EU: Cultural Diversity - Welfare Spending Theme Park for the rest of the world?

José Ignacio Torreblanca from El Pais(spanish version) and ECFR(english version).

Abstract:
...It is no secret that China has also picked up on the weakness stemming from Europe's divisions, and like Russia for some time now, has begun to enjoy watching Europeans fight it out amongst themselves to see who can give more in exchange for less. Just last week, China decided to cancel the EU-Chinese Summit, a date of strategic importance for Europe at a time of severe economic crisis. Peking alleged that Sarkozy's meeting with the Dalai Lama amounts to a major slight on its sovereignty. The Chinese decision, however, is not just surprising, it is also absurd.

First of all, Sarkozy was invited to a meeting in Warsaw with Nobel Peace Prize winners, which obviously includes the Dalai Lama, the world leader with the highest approval ratings by the way. Secondly, no European country supports anything beyond talks between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese authorities which might lead to the concession of regional autonomy for Tibet, all of this in the context of an express renunciation of violence (in actual fact, not even the Dalai Lama is demanding Tibetan independence any longer). Worse still, the Chinese decision took place just a few days after the British government publicly announced a change in its traditional policy on Tibet, recognising it as forming part of Chinese territory, a volte face which comes in exchange for absolutely nothing, completely gratis. Once again, Peking's actions highlight just to what extent it loves flexing its muscles when it can, not when it wants, because Bush also received the Dalai Lama and yet no reprisals were adopted by China against Washington.

According to estimates by the consultancy Goldman Sachs, the Chinese economy will have caught up with Germany by 2010 and with Japan by 2015 (and indeed it has already caught up with Italy, France and Britain). Things look different if we consider Europe as a whole, because then China would not reach parity with the EU in economic terms, or the US for that matter, until 2035. You don't have to be very shrewd to work out that the US still has 25 years ahead in which to exert influence on China, whilst so long as it fails to act in unison, Europe lacks any kind of leeway altogether.

The analytical timeframe set by the Reflection Group on the future of the EU headed up by Felipe González stretches out to 2020-2025. The Group will have to present its findings during the Spanish Presidency of the EU, in the first half of 2010. The first question the Group should ask itself, and relay to European public opinion at large, is a very simple one: do you want Europe to be a relevant actor on the world stage in 2020? Or are you happy for it to simply be a cultural diversity - welfare spending theme park for the rest of the world?