By Halil Cihan Ergul
Today, E.U. countries’ integration efforts toward becoming one unified community has three important corner stones. These are a common currency, a common army and a common constitution.
The Union took the first step in the monetary dimension of this prospect and introduced the Euro on Jan. 1, 1999. At that time, the European Union countries established conversion rates between their national currencies and the Euro and three years after, on Jan. 1, 2002, the Euro entered circulation in all these E.U. countries. Today, the Euro is the unique national currency of 12 E.U. countries, namely Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal and Finland. After a couple of conversion months, when E.U. nations used both their national currency and the Euro simultaneously, the Euro adapted quickly as common currency and has gained strength against most of other currencies in the international markets. Currently, lack of a common fiscal policy within E.U. countries limit the potential of monetary union, but this effort itself marks a historical beginning for the continent.
The second issue that the European Union has to consider is its security dimension. In order to become a global power, the Union has to have a strong and independent military force so that it can ensure the security of the member countries from a central and aggregated unit, and become more convincing in its foreign relations. Currently, the union tries to minimize this absence by U.N. sources, but in the long run whether the Union will be transformed into a kind of federative government or to a supranational (beyond the nations) entity, it will need to position itself with an independent military source in order to bet for a more assertive role in the global world. Many E.U. countries today apply minimalist policies in military expenditures. Portions of their GDP spent on military expenditures are so little that no one expects the needed fund to be raised in the near future. More importantly, as the recent occupation in Iraq shows, E.U. countries have different views in their foreign policies. At this point, E.U. countries’ partial attendance to the occupation forces suggest that the European Union initially needs a common and mature ideological background in order to proceed to a more integrated phase in the Union. Without that, French-German initiatives will do nothing to inspire others in achieving such goals.
Last, the treaty establishing a constitution for Europe was signed last week of Oct. 29 by 25 member countries and three candidate countries, namely Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. Once every member of the Union approves this constitution in the period of 18 months ahead, the European Union will have its first unique constitution within its borders. Doubtlessly, as this constitution is going to be the central point of the European Union’s unique identity, it will also create a judicial base for all other integration efforts in the union. At this point, I find it quite beneficial to relate this situation with the modern definition of the community, where it says “A community consists of people living in the same land with a common interest at the present and a common expectation in the future.” The new constitution is the best opportunity to verbalize the Union’s attempt to create a unique European community, but as we witnessed in the reaction of E.U. countries to the Iraq occupancy, these common interests are not clear for most of the members yet.
At the bottom line, there may be many obstacles ahead, but slowly and silently the European Union is creating a brand new alternative to the so called “Old Europe” and becoming more like a unique country whose flag is a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, whose anthem is based on the “Ode to Joy” from the ninth symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, and finally whose motto is “United in diversity.”