Europe has been searching for a clearer view of its own future and a better definition of the European project. The intensity and complexity of this debate should not be surprising, given the momentous changes that have occurred over the last decade.

Too much of the conceptual search has been conducted, however, with an exclusive focus on the “European space” rather than by looking at the European project in the context of globalisation. A European Union that “fits” the 21st century must be one that relates to accelerating globalisation and attempts to face the challenges of ever closer integration of world markets and financial systems. It must be a European Union that is fully conscious of both the difficulties and the opportunities of globalisation.

For businesses based in any of the EU countries, markets in the Americas, Asia or the Middle East are as important, and sometimes more important, than the “single” European market itself. European security will be affected by state failure in Africa or Central Asia as much as Europe’s own defence expenditures. Europe’s financial markets will reflect developments in New York and Shanghai, and Europe’s climate will be affected more by carbon emissions in North America and Asia than by the emission ceilings it achieves within its own borders.

MATTERS OF OPINION

Europe’s youth: more politically engaged than is realised Do young people care about politics? According to a recent EU-wide telephone poll of 19,000 people aged 15-30, young Europeans are very interested in politics. More than eight in ten say they care about national politics, 73% say they follow news relating to their city or region and two-thirds are interested in EU affairs. Young Greeks are the most politically-minded, with 89% following national current affairs and 77% the politics of Europe. The least politically-minded young people live in Romania, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Nearly three out of four young Europeans, the survey found, would welcome more programmes designed to involve them in voluntary work, although fewer than one in five is currently engaged in socially useful activities. Asked what the EU most symbolises for them, 90% cited the right to travel, study and work in another European country.

A good part of the difficulties the European project is experiencing is due to the fact that the Union’s role is increasingly being squeezed between the local and the global. On the one hand, citizens want to govern themselves as directly as possible, with local factors – problems involving their cities and communities – taking the lead in politics. Sub-national and regional identity politics have seldom been more visible. Not just Brussels but national capitals seem remote. The work of the European Parliament seems unrelated to everyday concerns like traffic congestion, childcare, safe communities, good healthcare, housing or the quality of education. That’s why so many EU citizens show little interest in the European elections. At the same time, big issues like the fight against terrorism or protection against avian influenza, nuclear proliferation or the effort to control climate change appear as global matters perhaps best dealt with by the United Nations – leaving to the EU institutions an uncertain role in the minds and perceptions of most European citizens.

For the European project to continue to progress, it will be vital to explain how the construction of Europe will both help citizens have greater control of their everyday lives through more empowered local institutions, while also helping to solve the great security, climate, and war and peace related challenges of an increasingly interdependent world. Citizens want to understand how Europe fits into this picture, how it can act as a solid bridge between their local communities and the outside world, how it can help them access the opportunities of that world while protecting them from uncertainties resulting from developments in far away places.

It is only by attempting to answer these concrete concerns, and by explaining what multi-level governance can and must achieve in the globalised world of the 21st century, that the European project can progress. Right now, though, too much effort goes into futile attempts to define a European “identity” that would somehow recreate, at a continental level, 19th and 20th century style nationalism. Too much misdirected effort is going toward defining a new type of “European nationalism” to replace the French, German or other nationalisms of the past. Language, history, local customs and tastes – a multitude of factors – make such “euro-nationalism” an unlikely goal. Can a Spaniard from Seville, a Swede from Malmo, or a Greek from Crete really share the kind of nationalistic allegiance to the European Union that citizens have had for their nation states, and would it anyway be desirable? Do we really want to recreate at a continental level the same emotions that led to so many devastating conflicts in the past?

Lacking language, a common nation-building history or common customs, some have looked to the Christian religion as the nation-builder for Europe. Is that likely or desirable? Should we give up one of the greatest achievements of the enlightenment – the separation of church and state – in order to create a religion-based “euro-nationalism”? Should Europe be defined in a way that furthers or encourages “clashes of civilisation” or grand religious divides in our integrating and interdependent world? Should Europe look for its future in a misplaced nostalgia for a past that contained such immense suffering, or in the hope for a future that is truly free of war and finally freed from “murderous identities”, to borrow that phrase from Amin Maalouf?

It is time, in my view, to abandon these false directions and instead discuss Europe’s future as part of the search for a new global order. Europe can lead the way in showing other regions both how to overcome the weaknesses of traditional nation states in dealing with global problems and also how to reinvigorate democracy by strengthening citizens involvement and control at the local level. Europe does not have to be built “against” anybody. On the contrary, it should remain strongly linked to other parts of the world. Certain European countries play a particularly important role in these linkages.

The United Kingdom will always be a strong link between Europe and the English-speaking world, particularly the Unites States. Spain is among the countries most dedicated to the EU’s success, but at the same time it has special links to Latin America that it is developing further. Turkey, already deeply integrated into Europe through trade, finance, defence cooperation and a decades long process of convergence with the European Union, can contribute strong and growing links to the Muslim world and to Asian countries to the south and east. All this can help Europe be a leader in global governance and contribute to the solution to global problems that risk having an impact on the lives of every European citizen.

Citizens must feel empowered, they must see and feel how Europe is helping them deal with problems that range from global warming to traffic jams. This sense of empowerment can come from activities as diverse as rural roads in Bulgaria built with Union support to a well-functioning EU health insurance card to ensure that Europeans can get good medical care anywhere in Europe, to effective European efforts to fight poverty in Africa, to European leadership in the new global climate negotiations that will start in December in Bali. Europeans want to see Europe succeed and European institutions that work effectively, at the right level, with a judicious use of the subsidiarity principle.

The challenge is not to find a perfect definition of European identity, but to design institutions and processes that deliver democratic control, economic efficiency and allow Europe to play a crucial role in managing global threats and opportunities. Within the overall United Nations framework, Europe can, by example and with the resources it already allocates to multinational approaches and cooperation, be the champion of much more effective global issues management. This in turn will enhance the sense of mission and achievement that Europeans must feel as they advance the great European project into the 21st Century.