Common values and the future of the European Union are intrinsically linked, writes Dawid Bunikowski. Taking a legal philosophical perspective, he argues that the EU needs a stronger axiological foundation in order to be more effective, and he calls for a Europe-wide public debate on values to help shape the EU’s direction.
By Dr. Dawid Bunikowski
Common values
and the future of the European Union are intrinsically linked, writes Dawid
Bunikowski. Taking a legal philosophical perspective, he argues that the EU
needs a stronger axiological foundation in order to be more effective, and he
calls for a Europe-wide public debate on values to help shape the EU’s
direction.
The main issue
in the EU today is whether we know where we are going as a community.
Considering the many crises facing Europe, such as on Greece, the Eurozone,
migration, radical terrorism, Ukraine and the Polish constitution, it seems as
though we are not sure who we are as a community of values.
There are two
arguments to put on the table here. One is about common European values rooted
in history, which should illuminate the future. The other concerns democracy in
the EU and the will of the European people to decide on the future of the EU.
Without strict
axiological foundations, the sense of existence of the EU would be based only
on economic and commercial reasons. This does not include deeper political
integration of the community and ideas such as those in the Fiscal Compact
(including EU supervision over national budgets).
Every
organisation should be based on concrete values, and this is a major problem
for the EU. Our European legal culture is made up of not only the continental
law tradition and common law origins, but also the axiological (moral, philosophical,
theoretical-historical) foundations which come from Greek philosophy, Roman law
and Christianity.
Liberal values
like freedoms, the rule of law, reason, intellect and communitarian values like
solidarity, peace, welfare and dialogue come from these sources, and they are
still being interpreted by new epochs in a critical way.
No society can
exist without its history, traditions and origins. Where would we – Europe – be
without our history? Maybe Patrick Devlin, who talked about public morality and
values as essential to society’s existence and survival, is more right than one
could imagine!
We must
remember that values cannot be an empty concept nor a hollow right (look at the
Scandinavian realists, especially Karl Olivecrona and Alf Ross, and the Uppsala
School). We need to keep this in mind for values in practice in an organisation
or a society.
Every society
should also follow ‘the minimum content of Natural Law’ and respect it,
accordingly to liberal legal philosopher Herbert Hart. Hart’s theory concerns
values in the community. Without values such as life, health, public security,
family, property, restraint and altruism, we would be a ‘one-generation
society’ or a ‘club of suicides’. Are we doomed to become a one-generation
society?
The same must
be for our Europe as a community, the community of values. This is not going
well in Europe, in terms of values and also from sociological and demographic
points of view.
The crisis of
values in Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries remains visible. The problem of
identity and hierarchy of values in private life seems to be too deep.
Nietzschean revaluation of values is a social fact, but it does not imply a
total collapse of Europe. There is no trodden path to follow that is always
right. Every era has its own way. We, as Europeans and citizens of national
states (we formally play a double role), can find our new path now.
The EU needs
stronger references to axiological foundations to make it a better organisation
and a more serious international player in the world. This necessitates
difficult decisions on which values are the most important.
While cultural
and moral pluralism might be important, perhaps other values – such as
individual freedoms, liberal legal systems, welfare, security, peace, equality,
solidarity, or reason, or European spirituality, philosophy, Christianity or
promotion of these abroad – are more important.
This choice of
values would be consistent with the feelings of EU citizens. Maybe then the EU
would be more internally effective and externally influential. Nevertheless, to
do so would require bold political decisions. However, values, traditions and
the past cannot be ignored.
There is no
society without the past and values. The values in which we truly believe are
the basis of our community. This enables a nation of law based on common
values. European citizens should be taken seriously on these questions.
Discussions on values and the current crises in the EU are important.
What should
happen then? We need a great Europe-wide public debate about values in Europe
(where we come from, who we are), and about what we are becoming as a political
community (where we are going). If the EU is a democracy, and democracy is one
of the EU’s values, one must ask the European people what they think on the
EU’s direction and future.
It often seems
that the politicians and bureaucrats in Brussels think they know best how to
make our future better. But this is not so. Politicians do not know how to make
the EU, its future and its citizens better off. Only outstanding politicians
understand this, and there are not many of them.
Without
question the EU (earlier the European Communities) has had many positive aspects
in the aftermath of the Second World War. The absence of war in Europe (except
in the former Yugoslavia and Ukraine) and the rise of the welfare state have
been significant achievements.
However, these
accomplishments do not equate to an axiology or the deeper axiological
foundations of the community. They are more about pragmatic issues concerning
the functioning of the EU. This is about peace and welfare, the two pragmatic
values behind the creation of the European Community in the 1940s and 1950s.
More than 50
years on, we require something institutionally stronger to develop the
community if it is to become a political community at all. However, we may
decide that we do not want to integrate more and more politically in order to
create a federal United States of Europe. UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s
current EU policy is clear example in this opposite direction. Everyone should
respect the decisions made by the people as Europeans and as citizens of nation
states.
The people
have common sense and are reasonable. They know that something is rotten in the
state of Denmark – or in this case, the EU, its values and its future. Where is
Europe headed? This question concerns both European soft power and its
economic-political power, neither of which exist in a vacuum.
The EU has
been a novelty in public international law in its institutional complexity and
cultural sophistication. In international politics, a good organisation must
have strong values that define the community, given the moral character of
supranational governance.
Nevertheless,
the EU remains a paradox of values. One of its objectives is to promote
European values in international politics and its external relations. However,
the EU is extremely weak in pursuing these values with countries like Russia
and China. More to the point, how can the EU promote its values when it does
not know where they come from, what they mean and when people do not believe in
them?
Hope is fading
for a community of values in Europe. Is there any chance left? Yes, there still
is. It must begin with the discussion of what our values are and what we want
the EU to be in the context of those values.
This article
draws from the author’s recent paper published by Atlantic Community.
About The Author:
Dr. Dawid
Bunikowski is part-time Lecturer in Law at the University of Eastern Finland.
His research interests include law and morality, legal theory and the EU’s
legal and political system. He is Distinguished Academic Associate of the
Centre for Law and Religion at the University of Cardiff and Associate Member
of the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy at the Catholic University
of America.
This article
is licensed under a Creative
Commons (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) License
by the original publisher – European Futures
Please note
that this article represents the view of the author(s) alone and not European
Futures, the Edinburgh Europa Institute , University of Edinburgh nor the IndraStra Global
