They’re at it! Absolutely all of them!
When Ursula von der Leyen speaks of Europe being “an aspiration of peace, prosperity and unity”, or Charles Michel says “Europe must keep its promises”, or Roberta Metsola launches her “This is Europe” initiative, they are referring not to Europe, but the European Union.
Such cynical determinism would perhaps be understandable in the case of the Africa, given that only around 0.05% of the territory of geographical Africa is not a part of the African Union (namely, Ceuta, Melilla, and Vélez de la Gomera, and the insular overseas territories of France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, the UK and Yemen).
By contrast, in the case of Europe, where a massive proportion of the territory of continental Europe lies outwith the European Union, conflating the two is an arrogant, hubristic practice.
Just how large is ExEU? Try this one out next time you’re sitting around with your mates! Ask them what percentage of geographical Europe they think lies outwith European Union, and you’ll probably get answers in the region of 15 to 40%… not 59.5%! That’s right! Almost three-fifths of Europe lies outwith the EU.
Of the top five largest countries with European territory, only one, France, is in the EU. European Kazakhstan could contain the Netherlands and Belgium two times over, and still have space left over for Luxembourg. Every single EU statelet is smaller than Ukraine. Meanwhile, Iceland, which periodically suffers the ignominy of having itself excluded from maps of Europe, is larger than a full 17 of the 27 EU.
Not only is ExEU larger than than the EU, across a range of metrics it punches above its weight. Its population is roughly around a quarter billion people, and global supercities like London, Moscow and European Istanbul. Yes, GDP per capita at $25,000 is lower than that of the EU, but it is higher than the figure for the Middle East, and significantly higher than for South East Asia and South America.
As has not escaped Brussels’ notice, ExEU possesses abundant energy and mineral resources. Russia and Norway are globally significant oil and gas producers, while ‘too wee, too weak’ Scotland produces just over half the amount of oil and gas as the entire EU put together. Russia, Kazakhstan, Norway and Ukraine between them control globally significant reserves of gold, diamonds, coal, iron ore, copper and uranium, among other mineral resources. Ukraine consistently ranks among the top three exporters globally of wheat, barley and corn, and produces almost half of the world’s sunflower oil, thanks to having the largest area of ultra-fertile black soils anywhere on the planet.
London and Zurich play roles that are structurally significant to global finance. London dominates foreign currency trading; it hosts more foreign banks than any other financial centre; and, it has a leading role in sectors as diverse as trade finance, maritime insurance, and metals trading. Zurich meanwhile is a critical global hub for private banking and wealth management, institutional asset management, reinsurance, while Switzerland as a whole refines around 60% of the world’s gold.
Sixteen of the world’s top 100 universities are in ExEU, according to QS, the same number as there are in the EU, despite the EU having a larger population. ExEU countries also tend to have deep strain of intellectualism, prising academic study and scientific advancement, and they have been incredibly significant for the formation of Europe’s religious identity, particularly in case of Protestantism and Eastern Orthodoxy.
But what of the view that ExEU is conflict-ridden, and somehow not fit to join the global club of liberal democracies? Well, here it must be understood that some – though not all – of ExEU’s issues are of the EU’s making. The role of European Union officials in the Euromaidan, and the subsequent usurpation of the democratically-elected government of Ukraine, cannot be overstated, and the subsequent conflict between Ukraine and Russia can be understood very largely in light of this naked annexation attempt on the part of the EU. Likewise, the EU also sought to punish the UK for having the temerity to withdraw from the Union, and some of the trade issues that have been faced since are as a result of EU obstinence and bullying. Finally, the EU imposes a range of unreasonable economic demands on countries tempted to join it, and interferes in their internal politics by sponsoring through aligned NGOs, up-and-coming political actors, particularly ones willing and able to subvert the popular will in the interests of Brussels.
Please do not misunderstand me! This article is not an argument for setting up a parallel structure to the European Union, a sort of OPEC-cum-Christian-League-for-Europe. The last thing that the world needs is another standing bureaucracy or rule-making body.
Rather, it is an argument for those European countries that have thus far resisted the EU Anschluss or landgrab to coordinate their response, diplomatically, to that expansionism, and to stop being played off against each other. The EU is gunning for the hearts, mind and natural resources of each of the ExEU sovereign states, and has effectively employed a divide-and-conquer approach towards them.
While the prospects of a major realignment perhaps have at this juncture of history a fantastical quality to them, there is a fundamental alignment of interests that could possibly in some future post-war scenario take shape in a way that better upholds the pragmatic advantages of a Europe of sovereign nation-states, a Europe in which an independent Scotland shall some day shortly take its place.
David McHutchon is the Leader of Sovereignty.
Photo of Nofoten, Norway, by Marek Piwnicki.