For Long, the EU has been known as the glue that holds the Schengen countries and the east side together. Before the Pandemic started to rage across Europe and the world, a Bloomberg headline read “EU Leaders Get Ready for Days of Brutal Infighting on Budget.” It showed the deep divisions inside our leaders‘ policy-making and highlighted these partitions with the economic downturn of the Brexit negotiations (or whatever they were).
EU countries are in no way equal to one another. They must all accept this reality and trade according to their equivalent economic powers.
Future of Europe
Now, as millions are jobless in an already crumbled job market, the EU is once again facing questions of its credibility and presence as the ‘peacekeeper of Europe’. In every interview on every channel, city and state officials are constantly asked about their thoughts on the Future of Europe after the devastation caused by Covid-19 self-destructed the so-called harmonious cooperation between the European countries. But could the self-destruct button be turned off without external interference?
The EU has always had the choice of everlasting appreciation of Trade. The unlikely scenario of the Global Pandemic has hidden this choice but could just be the key to building better and restoring the tough and tense relations between these once united regions.
Read more: EU chief says members to weigh Turkey sanctions
Weak but functioning
A report by the IMF that concluded the Fall 2020 economic outlook in Europe outlined, “Early spring lockdowns, voluntary social distancing, and associated disruptions in supply chains and lower demand led to a record collapse in economic activity. Real GDP fell by about 40 percent in the second quarter of 2020…” It went on to describe the heavy burden taken by the nations, saying “Anchored inflation expectations and wide output gaps suggest that central banks should keep accommodative monetary policies in place to support the recovery.”
But such action is not needed for a disease that doesn’t block transportation and communication between trade lines. Even though society cannot be re-opened, the economy can turn on with a light switch in my view because there is no need for face-to-face communication. We, as a world has developed so much that even in a third wave peek of a Pandemic, we are still functioning. We are weak, but functioning and to avoid the unavoidable, we need to fulfill our trade capacity.
Now, as millions are jobless in an already crumbled job market, the EU is once again facing questions of its credibility and presence as the ‘peacekeeper of Europe’.
Newton gives a boost to the economy
There is a theory that represents the communication of data and alliances, a theory, which made it possible to link science to economics.
That theory was the Gravity Model that was earlier referred to as “an intellectual orphan, unconnected to the rich family of economic theory”. However, in 1962 with the award of the first economic Nobel Prize to a physicist named Jan Tinbergen abolished this belief. The very foundation of the Newtonian gravity model came about to play a vital role in the trade creation and sustenance of the Netherlands economy. It is interesting to notice how the trade boost initiated by Tinbergen based on physics helped build an economy that never looked back. A vital lesson to be learned here is the multidisciplinary nature of models, if applied can be used to our advantage.
EU countries are not a single entity
Structural-functionalism undertakes the state of a union, especially this one, and studies structures in terms of their function within the system.
Political Science is known to be a very infectious and yet dynamic subject. The hub of this vital philosophy is the art of democracy. At this point, it could drastically help a sharp v-shaped recovery but in Europe, what‘s needed is structural change. EU countries are in no way equal to one another. They must all accept this reality and trade according to their equivalent economic powers. This way, even if a shred of profit is attained by these nations, they will have the choice of operating independently, while actively seeking the European Union an effective formality for more demanding opportunities for the future.
Juan Abbas is a freelance writer for the Daily Times. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Global Village Space.