THE STATE OF THE UNION
MIROSŁAW PIOTROWSKI
Citizens of European countries do not wish to pass over further national competences onto the EU level
European Union is not in the best form and its state needs improving. It is undergoing a deep existential crisis – these were the words said in the beginning of his speech by the chairperson of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker at a forum of the European Parliament in Strasburg. Once a year every chief of the European Commission presents the state of the Union to euro-deputies. Juncker admitted that he had used the identical words a year earlier during a similar debate. So nothing is changing besides the fact that Juncker seemed ‘excuses le mot’, brief in words. He repeated hackneyed slogans, and commentators caught a new impulse when discussing creating the future European army and its general staff. He was told off that the European Union is allegedly a peace draft. It was expressed from the right side of the aula, where euro-deputies with the label ‘populists’ and ‘nationalists’ sit and who, in his opinion, are the reason for breakdowns in the EU. ‘National interests are put in the first place too much’ – Juncker expressed his concern but he also consoled us, saying that ‘the European Commission is not going to destroy national countries’. What a relief! However, there was to be a diagnosis presented, that is, the state, in which our heroic organization is now. Whereas we received a packet of announcements and intentions for the future. In the case of an ill patient it is extremely important to make a proper diagnosis. Without it, treatment does not make sense (although vitamin C can be applied). When in the European Union people are fed up with excessive Brussels offers. It does not seem to notice that citizens of European countries do not wish to pass over further national competences onto the EU level. The example is the referendum in Great Britain in June deciding about the exit of this country from the Union. In many other EU countries similar referendums are announced. The main problem is migration policy and the crisis of real European, that is, Christian values, exposed by it. Juncker, making a speech in Strasburg, treated it casually, saying among the others, that EU countries should ‘participate in the relocation equally’. With such a presented attitude there is a chance that next year, when the chairperson of the European Commission will be speaking about the state of the Union again, he may be much more stifled.
AA
„Niedziela” 39/2016