DOES
THE EUROPEAN UNION DESERVE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE?
Last
week in Brussels I bumped into a junior level official at the
European Commission. Brussels has one of the best public transport
systems – underground and overground metro, tram and bus – and
our chance meeting happened in one of the overground metros. It was
in that meeting that I came to know about the anxiety of several
European Union countries to make sure that the arrangement doesn't
collapse due to impending pulls and pressures from within as well as
without. In fact the official equated collapse of EU to relapse of
jingoistic nationalism of the Nazi variety, although it sounded a bit
far fetched to me.
But
the strains are evident. Not all is well with the EU. There is
resentment brewing in different countries in the South like Greece,
Italy and Spain. Left Liberal parties are gaining in many of these
Member-Countries. Recessionary trends are not showing any signs of
change. Euro is struggling to remain afloat. And most importantly the
cold war between the big and mighty like Germany, France and UK is
continuing to haunt the progress of the Union. After several decades
of its existence the European Union is certainly facing biggest
challenge ever to its very raison d'être.
It
is at this juncture that the Norway-based Nobel Awards Committee has
decided to give this year's Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union.
Mr. Srinivasan, former Foreign Secretary of India, has written an
excellent article on this decision of the Nobel Committee in the
Times of India dated 17 October 2012.
Not
many people knew that Norway is one important country that refuses to
join the European Union. In the referenda held twice the people of
that country categorically voted against being a part of the EU.
Norway is an important country because it is the richest economy in
the entire Europe, and its joining the EU would certainly have helped
the struggling EU economy due to severe recession.
Nobel
prizes are given away by the committee headquartered in Oslo, the
capital city of Norway. On one hand Norway refuses to join the EU and
rescue it from collapse, while on the other hand it decided to award
this year's Nobel Peace Prize to that very same crumbling edifice.
That is why many in Europe are describing it as a crude joke, black
humour etc.
Nobel
awards have lost their reputation long ago. Especially the Peace
Award increasingly came to be seen by the world as a politically
motivated one. Of course there were honourable exceptions in recent
years like HH the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela etc. But there were less
than honourable cases like that of Barack Obama who was awarded a
Nobel Peace prize within just a few months of ascension to the Oval
Office. Of course no Indian, not even the greatest champion of peace
Mahatma Gandhi, has ever been considered for the Peace Prize.
This
time also there is no convincing reason for the Peace Award to go to
the European Union. Within the EU member countries also this
announcement was received with cynicism, sarcasm and scoffing by
several groups. In the last one decade or so the EU has not covered
itself in any particular glory. It has not played any meaningful role
in securing world peace. Several of its member states like the UK,
France etc were active partners in George Bush era wars in the Arab
world. Several of the EU nations were involved in lending direct or
indirect support to Orange Revolution in some countries of the Arab
region that had culminated in bringing into power illiberal Islamists
in many of those countries.
Within
the EU also things are not so much in order for it to deserve any
such Award. Cold War between Germany and France and UK continues to
dominate EU politics. Uneasy truce is of course an achievement
between Germany and France. Euro is in deep distress. Countries in
the south are bankrupt while those in the north are in no mood to
come to their rescue. As a result nationalism and anti-EU sentiment
is on the rise in some of these countries like Spain, Greece etc.
There were even demonstrations against the German Chancellor Merkel
when she visited Greece recently.
Recovery
of Euro seems to remain a distant dream. European Union is becoming
increasingly irrelevant to global politics and seen by many countries
in the rest of the world as only an appendage of the US. In spite of
its existence for long years, countries in the rest of the world find
it convenient to deal with individual countries rather than the EU as
an entity.
In
fact EU as an entity doesn't really inspire confidence as a
democratic body. It's two wings the European Parliament and the
European Commission act independent of each other with the former
practically having no meaningful powers. The European Parliament is
duly elected by the people of different member countries. But it has
no powers to prevent the European Commission, the ruling
establishment, from pursuing, making or unmaking various policies.
In
such a scenario for the Nobel Committee to decide to give the coveted
Peace Prize to the EU can at best be described as a morale booster
only. But the fact remains that the EU is in dire need of such
boosters. It is no denying a fact that several of the smaller member
countries have benefitted from the EU arrangement as it has given
them access to free markets and movements. Pre-Second World War
Europe experience of German and Italian Nationalist movements is
still a chilling memory for many in Europe.
For
them, especially the countries that have been the beneficiaries of
the EU arrangement, its continuance is critical. There are some other
countries like Turkey, which are perpetually waiting to enter and
some new ones like Serbia whose entry doesn't make much difference.
In
any case can this morale booster injection of Nobel offered by Norway
help rescue the European Union from going the USSR way needs to be
watched.
