Editorial

Citation

Coleman, J. (1999), "Editorial", European Business Review, Vol. 99 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr.1999.05499fab.001

Editorial

Edited by John Coleman

Editorial

The Council of Europe

We are not only at the end of a decade, at the end of a century, at the end of a millennium but also at the end of the 50th anniversary of the Council of Europe. It is a scandal that the celebrations of the first and, properly understood, most crucial of the post-World War II European institutions have received such scant attention in the media. However, Eduard Shevardnaze's contribution, based on his speech to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council, underlines the importance of the Council of Europe in realising the real "European space".

Ultimately the development of Europe cannot be successfully achieved until the whole of the Continent is involved. This is also emphasized in Professor Erickson's article on Finland's presidency of the EU, which puts enlargement at the top of the list of Finland's priorities while at the same time stressing the importance of the Northern Dimension - including the balancing act which involves balancing East and West, a stormy relationship with Russia and a strong position at the heart of the European Union, an act which Finland knows better than anyone else how to play.

Until all are playing their full part, the European Union will never achieve anything like its full potential. This means, as President Shevardnaze points out, a "Europe with changing geometry". Diversity, not uniformity, leads to the most meaningful form of unity in most things in life. The unity of the hand lies in the diversity of the fingers. The hand would never achieve its purpose with five thumbs.

This leads directly to George Bull's contribution which expresses what he believes to be the true foundation of Europe when he speaks of "analytical and creative intelligence manifested in unique depth and variety in our shared European home since the fifth century BC". We may suspect that Europe's main periods of trouble and violent discord occurred when some state or nation tried to impose uniformity on that great diversity that runs through Greek and Roman culture, the Renaissance and even the Enlightenment. Europe's deep but international culture cannot be expressed in a single concept but in a multiplicity of concepts which form a great social organism. George Bull stressed that Europe's leaders must do much more to engage the majority of the Continent's citizens in serious debate to ensure "the regular affirmation of a will to live together". Perhaps one of the most unfortunate effects of the growth in size of political units is the brain drain towards the centre. It is more important to have wise and capable people at the regional level than at the centre, to interpret and adapt the laws and decrees - regulations and directives - emanating from the centre to the complex conditions on the ground. It is interesting to note that Mr Shevardnaze is a shining example of a leading politician of the former Soviet Union moving out to lead what was once only one of its regions. In general, however, the world suffers from "the blind leading the blind".

Attempts have repeatedly been made to impose military control on the Continent of Europe and after a time all have failed. Monetary control through EMU may give the impression of succeeding. Legal control may succeed through the establishment of the system of Roman Law throughout Europe, replacing Common Law where it is practised. But at the end of the day, language will defeat all attempts to create a Europe of "five thumbs" and this indeed is the main message of Peter Cannon-Brookes' "Euro-babble and information overload". The imposition of some phoney form of English on a global basis will fail to represent the depth and subtlety of the languages and cultures not just of Europe but of the whole world. It is hard not to draw the conclusion that language will ultimately either save us or lead to some brutal form of anarchy.

The report on e-commerce from the Royal Economic Society complements the theme of David Birch's contribution to earlier issues of this journal and CEPR's report on Professor Willem Buiter's paper "Alice in Euroland" is clearly a powerful contribution to the debate on the euro.