Jan Hesseling, Consul General of the
Netherlands, spoke to Rotary about the European Union and concluded that there is still much work to be done. Here are some excerpts from his speech.
The history of the European Union starts after the 2nd World War. At that time France and Germany could look back at three wars against one another inside 75 years. One of the main reasons for the rivalry was the possession of coal and iron mines.
Two French politicians, Robert Schuman and Jean Monnet suggested a revolutionary concept by which both countries should bring victorious and vanquished countries together as equals, work for peace in Europe and co-operate within joint institutions. So in 1952 the European Coal and Steel Community was founded which also included Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
It was decided to build a European Economic Community based on a common market of goods and services. By 1992 the Treaty of Maastricht was signed creating the European Union in which the EEC and other organizations within the same framework merged. Other ambitions in this treaty were the establishment of a monetary union, European citizenship, a common foreign and security policy as well as internal security.
The Treaty of Nice of 2001 stipulated a debate on the future of Europe, which eventually lead to the signing of the European Constitution in Rome a few weeks ago. It still has to be approved by all Member States.
If you ask people in Western Europe about what the European Union, many people do not know what it does for them. Some say their country should opt out altogether.
Just a few points: there are no borders anymore for cargo or people inside the EU. Transfer of money within the EU is now without charges and prices can be compared easily. We can chose our delegates to the European parliament. There is harmonization with respect to the standards of many products and services.
The EU now counts 450 million people from 25 countries. We now have 20 official languages, so all documents need to be available in these.
After centuries of wars in Europe including two World Wars, a Cold War, Balkan Wars isn't this a wonderful result of people living in continued peace together in a continually improving society both economically and socially.
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