European Union Challenges

The relevance of the European Union in the global changes that are affecting international decisions all over the world and its role as an important player. 

This summer, most of the problems that the European Union has faced have become bigger. For example, as I wrote before, the record-breaking heat, wildfires, that are continuing in different places in Europe, most in the hottest ones such as Italy and Greece, and of course, migration that is getting worse, and it will be my next article about the new laws to send most of the irregular migrants to Italy.

Reading the newspapers, I saw the article in The New York Times, focusing precisely on Brussels’ growing difficulty in turning its economic and political weight into actual influence, warns: “The whole, meaning the European Union, is much less than the sum of its parts, meaning the member states.”
An analysis in the New York-based newspaper, written by Michael D. Shear, addresses precisely this issue, and one word runs throughout it: irrelevance.

This does not mean that Europe no longer matters. Europe remains one of the most important blocs in the world, but it is gradually becoming a spectator to events that are decided and managed elsewhere by others.

For example, we can talk about Ukraine. This is a war being fought on European territory, directly threatening European security, and its outcome will reshape the balance of power on the continent, probably for decades to come.

And yet, as The New York Times points out, Brussels has failed to bring the war to an end after more than four years of bloodshed. When it comes to discussing a possible end to the conflict, the actors who remain truly decisive are Washington, Moscow, and Kyiv.

Something similar is happening in the Middle East. During the Iranian crisis, Washington and Tehran have negotiated directly or through regional powers. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Turkey, and Pakistan have taken on an increasingly important role, while Europe, which twenty years ago had been a leading player in diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program, has found itself on the sidelines.

It's clear that due to the other problems that European countries are fighting, such as wildfires and hot temperatures that continue to break new records, migration, education, and health. It's difficult to focus on one problem when so many others are creating economic difficulties for the Union.

And it shows something that I wrote in another of my articles: that the European Union has to rethink in a fast way to answer effectively to the changes that are coming through the performance of the geopolitical challenges all over the world. We are facing a new era that is going to be decided by who has the energetic resources.

We are seeing in recent times how in Europe one problem leads to another. We face a real problem with the hottest temperatures that not only show how the water is not enough in many places that are coming to water shortages and water rationing in Sicily, in Italy, for example, or the nuclear center closing on the nuclear power plants in Romania and Hungary, forcing to cut output or shut down as extreme heat and drought pushed the Danube to record-low levels, threatening the water needed to cool their reactors.

These extreme temperatures have not only exposed Europe’s energy and climate vulnerabilities, but also highlighted the deep social inequalities that shape people’s ability to cope with the effects of climate change. Those who can afford air conditioning, adequate housing, and a reliable supply of water are better equipped to withstand the heat, while people already living in vulnerable or crisis-stricken conditions are often left to endure it without air conditioning, sufficient water, or adequate living conditions.

The same can be said of healthcare. Once again, the crisis has exposed the deep divide between Northern and Southern Europe. Extreme temperatures have placed already-strained healthcare systems under enormous pressure, leaving many people without the care they needed and, in some cases, contributing to deaths that might otherwise have been prevented. What began as a climate problem has therefore revealed a much wider set of vulnerabilities: energy insecurity, water scarcity, social inequality, and weaknesses in healthcare. In other words, one problem has led to another, and each has exposed the next.

Unfortunately, I tend to lose myself in the different issues. But is the European Union really working? Does it have the strength to respond effectively to all these social, energy-related, and political challenges? Can it respond to all of them as a leader, without being influenced or constrained by the will and interests of other international actors?. Are we aware that energy and fuel are becoming increasingly expensive because of the wars affecting the world and that these conflicts have a direct impact on people who depend on energy and fuel every day, putting them in increasingly difficult and vulnerable situations?