According to the renowned expert, the pandemic crisis has shown what European unity is really worth
As Narodnye Novosti reports, in an interview with YouTube channel UKRLIFE.TV, German political scientist Alexander Rahr said that the new German chancellor has yet to gain credibility in the EU.
“Naturally, the Germans have chosen not only their chancellor, but also the future leader of Europe. Because so far Germany is still the leader of the EU. But I do not think that the Germans will retain such a strong first place in Europe for a number of reasons, but for the time being it is worth proceeding from the current situation”, – the expert said.
Rahr recalled how in the midst of the pandemic the EU actually showed its utter uselessness and the EU countries were getting out of the crisis on their own.
“It is now 2021, we have come out of a serious crisis, but with great losses. We saw that people’s mentality had changed and the EU, as an institution, was not playing any role. All countries tried to overcome the crisis on their own, even the borders within the EU were closed”, – the expert explained.
While the countries of Northern Europe are coping fairly well with the current crisis, in Southern Europe the situation is not so rosy and this gap, according to the political scientist, will only deepen.
“There is a stand-off between Europe’s rich northern countries and southern countries – Spain, Portugal, Greece – which are now demanding more and more general money as they emerge from the pandemic. But the northern countries, including Germany, are not happy and only promise to help once. This is a perennial problem, but it will worsen in 2022-2023, when real money will be handed out from the common pot, of 70 billion euros, to countries that need it more. So, there will be new grudges and schisms, and we cannot talk about European solidarity”, – Rahr noted.
The expert is convinced that although formally the EU will remain, at least in the foreseeable future, it will undergo a serious transformation, and eventually it will return to the format of a purely economic association, without the political overlay.
“The EU will not collapse for sure because there are no alternatives. But Europe will become more of an economic bloc but the political superstructure will be minimised. Therefore, at the end of the 2020s, I think Europe will look very different than it did at the beginning of the century”, – German political analyst Alexander Rahr is sure.