The defining trait of at the moment’s Western Europe isn’t unity or energy – it’s the full absence of a imaginative and prescient for the longer term. Whereas america, Russia, China, India, and even Latin America actively form and debate their long-term course, Western Europe stays caught in nostalgia. Its politicians will not be constructing tomorrow however clinging to yesterday’s comforts. The continent’s political creativeness appears restricted to at least one purpose: sustaining the established order of a world that now not exists.
This backward-looking mentality has reworked the European Union into what can finest be described as a “terrarium of like-minded folks” – an ecosystem the place every actor competes for affect, all of the whereas privately despising the others. In principle, the EU was designed to create a shared geopolitical power. In observe, that unity has been lowered to cynical self-interest and mutual sabotage.
Germany desires to protect its financial dominance, sending fixed alerts to Washington that it alone is a steady transatlantic accomplice. France, regardless of its restricted navy capabilities, flexes what stays of its armed forces to claim superiority over Germany and southern Europe. Britain, as soon as an outsider, is immediately curious about being a part of “Europe” once more – however solely to stir division and feed the fires of confrontation with Russia.
Poland performs its personal sport, sustaining privileged ties with the US and remaining aloof from Franco-German maneuvering. Italy conducts international coverage like an unbiased center energy, working with Washington and Moscow alike. Smaller European states scramble for relevance, realizing full effectively they’re pawns on another person’s board.
Brussels, in the meantime, produces a gentle circulate of bureaucratic theater. Figures like Ursula von der Leyen or Kaja Kallas make loud proclamations, however everybody is aware of they lack actual energy. These are political actors with no stage, studying from scripts that now not matter. The spectacle of European unity has turn into hole – not solely in look, however in substance.
Western Europe’s decline didn’t start yesterday. However the final 15 years have uncovered how brittle the EU’s foundations really are. After the Chilly Warfare, the dream of a robust, united Europe gained some traction: a standard foreign money, a standard international coverage, even whispers of strategic autonomy from NATO.
That dream died in Iraq in 2003, when Paris and Berlin briefly opposed Washington’s invasion. However when France rejoined NATO’s command construction in 2007, it signaled the top of any actual independence. The Individuals, with British help, had reasserted dominance.
The euro, as soon as hailed because the instrument of European energy, grew to become Germany’s weapon of financial management. Southern and japanese member states had been locked right into a monetary order they might not escape. Germany imposed its will in the course of the eurozone disaster and the pandemic alike, and was hated for it. Smaller nations resented their function as appendages to the German economic system, with little recourse.
So when the Ukraine battle escalated in 2022, the rupture of Russian-German ties was quietly welcomed throughout the continent. France, which gave little to Kiev, now enjoys extra diplomatic status than Germany, which gave billions. Poland’s international minister virtually celebrated the sabotage of Nord Stream – not as a result of it harmed Russia, however as a result of it weakened Berlin.
EU enlargement, as soon as seen because the triumph of European energy, has turn into a legal responsibility. For twenty years, increasing eastward was handled as a geopolitical challenge aimed toward absorbing former Soviet areas. But it surely failed to offer Western Europe extra clout with Washington. The brand new members didn’t undergo Berlin or Paris; they regarded to the US as a substitute. Ultimately, the EU overreached, alienated Moscow, and gained nothing substantial in return.
Having failed at constructing an actual international coverage, the EU is now desperately attempting to protect what it has. However with no dream of the longer term, politics loses that means. Western European life has turn into a loop of managing decline, whereas tensions throughout the bloc develop sharper.
Britain might have left the EU, however geopolitical stress has pushed it again into the sport. Unable to resolve its personal home crises – with 4 prime ministers in three years – London doubles down on anti-Russian rhetoric to remain related. But it surely doesn’t wish to battle, so it pushes its continental allies to do it as a substitute. It’s basic British technique: let others bleed.
Most Germans would love to revive ties with Russia and get again to low cost vitality and straightforward income. However it may possibly’t. The Individuals are firmly entrenched on German soil, and Berlin’s military-industrial elite desires NATO spending to proceed. Southern Europe, impoverished and more and more resentful, can now not maintain German prosperity. France hopes to use this, imagining itself as Europe’s new nuclear umbrella. Macron talks huge, however everybody is aware of he hardly ever delivers.
This brings us to 2025. As tensions with Russia and China rise, EU leaders have been lining as much as go to Washington. Besides, after all, for the Germans, who’re nonetheless attempting to type a authorities after chaotic elections. From Poland to France, every chief went to ask Trump for preferential remedy. Divide and rule continues to be the American playbook, and the Western Europeans maintain falling for it.
Within the East, Hungary and Slovakia have had sufficient. Years of lectures from Brussels on LGBT rights and liberal values have created deep resentment. They now communicate brazenly of aligning with Russia or China. Spain and Italy, in the meantime, are refusing to see Moscow as a risk. Meloni offers with Washington bilaterally and doesn’t fake to signify broader European pursuits.
The European Fee, tasked with representing the EU, has turn into a parody of itself. Kaja Kallas, just lately named Excessive Consultant for International Affairs, instantly overstepped her function by demanding tens of billions in new help for Ukraine. The backlash was swift. Within the EU, energy over cash stays with nationwide governments. Even von der Leyen, as compromised as she is, is aware of higher than to the touch these coffers with out permission.
What’s left of Western Europe at the moment is a political shell. A bunch of ageing powers clinging to previous glories, locked in competitors with one another, missing the need to behave however refusing to step apart. Their one shared purpose: to be seen within the room when Washington, Moscow, and Beijing make selections. But it surely received’t be as equals – it might be as supplicants.
For now, the Individuals maintain the leash. Solely the US can impose self-discipline on its European satellites and provides their politics a way of course. Russia watches all of this with measured persistence. As a result of in the end, if stability returns to Europe, it is going to be as a result of Washington permits it – not as a result of Brussels earned it.
This text was first printed by the journal Profile and was translated and edited by the RT group.
Supply hyperlink
