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Durign the past few years Europe has gone through several big changes. Europe of today is very different from what it was just a few years ago. On one hand, the former Sovjet Union and other East-European countries have gone through quite an upheaval and moved - more or less - towards capitalism. On the other hand, the West-European countries have little by little moved towards closer cooperation, which is supposed to finally lead to one big, beautiful nation called the European Union. The borders of separate European nations disappear and we will all become one big happy European family. Or Shall we?
This whole idea of the European Union seems actually quite absurd and even impossible - at least to me. How could all these countries which are so different from each other form one nation? They all have their own long histories behind them and they are very traditionals in their own ways. All the countries have their own distinctive national features, their own cultures and languages and their own national interests. When you really try to think of them forming one single nation, which would eventually have even its own defence and foreign policy, you can only come to one conclusion: it will not happen, because it is absolutely impossible. But anyway that is the basic idea of the European Union. Of course it would take quite a few years - we do not even know how many - until the present EU would be something which could be called a nation, but no matter in how remote future it would happen it is still an impossible plan. We cannot change the history and we cannot change the traditions, which are firm in every culture of every European nation. How can the leaders of Europe and all those officials of the EU - or whoever are responsible for this absurd plan - really seriously even think of the EU as a single nation - especially now that the nationalism seems to be raising its ugly head all over the Europe .
I believe that the European Union could work if it would stay the way it is now - perhaps with Finland and a few other new countries as members, and with more cooperation with the East-European countries. Trade between the member countries would be relatively free and people could move easily from one country to another, but every member country would still have its sovereignty. That is what the European Union should be like and that is the kind of EU Finland should also join in. But that is not what our European leaders have in their minds. They will not submit to the current situation .
The history shows us that almost every attempt of trying to form one big nation of several small ones have failed. We have seen what happened to the former Sovjet Union. We see every day at news in our televisions what has happened to the former Yugoslavia. And there is no point claiming that the EU is a totally different thing and that the EU countries are doing this voluntarily - there is no outsider forcing them to do this. The fact is that it is not us Europeans - the ordinary citizens - who are forming the new nation called European Union. It is a small group of people - our leaders, the officials in the EU and the so-called market forces - which has been doing the job for us. The European Union is actually a big dream of a small power elite .
I do admit that I probably do not know enough about the EU to make up a firm opinion about this matter, but I know enough to be concerned about the future of Europe. I am not so concerned about the development of the EU itself - as I said I do not believe that it can ever go as far as to be one single nation. But I am worried about the future of Europe, if the rise of nationalism still continues. It seems to be at least partly a result of all this fuss about one European nation. It is obvious that when people are afraid of losing even some of their sovereignty they start defending it. The nationalism always leads into the increase of intolerance. And the nationalistic Europe is not the kind of Europe I want to live in .
