The German president of the European Parliament is finally saying what many people have been thinking. The European Union’s inability to protect its border and stem the flow of migrants into Europe threatens political stability in Europe. It also threatens the survival of the EU.
Martin Schulz said this week that “The worst nightmare for the European project is an outbreak of populism or political upheaval in Germany. Now it is looking like a real possibility. Nobody knows what we are facing this year. We are threatened as never before”.
He’s talking, of course, about the 1.1 million migrants that streamed into Europe last year. Millions more could come, displaced by the disintegration of Syria and the advance of IS in Iraq. But there is an ambiguity to his statement.
Who exactly does he mean by “we’?
Is “we” the small group of elites that run the EU has a project to centralise political power in Europe? Is “we” the German people, who are now expressing their displeasure at having so many people invited into the country by Angela Merkel? Is “we” all of Europe?
And why do EU leaders fear populism? Is it because they fear the will of the people? Or democracy? Or do they fear that the migrant crisis will be an excuse for far-right parties to take Europe back to a more dangerous time? Do they fear the devolution of power back to member states and local regions?
It’s probably a mix of all of those things. But you now have to take the possibility seriously that the Brexit isn’t the biggest threat to the EU in 2016. It’s the migration crisis. The Brexit debate in the UK has, thus far, been mostly economic. That’s what Charlie has focused on his investment research for the new Fleet Street Letter.
But events could overtake us. The EU may fall apart before Britain has time to leave it. What do you think?
Category: The End of Europe