Is the European Union really a union?

Figure 1: The European Union Flag.

Today, we received a lecture on the political history of Belgium, the history and importance of the European Union, and visited the Belgian Federal Parliament. I was supposed to visit the Rene Magritte Museum, but I bailed because I still felt pretty sick.

I was most interested in what we learned about regarding the European Union. I never thought it was really a union, but instead a collaboration of several different countries. After today’s lecture, my opinion of the EU was solidified. Turns out after WWII, Europe was completely destroyed and lost a lot of influence on the world. The young people in France were suddenly becoming more American because Americans were more influential at that time, so naturally the French feared that their young people would lose their identity of being French (and thus lose the French culture in general since the young people are the future of their nation). They sought a solution to preserve European identity and decided to create the European Union. The Germans supported this idea to unite Europe since they had a hostile image after losing the war, so to change and improve their image, they wanted to participate in the creation of the union that would promote peace among these nations.

Some European politicians would look at the United States and find the idea of uniting the European countries together the same way the states are together would be beneficial. However, there is already one major flaw in that comparison: The United States is actually one nation. The European Union, on the other hand, is not one nation. It’s a collaboration of several different countries with their own histories, culture, and language. The United States, on the other hand, has one official language and shares one history. Sure, one can say that it is easy to tell if someone is from Texas or California based on the accent, or that the government in Texas is a bit different from that in California, but in general, because there is one overarching government in the United States, it is clear that America is one nation. Americans think of themselves as American first before they consider themselves Californian or Texan. It appears that a Dutchman would consider himself Dutch first before he considers himself European. Do people in Europe even know what it means to be European? What exactly identifies a person as being European? From my perspective, it appears that a person is European if they live in the continent known as Europe.

I honestly don’t think the EU has much of a future because there are so many dividing lines between the countries, let alone their intentions for being in the union. Countries are only in this union for the benefit of their own nation. They put their county first before whatever would benefit Europe as a whole. This observation can be seen from the very beginning of the EU: The French wanted to preserve their identity in their young people while the Germans wanted to change their reputation. It will be difficult to create a credible union in Europe if every nation insists on its own well-being. The disadvantage of the European Union is that it was created after every country developed its own identity through its own unique history, culture, and language. A group of people are united if they share these three things. The United States of America shares these identifying factors because each state was united to this one nation through the same history as the young nation was built from scratch. Perhaps if all the nations in Europe were to drop all their names, culture, identity, language, and currency, and just built up the identity of being European from scratch just like that of the states, then the purpose of the European Union may actually work out, but it appears that every nation has too much pride to do this, so only time will tell of what will happen to the EU.