A small example. As it turned out at a recent round table, the system of “selective waste collection” is falling apart in European countries. New Europeans do not bother to sort their waste into different plastic bags, and waste processing plants have to introduce sorting lines. It is a trifle, of course, but quite telling.
In countries that have long been the stronghold of a liberal approach to immigrants (a striking example is Holland), native residents are coming to realize that soon they will remain a minority in their historical homeland and life will change dramatically. Because immigrants differ not only in skin color and manner of dress, but also in their way of thinking, values, and goals. Holland is hastily changing its migration policy. However, it will no longer be possible to stop the process of settling Europe by neighbors from other continents.
Europe will clearly not be able to process and adapt this immigrant flow. So we need to think about developing new values, a new mentality, taking into account what its new citizens bring to Europe. What the gains and losses will be here is difficult to say for now; the process is just beginning.
It is precisely this strategic task that the European Parliament should have taken upon itself. However, it does not seem that the newly elected European Parliament has taken on such a task.
The European Parliament elections took place with low voter turnout. On average across European countries, it was 44%. And, according to most observers, as a result of the low voter turnout, the legitimacy of the pan-European parliament will suffer first of all. “Deputies, like their predecessors, will have to decide what to write on food product labels, how to solve problems of industrial chemical production, how to ensure compliance with labor protection laws,” reports the BBC.
In the coming week, European leaders planned to reach certain agreements on the draft European Constitution. The Constitution should expand the capabilities of the European Parliament and give it some strategic functions that would allow parliamentarians to really influence the fate of Europe.
However, the election results call this entire process into question. In most countries, opposition parties won the elections, and many of them took positions of euroskepticism, that is, they were not apologists for creating a United Europe. Such a balance of forces obviously weakens an already rather ephemeral body of European integration. This means that Europe will continue to move into the future without a rudder or sails.
The preliminary balance of forces in the new European Parliament, according to Radio Liberty, looks like this: “In most states, the parties in power lost. The most sensitive defeats were suffered by the Social Democrats in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, the right-wing centrists in France, and the Labour Party in Great Britain. The only ruling party that won is the Socialists in Spain. According to preliminary data, right-wing centrist parties will receive over 250 seats in the European Parliament, the Socialists a little over 200. The representation of radical forces - the far left and far right - will also increase.”