EU: The Cultures of Europe

I’d always aspired

To work in Brussels,

To help build trust and friendship,

Closer links and youth exchanges.

I was committed, idealistic.

I served in Prague and Stockholm,

In Salonika and Sydney.

We’d meet each month,

Members of the member states,

To plan in common our cultural projects,

Conferences, festivals of film;

To make our special contributions,

To enhance our vision of Europe -

Ute, Rea, Flavio, Magda;

Italian, German, French and Greek,

Swedish, Czech and Polish…

Counsellors and Cultural Heads.

Goethe, Dante, Erasmus, Shakespeare;

Camus, Kafka, Kazantzakis.

Goodwill, good faith-

Until politicians turned it toxic,

Bred suspicion and division.

That was twenty-one years ago...


Ian Kershaw writes in his preface and foreword to Roller-Coaster, Europe, 1950-2017, of the global changes and challenges since then, of increasing globalization, nationalism, xenophobia, mass migration, tensions of multiculturalism, technological change, financial crises, the widening income gap, the rise of China, the central, leadership position of Germany in Europe (apart from 9/11, regional wars, military and other grave threats that Kershaw identifies).

"In dangerous waters the convoy is best staying close together, not drifting apart. That means building upon and strengthening the levels of unity, cooperation and consensus, imperfect as they are, that have been gradually constructed since the war. With good navigation, everyone may traverse the perilous straits ahead to reach safer shores" - Ian Kershaw.

"With good navigation..."

"

See also, The British Library, 31st January 2019


Update: Brexit ruling: UK can cancel decision, EU court says, BBC News 10 December

"The European Court of Justice has ruled the UK can cancel Brexit without the permission of the other 27 EU members. The ECJ judges ruled this could be done without altering the terms of Britain's membership".

"The court said the decision must "follow a democratic process", so in the UK's case, it would have to be approved by Parliament. The member state would then have to write to the EU to notify them of the "unequivocal and unconditional" decision. The ECJ said it made the ruling to "clarify the options open to MPs" ahead of voting on Mrs May's deal".

Will this ruling have an impact on the vote (now postponed) in Parliament?

The Court (Full Court) hereby rules:

"Article 50 TEU must be interpreted as meaning that, where a Member State has notified the European Council, in accordance with that article, of its intention to withdraw from the European Union, that article allows that Member State — for as long as a withdrawal agreement concluded between that Member State and the European Union has not entered into force or, if no such agreement has been concluded, for as long as the two-year period laid down in Article 50(3) TEU, possibly extended in accordance with that paragraph, has not expired — to revoke that notification unilaterally, in an unequivocal and unconditional manner, by a notice addressed to the European Council in writing, after the Member State concerned has taken the revocation decision in accordance with its constitutional requirements. The purpose of that revocation is to confirm the EU membership of the Member State concerned under terms that are unchanged as regards its status as a Member State, and that revocation brings the withdrawal procedure to an end".

Everyone seems to have a different idea:

Papandreou Urges Jeremy Corbyn To Revoke Brexit, Greek Reporter