REMEMBERING EUROPE DAY – 9th May every year!
WHO SPEAKS FOR EUROPE? A 2020 LAMENT.
Last Saturday was Europe Day. This year the 9th of May came and went like the express train in Edward Thomas’ great poem. – “No one left and no one came” when it halted at Adlestrop. In 2020, lockdown Britons were preoccupied commemorating the 75th anniversary of VE Day and many took anti-virus alcohol! The gloom of the pandemic was lifted by the sunshine; Spring’s annual reminder of renewal was timely. “Who speaks for Europe”, you wondered? – Surely Europe Day was just another of those special days to mark something better forgotten. – Well no, may I try to explain?
75 years ago the French Foreign Minister, Robert Schuman, astonished the West by proposing Franco-German reconciliation a mere 5 years after World War 2 ended. That bold stroke was the turning point which reversed the destructive relationship causing two disastrous world wars. The Schuman Declaration started transforming old enemies into new friends, but the brains behind the speech was Jean Monnet who proposed a first step of co-operation on iron and steel. That one small step by a Frenchman led to the beginnings of modern Europe on 9th May 1950. But Britain wasn’t listening then or now.
Jean Monnet was the son of a French brandy-maker and helped run the family business, before becoming an international banker, international civil servant and advisor to various governments. Although he never went to university or became a career politician, prime ministers, presidents and politicians – Churchill, de Gaulle and Rooseveldt – listened to his advice. He was a Frenchman with an idea – European unity.
Suddenly you hear two voices from the past: “Renewal, the creative harnessing of energies which seem exhausted, is in some ways the hardest and perhaps the most important of all operations in society.” Then another voice: “Statesmen are concerned to do good and above all to extricate themselves from awkward corners; but they do not always have either the taste or the time for using their imagination. They are open to creative ideas and anyone who knows how to present such ideas has a good chance of having them accepted.” The latter was Jean Monnet writing in his Memoirs 1); the former his biographer Francois Duchene 2). You recall that for twenty years Europe did have a voice. It spoke in straightforward French or perfect English and belonged to Monnet whose life’s work was European unity, to which he thought Britain would bring the essential contribution of Parliamentary democracy. Between 1955 and 1975 Monnet’s Action Committee was the dynamic force pushing for European integration. The Committee consisted of politicians of all parties, nationalities and trade unionists. They focussed on specific problems and suggested workable solutions to political leaders – sometimes in public other times in private. Although they didn’t always have immediate success, they were listened to. Monnet was trusted because: “you do what you say and you say what you do.” Monnet’s Action Committee for Europe became a new, strong political actor.
Every year efforts are made to celebrate the European Union’s “national” day but generally they are worthy but low key. In normal years the EU institutions throw open their doors and encourage school projects, concerts and films. 3) Unlike other national days (American & French) there are few fanfares or fireworks as with the 4th of July or Quatorze Juillet. The EU has two main presidents (Commission and Parliament) and in recent years has tried lengthy “state of the union” speeches. However the Commission President is appointed not elected and the European Parliament is NOT the voice of the people, let alone entire Europe. It fails at the triple hurdles of lack of demos (an identifiable “people”), polis (independent city state community) and kratos (genuine power/rule). – Ask any Greek!
In 2020 some Eurocrats, bureaucrats and koolcats issued two articles worth mentioning. The 27 EU Ambassadors to the UK wrote a letter of solidarity and friendship to us, but I doubt if many read it between the VE Day and Boris sandwich. 4) However anyone interested in the dynamic power of an idea ought to read the EU’s High Representative, Josep Borrell’s, personal take. 5) Surely what the idea of a united Europe requires is renewal? – A distinguished former diplomat, Lord David Hannay, used to write eloquently about the need for vision. And just listen to the “experts”, former head honchos in charge of British foreign relations, Lords John Kerr and Peter Ricketts plus Sir Simon Fraser. Do you think the time has come for another Action Committee for Europe, ACE? – An outfit which will speak about modern Europe in a way understandable to the man in the street. Then you wonder about the Zeitgeist. The entire European Union seems adrift. This is the age of inter-governmentalism; listen to the litany of the Treaties. The Easy Jet generation thinks peace is automatic. People don’t realise the magnitude of the EU’s historic achievement in making war unthinkable and settling disputes peacefully. And Joschka Fischer’s question at the turn of the century – Quo Vadis Europa? – remains unanswered. EU leaders could do with some imaginative solutions; we the electorate need some leadership and hope to counter “rancorous nationalism.” A new action committee could speak for Europe. Although the Centre for European Reform does not claim to speak for Europe, I agree with its pro-European, but not uncritical, position.
Now, in closing, I accept the democratic outcome of the 2019 election… That whatever the new situation of Covid-19, the UK is leaving the EU train sooner or later… But are we alighting at Adlestrop the halt or changing trains or hitting the buffers… Quo vadis Britannia?
1) “Memoirs” by Jean Monnet, Collins 1978.
2) “Jean Monnet, the First Statesman of Interdependence” by François Duchêne, Norton 1994.
3) EU’s official website for Europe Day 2020 https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/77987/europe-day-2020-together-we-are-europe_en
© Alan Johns 2020
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THE LONG ROAD FROM BLENHEIM BACK TO BRUSSELS, starting July 2024.
Just before the British General Election in July 2024 I interviewed, in June, a top, British diplomat, Lord David Hannay about the United Kingdom’s relation-ship with the European Union. Although now retired, he is still a leading expert on Europe and spent 5 years as our man in Brussels. His interview is a magisterial overview of where Britain is now, how we got here and what next. For the interview and more details, go to INTERVIEWS & SIGNUP and scroll down to bottom of the page.
AVAILABLE NOW FREE VIDEO INTERVIEW
Alan Johns
Feb/Mar 2025
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COMING SOON – MORE “OH EUROPA!”
Hello!
Hello! I’m Anna one of the leading characters in the book “Oh Europa!” My Grandad says this old picture reminds him of modern British peasants in June 2016. It was painted ages ago by a celeb artist called Brueghel and is about peasants haymaking in ye olden days somewhere in Northern Europe. You can see that the harvesting is going well because the weather is dry, the countryside peaceful and the unseen lords of loaves and fishes are in charge. Everything is settled. On our Referendum Day in 2016 the little people, the ordinary sods like Grandad were asked to vote by modern lords of loaves and fishes whether Britain should leave or remain in the European Union. Since then my Grandad George and I have continued wandering and wondering if modern Europe is going heaven or hell. Clearly nowadays the Zeitgeist isn’t settled; change is ever-present.
The making of modern Europe was interrupted twenty years into this Century by 2 unexpected events; a world-wide pandemic came in 2020 and war in Eastern Europe in 2022. What a bummer the Covid pandemic turned into for all of us! It lasted two long years and affected my and every young person’s education. However although I qualified for Uni I couldn’t go because of social distancing and ended up studying on-line at home. That was NOT ideal and although my Mum is proud I got a degree, she still thinks I have no dress sense!
“Oh Europa!” continues the story of my and Grandad’s journey of discovery about modern Europe. It is about relationships – falling in or falling out, beginnings and endings or just getting on together – whether with people, groups or countries. At the start of Volume 2 Grandad George thinks he knows more than me. So I tease him that he “knows nothing!” But he does have lots of good stories about ideas, elites and intellectuals AND a few really bad jokes. I surprise him about what I’ve learned during my Uni art studies when we visit a Sussex farmhouse where the elite Bloomsbury set once lived. – Just don’t ask about their sleeping arrangements! Next he explains a Big Idea – the basics of change, whether by transformation, transition or transaction, which form the raw materials of living history. (That’s Chapter 5). Then Grandad and his four mates are always going to the pub and arguing about another big subject, defence and reforming NATO (Chapter 6). I’m no Tolstoy but I write a prize-winning essay about war and peace which AMAZES Grandad!
But the best bit of my book is about France, especially when me and Karla go exploring Normandy with a couple of French boys. – Karla’s my mad friend from Australia and together, one evening, we make an old French bloke fall off his bar stool with laughter. She’s doing architecture at Uni in Oz and loves Europe’s old buildings. So Chapter 7 looks at France from 4 different points of view and there’s more about the man who had the original BIG IDEA about uniting modern Europe. I wish everyone knew about the amazing Monsieur Jean Monnet! (I told his story yonks ago in Volume 1, Chapters 2 and 3).
Then we go back to Britain in Chapter 8 and examine our own country, again from various points of view. Grandad says Brexit may be done, but the end is only the beginning and “it’s not all over till the fat lady sings!” I tell him: ”we have a situation.” That sets off Grandad who theorises that leaving the European Union caused 3 “relationship” problems. And everyone who knows anything about foreign relations – diplomats, academics, journalists – has been ignored by the modern lords of loaves and fishes, our rulers. He goes back to the pub to talk about that and Karla and I have more fun.
During our quest to discover what makes modern Europe tick, my Grandad George wants to let me make up my own mind and so he introduces me to some top people who’ve created – or been witnesses to – historic events. Thus there’s lots of interviews, stories and explainers. He says that Brits ARE Europeans. Leaving the EU hasn’t changed our history or geography, even though Britain had a Prime Minister with a Cambridge degree in geography who ignored those basic facts! It’s no surprise that the narrator sums up my book as a love letter to Europe. Grandad thinks he’s crying in the wilderness but modern Europe’s story must be told.
So that’s my overview of what “Oh Europa! Volume 2” is about. Educated peasants, like Karla, call this a synopsis! (Another trailer with more details is in production). And if you had the misfortune to miss Volume 1, with the Jean Monnet Story and why history matters, then the first bit of Volume 2 is a short recap, the story so far.
Yay and biieee
Anna August 2024
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update – autumn 2024
My website is undergoing essential maintenance and a new one is in the pipeline. I’m sorry that the Volume 1 download is temporarily unavailable, but I hope to be able offer you soon the first 4 chapters of “Oh Europa!” Thank you for your patience and keep watching this space!
Alan Johns
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hello again! here’s more about heaven/hell, lords of loaves and fishes!
ANNA HERE! – I just want to tell you, in case you were wondering gentle reader, where Grandad and I got the question about whether Europe was going to heaven or hell and that stuff about the lords of the loaves and fishes. Yonks ago at school he read a “Tale of Two Cities,” a historical novel by the famous Victorian writer Charles Dickens. The book is set in London and Paris around the time of the French Revolution in 1789 and has a much-admired, very long sentence as an opening line. Grandad borrowed it!
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”
“…There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of England There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever. It was the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy five.”
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Discover in 60 seconds what Anna and Grandad find out about modern Europe… Just click here please
Is Europe going to heaven or hell?
WATCH THE TRAILER OF volume 1 NOW!