Europe today: Bridges and walls

Abstract

Europe is going through a time of crisis. Indeed, three major difficulties have beset Europe: public debt, migrants, terrorism. The impact of the crisis has unleashed a number of centrifugal forces: distrust is creeping in among the member states; some of them openly question the values promoted by the European project. To be sure, Europe has always lived on crises. The Union was born out of the ruins of World War II and its history is one of stops and goes. A historical perspective shows that every crisis is an undecided conjuncture: it can prepare a deadlock or lead to a new beginning. Lessons from history show that Europe has been able to recover from difficult times when it has managed to be faithful to its origin. Europe is the offspring of a culture of integration, dialogue and generativity. What enabled our peoples to overcome the crises of the past was a capacity to integrate, a capacity of dialogue, a capacity of generativity. Today, some good examples of this constructive reaction to the crisis may be seen in the records of the judicial relations among some of the courts in Europe: living seeds of the original spirit of Europe not to be neglected and to be further cultivated by other branches of government.