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https://www.ft.com/content/414d98b9-797c-4d8f-b448-71c87cc00426
Bridging east-west differences in the EU Common values and interests can draw Europe together THE EDITORIAL BOARD Add to myFT Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) chat at the start of a two-day EU summit, in Brussels, last month © Olivier Hoslet/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) Share Save The editorial board YESTERDAY 38 Print this page Despite the health and economic costs of the pandemic, the EU ended 2020 in better shape than was feared early in the year. Leaders of the bloc's 27 countries struck a deal on its 2021-2027 budget. They will launch a recovery fund that breaks new ground by letting the EU borrow on financial markets for the purpose of assisting needy countries with grants and loans. The 27 overcame differences to set the ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 55 per cent of 1990 levels by 2030. Finally, the election of Joe Biden as US president in place of Donald Trump promises to lower the curtain on what were the most difficult four years in transatlantic relations since the end of the second world war. These successes should not disguise the fact that, in one area fundamental to the EU's long-term prospects, tensions and misunderstandings persist. This is the relationship between the bloc's old western European states and its newer members from central and eastern Europe. In matters such as the rule of law, liberal democracy, corruption, migration and gender policies, impatience and resentment are growing in certain circles on both sides. Several steps are needed to address the problem. The first is to dispense with the mental map of Europe which divides the continent into two halves, as if nothing has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Such a map encourages western Europeans to see themselves as guardians of a more advanced order, as in the era when the east languished under communism. But it makes central and eastern Europeans, including many critical of political illiberalism and corruption in their countries, feel that they are often on the receiving end of high-minded lectures from the west. In reality, governments and peoples on both sides have a profound interest in making a success of what they share in common. This includes eurozone membership, which unites 19 countries from west and east. It covers security and defence policy, where most EU states are members of Nato. Harder questions concern EU values and national sovereignty. Western European governments are right to insist on the primacy of democratic norms and the rule of law, for the corrosion of these values risks turning over time into an existential threat to the EU's unity. Yet sometimes their actions amount to less than their words. A case in point is the protection afforded by leading western politicians in the centre-right European People's party to central and eastern leaders who fail to uphold EU values. It remains to be seen whether the compromise which the 27 agreed in early December on linking disbursement of recovery funds to observance of the rule of law will be an effective mechanism or an unsatisfactory fudge. But it will need to be more than a western stick with which to beat the east. The record of some western European countries on corruption and the rule of law is not unblemished. The more coherent the westerners' message on EU values, the more they will give heart to millions of people in central and eastern Europe who yearn for improvements in the quality of public life. Yet westerners should keep in mind that, for many central and eastern Europeans, national independence is no abstract concept. Its recovery after 1989 was a prized achievement after decades of dictatorship and foreign oppression. The year 2021 can and should be the time when each side tries harder to understand each other and co-operate on the basis of common interests and values.
https://www.ft.com/content/414d98b9-797c-4d8f-b448-71c87cc00426
Bridging east-west differences in the EU Common values and interests can draw Europe together THE EDITORIAL BOARD Add to myFT Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) chat at the start of a two-day EU summit, in Brussels, last month © Olivier Hoslet/Pool/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock Share on Twitter (opens new window) Share on Facebook (opens new window) Share on LinkedIn (opens new window) Share Save The editorial board YESTERDAY 38 Print this page Despite the health and economic costs of the pandemic, the EU ended 2020 in better shape than was feared early in the year. Leaders of the bloc's 27 countries struck a deal on its 2021-2027 budget. They will launch a recovery fund that breaks new ground by letting the EU borrow on financial markets for the purpose of assisting needy countries with grants and loans. The 27 overcame differences to set the ambitious target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions to 55 per cent of 1990 levels by 2030. Finally, the election of Joe Biden as US president in place of Donald Trump promises to lower the curtain on what were the most difficult four years in transatlantic relations since the end of the second world war. These successes should not disguise the fact that, in one area fundamental to the EU's long-term prospects, tensions and misunderstandings persist. This is the relationship between the bloc's old western European states and its newer members from central and eastern Europe. In matters such as the rule of law, liberal democracy, corruption, migration and gender policies, impatience and resentment are growing in certain circles on both sides. Several steps are needed to address the problem. The first is to dispense with the mental map of Europe which divides the continent into two halves, as if nothing has changed since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Such a map encourages western Europeans to see themselves as guardians of a more advanced order, as in the era when the east languished under communism. But it makes central and eastern Europeans, including many critical of political illiberalism and corruption in their countries, feel that they are often on the receiving end of high-minded lectures from the west. In reality, governments and peoples on both sides have a profound interest in making a success of what they share in common. This includes eurozone membership, which unites 19 countries from west and east. It covers security and defence policy, where most EU states are members of Nato. Harder questions concern EU values and national sovereignty. Western European governments are right to insist on the primacy of democratic norms and the rule of law, for the corrosion of these values risks turning over time into an existential threat to the EU's unity. Yet sometimes their actions amount to less than their words. A case in point is the protection afforded by leading western politicians in the centre-right European People's party to central and eastern leaders who fail to uphold EU values. It remains to be seen whether the compromise which the 27 agreed in early December on linking disbursement of recovery funds to observance of the rule of law will be an effective mechanism or an unsatisfactory fudge. But it will need to be more than a western stick with which to beat the east. The record of some western European countries on corruption and the rule of law is not unblemished. The more coherent the westerners' message on EU values, the more they will give heart to millions of people in central and eastern Europe who yearn for improvements in the quality of public life. Yet westerners should keep in mind that, for many central and eastern Europeans, national independence is no abstract concept. Its recovery after 1989 was a prized achievement after decades of dictatorship and foreign oppression. The year 2021 can and should be the time when each side tries harder to understand each other and co-operate on the basis of common interests and values.
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