Britain is afraid of Germany. London remembers the Blitz. Last year Cabinet minister Nicholas Ridley was voicing a general British suspicion when he called the unification process "a German racket designed to take over the whole of Europe." He was fired, but only because it was considered impolitic for a member of the British government to make such a statement in public.
France is afraid of Germany. The experience of three devastating wars in 100 years seems a pretty good reason why. The government has decided to follow the policy of if-you-can't-beat-em-join-em, but the French people have doubts. A recent poll in Le Parisien showed that 57 percent of French were "worried" about the single European market, and 60 percent believed that France has "given more than it has received" from the EC.
And even Germany is afraid of Germany. Kohl has said, "Fears are understandable. So I tell our neighbors we all need Europe and Germany needs Europe more than anyone else." Kohl is saying that Germany needs the EC leash to control its dark side from reappearing. This translates to: dear friends, we're terribly sorry, but if you won't join us, we'll beat the heck out of you.
SUCH SENTIMENTS don't bode well for a long-term union. The economic marriage of the 12 Community members has been successful because it hasn't had to work on love and trust; free trade is in every nation's interest. But a political marriage is a ballgame of a different color. True, there are cases of successful unions based on states' mutual fear of some external threat. But has there ever been a successful union based on states' mutual fear of each other?
De facto must precede de jure political union. So, if the integrationists have their way at Maastricht, we can fear disaster in the months or years that follow. If a European superstate materializes, it will dematerialize shortly thereafter. And as countries leave the fold to reassert their political sovereignty (Yugoslavia, Western style?), they just might decide to take back their economic sovereignty as well.
Europe may one day be ready for political union. But that is still only a dream, better suited to two friends talking lazily on a porch than to phalanxes of aides and analysts whispering in their bosses' ears at international conferences.
Jacques E.C. Hymans '94, a Crimson writer, doesn't like his middle initials.
The EC is not ready for political unification so long as its nations are at odds on major foreign policy questions.