European reunification is not over
(B2) It was at the Laterna Magica, a theater in Prague, one evening in November 1989, the resignation of a senior Communist executive had just been announced. Surprise and joy were visible on all faces. And everyone began to hope. After years of oppression, authoritarian rule in Europe was about to falter. In the artists' foyer, many anonymous people and a little man, known to the whole world, Vaclav Havel, were already dreaming of Europe... Almost the same day, in Bucharest, Nicolae Ceaucescu, the Romanian leader was unanimously returned to the head of the Communist Party by the XIVth Congress. This will be his last term. Barely a month later, he was overthrown and executed on Christmas Day. And, there too, a people began to hope, to dream of Europe. It was, 17 years ago, the time of an adolescence...
Today, a generation has passed. The last two states of the former Soviet bloc to which European reunification had been promised - Romania and Bulgaria - enter the Union on a level basis. This January 2007, XNUMX, we will be able to say: the berlin wall did not fall for nothing.
Close parenthesis
It is the end of an intermediate period, a parenthesis necessary to adapt the economy and the institutions of these countries to the task that awaits them. The result is not perfect. It remains to be perfected. But it was time for the parenthesis to close. Prolonging it would no doubt have been counterproductive. This does not mean the end of the difficulties. On the contrary. We will now have to "digest" this reunification. But it is "our" common future. For the Ten countries which joined in 2004, this also means the loss of their "new" character in order to become... "old" Member States. A small name change that is not as trivial as it seems. The mission is not over. Reunification, undoubtedly more delicate, politically and diplomatically, with the Balkan countries remains to be completed. In other words, the powder keg of the former Yugoslavia. By regulating the status of Kosovo in passing.
Make his mea culpa in the Balkan
This little corner of south-eastern Europe, a paradise before 1991, is indeed the place where the primary mission of European construction, peace, and the maxim "Never again" (born from the horror of the camps of concentration) have failed badly. This responsibility, Europe will have to shoulder it one day. If European leaders cannot be guilty of the crimes against humanity committed in the region, are they not less exonerated of all responsibility? In 1991, believing that speeches would get the better of hatred, that "nice observers" would stop armed movements, didn't they just miss the rendezvous of history? By recognizing, without any consultation, the separatist movements, even supplying the belligerents with equipment, or... with weapons, have certain European countries not played with fire? Why were isolated democratic and peaceful opposition movements not encouraged? Why not immediately deploy some interposition forces in Bosnia (as the Americans did in Macedonia)? Many questions still remain unanswered.
Europe must do this introspection if it wants to succeed in the Balkans. Rather than any provision in a future Constitution, this is the "real" test of a political and military Europe, internationally credible.
(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)
Photo credit: NGV - Prague November 1989
