A lot of pundits often defend the statement that a political entity “Europe” is an impossibility because there is no common language in Europe and therefore no common public opinion.
While I have defended this point of view in some other place, it is time to make an observation which to a certain degree contradicts this proposition.
If we look at the themes that determine the political agenda in Western Europe it will quickly become clear that the issues/challenges are to a great deal the same in the whole of that part of Europe. (1) How to deal with migration ? Can we choose our migrants ourselves ? Should there be more strict rules to obtain access to social security ? (2) How to deal with (radical) islam ? What about the nikab and the headscarf ? Quid separate schools for Muslims ? Should imams preach in the local language ? How to deal with European IS-fighters in Syrian prisons ? (3) How to transform the existing economy into a climate-friendly one ? Nuclear energy, cars, green taxes ? (4) How to deal with the Chinese presence ? 5G and Huawei, Chinese investors… (5) How to deal with the impact of the longer longevity of the populations on the finances of the state ? Evidently also other items are common to these societies.
But notwithstanding that the same issues fill the public domain, they are not discussed at the same moment and the solutions chosen might be different. They are discussed in the national parliaments, newspapers and the national magazines but these are closed “national” worlds although the issues and arguments are basically the same.
It must be possible to use this basic fact to organize a Western European public opinion in a more formal way.
