Scholz in Prague dreamed of a functional Europe. Will values really win over business?
Prague is lucky. Thirteen years ago, US President Barack Obama delivered his proposal for nuclear disarmament, which was part of the then great American reset of relations with Russia. Prague is close to important political speeches it was also chosen by the current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, this time as a place to publish his vision of the future of the European Union.
Today, probably no one will remember Obama’s speech, and in view of the development of Russia’s aggressiveness, even the entire policy of resetting relations turns out to be imprudent. Scholz’s speech may suffer a similar fate if its interesting themes are lost in the traditional jealousy of nation states.
Which is quite. Including Germany itself.
For the past thirty years, Germany has traded with practically all countries in the world, only occasionally have rhetorical value barriers been raised.
Values versus business
Scholz’s starting point is remarkable. Until now, the EU has practically mainly taken care of its internal affairs, of internal peace, claims the German Chancellor. But it is time to care more about the world in which the Union exists.
Russian aggression in Ukraine has changed the way foreign policy is made and what EU diplomacy is. As if Ololz took Putin’s request seriously and wanted his effort to build the imperial power of the Russian world a non-imperial power of Europe. But how is such a European Union built? What policy can be used to build it?
“Real politics in the 21st century doesn’t mean you put your values behind you and sacrifice your partners in favor of dubious compromises. Real politics must consist of engaging allies and partners who share our values and support them. So that thanks to cooperation we can strengthen our position in global competition,” said Scholz in Prague’s Karolin.
It was actually self-criticism or self-reflection, it seemed that Germany had never done such a policy before. And really: Germany has traded with practically all countries in the world for the last thirty years, although value barriers were sometimes raised rhetorically, but in the end, German companies adapted to local value conditions due to cheap labor and easy profit.
Will that no longer be possible in Chancellor Scholz’s new Union? In this idea, trade remains at the center of European and German efforts, but as Chancellor Scholz said, we must pay more attention to common values when negotiating it.
So it is like this: business firstor values first? Do values provide the framework for business, or vice versa?
The obsession with comparing and competing with America and other countries persists as an internal engine in Scholz’s project.
Open closedness
Lessons from the war in Ukraine and the over-dependence on China revealed by the Covid-19 supply disruptions speak for self-sufficiency and diversity. The policy of all directions, which was so popular with Miloš Zeman and which Germany has de facto practiced since its post-war rebirth, has not completely proven itself, and is therefore limited mainly by the return of investments to Europe or to Germany or a larger number of contractual partners.
Even Olaf Scholz did not dare to say that some countries will simply not be traded with in the future for reasons of value.
If Europe is finally to be understood also as a geopolitical quantity, as required by Scholz, it is natural that it cares more about its defense and security, but also that it participates in the competition for economic wealth and world scientific and investment primacy.
A German view of the speech in Karolin. Both Macron at the Sorbonne and Scholz at Karolin had nice speeches. But Europe needs actions, not theses. https://t.co/35Wj9YjTUN
– Roman Šmucler (@smucler) August 29, 2022
The obsession with comparing and competing with America and other countries, which President Václav Havel, the PR symbol of the Czech presidency, considered a kind of “European tic” in his European speeches, persists as an internal engine in Scholz’s project.
US President Joe Biden recently spoke very similarly, with the only difference being that America should come first.
Politics hasn’t really changed much in recent years. Only the self-confidence of the actors changes. With Biden, just like with his predecessor Trump, of which there is no doubt, it is already worse with Scholz.
Why did Scholz come up with a proposal to expand qualified majority voting, which Eastern states consider a manifestation of power supremacy?
The end of the European veto
The German chancellor is generally rather stylistically uncertain, which can be an optical illusion, on Czech soil and in general on the soil of former Eastern countries, he must also be careful not to appear too authoritative as the leader of great Germany. Historical resentments still play their role in the Union, and politicians in the member states skillfully work with them.
“The German responsibility for Europe, from my point of view, is to work out a solution together with our neighbors and then decide together,” Scholz said in Prague, a former political amenity. “I don’t want an EU with exclusive associations or governing bodies, but equal members of the EU.”
So why did Scholz, who does not want to present ready-made German solutions, but always first negotiate joint solutions, come up with a proposal (a proposal, not a decision) for expansion qualified majority votingwhich especially the former Eastern states consider to be a manifestation of power supremacy and political mistrust?
“Form follows function. This slogan of modern architecture should definitely also become a principle of European politics,” the German chancellor developed his thesis even more broadly. It is not a dictate of Berlin, but an internal functional need of the European community. Therefore, if the Union is able to stand on its own as a geopolitical entity, the veto principle is actually redundant.
The dispute over shared sovereignty and its efficient and profitable transfer into geopolitical gains has been going on for decades…
One Europe
But that was, is and will continue to be the biggest problem of the European Union. The war in Ukraine and the trade war with Russia have revealed both the weaknesses and the strengths of the joint EU approach, but most countries understand the Union as a usable instrument of national policies, not as a common political geopolitical unit. No one wants to lose themselves, even though most don’t even know who they are.
So Scholz does not offer anything new at all. The dispute over shared sovereignty and their efficient and profitable transfer into geopolitical profits has actually been going on for decades, and even today politicians do not understand this principle well enough. It won’t even reverse Scholz’s Prague proposal, which will be forgotten like Obama’s speech on nuclear disarmament.
Form is here more than an expression of function, it is also an insurmountable political symbol, behind which hides the fear of changing the essence of European cooperation and politics in general. It is possible that this type of transformation is what Europe needs most of all, but first it will have to reach it mentally under other external changes.