Coming back to the origins of this thread (since I‘ve been away, but I really like this topic and I too find that wealth map intriguing, but really can‘t say anything of substance towards it).
But I do feel that the success of Europe depends not on the big macro-economical indicators, but on the feelings of the average European. That‘s why stuff like „abolishing the roaming“ or the „free“ train passes for 18-year olds are so important. Now of course, all that fluff does is keeping the single market open which of course is hurting the poorer parts of society. The EU has always been a project of the economy, of the rich and of academia. It does need to catch up on social security, but that requires a strong parliament which in turn requires higher participation which in turn makes all that fluff so necessary. It‘s the little things people care about.
(And we maybe need a „european republic“, just google Ulrike Guerot and her ideas for more. I‘m not the biggest fan, but what she gets right is that the EU needs an offensive in the culture, not the politics: more essays, more songs, more theater plays, more competitions, more games, and not more political treatises et al.).
Btw. What do you guys think of www.volteuropa.org ?
Good points in going to roots of what people can envision as being European and building together the European project.
The current shared identity has very much to do with our shared cultures as root, and our shared (pragmatical or convictional) tolerance on our diversity.
Compared to many countries, many older EU countries have a remarkable high level of social welfare and security. That is very much a shared identity.
(that wealth analysis is making that part of our shared identity (with differences and all) visible in comparasion to non-EU countries, whether western OECD or emerging)
Converting all those cultures into state laws, budget, policies is however the task of politics, whether at national level or cooperating, sharing EU level..
Moving from a mere economical union to a shared identity reflecting our shared cultural elements needs more than merchants and their technical assistants.
That Volt program the kind of catch all that gathers positives (for especially younger people).
And yes, that being able to move freely (not only as tourist), to socialise freely across Europe, educations, jobs, etc is one of the most attractive consequences and characteristics of the EU according to polls.
If I just sit on a terrace outside a pub for a smoke (a bit cold) in the centre of Amsterdam, chat a bit with someone (also the smoke) on moviemaking (what he did), his Serbian girlfriend joining a bit later with family, a Croation guy joining as well, me talking with that girlfriend why have you a Dutch friend all the way here ? She: "here I have the dignity (like in my job) and freedom a woman will not have in my home country" Her mother a bit complaining about all the changes in her country and the old scars (more the ideological type as well).
And all sitting happily together IN that new future with past quarrels the past and past differences the non-dividing colors of today.
It is a vibrant period in Europe for the ones not behind their walls of the past or/and in rural places.
The young people socialising and merging... Theresa May had the nerve to marginalise them as "citizens of nowhere"
I call it progress in the most ordinary sense of the word. And Theresa May a conservative fossil, appealing to the darker sentiments of fear and control. The protective walls belong to the ones not moving on. Times are a changing. As always.
Newsmedia mostly reporting for the ones behind their TV's... the ones not participating in what happens... not sharing the vibes of the emerging society. As always. And always limping behind.
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