The EU is for the first time in ages closing in on something like a common purpose: “a Europe that protects”
history can be conveniently divided into three decade-long phases. The first, from the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 to the introduction of the euro in 1999, was marked by institutional expansion. The period from 1999 to 2009 was one of geographical expansion as the union took in 12 new members.
Mr van Middelaar reckons that Europe’s “new awareness of the need to protect itself and its citizens” is one such moment. He traces the shift’s roots to the phone calls that flew between European capitals early on the morning after the Brexit vote in June 2016. “Jean, this isn’t looking good,” Martin Schulz, then the president of the European Parliament, told Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, at 7am.
Mr van Middelaar overstates Brexit’s role. Major elements of the protective European agenda, like stronger border security and the regulatory crackdown on American digital giants, predate June 2016. Other elements, like the new suspicion of China and tentative shifts towards-wide defence, are a response to geopolitical shifts far beyond Europe. But his underlying observation is right: the union has rediscovered a sense of mission.
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