Over the weekend, a piece of art commissioned by the Czech Republic to mark the start of its six-month presidency of the European Union was installed in the European Council building. However, the piece was not quite what the Czech government had expected. Instead of symbolizing the glory of a unified Europe by reflecting something special about each country in the European Union, each member state is represented by what amounts to stereotypes about the country and its people. For example, Italy is depicted as a huge soccer field with little soccer players on it. The Netherlands are subsumed by floods, with only a few minarets peeping out from the water. Romania is one large Dracula theme park. And my own country, Germany, is represented as a series of highways that, from a certain angle, looks like a swastika.
You can argue about whether the installation is clever and funny or, rather, insulting and obnoxious. But it clearly shows one thing: Europeans still have plenty of prejudices about one another. And that’s bad news for a group of countries that is trying to become progressively more integrated with regard to both security and economic policies.
Of course, we don’t all have to love each other to have a single European market. However, the citizens of the EU’s member states must have a certain amount of trust in both their neighbors and Brussels if they are to agree to the continued handover of national power to EU bodies which will eventually lead to a truly united Europe. If that trust is missing, it can seriously undermine the European integration project – as was shown by the failure of the European Constitution last year.
European businesses, especially small and medium-sized ones with limited resources, will suffer if the European market does not become more integrated. One of the most significant challenges for SMEs is the lack of a European patent. With trademarks, Europe has already achieved a high level of unity. But Europe’s innovative companies still cannot get a single patent which is legally valid throughout the European Union.
There are other aspects to the fragmentation of the European market as well. Different tax laws, labor laws and corporation laws all serve to increase the complexity for SMEs of doing business out of their national boundaries. From conversations with our EU-based members, we know that the lack of harmonization in these areas is of great concern to them and leads many of them to bypass the European market altogether in favor of bigger, integrated markets such as the U.S.
I’m not saying that we can’t all preserve our own cultures and identities in order for a truly united Europe to emerge. Continued integration and the protection and nurture of what makes each member state unique are not mutually exclusive. I’m also not saying that we can’t have a good laugh about the various (perceived) shortcomings of the EU and its different member states. However, if the peoples of Europe do not trust each other (and I believe that the propagation of stereotypes, as funny as some of them are, is often a manifestation of deep-seated distrust and fear) and are unwilling to give up more of their countries’ national sovereignty, it will be very difficult for the EU to take further steps towards the single market (as well as other objectives, such as a Common Foreign and Security Policy). The victims of this lack of economic harmonization will be Europe’s small and medium sized companies, who rely on large, integrated markets for selling their innovations.
So, yes, Germany might be famous for its highways and infamous for the atrocities it committed leading up to and during World War II. And there is certainly some truth to the contention that the Italians love soccer and the French go on strike a lot. But what we have to realize is that, in a Europe that is becoming progressively more united, these aren’t stereotypes that apply to our neighbors. As citizens of the European Union, these stereotypes apply to all of us. In other words, the EU is a Dracula theme park with highways that have no speed limit. And the employees of the theme park are on strike.
But we all co-own the theme park, with all its beautiful rides as well as its trash cans full of empty coke cans and half eaten hot dogs. And we all share responsibility for making it more competitive, more innovative, and more profitable.