[Pophealth] "Europower" - The European Experiment on KUOW

[A. Bryant]

This show on the "European experiment" is playing right now on 94.9 (KUOW) 
and it is pretty interesting.  They cover some population health themes, 
among other issues, such as politics. There is a lot of comparison between 
the US values and European values.

Here is the link to the show online, with a description -

http://www.insideout.org/documentaries/europower/part1.asp

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'Europower: Inside Out'
In Europower: Inside Out, senior correspondent Michael Goldfarb examines 
the claims Europhiles are making for this unique experiment in history, an 
experiment in which nations pool sovereignty. Goldfarb looks at how the 
European nations have created capitalist societies that try to smooth out 
the inevitable social inequalities created by free market economies. He 
documents Europe's stumbling attempts to set up a single foreign and 
defense policy for its members and closely examines its problems dealing 
with immigration.

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Part One

The idea of Europe was born in the ashes of World War II. Winston 
Churchill, who had been voted out of office by the British public, 
traveled to Zurich to give a speech outlining his vision of the 
continent's future. He called for the development of a "United States of 
Europe" led by France and Germany. The two nations were the main martial 
protagonists of Western Europe. Churchill called for them to build this 
new entity and to draw in the smaller countries of the continent that had 
been trampled in their armies' wakes.

Europe today is many things, but it is not Churchill's vision of a "United 
States of Europe" even though it has its own anthem -- the "Ode to Joy" 
from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. But slowly but surely, Europe is 
integrating into a unique entity. "An experiment in which nation's share 
sovereignty," according to Anthony Barnett of London's Open Democracy 
think tank. The laboratory for this experiment is the European Union, 
which, according to the London School of Economics Fred Halliday, has 
brought together Europe, "for the first time in millennia, since the Roman 
Empire in a common political project."

The history of the nations of Europe is one that combines alternating eras 
of bellicosity and human progress. The almost half-century since the E.U. 
was founded has been an era of prosperity, and in this time a progressive 
idea of nationalism has been defined. "Civil nationalism" as opposed to 
the more traditional "bellicose nationalism" is the order of the day. It 
has allowed a small country like Ireland, to use its E.U. membership to 
step out from the long historical shadow of its former colonial master 
Great Britain. Ireland is an equal in the councils and committees of the 
Union and is no longer dictated to in economic terms by Britain .

Ireland has been able to modernize. All E.U. countries pay annual dues to 
this supranational body -- currently 1.27 percent of their gross domestic 
product -- and receive back development funds according to need. For 
decades Ireland got back more than it put in, and with that money rebuilt 
its road and manufacturing infrastructure and created the foundation for 
its phenomenal expansion in the 1990's, when the phrase "Celtic Tiger" 
economy was coined.
Map of the European Union.

Now, with the E.U. itself having expanded to 25 countries -- most of the 
nations of Eastern Europe have joined or are about to join -- a 
constitution for Europe has been written for the Union and over the next 
eighteen months is in the process of being ratified, country by country.

The Constitution for Europe is short on poetic expression, but long on 
noble sentiment:

"United in diversity, Europe offers the best chance of pursuing, with due 
regard for the rights of each individual and in awareness of their 
responsibilities towards future generations and the Earth, the great 
venture which makes of it a special area of human hope."

The Constitution redefines the Union's procedures -- in other words the 
club's rules: what authority do the members give to the Union; what do 
they reserve for themselves; how do their representatives determine 
policy. The Constitution also states the basic principles and rights of 
citizens inside the E.U. These rights reflect a European view of what an 
ideal society should be. A view that is in many ways different from that 
of contemporary America:

"It shall combat social exclusion and discrimination and shall promote 
social justice and protection, equality between women and men, solidarity 
between generations and protection of the rights of the child."
An explicit commitment to gender equality and children's rights is not 
something you will find in the U.S. Constitution. Europe is really very 
different from the United States. For example, there is a very strong 
socialist tradition in Europe, according to historian Peter Moss of the 
University of London. And on the right there is a strong Christian 
Democratic tradition, which also sees a role for the state in smoothing 
out the inequalities that inevitably arise in a free-market economy.

The role of the state in family life, particularly families with very 
young children is profound. That is the Europe-wide consensus. It is E.U. 
law that women be given paid maternity leave on the birth of their 
children. The Union sets a minimum standard for this leave but most 
countries exceed it. "Maternity leave is a health and welfare measure," 
explains Moss.

Beyond constitutional language, there are legal entitlements designed to 
help parents and aid children, explains Moss.

State help with early childcare is just one strand of the social safety 
net that citizens of European countries have come to expect. They pay for 
these social benefits through high taxes. Again, there is a consensus 
around paying high tax to achieve social solidarity and social cohesion. 
The average E.U. country has a tax rate of around 40 percent of GDP 
compared to America's tax rate of 25 percent of GDP. These taxes level the 
gaps between the richest and poorest, and, not coincidentally, the prison 
population of Europe is much smaller than that of the U.S.

Even in Britain, the European nation whose economy and society are most 
like America's, taxes are 35 percent of GDP. Britain has always been the 
most reluctant European nation -- the last of the big nations to join the 
Common Market and still not a member of the single currency, the Euro. 
This is for reasons of history and ideology.

Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher viewed ideas like social cohesion 
with disdain. Her view was simply stated in an interview with a women's 
magazine in 1987 when she told a reporter, "There is no such thing as 
society."

But Thatcher's view reflects an era as distant as the Cold War. British 
Prime Minister Tony Blair has won two massive election victories because 
of his willingness to rebuild the infrastructure of Britain's welfare 
state. He put a particular emphasis on families with young children. Just 
recently, in an interview on the BBC, he announced his intention to expand 
paid maternity leave to nine months, hinted that he was looking at 
establishing paid paternity leave, and has committed his government to 
establishing 2,500 early childhood centers in all neighborhoods around the 
country. This will ultimately cost the government $4.5 billion a year.

Private philanthropy remains the American model for a whole range of 
services from smoothing out social inequality to funding orchestras and 
museums, but in Europe the state plays that role, and Europeans, 
regardless of their politics, accept that they will pay high taxes to have 
these services. It is a profound difference between the two sides and it 
is necessary to understand in order to comprehend the idea of "Europower."