As Paul Gillespie argues in our last issue, the Irish No in the only national referendum held on European enlargement spoke for many people across the Union.
After Ireland, it is ridiculous to say that EU institutions are suffering a loss of legitimacy. For they, and the leaders who are seeking to increase the scale of their claims on the government of the continent, have yet to gain positive legitimacy. How can a democratic debate begin to engage the people of Europe?
This question is being asked with a new degree of seriousness by the Euro-elite. But worried talk of the gap between politicians and people is already settling into comfortable cliché.
Surprisingly, it was an American leader, the much derided George W Bush, who launched, from Warsaw, the most far-reaching picture of what Europe should be like at the turn of the new century. His proposition was well-phrased and deeply controversial.
President Bush threw down a gauntlet: NATO matters much more than the EU; the Ukraine must be admitted to both; eastward expansion can proceed without mention of Turkey.
What was the response? An embarrassed silence. No European leader rose to the challenge. The European media largely ignored it.
Everyone says they want a European debate. George Bushs speech provides a substantial talking point. Yet few outside of Warsaw and Washington have even had a chance to read it.
The editors of the openDemocracy europa debate have decided to publish an extract. The full speech, about twice the length carried here, can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news. Judith Herrin, professor of Byzantine history, responds to Bush elsewhere in this issue with the real story of Europe.
Today, I have come to the center of Europe to speak of the future of Europe. Some still call this the East but Warsaw is closer to Ireland than it is to the Urals. And it is time to put talk of East and West behind us.
Yalta did not ratify a natural divide, it divided a living civilization. The partition of Europe was not a fact of geography, it was an act of violence. And wise leaders for decades have found the hope of European peace in the hope of greater unity. In the same speech that described an iron curtain, Winston Churchill called for a new unity in Europe, from which no nation should be permanently outcast.
Consider how far we have come since that speech. This free Europe is no longer a dream. It is the Europe that is rising around us. It is the work that you and I are called on to complete.
Our goal is to erase the false lines that have divided Europe for too long. The future of every European nation must be determined by the progress of internal reform, not the interests of outside powers. Every European nation that struggles toward democracy and free markets and a strong civic culture must be welcomed into Europes home.
Expanding Nato
All of Europes new democracies, from the Baltic to the Black Sea and all that lie between, should have the same chance for security and freedom and the same chance to join the institutions of Europe as Europes old democracies have.
I believe in NATO membership for all of Europes democracies that seek it and are ready to share the responsibilities that NATO brings. The question of when may still be up for debate within NATO; the question of whether should not be. As we plan to enlarge NATO, no nation should be used as a pawn in the agendas of others. We will not trade away the fate of free European peoples.
Next year, NATOs leaders will meet in Prague. The United States will be prepared to make concrete, historic decisions with its allies to advance NATO enlargement. Poland and America share a vision. As we plan the Prague Summit, we should not calculate how little we can get away with, but how much we can do to advance the cause of freedom.
The expansion of NATO has fulfilled NATOs promise. And that promise now leads eastward and southward, northward and onward. All nations should understand that there is no conflict between membership in NATO and membership in the European Union. My nation welcomes the consolidation of European unity, and the stability it brings. We welcome a greater role for the EU in European security, properly integrated with NATO. We welcome the incentive for reform that the hope of EU membership creates. We welcome a Europe that is truly united, democratic, and diverse a collection of peoples and nations bound together in purpose and respect, and faithful to their own roots.
The most basic commitments of NATO and the European Union are similar: democracy, free markets, and common security. And all in Europe and America understand the central lesson of the century past. When Europe and America are divided, history tends to tragedy. When we are partners, no trouble or tyranny can stand against us.
Including the south and east
Our vision of Europe must also include the Balkans. Across the region, nations are yearning to be a part of Europe. The burdens and benefits of satisfying that yearning will naturally fall most heavily on Europe itself. That is why I welcome Europes commitment to play a leading role in the stabilization of Southeastern Europe. Countries other than the United States already provide over 80 per cent of the NATO-led forces in the region. But I know that Americas role is important, and we will meet our obligations. We went into the Balkans together, and we will come out together. And our goal must be to hasten the arrival of that day.
The Europe we are building must include Ukraine, a nation struggling with the trauma of transition. Some in Kiev speak of their countrys European destiny. If this is their aspiration, we should reward it. We must extend our hand to Ukraine, as Poland has already done with such determination.
The Europe we are building must also be open to Russia. We have a stake in Russias success and we look for the day when Russia is fully reformed, fully democratic and closely bound to the rest of Europe. Europes great institutions NATO and the European Union can and should build partnerships with Russia and with all the countries that have emerged from the wreckage of the former Soviet Union.
Russia is part of Europe and, therefore, does not need a buffer zone of insecure states separating it from Europe. NATO, even as it grows, is no enemy of Russia. Poland and America are no enemies of Russia. We will seek a constructive relationship with Russia, for the benefit of all our peoples.
A higher law
The basis for our mutual security must move beyond Cold War doctrines. Today, we face growing threats from weapons of mass destruction and missiles in the hands of states for whom terror and blackmail are a way of life. So we must have a broad strategy of active non-proliferation; counter-proliferation; and a new concept of deterrence that includes defenses sufficient to protect our people, our forces, and our allies; as well as reduced reliance on nuclear weapons.
The path to greater prosperity and greater security lies in greater freedom. The 20th century has taught us that only freedom gets the highest service from every citizen citizens who can publish, worship, and organize for themselves without fear of intimidation, and with the full protection of the law.
This, after all, is the true source of European unity. Ultimately, its more than the unity of markets or interests : it is a unity of values. Through a hard history, Europe has come to believe in the dignity of every individual in social freedom, tempered by moral restraint; and in economic liberty, balanced with humane values.
The revolutions of 1989, said Pope John Paul II, were made possible by the commitment of brave men and women inspired by a different, and ultimately more profound and powerful, vision: the vision of man as a creature of intelligence and free will, immersed in a mystery which transcends his own being and endowed with the ability to reflect and the ability to choose and thus capable of wisdom and virtue.
This belief successfully challenged communism. It challenges materialism in all its forms. Just as man cannot be reduced to a means of production, he must find goals greater than mere consumption. The European ideal is inconsistent with a life defined by gain and greed and the lonely pursuit of self. It calls for consideration and respect, compassion and forgiveness the habits of character on which the exercise of freedom depends.
And all these duties, and all these rights are ultimately traced to a source of law and justice above our wills and beyond our politics an author of our dignity, who calls us to act worthy of our dignity.
This belief is more than a memory, it is a living faith. And it is the main reason Europe and America will never be separated. We are products of the same history, reaching from Jerusalem and Athens to Warsaw and Washington. We share more than an alliance. We share a civilization. Its values are universal, and they pervade our history and our partnership in a unique way.
A vision made real
In the 1940s, Winston Churchill saw beyond a world war and a Cold War to a greater project where historic nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition, and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be room for all.
To his contemporaries who lived in a Europe of division and violence, this vision must have seemed unimaginable. Yet, our fathers struggled and sacrificed to make this vision real. Today, a new generation makes a new commitment: a Europe and an America bound in a great alliance of liberty historys greatest united force for peace and progress and human dignity. Now, we plan and build the house of freedom whose doors are open to all of Europes peoples and whose windows look out to global challenges beyond. Our progress is great, our goals are large, and our differences, in comparison, are small. And America, in calm and in crisis, will honor this vision and the values we share.
This is an extract from a speech made by George W. Bush to members of Warsaw University on 15 June 2001.
