Rediscovering Europe’s soul

For many of us, the EU, especially with the inclusion of the eastern European nations that had been separated from us by the Cold War, is a dream come true.

Politics has been reduced to a numbers game- Klaus Vella Bardon

The EU has had a positive impact on our country by funding essential infrastructural projects, promoting environmentally friendly policies, supporting small enterprise and fostering education.

Now suddenly, everything is in disarray.The financial meltdown is threatening to tear down the whole concept of the European Union and people’s trust in both the EU and their own governments.

The current European crisis has deep implications for all of us, especially those who still believe in the Christian ideals that inspired the founding fathers who believed in a united Europe. They were fashioned in the crucible of the horrors of Europe that was bled white and devastated by two world wars in the 20th century.

They were men of calibre, competence and faith who believed in the spiritual dimension of man. They set out to build up a union of nations healed by reconciliation and based on solidarity, participation and cooperation, promoting peace, security, progress and prosperity.

Louis Galea, in a passionate address on May 27 on the occasion of the presentation of the Robert Schuman Medal to President Emeritus Eddie Fenech Adami, championed these ideals that underpin the EU. He ended his speech decrying the apathy towards politics, insisting on the importance of a highly professional and competent political class that is essential to provide the leadership required to address the highly complex issues that face society today.

Dr Galea underlined that besides knowledge and competence in specific economic, technological and cultural fields, political leaders also require a soul.

Here lies the crux of the matter. Politicians are fallible human beings like the rest of us, but too many of them have lost their soul. Politics has been reduced to a numbers game. We have been corrupted by a style of governance that only knows how to count votes and has lost the wisdom to make qualitative and moral analyses of what is at stake.

The disintegration of the EU is a distinct possibility unless there is a radical review of the manner in which we do politics.

European economies have succumbed to a neo-liberal capitalist model that is the antithesis of solidarity and community building. Financiers and economists have reduced everything to narrow monetary terms.

This corrosive philosophy has industrialised the very roots of life by pouring the lion’s share of our taxes into agricultural policies that have had a long-term devastating impact on traditional farming communities, resulting in the destruction of the topsoil, poisoning the land with pesticides and herbicides, and subjecting animals to the cruel logic of ruthless fiscal calculus.

The same heartless logic has been applied to marine resources and the methodology of factory farming has been applied with a vengeance to the unsustainable exploitation of the sea as politicians pander to powerful financial interests.

Meanwhile, trade unionists fail to realise there is more to work than reduced working hours, early pensions and higher incomes.

Workers have to be empowered and bear the responsibility in their role in society.

Unbridled consumerism, resulting in the dismantling of our manufacturing and industrial base to get so-called cheap goods from elsewhere, is short-sighted and ignores the real costs of transport, packaging and waste that are not factored into the equation of modern economic activity.

Financial institutions also have to carry their responsibility for careless lending to feed unsustainable political agendas. Speculation, fraud and outright dishonesty and the scourge of tax havens have to be addressed.

Our politicians and bureaucrats in the EU have to get out of their gilded, cushioned cocoon and rediscover Europe’s true ideals.

A brutal, materialistic, high consumption model will not work. Politics without a spiritual dimension will reduce future decisions to the imperatives of domination, confrontation and narrow, short-term self-interest.

At all levels, we have to reexamine the ideals that fired the imagination of Europe’s founding fathers.

History will judge us harshly if we fail.