2015 was the year my hope in the future of the European Union was restored. Although the Greeks were in quite big financial trouble, the E.U. offered them, time and time again, bailouts. They were there for their friend in need, because friends is what the member states of the E.U. are. It’s a union of friends. Or is it?
2016 proved us quite the opposite. Back in April, I would have never thought I’d be fearing the end of the European Union by the end of the year. People began writing about what would later be called the “Brexit” vote, and I admit to laughing thinking anyone could think the United Kingdom would leave. The end of June came soon after and I was the happiest I had been this year, I had just got to the United States, where I spent a large part of my summer: with friends, on Long Island. I started panicking, and because I was jet-lagged, I would spend nights worrying about how Brexit will affect me.
To me, the U.K. represented Plan B, it’s where I was considering going to university, because I could take out a loan for tuition, as I’m from a country that’s part of the European Union. But I’m not the one who’s most affected by the vote, I don’t need to go to school in the U.K., nor do I want to move there, something which would have been extremely easy if the United Kingdom were still part of the E.U. The people who are going to be suffering from this are people my age, those a bit older, and perhaps those younger too. They may not have showed up to vote, which was a mistake on their side, but they wanted the opportunities the E.U. had to offer, they needed them. I’m not just talking about citizens of the U.K., but citizens of the E.U. as a whole.
It was after Brexit that we started to fear the death of the European Union, which proved to be more and more likely as the year went by. Countries fought over whether to accept refugees or not, and if so, how to split the number in between the 28 member states. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban opposed the idea, submitting a plan to ban the refugees, in the form of a constitutional amendment, after a similar proposal failed to pass by referendum because of insufficient voter turnout. “Lawmakers in Hungary, however, rejected the proposed national ban on refugees relocated from the rest of the European Union,” reported Balint Bardi and Palko Karasz in “Hungary’s Lawmakers Reject Plan to Block Resettlement of Refugees” on Dec. 8, in The New York Times.
I know Hungary all too well, as I’ve been there many times, since I live in a town in neighboring Romania, fairly close to the Hungarian border. Under the proposed European Union program, Hungary would have had to take in less than 1,300 refugees, a number certainly not that big. I do think these immigrants would have had a hard time adjusting to life in Hungary, as it’s a country with a lot of national pride, a country where you might not get by with English (even ordering food), unless you’re in the capital, Budapest. That certainly doesn’t mean they shouldn’t have tried, and banning refugees altogether is certainly not acceptable.
Despite Hungary’s proposal of a ban, there’s still hope in Europe. If you look at Germany, they’re taking in an incredible amount of refugees, and they’re helping them settle in, attend school, learn German and integrate in their community. I can only imagine how hell would break loose if Romania had to take in refugees. My own country’s views are even more so radical than Hungary’s, but luckily for my government, most refugees do not want to settle in Romania, and I definitely can’t blame them. Instead, they continue their journey to Western and Northern Europe, where countries much more friendly await them. But not the United Kingdom, who primarily voted to leave the E.U. because they were tired of so many immigrants.
Italy voted ‘no’ on constitutional reform, an idea that resembles the one behind the Brexit decision, earlier this month. “Prime Minister Matteo Renzi stepped down last week after the defeat of a referendum on constitutional changes that he had hoped would streamline Italy’s government. He staked his seat on the outcome, and failed,” wrote Gaia Pianigiani in The New York Times on Dec. 11, in “Paolo Gentiloni, Italy’s Foreign Minister, Will Try to Form a New Government”. Mr. Renzi’s resignation ended Italy’s 63rd government in 70 years, a country many people fear will leave the European Union, albeit not quite soon.
Brexit negotiations will take years, and it’s likely that the U.K. will only officially be leaving the E.U. in the spring of 2019. But they’re leaving; and soon, other countries will want to do so too. Members of the European Union have had a lot of fights this year, and I fear their friendship might end soon. I never thought I’d fear the death of the European Union, but 2016 proved me wrong. We are all extremely likely to witness the end of this great union in our lifetime.
The article appeared in the Winter 2016/2017 print issue of Affinity Magazine.
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