"Who do I call if I want to call to Europe?" (Henry Kissinger, Nobel Peace Prize & former US Secretary of State)
I was in Barcelona during the last week of the campaign for the European Elections and I was surprised to realized that nobody was talking about Europe, but about local issues. Even the parties were not talking about Europe.
The problem of the European Union is that it lacks leadership. Therefore people are not interested in it and look back to their local politic. The rotating Presidency of the EU Council every six months does not assure leadership.
The Treaty of Lisbon (2007) has taken actions on this issue with the by creating the position of “President of EU” in its article 15. This is a great innovation. However, there are no specific plans to let Europeans vote directly for the EU President. This is the main drawback of this position: the EU president will be tributary of the national governments which elected him/her at the Council of Europe.
“The President of the USA is elected by US citizens (although indirectly) therefore he can claim legitimacy to express his views worldwide as those of the country. [However,] the President of the EU will never be free to express his views fully, as his legitimacy is granted by the Council, which can choose to withdraw his mandate at any given time [...]“. [Bibliography: President of the United States vs. President of the European Union]
I believe if Europeans could vote directly for one person to be the President of the European Union, would be much more engaged in the European Elections. I believe in a future in which Europeans from all nationalities will vote for another European, most probably from another nationality, to be the President of Europe.
Forget about national stereotypes! Forget about national rivalries! Forget about language barriers! I know this sounds futuristic but we are the Erasmus Generation! We are the first generation in Europe that can achieve this!
See my post about the Erasmus Generation
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