many Germans assume other governments do the same elsewhere. Not in the UK — and I doubt the Brits are an exception amongst EU member states. Done well, the European Holiday may be the occasion that affords millions an opportunity, for the first time ever, to probe — through culture and fun encounters — questions of citizenship, rights, duties, and — the critical challenge of our Union — how to cultivate an identity that extends beyond national boundaries.
For those who think: But Germany can’t pay for everything! I say other countries too are capable of coughing up when it matters enough: case in point the recent Italian 17 billion Euro bailout guarantee for two banks considered “too big to fail”. I regret bringing it up, but unfortunately the sordid 2008-financial-crisis-saga is by no means over: governments go on saving banks with citizens’ taxes.
There’s another entity that’s too big to fail — European civil society. This is what must be rescued at all costs before what still holds parts of it together all but disintegrates from neglect. The guarantors of banks and hoarders of budget-surpluses will continue to overlook us — unless we unite and come to our own aid with a clear demand for a bountiful, beautiful bailout, a European Holiday.
© Priya Basil
Priya Basil was born in London and grew up in Kenya. In 2002 she moved to Berlin, where she still lives. She’s published two novels and a novella, as well as numerous articles and essays for various publications, including The Guardian, Lettre International, Die Zeit, Neue Zürchner Zeitung, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Die Tageszeitung. Her fiction has been nominated for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Dylan Thomas Prize and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. The Women in Publishing network recommended her for the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Priya is a co-founder of Authors for Peace, a political platform for writers and artists, established in 2010. She has been engaged with various political campaigns, most recently launching an appeal for a European Public Holiday across all EU member states.
For more information please see www.priyabasil.com and www.authorsforpeace.com
