Jacopo Barbati (25)
Geboren: Italië
Woont: Italië
Blog: Eurobull.it
Eurobull is de Italiaanse tak van de Young European Federalists. De jongerenbeweging van de supranationale partij Union of European Federalists. Een partij die werd opgericht vlak na de tweede wereld oorlog om een federaal Europa te maken op grond van gelijke overtuigingen.
‘It is clear that Europe lost lots of influence’
When thinking about “global powers”, one cannot forget mentioning the so-called G7, the group of the seven richest Countries of the “non-communist” World that every year, since 1975 (in the middle of the Cold War), gathered to discuss some economical decisions that would have affected, de facto, the whole planet.
Four European Countries are part of this group: France, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom, the richest (and biggest) of Europe, rewarded by a great economic development after the post-war reconstruction. Some years after the fall of URSS, Russia's inclusion in the G8 was symbolical: a big former “enemy” became more or less inoffensive.
Almost 20 years have passed and the current economic situation is rewarding countries like Russia and China, that together with Brazil, India and South Africa are known as the BRICS – big, populated, fast-growing countries that are gaining recognition and power on the international level (i.e. highest voting rights within the IMF). In few words, size matters.
Since 2010, China is the second richest (by overall GDP) Country in the World and thus the first one, USA, founded the G2 that, alongside the G20 (G8 + BRICS + other developing non-European Countries) are the real focal nodes for international discussions on the future of World's economic situation.
It is clear that Europe lost lots of influence during the last decades, this is shown also by recent events happening very close to the European Continent, in Ukraine, Syria, North Africa. In none of those difficult scenarios the intervention of the EU was decisive. Why? Because there were always difficulties to make everyone agree. So there's the rub: aut unite, having real common foreign policies, aut perishing in the globalized World where size matters and decisions, also for the EU, are taken by the “biggest ones”.