No. 18

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Eurorealism déjà vu

16 December 2008

Politics

RiTo No. 18, 2008

  • Igor Gräzin

    Member of the Riigikogu, Estonian Reform Party

The writer believes that five years ago, eurorealism meant the ability to see the dangers from overambitiousness and centralization of the European Union, but today realism means that the hazards lying in store for the European Union in future must be assessed soberly.

If we leave aside the programmes and projects that can in actuality be carried out on the national level, hovering over the European Union like finery – what we are left with is a message that cuts to the crux of the matter: the future of a united Europe is in danger. One need not look very far for examples. differences in the issue of the Russian and Georgian war, differences in Kosovo policy, constant attempts to create a smaller and more elite European Union within the larger EU, opposing economic policies (from socialism to free market), the search for any sort of special status in relations with Russia, the continuing unchecked growth of the administrative apparatus and finally, the drop in competence indicated by the behaviour in the current economic situation. Based on the above, the writer believes that instead of devot-ing attention to wall-to-wall European Union reforms, eurorealists could start quietly con-tributing to the creation of a pan-European energy system. And as part of this effort, to im-plementing the principle that, at least in energy matters, Russia is counterbalanced by one and only one European Union, the solidarity of whose members cannot be measured in bar-rels of oil or cubic metres of gas.

Full article in Estonian

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