Reflecting Upon the American and the European Citizenship (II)

photo by Laura Lai

by Laura Lai/Comment

In this theoretical context, I am wondering how is it possible that a supranational forum, like the European Union is, to grant to all people living on its territory citizenship. Furthermore, how is it possible for a citizenship to be granted without the citizen having asked for it or without the citizen having expressed its interest. And how can be expected that citizens show patriotism to …a forum, which granted them citizenship without them having asked for it. Supposing that the European citizenship is an attitude-related citizenship – that is something vague and difficult to define – why is then imposed on everybody, including the skeptics?

            On the one side, there are the supranationalists – usually militating for more power for the central institutions in Brussels – who consider that citizenship should focus on convincing people to identify themselves with the supranational level because of the values its promotes. Democracy is one of these values, but the European Union is an association of democratic countries, which means that democracy is already promoted at national level.

But if citizenship means also voluntary/civic participation, I wonder how many of the supranationalists have ever engaged in non-profit activity to promote the European Union. When I was an euro-enthusiast, I managed one year of a non – profit book about the way a federal Europe would look like. It was an invitation to an imagination exercise that was very appreciated. If I regret it now that I am not an Euro-enthusiast? Absolutely not! It was a tough and (financially) struggling year to successfully manage the book project, but I did what I most like to do: to write. I also appreciate the U.S. President Donald Trump, who in his attempt to ‘make America great again’ he is the first to volunteer for the greatness of his country, by donating his entire annual income to organizations, which needs funds to bring greatness. There is no doubt that is difficult to carry on your shoulders the responsibilities of your country – that is almost as big as a continent – and that of the world – given the U.S. position in the world. And when one is doing it voluntarily that is patriotism.

            On the other side, there are the transnationalists, who oppose the supranationalists, but who consider that nation-states should work together in inter-governmental formats, but not supranationalism. To me, this institutional arrangement does not imply any form of citizenship (state or attitude related), but it requires informed citizens and equipped with certain understanding of things, to have arguments, to participate in debates if necessary. But democracy itself does not impose on its citizens any form of participation, because democracy and coercion are opposite by definition.

            And there are also the so called nation-state promoters, who oppose the constant grabbing of power by the center and supranational level. They are those who traditionally can grant citizenship in the state legal sense and require its citizens patriotic attitudes. And the citizen knows to whom it expresses its patriotism.

The European Union’s tendency to constantly increase its decisional power and concentrate it in the institutions in Brussels is something that the Americans have experienced, too. The former U.S. President Ronald Reagan approached the relationship between the central government and the states in its inaugural speech on January 20^th, 1981:

‘From time to time we’ve tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self rule that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by and of the people. If no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else?’

In this one of my favorite natural and emotional speeches written with heart and with vision, Ronald Reagan also stressed that reference to ‘elite group’ is inappropriate because the real special group is the one, which was mostly neglected: those who feed, care, cure, teach, drive, etc. In three words: ‘We the People’.

‘All of us must be reminded that the federal government did not create the states, but the states created the federal government.’

All in all, the American institutional framework was an evolution from the bottom to the top. The European supranationalists impose from the top to the bottom an American inspired federal-structure, but they fall short in comparison to the American model and then they improvise with elements that dismiss all arguments of university education. The European Union contradicts theory so much, that European university education proves irrelevant.

             Furthermore, the government of the United Kingdom opposed with ‘took and nail’ since the 1980s to the grabbing of power by Brussels. Recently the ‘We the People’ of the United Kingdom voted in a referendum to take back control of their country, nowadays they are still struggling for independence and in the future they will probably take back their country with ‘tooth and nail’.

            In the United States every four year on January 20^th, all elected president solemnly swear to ‘protect, preserve and defend’ a 4,500-Word document called the United States Constitution, which is fundamental for the American state and its citizens. In all other theoretical confusions, so help us God! (the end)