The Future of Europe
On December 1, 2005, Anatol Lieven, Senior Research Fellow at The New America Foundation, and Aleksander Smolar, Senior Research Fellow at CNRS in Paris and President of the Stefan Batory Foundation in Warsaw, debated The Future of Europe. Both agreed that the European Union was in crisis and that the dream of political union is at an end. As Smolar put it, “There is no European “We the People” and there will not be one a long time from now.” Both, however, remained committed to the European idea, with Smolar citing the importance of the European Union in promoting democracy and human rights in states aspiring to membership, and Lieven worrying that its failure would imperil Europe’s democratic model and example.
