Europe, between autonomy and submission

The Association of European Journalists (APE) held its traditional seminar on the future of Europe, now in its 35th year. From Santander and San Sebastian, always at the beginning or end of the summer, the intense debates and discussions of these seminars have moved to Madrid in the autumn.  This year's edition was held in the renovated building of the Fundación del Diario Madrid, the building that was dynamited by the Franco dictatorship for leading the media's fight for freedom.  

Six sessions and as many panels analysed and dissected both the state of the Union and its future in a world in which it runs the risk of having to choose between the two great superpowers vying for hegemony. For those whose Euro-pessimism is often expressed, José María de Areilza, Secretary General of the Aspen Institute Spain, recalled the five existential crises that Europe has successfully overcome in the last fifteen years: financial, refugees, pandemic, Brexit and the current one, the war in Ukraine. Five major tests that could nevertheless be reproduced with equal or greater virulence. In this regard, Toni Roldán, Director of the ESADE Centre for Economic Policy, warned of the need for the EU to soon complete the necessary reforms that should precede the enlargement that is already on the horizon. 

Diplomat Javier Elorza, author of "Una pica en Flandes. La huella de España en la UE", denounced the report, drawn up by twelve "presumed wise men", "a document that nobody has asked for and which has been presented in society by two ministers from France and Germany", in which a whole Franco-German strategy seems to be drawn up to move towards a Europe at different speeds, and consequently with various levels of decision-making.  

On the same panel, Jorge Domecq, Strategy Advisor at Airbus, noted that Europe has less and less strategic autonomy in defence matters, but that it can still do a great deal in terms of both climate change and its "priority economic security". In this regard, he set out three fundamental objectives: to promote instruments for the EU to remain relevant; to protect ourselves through economic coercion against third parties that attack us; and to build partnerships that facilitate access to fundamental raw materials. The President of the Euroamerica Foundation, Ramón Jáuregui, stressed that a large part of these raw materials are in Latin America, the continent closest to Europe in terms of culture and values, and called for an intensification of relations to counteract the growing displacement of the EU and the progressive occupation of this space by China.  

Of Europe's major dependencies, the main one has undoubtedly been energy. Former commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete argued that the EU should equip itself with world champions, since Europeans, let alone purely national ones, fall short. He identified batteries as the main component in the fight for industrialisation, so that "it would be very important for battery factories to be established in Spain because this would guarantee that vehicles would also be manufactured here".  The former Minister of Industry, Claudio Aranzadi, pointed to an industry that will be - and already is - decisive in the immediate future: the capture and confinement of CO2, above all for the energy transition that the EU is planning. Aranzadi, on the other hand, was belligerent towards the cartels on which energy supply depends, expressly citing OPEC+, where Saudi Arabia's decision to cut production by one million barrels a day each will have a decisive effect on the EU's macroeconomy.  

With respect to the enlargement of the Union, the former Vice-President of the European Commission, Joaquín Almunia, expressed his support for the integration of the Balkan countries, which he described as essential, "because otherwise they will inexorably fall under Putin's Russia". Prior to this enlargement, he advocated the necessary reduction in the number of commissioners (currently 27, one per country), a number that already today makes it difficult, if not unfeasible, to take decisions with the necessary agility. Almunia did not mince his words when he said that "if Donald Trump becomes president of the United States again it will be an ordeal for the European Union". 

For the former minister and former government spokesman Íñigo Méndez de Vigo, who stressed that Spain had always been on the side of Turkey's integration with regard to enlargement, he was particularly wary of the movement that has arisen in the United Kingdom, which is calling to make amends for the mistake of Brexit and return to the European fold. Méndez de Vigo suggested that the "Brexiters", who were predicting the ruin of the EU after their departure, should note the success of their exit, and be aware that their departure has also led to decisions being taken that London would have prevented. Almunia also indicated that, after a recent meeting with pro-European Britons, they told him that they "do not see much interest from Brussels in the UK's reintegration".  

Particularly intense was the panel devoted to lies as a weapon. Fernando Vallespín, professor and former president of the CIS, pointed out that "today lies are of no political significance", referring to Trump's lies and the uselessness of the Washington Post's daily count of them. His conclusion is that the design of disinformation and lies goes directly to the target, i.e. emotions. This means that people or groups, who are aware of the falsehood of what is being transmitted, prefer to accept it in order to remain part of the tribe rather than denounce it, and not fight for the truth at the risk of being excluded from the group.  

To all this, the former director of the CNI, Félix Sanz Roldán, replied, asking whether we want to live like this forever or whether we are going to rebel, especially when there is sufficient technology to know in 99.99% of cases who the author of disinformation and lies is. He called for us not to resign ourselves to living in this environment and to break out of the vicious circle. 

The seminar was closed by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who, in dialogue with the director of Europa Press and Vice-President of the APE, Javier García Vila, described the current Spanish Presidency of the EU as "transcendental for its future, since the decisions that are being taken during these six months will determine its course, its role and its place in an increasingly fiercely competitive world".  

Miguel Ángel Aguilar, secretary general of the APE, summed up the dilemma in which Europe finds itself with a lapidary phrase: "Either it exports freedoms or it will import slavery".