Commentary: The Rome Summit

Last Saturday, representatives of 27 EU member states (without the United Kingdom) chose the path that European integration should take from now on. Only one of the five different scenarios presented by the Commission earlier in March can, at least partly, satisfy the needs of both the supporters and objectors of further integration: the concept of multi-speed Europe.

This scenario will enable closer collaboration in several areas for those willing to do so, and at the same time will not force the others to share this perspective. It is not the first time that such scenario was put forward – as the existence of both the Schengen and euro projects prove – but for the first time it has become the preferred way for future integration. The Czech Republic was initially rather hesitant to agree to such a plan, fearing both a possible division of member states into two categories, which would be harmful to its interests, and also being automatically sorted into the category of countries having to eventually catch up due to the Czech meagre interest in pursuing further integration.

After the 2009 'great leap forward' for European integration in the form of the Lisbon Treaty, it has become now almost impossible for member states to agree on any further major step in terms of integration. And even in case of a miraculous agreement, the stakes are so high that such plan would collapse due to the citizens' current state of mind, should it take the form of a popular referendum.

Therefore, in the current situation, a multi-speed Europe indeed seems like the only way to move forward. There are, however, some conditions to be met for its success in Europe and benefit of the Czech Republic: no European country shall be denied accession to the higher category (even in the case of later entry), and no member state can be discriminated should it decide not to implement the concept. Also, all integration projects need to be carried out within the legal boundaries of the Union, not by individual treaties in which the conditions mentioned above would not be guaranteed.

In signing the Declaration, the Czech Republic clearly agreed to accept and support the concept of multi-speed Europe as the right path towards future integration. Therefore, the next couple of years will likely be filled with discussions and debates regarding the opportunity to access the higher echelon of integration from the get-go, and if so, in which areas.  

The European leaders left Rome agreeing on a ten-year plan for Europe, one that would take the EU to the 100^th anniversary, as Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker suggested. The four points to be implemented to reach this new milestone include a safe and secure Europe, a prosperous and sustainable Europe, a social Europe, and a stronger Europe on the global scene.

The parallel advent of the multi-speed Europe, as criticized as it may have been by Central European countries, represents a reality that future developments will have to be built upon. Today, before general elections where the result seems to be pre-written, the Czech Republic and its political leaders have a responsibility to identify areas where it can exercise leadership and ensure that its interests are defended. Prague will host on June 9 a summit dedicated to reinforcing the security and defense union, in what represents a key opportunity for the country to highlight how it contributes to security concerns all over the world. Economic prosperity and security should go hand-in-hand with an even greater participation in security missions around the world: the CR has built itself this margin of maneuver which it should use as a lever to exert its influence and priorities in a stronger EU.

In a second time, political leaders, who have taken a liking to criticizing other countries – France, Netherlands, Italy – for the populist waves they are going through, and congratulate how the CR is immune to them, should have the decency to realize that they are partly borne from the easy criticism of the EU. In this context, Minister Zaoralek’s comments on the free movement of workers from last week inspire little good towards an appeased relationship between Czech leaders and the EU. For a minister who has participated, in the last four years, in building up a more safe, secure, and stronger global Europe, the comments struck a chord that European construction was merely an afterthought.

In fact, the core values of the EU - open borders, the free circulation of goods, capital, services and especially people - remain more than ever the guarantor of economic prosperity of the CR and its citizens. Political leaders therefore have a responsibility, this fall, to explain how the conditions of citizens, even including basic issues such as salaries, can be improved thanks to the umbrella the EU provides. Painting the CR as a leader on the security agenda, by far the citizens’ most pressing concern, will help in this process.

Although a show of unity in the face of an internal turmoil within the EU, that is an unprecedented decision of the United Kingdom to leave the Union, has been the primary impetus for the Rome Declaration of 25 March 2017, the Declaration to some extent represents a European response to a wider challenge: the changing new world order. 60 years after signing the original Treaty of Rome, it is clear that the EU can no longer depend on its old alliances and partners. This holds true not only for the UK that has just triggered the Article 50 to "Brexit" the EU, but also for the long-term guarantor of peace and prosperity in Europe: the United States.  

When the original Treaty of Rome was signed by six founding members in 1957, the Cold War order was clear: the world was split between the democratic West led by the US and the totalitarian East controlled by the Soviet Union. As Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, reminded in his speech at the signing ceremony in Rome, that really was a two-speed Europe. Yet in 2017, in the age of "fake news" politics and populist rhetorics and practices on all sides of the political spectrum in Europe and across the Atlantic, the boundaries between the truth and lies, mainstream and fringes, friends and rivals are becoming much more blurred. When Donald Trump, the new US President, advocates economic protectionism and bilateralism, including with individual European countries rather than with the EU as a whole, that would benefit "America First" and insists on NATO members paying their "debts" before guaranteeing any security umbrella, while Xi Jinping, the Chinese President, talks about free trade, multilateralism and EU-China cooperation on climate change, it is clear that the global political environment in which the EU will operate within the next decade has been significantly reshuffled.

The Rome Declaration alludes to some of these challenges and the EU's strategy to tackle them. It emphasizes the EU's commitment to "developing existing partnerships, building new ones", "standing for a rules-based multilateral system" and "promoting free and fair trade and a positive global climate policy". Most of all, the Rome Declaration rightly points out that taken individually, EU Member States would be sidelined by worldwide developments and that "unity is both necessity and free choice." From the global perspective, the key task for the next years is to make sure that the remaining 27 national leaders "walk the talk" and stand together, particularly since they can no longer rely on the United States to do some of their work for them. However, ensuring that the Rome Declaration becomes more than another sheet of paper also requires a bottom-up support by the European citizens to appreciate the merits of European integration at home and abroad. As the pro-EU marches in European capitals from Berlin through Zagreb to Brussels on the same day as the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome have shown, there are some positive signs emerging that, as much as policy-makers, the European publics have started renewing their marriages vows to the European project as well.