Vivid Opinion June 2004

OPINION
EU CASH OR CULTURE?

by Seymour Touns
June 2004

I was on a break recently to a European city. It felt invigorating, perhaps even liberating to be away from Bucharest for a while. The taxi driver outside the capital's airport drove me to the city centre, charging me the metered rate; the roads downtown were pristine and smooth; the streets flowed with modern vehicles and urban transport systems; the pavements were wide, level and bereft of street dogs and urchins begging for food; the architecture was at once imposing, full of national pride and in good repair; suburban developments brimmed with contemporary apartment buildings and neighbourhoods; the historic centre oozed a European café culture, tinged with zest and vitality; cultural innovation was showcased by premier productions; youth culture was vibrant and full of joy and erstwhile eagerness. However, it wasn't this gentile renaissance and prosperous living that made it feel like the real Europe. It was the genuine sense of hope, positivism and dynamism in the air and the welcoming desire for the European way of life, embracing different cultures, values and fortitude.

You might think I was in Paris, Copenhagen, or one of the capital cities of a recently acceded EU member. But no, I was in Kiev, and relishing what I saw.

It seems that all too often in Romania, the talk of Europe and of joining the European Union is exclusively about cash. Politicians, business leaders and even the person on the street seem to be perpetually preoccupied with what they can get out of Europe, punctuating their every conversation and debates with financial parallels, as if membership accesses one to some giant EU pot of gold. The money-grabbing agenda proliferating through the corridors of power and across the city's lunch tables is disturbing, self-centred and completely at odds to the true meaning of what a united Europe represents.

The embryo of a European Union of democratic states, first conceived in 1950, has evolved in essence to promote peace between the nations of the continent to ensure that the bloody and horrific consequences of conflict and ethnic division that dominated the last century in the region may never happen again. Its raison d'etre has always been the creation of harmony between people and places, while at the same time preserving diversity within the framework of some common guiding principles. Our value systems and cultural heritages, history, traditions and identities are the glue that binds us together and what the EU constitution is designed to preserve, recognise and appreciate. It is not, nor has it ever been a European Diners Club card for the elite, and the crooks that try to bend, subvert or manipulate the system will eventually be exposed as the fraudsters they are.

Similarly, like some dodgy-dealing used car salesman, the Romanian government seems to believe that by paying lip service to the provisions and measures designed to secure peace and democracy by Brussels, they can dupe the European Commission into approving their membership application, so they can get their hands on even more EU cash to blow on more dodgy deals with their dubious associates. What's more, they think the EU doesn't know this. And no amount of lobbying from the American government or more military bases on the Black Sea is going to change this.

My city break to Kiev coincided with the country's Europe Day celebrations brought together to share traditions and culture. There was no nationalistic pomp about false achievements or unrealistic deadlines. In contrast to Bucharest, on that day Kiev's streets resonated with sharing and appreciating the diversity of peoples.

Above all the experience renewed my faith in the concept of a united Europe, of the desire for understanding the traditions that all Europeans share. I was not only visiting the geographic centre of Europe, but surprisingly also its spiritual heart. I felt closer to the true meaning of a united Europe than I ever have in Romania.

President Iliescu and his government would do well to reconsider their motivation for joining the Union and focus their efforts on what being a part of the European family really means. They may then find Brussels more inclined to take their accession promises at face value.

Seymour Touns is a travel writer currently researching a guide to the Black Sea.