Tiskane izdaje
There is at least one reason why we should be grateful to the Greek people for fully exposing the European Union's functional paradox at their recent referendum. The latter showed that in a multi-national union it is impossible to rule by the majority vote and part the will of the people. Creating the illusion of democratic decisions within the EU, even when there is no clear will of the Member States, has returned like a boomerang with the recent Greeks' vote. This is especially relevant for a group of states with the single currency - Euro, standing on one sole pillar - financial, with not only a vast platform of economic-monetary logics and regulations on top of it, but foremost human lives and nations' destinies. The Greek lesson is not new. A whole set of multi-national states has fallen apart due to the irreconcilable differences between national sovereignties and democratic principle of majority rule which enables big nations to impose their will on the small ones. The Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and even Czechoslovakia have literally fallen apart with first democratic elections simply because every nation wants to decide its own destiny. Therefore democracy is beautiful and efficient as long as it acts within national states. When in state or in a union, such as the EU, the issue of decision making between more nations is raised, we are confronted with a big problem. To this end I wrote a seemingly bold statement in the first part of the article one year and a half ago, claiming »the will of the people« to be the reef past which the EU would not be able to sail without serious reforms and changes, and not risking to fall apart at the same time. At the referendum the Greeks have confirmed exactly this: we are nation and can autonomously decide our destiny, even at our own expense. The problem of course is that their decision will not be without consequences for other nations, which are also in the EU and have the Euro, and the right to decide differently on the same matter than the Greek people did. If Greece's destiny was decided by a referendum of the whole of the EU - by the principle one EU citizen, one vote - everything would be different, with the largest nations or interest alliances having the majority in such power brawls. This may have incited the great Henrik Ibsen in his thoughts on democracy to state: »The majority is always wrong; the minority is rarely right.«
In short, the future of Europe is caught in a very simple paradox which has been denied and swept under the rug for decades, camouflaged with bureaucratic acrobatics regulating the lengths and shapes of fruit, vegetables and energy-saving light bulbs. Nobody has seriously dealt with the unsustainability of decision-making within the EU since a fairly decent attempt in the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe in 2004.
These are the facts the EU, at this level of its development, is obviously not able to face; and one who is not able of facing the facts, facts will face him/her. This Churchill's simple wisdom has been haunting the EU since precisely Churchill first one mentioned the project of United States of Europe in his speech at the University of Zürich in 1946 while revealing the key condition for its success: »The structure of the United States of Europe will be such as to make the material strength of a single State less important. Small nations will count as much as large ones and gain their honour by a contribution to the common cause.« As we can see, we are not much closer to this ideal as we were in Churchill's times.
In this fashion we can understand the frustrations of European bureaucracy which is - in its inability to seek truly important political solutions for the progress of the EU - producing loads of unnecessary regulations causing the EU to become over-regulated union of already over-regulated states with precise directives for almost everything - from the cattle farming to waste disposal and shapes of yoghurt cups. Yet, when a single Member State decides to refuse EU's proposal, the mighty Union is shaken in its foundations and the fanfares of the judgment day sound out. The biggest problem here is not us not knowing how to proceed; far worse is us not knowing how to go back. As Freud once said "»a cigar is sometimes only a cigar«, the Greek decision is - want it or not - only a decision by a EU Member State; entirely legitimate, entirely legal and entirely within the framework of basic principles on which the EU functions and was founded on. The same goes for the French and the Dutch referendums in 2005 which by a convincing majority rejected the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe and most likely averted the first step on the path to Churchill's vision of United States of Europe.
When Cicero was campaigning for senator in the year 64 B.C. his immensely cunning brother Quintus, some sort of a predecessor of the great Machiavelli, advised him how to win in that decisive year for Rome and ascend to the levels of power: »Promise them anything, look them in the eyes and lie, spread joy and optimism. After the elections you will keep some of the promises, especially the ones which suit you.« The similarity of the current Greek story with these antic wisdoms is by no mean accidental. Its moral is far above the banality of discussions of people's saying »who doesn't work, should not eat«. Ultimately we are united on this European ship more than we might think and definitely more than we are aware of. When commenting cheap political insults on the subject of right and left extremists, conservatives and communists the doyen of Slovenian literature, Boris Pahor said: »Have we abolished communism so that people will now live with 400 Euros per month?«
Vojko Volk, Slovenian diplomat
***
Mnenje diplomata Vojka Volka smo objavili tudi v slovenskem jeziku.
* Part One was published in Delo on 1 January 2014.
