TES Dispatch #1: The Case For A European Super State

“Mutual aid in the economic field and joint military defence must inevitably be accompanied step by step with a parallel policy of closer political unity. It is said with truth that this involves some sacrifice or merger of national sovereignty. But it is also possible and not less agreeable to regard it as the gradual assumption by all the nations concerned of that larger sovereignty which can alone protect their diverse and distinctive customs and characteristics and their national traditions all of which under totalitarian systems, whether Nazi, Fascist, or Communist, would certainly be blotted out for ever.”

— Winston Churchill, Congress of Europe, The Hague May 7, 1948

Round Up: The United States of Europe

II knew if Trump won in 2024 it was going to be bad for Ukraine and bad for Europe. I can’t pinpoint when exactly my concern hit Defcon 1, but I think it was around the enraging ‘You don’t have the cards’ meeting with Zelensky in the White House.

I had asinking feeling that things were getting bad for Europe.

Then, I came across Noah Smith’s Europe is Under Siege Substack post. I don’t agree with Smith on everything, but here, he articulated all of my inchoate worries:

The most important thing Europeans need is to panic. Europe is facing its own Deluge — a sudden pincer movement by hostile great powers that threatens to reduce it to a collection of small vassal states. This is a true crisis, and it will not be solved by social media rhetoric, or by brave declarations by EU leaders. It cannot be regulated away by eurocrats in Brussels. It will require bold policies that change Europe’s economic, political, and social models. Only a strong sense of urgency and purpose can motivate Europe to do what needs to be done.

What needs to be done? One important step is for Europe to act more as a single whole than as a collection of small countries.

But how would this work, and isn't the EU already a single whole, kind of?

Then I read ‘Federalise or Die’ from Dave Keating, a Brussels-based American journalist who writes the Substack Gulfstream Blues. The post is both an explainer and a rallying cry for a ‘United States of Europe’:

Though it is politically controversial to say so, among academics it is universally accepted that the EU today is a confederation, while some say it is already in many ways a full federation. European federalists, as a political movement, want to go all the way - to create a federal union that would work much the same as the United States, but with key differences. What that would look like has been outlined by the Young European Federalists movement in the chart below, showing the EU as it is on the left and the EU as they would like it to be on the right.

Finally, I came across this from Ulrike Malmendier: Europe’s choice: Grow, or become a vassal in The Economist drives the point home on the competitiveness front:

The most promising idea is to make the European market—the second-largest in the world after America’s—widely accessible to startups and innovative companies by offering them a so-called 28th regime: a single set of European regulations that firms can opt into if their national system holds them back.… a single legal framework that allows a company to operate across the continent: one registration, one set of employment rules for cross-border hires, one value-added-tax return, one insolvency procedure if the company fails and one regime if the founders want to sell and exit. And yes, a common corporate-tax base.

It's striking when you realize we don't already have that in the EU, and it partly explains why there are no 'European Champions'. Do you think SpaceX would have succeeded in the sovereign state of Florida? No.

Hard not to notice how often the term ‘vassal state’ appears in most if not all of these articles. That’s where we are, people.

Europe needs to coalesce and integrate and it needs to do it fast. If there's a silver lining to any the global chaos that we find ourselves in, it’s that it will FORCE Europe to figure it out.

I just wish it didn’t have to be so much of cliffhanger.

Cultural Artefact: Travel - A City Trip to Brussels

It is not going to be a Hot Girl Summer in Europe this year; it’s going to be an Expensive Petrol Summer. Many of us will need to take a continental staycation. So for this inaugural issue of The Europa Star Dispatch, I’ll focus on our capital city ( I’ve been wanting to head up there for a jaunt anyway) and share a round-up Brussels travel resources.

We Love Brussels A very up-to-date blog produced by a collection of locals who want to combat the “sometimes gloomy perceptions about Brussels”. Start with this post pointing out that Brussels is more than waffles and ‘EU Drama’ or just cut to the chase and read their Guided Tour of Belgian Chocolate. Here they are on Instagram.

If the glossy influencer visuals are too much, start with this gritty description of arriving in Brussels. Sometimes it’s good to start with low expectations; things can only get better!

Meme of the Week

A little pro-Europe YouTube propaganda (in the best sense of the word) from the Macron ‘For Sure’ meme that went Viral after his talk in Davos earlier this year. I'm referring to the first part of the video (the second part is random video shot in a techno club, but it's all I could find on YouTube!)