German Chancellor Angela Merkel after EU migration meeting. Demotix/Jakob Ratz. All rights reservedWhile the ministers and heads of the European Union’s 28 members states keep struggling among themselves, but also against the inadequacy of the construction (or the “material constitution”) of Europe to discuss and decide about the common good, the “refugee crisis” keeps worsening, affecting an increasing number of countries located at each point of the “migrant’s track”, and progressively bordering on humanitarian catastrophe with the winter approaching fast. We cannot predict the exact development of the situation, which can change almost overnight, but we can see that we have passed a point of no-return of historic magnitude.
The moment has come to assess this event which confronts the ‘community’ of European nations, and to take stock of the contradictions which are revealed within this ‘community’ and at the heart of each of its members. Extending Chancellor Merkel’s prediction regarding Germany (‘these events are going to change our country’)[1] to Europe in its entirety, i would say for my part: these events are going to change Europe. But in what way? The question is not clear cut, though it may be soon. We are entering an expanse of brutal fluctuations where one must be realistic as much as resolute.
What is taking place before our eyes is in fact an enlargement of the EU and the European construction. However, in contrast to previous ‘enlargements’ (desired or accepted by states, achieved through negotiations, approved by treaties), this one is imposed by recent events as part of a ‘state of exception’, and has not been passed unanimously. As a consequence, this enlargement will encounter considerable difficulties (more so than its predecessors) and will provoke political standoffs with unpredictable outcomes.
