The European Union and its leaders are this week starting their annual monthly break with a great deal to think about away from the daily grind of problem-solving, crisis management and negotiations in Brussels. Their project of continental cooperation is assailed by major challenges on migration and refugees, terrorist attacks which undermine everyday security, the rise of right-wing populism which thrives on such turmoil and the Brexit decision which raises fears of further fragmentation in the EU.
Pessimism and caution prevail in thinking about the Union's future, leaving too little space for hope that these problems can be confronted constructively.They arise from a series of changes which are linked in their impact on European states and everyday security. The war in Syria tops these and has over the last year played out in a large flow of refugees seeking sanctuary and safety in European states.
The European response has been fitful and uneven, combining generosity with resentment. The one million people who have made their way to Europe are but a fraction of those displaced in and around Syria. Although they are fleeing from a terrible and terrifying war, right-wing movements now blame them for bringing terrorism and insecurity to this continent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel courageously rejected such criticism in her press conference last Thursday, defending her record of pragmatic hospitality and insisting the enemy is not Islam but Islamist inspired terrorism.
Her approach should inspire other leaders to reflect on a similar response to the challenges facing their nation-states and the project of European cooperation. They have been put too much on the defensive by calls for closing borders, excluding strangers and reducing freedoms to travel openly. They fail to argue in favour of their actual practice of working together rather than blaming each other and Brussels for poor outcomes.
They are not ambitious enough to see they have power to shape a Syrian peace process, to help African states develop, to work more effectively together on anti-terrorist security or to create financial instruments to help refugees settle – all of which can produce demonstrably better outcomes for ordinary people and head off populist appeal.
A similar lack of effective ambition affects their work on banking union and debt-sharing in the eurozone and their wider efforts to stimulate growth and employment, especially for younger people and for communities throughout Europe who feel left behind socially and economically by globalisation.
Such fears drove the Brexit decision and must be confronted constructively in the coming year if this mood of pessimism and caution is to be turned around.