JUNCKER: WAR IS NOT IMPOSSIBLE
In a striking warning, the EU President raises the spectre of Europe’s bloody past – and says conflict can happen again
THE possibility of war in Europe must not be dismissed, European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker has warned in a sombre address to end a fractious year for the EU.
His concerns were expressed after 2018 saw far-right parties gain increasing footholds in the EU electoral landscape.
And with Brexit looming and the US distancing itself further from EU policies, Mr Juncker cautioned: ‘The EU is not a given. Peace is not inevitable, and war is not implausible.’
In these increasingly tumultuous times for Europe where a ‘dangerous brand of nationalism’ is on the rise, EU states must work together, he said.
The outgoing Commission president also offered chilling reminders of Europe’s history and how war broke out before in times of turbulence.
Tánaiste Simon Coveney was among a number of senior Irish politicians
who has heeded Mr Juncker’s warnings, as a spokesman for our Foreign Affairs Minister agreed that ‘peace should never be taken for granted’.
With populism and nationalism on the rise across Europe, just two months ago the ‘Yellow Vest’ protests brought France to a standstill with chaos and violence, leaving ten civilians dead and thousands injured.
Such foreboding anarchy isn’t the only unsettling development that Mr Juncker appears to be concerned by though.
In his austere editorial, he took a veiled swipe at US president Donald Trump’s brand of politics in his end-of-year address, by insisting that the EU’s ‘brand of leadership is not about putting “Europe First”’, a reference to Mr Trump’s ‘America First’ slogan.
The Luxembourg native went on to point out that in 2016 ‘Europe offered asylum to three times as many refugees’ as the US, Canada and Australia combined.
He referenced World War I and II, warning that Europe ignored the ‘premonitions of ruin’ before the outbreak of both wars.
Now, he warned, is the time to heed the ‘alarm bells’ sounding around the Continent and to do something to, in effect, avoid being dragged into another world war.
‘The year 2018 marked the centenary of the end of the First World War, the lessons of which must still be heeded,’ he said.
‘The Europeans of 1913 thought that war was impossible, that they were too interlinked to turn on one another. We Europeans have a rich
‘Challenges are multiplying’
tradition of ignoring premonitions of ruin at our own peril.’
And he added: ‘Given this history, today’s re-emergence of a dangerous brand of nationalism should be sounding alarm bells across our continent.’
His words will be seen as a powerful and timely challenge to the rise of nationalism across Europe.
Although Mr Juncker does not mention Brexit in his address, it is clear from his message that he sees the UK’s decision to leave the EU as an extremely dangerous portent of things to come.
And while he also does not mention specific developments in other countries, he does raise a red flag over the rise of nationalism and ‘populism’ across Europe.
Indeed, within just five years, the nationalist Alternative for Germany (AfD) has become the country’s largest opposition party.
Across the border in Austria, the far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) became junior partner in a coalition with the government.
Elsewhere in Europe, the rebranded Sweden Democrats party – which has its roots in neoNazism – did very well in last year’s elections, winning 18% of the vote, up from 12.9% the last time round.
And in Hungary, the national conservative Fidesz party leader Viktor Orbán, a staunch Eurosceptic and populist, regained power as prime minister last April.
Much of the rise of populism and the far right is seen by commentators as a post-financial crash backlash against the establishment.
Huge sections of society across all EU countries have been badly hit by, and continue to struggle after, the last financial crash.
Mr Juncker makes clear that the EU must put its financial house in order, and that there must be greater economic convergence.
He also calls for greater pooling of national sovereignty – anathema of course to populist movements and one of the fundamental drivers of Brexit.
But also manifest in the ‘dangerous’ rise Mr Juncker warns about are Euroscepticism, Islamophobia and a growing hostility towards immigration and an increasing globalisation.
‘From migration and security to new technologies and ecological pressures, the collective challenges we face are multiplying by the day,’ Mr Juncker added. ‘As the divisions within societies and between countries deepen, the imperative to work together grows stronger.’
Last night a spokesman for Tánaiste Simon Coveney said: ‘President Juncker’s editorial is highlighting that the EU is the most successful peace project on Earth but, as we well know in Ireland, peace should never be taken for granted and needs to be protected every day.’
And spokesman for Fine Gael on European affairs, Senator Neale Richmond, said Mr Juncker’s message has given us a ‘timely reminder that we cannot take this peace and stability for granted’.
He told the Mail: ‘Born out of the embers of the devastation of the Second World War, the European project is the greatest peace project in the history of mankind.
‘President Juncker has provided us with a thoughtful and timely reminder that we cannot take this peace and stability for granted.
‘In the face of an ever-changing world with the rise of populism and nationalism within Europe and around the world, it is vital that we look for a more open world, a more tolerant world – such a world can be led by a united Europe.’
‘We cannot take peace for granted’