“Today, more than ever, large blocs are competing over virtually everything: food, energy, trade, raw materials,” De Gruyter explains. “The weight one of these blocs can put on the scales is decisive. And that ‘weight’ is precisely what the European Union offers us as Member States.”
Europe as a service provider
Awareness of this dynamic, she argues, is more alive than ever. “You can see it among citizens – as shown by the Eurobarometer, which surveys public attitudes toward the EU every six months and has recorded historically high approval rates in recent editions – but also among politicians,” she says. “Among the latter, you can sense, especially in internal communications, that the perspective on sovereignty has been turned on its head. In the past, deeper European integration was seen as a loss of sovereignty. Today, the opposite view prevails: that Europe actually strengthens our collective leverage.”
Hence, the perception of the EU has fundamentally shifted. “It is no longer seen as a law-making machine, but rather as a service provider that countries turn to for solutions to their problems. This mindset allows those services to be delivered and formal structures to be built. Think of Frontex in response to migration, the Green Deal for climate policy, and of course defence, which has become an absolute necessity as numerous security reports point to sharply heightened threats. The Dutch Ministry of Defence even describes the current situation as a ‘grey zone’ between war and peace.”
Crise de l’esprit
In short, Europe now plays a nurturing role, creating the conditions in which solutions can emerge. As a result, it is being discussed more than ever. What was once dismissed as purely technical or bureaucratic has become political, and thus a matter of public debate. The same reasoning applies to cybersecurity: the EU, which has in recent years introduced far-reaching regulations, should be understood in that light.
This moment in European history fits seamlessly into a broader historical pattern, De Gruyter notes. “Aristotle pointed out that an external enemy can unite the fiercest rivals. And now we have arrived in the very world French philosopher Paul Valéry tried to imagine just over a century ago in his groundbreaking essay La crise de l’esprit (1919). At the time, European nations were the dominant powers on the global stage. Valéry, writing in the aftermath of the First World War, attempted to envision a world in which this was no longer the case: a world in which Europe itself would be dominated.”
What seemed highly unlikely then has become our reality now. Indeed, the future Valéry distilled from that thought experiment remains deeply relevant today. He argued that if Europe were ever cut off at the knees, it could only survive by using its head. “Translated into today’s terms,” De Gruyter concludes, “that means that by investing in the knowledge economy, Europe will always secure itself a place on the world stage.”
