La Stampa asks: Why establish such a huge foreign service when "there are more divergences than convergences among EU members"?
An editorial in Italian daily La Stampa on the new EU External Action Service (EEAS) and the EU's common foreign policy argues: "While everyone can see that on all the main foreign policy issues the EU has to deal with - e.g. relations with Russia, Turkey or the US - divergences among member States are more evident than convergences [...] is it really indispensable to put into motion such a huge instrument [the EEAS] before making clear its role and functions?"
Well, mostly because the EU isn't a Real Thing. It does not concern itself with The Real. It is a body wholly dedicated to the Fantasy that there is (or could be if we just wish hard enough) this state called "Europe" where everyone will live in peace and socialist harmony. In this fantasy, everyone gets along swimmingly in peace-love-groovy harmony; the French don't hate the Germans, the British just love the Poles, and the Italians are easy to get along with.
Again: what is capital 'F' Fantasy? The determined adherence to one's personal preferences in the face of objective contrary evidence. Like, "No, the French don't like the Germans. And no one is ever going to like the French."
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Your post immediately put me in mind of a song sung by The Kingston Trio, called "Merry Minuet." Written in 1958, the lyrics of which follow:
ReplyDeleteThey're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering
With unhappy souls
The French hate the Germans,
The Germans hate the Poles
Italians hate Yugoslavs
South Africans hate the Dutch
And I don't like anybody very much.
But we can be grateful
And thankful and proud
That man's been endowed
With a mushroom shaped cloud
And we know for certain
That some happy day
Someone will set the spark off
And we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa
There's strife in Iran
What nature doesn't do to us
Will be done by our fellow man.
A youtube video of the song (artists unknown) is here.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer