Crisis Europe

Feature photo: Flag of the Council of Europe and the EU | © Pixabay

Of course, I also wish everyone that they will be spared as much as possible from COVID-19, and in the event that one or the other does get it, a very speedy recovery. In any case, I hope that the "shutdown" of Europe and almost the entire world will not get completely out of hand, and that we will be able to deal with the consequences.

Here, too, I am firmly convinced that we can do this better together than alone.

I continue to hope that our free society will not only recover economically, but that we will also fully regain our fundamental rights as citizens of the Union.

Viewed realistically, however, we have to state that the general human rights, which had gained legal validity at least in the countries of the Council of Europe, are now history.

Here we have to act after COVID-19 and also take the appropriate consequences: States that even officially speak out against universal human rights must be removed from the Council of Europe! Otherwise, this is nothing more than a shell and 'talk shop' for a few national MPs, a complete waste of money and time.

We also have to act urgently on the European Union, and I still hope that during this crisis some kind of European solidarity will develop, at least in some member states.

But the same applies here: less is more! We have to work for countries like B. Poland and Hungary create an exit strategy and, at least for the time being, put them back on the European doorstep.

But we also have to be honest with ourselves and question our community completely: do we perhaps just want an economic free trade zone with mutual opportunities for vacation and visits in good weather?! Italy, Greece and the migrants and refugees there have been waiting for our decision for years.

We European federalists continue to aspire to the United States of Europe and are now more convinced than ever that crises of any kind can no longer be dealt with nationally.

But we must also face the danger that even the most inveterate nationalists will become aware of this, and they will then create the European superstate - completely without universal human rights and European civil and fundamental rights.

Some of us could probably agree with that, but please all be aware that even a European superstate will only be a dwarf and suffer the fate of all nation states: war.