New horizons

The funny thing about the horizon is that the more you move towards it, the more it seems to recede. The European horizon is no exception. After the ambitious projects of the 1980s and ’90s, some of us thought the federalist horizon was within reach. But when the European Constitution project came a cropper, Eurosceptics hoped for a return to the narrower horizon of the nation-State. The upshot is Europe doesn’t know which way it’s heading any more.

Today we are posting extensive excerpts from an editorial published by the Polish weekly Polityka in association with the demosEuropa Reflection Group. “It is a hundred times easier to seek refuge in domestic political debates and forget the outside world, silently hoping someone else will handle the problems,” bemoan the authors. The European Union needs to forge ahead now and work up a “new and demanding integration project”.

The alternative to heeding this ambitious appeal from Warsaw comes to us from London. In the Financial Times, Philip Stephens predicts that the “lack of ambition leaves Europe in the slow lane”: “I cannot think of a moment in recent history when it has been more important for Europeans to demonstrate their ambitions for the world. Comfortable though it may seem now, Europe will discover that a future in the slow lane promises anything but an easy ride.”

Philip Stephens bases his warning on an essay published by Charles Grant, the director of the London-based think tank Centre for European Reform, entitled “Is Europe doomed to fail as a power?” Well, maybe not, provided European leaders read what those searching for solutions have to say.

PS: Two weeks ago we called attention to the imminent closure of the Swedish Institute in Paris, Sweden’s sole cultural centre abroad. But the government has scrapped its plans in the face of a massive outcry.