Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-04-09-Speech-3-244"
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"en.20030409.5.3-244"2
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"Madam President, in his justification for an EU army, General Morillon writes: ‘if the governments of the Member States were to continue leaving it to the Americans to conduct any potential wars, contenting themselves with shouldering affairs of peace, the Union would have to resign itself to playing the part of the Athenians in Ancient Rome: acceptance of being subject, in the last resort, to the will of a new empire’. I would certainly, however, prefer Athens, the cradle of culture and democracy, to militaristic Rome, which succeeded in setting the whole world against itself and, in the end, was consumed in blood and fire, while the Greek inheritance thrives in every area from the Olympic Games to the EU Presidency.
General Morillon wants the EU to do the same as the United States did in Kosovo or perhaps Iraq or some other small country against which the United States waged a war of aggression in the last hundred years. He wants the EU to intervene militarily throughout the planet, especially in the Balkans, the Middle East, the Caucasus, Central Asia and Africa. A scenario such as this naturally has no place for neutral countries. They must all be bound by what is termed a solidarity clause, and there is to be absolutely no need of a UN mandate. If the EU goes down General Morillon’s Roman road, it is possible that an EU President might, one fine day, discuss on an equal footing with the US President which particular paupers in which particular developing country, rich in oil and minerals, are the next to be bombed back to the Stone Age.
Any attempt to keep up with the United States in terms of military technology is also, however, in danger of turning into a repeat of the Soviet Union’s fatal arms race. What is absolutely certain is that Europeans will be as hated as Americans by billions of people. Millions of demonstrators will protest outside EU embassies; the Eiffel Tower will suffer the same fate as the World Trade Centre; the UN will be undermined; the war of civilisations will escalate; and the shrinking European population will be the losers, no matter how many US-style super-weapons we may acquire.
If General Morillon gets his way, we should do well to take Oswald Spengler’s ‘The Decline of the West’ down from the book shelves in order to understand what will happen. If, in accordance with General Morillon’s wishes, we try to build a modern Rome, we shall also suffer the fate of Rome. No, the plans for a military superpower should be shelved. We should listen to our own Sakharov prize winners and take seriously the words of the Dalai Lama, who has been our guest of honour. Only as a factor for peace does the EU have a chance of survival and a justification for its existence. A civilian peace corps under the auspices of the EU should at last be set up. Instead of making fools of ourselves, we should learn from EU countries that have succeeded in staying out of wars for 200 years. It is
that is the EU’s special characteristic. The United States should be left to wage the wars until the Americans themselves are consumed in blood and fire, just as the Romans were. Let us instead take Athenian culture and democracy as our starting point."@en1
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