Timothy Garton Ash ([ Ссылка ]) is Professor of European Studies, University of Oxford, Isaiah Berlin Professorial Fellow at St Antony’s College, Oxford and a Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.

Stefan Auer ([ Ссылка ]) is Associate Professor and Jean Monnet Chair at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong.

This interview was recorded on March 15th 2019 and is part of a series of discussions hosted by Dr. Stefan Auer that aim to bring insights on Europe’s past, present and future from distinguished scholars and policy practitioners to a broader public. Discussion topics cover a range of key dilemmas confronting the European Union, as seen through the lens of Dr. Auer’s course on “Europe without Borders?” The course’s ultimate focus is on the function and status of national and European borders and the question of what it means to belong to a political community: who is in, who is out? How and why are people included or excluded? And, what, finally, is the future of a borderless Europe?

01:18 – The legacy of 1989: “Were we stupid?”
04:04 – The concept of Central Europe and “a return to Europe”. The dissident movement in Central Europe in the 1970s and 1980s.
05:55 – Challenges of democratic transition in Central Europe. Did the proponents of a liberal “Europe without Borders” underestimate the strength of national attachments?
10:52 – Was the push towards European unity too fast, too soon? German unification, and the origins of the Euro.
13:58 – Design flaws of the European Monetary Union. Common currency without common treasury and a too diverse membership leading towards European disintegration, rather than integration.
15:39 – The euro as a currency in search of a state; Can Europeans obtain the necessary level of political unity to make a single European currency succeed? Popular dissatisfaction with trends in European integration. The evolution of German Europeanism.
19:35 – ‘We will not have a “United States of Europe” in any foreseeable future.’ Role of European nation-states in the current form of EU integration. Liberal/ civic patriotism and (liberal) nationalism.
23:42 – Brexit and the problems behind the brilliant slogan of “taking back control.” National self-determination and locus of key decision-making.
26:26 – Appropriate scale of political organization. Smaller political units better for democratic politics? Role of language and John Stuart Mill’s “unified public opinion”. Uniqueness of the EU “commonwealth”.
29:20 – Will Brexit have a positive effect on achieving further European unity? Criticism of popular notion that Britain was uniquely reluctant towards the EU.
32:55 – Can the EU survive and thrive? If yes, how? A historian’s perspective. Should Europeans try to defend the EU and its achievements, or take the gamble to let it go?
Audience Q&A session
35:35 – Is addressing economic inequality an effective way to combat increased levels of xenophobia in today’s Europe? Immigration and liberal patriotism.
39:00 – Given discontent with internal migration and issues with brain drain in Eastern European countries, should the EU’s freedom of movement be somewhat constrained?
42:50 – Mobilizing the public and politicians in support of reform towards a better EU.
46:30 – Success of populist parties and public scepticism towards the EU.
49:43 – Is the EU’s response to the crisis in Ukraine adequate? External borders of the EU.

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