Do we need a President of Europe ?

Here is a question I asked in the afternoon Plenary session today about The Shape of the New European Union.

Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, shared with us his ideas of an European dream compared to what was the American Dream in the past:

The Americans was a dream for individuals coming to America to fulfill their dreams of individual success. The initial European dream of Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman was the United States of Europe. Today the Accessing Countries join, the dream changed.

The European dream is a concept that can attract not only the 15, the 10 new ones but also many more. The EU is not an exclusive club. Dimitrij Rupel developed his concept of this new dream of a large multi-cultural, open Europe.

Here was my question to Dimitrij Rupel:

"I share your dreams about Europe, being a French Entrepreneur, but I feel most citizens don't. I will put it in an even stronger way, most of them do not really care about Europe, they feel it has no voice, it does not mean enough to them, and you can see that in European elections citizens participation.

I am surprised nobody on the panel talked about a President of Europe, even if it is not for tomorrow. I actually think we need one, now. We need a Face for Europe, a person that is this vision, that takes it to Citizens, so that they feel concerned and share it.

There is no company without a face, a CEO. There is no Country without a President. Europe has no face until we have a directly elected President of Europe."

Do you think also we need a European President now ?

Comments

[Keeran Sivarajah]

The idea of having a President of Europe may seem very attractive and appealing. As quoted, the USA may be reckoned as a success story of unity amongst states led by a single head. However, what is of imperative concern is how such an action may affect the member countries of EU. USA is a country of a single culture and language. Europe, indeed, is far from that. Having a single President might stimulate chaos; the present rotating system of appointing the council head from different member countries is at present the best avenue. Having said this, situations obviously evolve with time. A President for Europe may very well seem likely in the future.

[antoin o lachtnain]

Well, the problem is, we don't know we haven't refined the common imagery about Europe. The latest accession makes it even more difficult. The Union is now so diverse. It is almost impossible for an ordinary citizen to get a grasp on it.

It's important to look for a common identity, but it is wrong and dangerous to try to pick a single 'face' to represent Europe at this stage. It could be very damaging to the whole project if the person wasn't able to stand up to all the pressures that the job would entail.

The idea of a 'head' is also likely to further alienate people who are lukewarm towards the Union.

I do think, though, that strong personalities are required to make the Union more human and to cut through all the red tape and nonsense that has built up around the institutions over the last 40 years.

Personally, I think that the Union has to try to remind the public of its founding values - building and sharing wealth through trade and preventing war. If the European Union is presented to people in terms of these values, I think they will embrace it.

[Ov. Christian Norocel]

I consider that we should look at this issue in the long term perspective. As Dimitrij Rupel puts it we do need a "Face for Europe". Moreover, having a person to embody the European unity will help Us to speed up the identification process as Europeans. At this point Europe is still divided along the national borders and there are some people, especially the youth, trying to find a common, continental identity. Even so, the guidelines are weak, the fractures are numerous and the true European-ness lacks substance.
The function of a Common Head of EU( to use this term instead of president, which might imply republican simpathies) will then be to refine the common imagery about what Europe really is and how Europeans can find the common grounds for such identification process.
In a nutshell, I support this idea because will give us a sense of connectedness and of community.

[antoin o lachtnain]

Europe already has plenty of presidents. Why do you want another? There's Pat Cox (presdident of the European Parliament); Romano Prodi (president of the European Commission); and not forgetting Bertie Ahern (president of the council of ministers). So Europe actually has three presidents (not counting the ECB and all the other stuff). I hope you will agree that this is a very European solution to the problem of deciding who the president should actually be.

[Oliver Thylmann]

What we might rather need is an agreement to disagree. People need to be proud of their own country, which is a real problem in Germany I blieve, just because of our heritage it is hard to say "I am proud to be a German" ... has a bad ring to it. That's a problem. Once we get that settled we also have to make sure that being part of Europe is a thing to be proud of.

Maybe it might be an idea to do a European Fair or something, just like the World Fair or whatever it is a called. I think you do not need to be aware that Europe exists, you actually shouldn't, but that there are other parts of Europe, other parts of your life, that are out there, ready to be explored, without problems.

I can't even remember clearly how weird it was to drive over a boarder check point. Going from Belgium to Germany so many times made me become unaware of the boarder. It's just the lights at the autobahn that make you happy to be in Belgium at night in the rain in the car... :)

[Can Sar]

While I agree that this might be very effective, I disagree with the idea on principle. What makes the European Union special is the diversity of influences and voices, and this should be reflected in its leaders. Maybe there will be a time in the future, where there can be one president, but for now, it would be better to have many leaders with one coherent agenda.