How uniting Europe helped small nations

LONDON — This weekend the German government will try to recapture a little bit of last summer's World Cup magic with an all-night party in Berlin featuring free beer, more than 100 DJs and aging British rocker Joe Cocker.

But while it's pretty easy to get Germans excited about soccer, it will be much harder whipping them into a fevered frenzy about the 50th anniversary of the European Union, which is the excuse for tonight's boogie-till-dawn bash.

A more enthusiastic venue might have been Ireland or Estonia, among the small European nations that have benefited most from an endeavor engineered by Europe's big nations and meant to push the continent toward one big bloc.

Despite its successes — no wars between member states, unprecedented prosperity, the euro — the EU remains misunderstood and unloved.

A half-century after the leaders of France, West Germany, Italy and the Benelux trio (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) gathered in Rome and signed a treaty to establish the European Economic Community, their modest vision of cooperation has reshaped the landscape of Europe in ways that few would have anticipated or intended back then.

"Great Powers" no more

One of the most significant of those unintended consequences is that European integration has created a Europe where "Great Powers" are becoming obsolete, and where it is safe, even advantageous, to be a small nation.

In this new Europe, the Finlands no longer have to keep a wary eye on the Germanys, and the Irelands no longer live in the shadow of Britain. In terms of pure economic self-interest, it is undoubtedly better to be a citizen of a small nation like Finland or Ireland than a big one like Germany or Britain.

Timothy Garton Ash, the Oxford historian, notes that seven of the top 10 nations on the U.N.'s human-development index — the combined measure of health, education and per-capita gross domestic product and life expectancy — are small European countries: Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Iceland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Ireland.

"There's a lot to be said for being small," Garton Ash wrote in a recent essay. "Small counties generally don't start wars. They usually don't have the arrogance of larger states. Besides modesty and intimacy, they often enjoy a high level of social solidarity. The nation is like an extended family."

Call it Ireland-envy. Small, wannabe nations from Catalonia to Kosovo are starting to push for recognition, demanding their place at Europe's increasingly clamorous and diverse table.

Germany, of course, remains the economic wheelhouse of the EU. Its gross domestic product (GDP), representing more than a fifth of the EU's total output, is the continent's largest and ranks third in the world after the United States and Japan. But in terms of per-capita GDP, you're better off being small potatoes Irish.

Half a century ago, Ireland was a backward and impoverished nation whose major export was its own population. Today, its per-capita GDP of $45,135 is the second highest (after Luxembourg) in the 27-member union. Germany, with a per-capita GDP of $32,684, ranks ninth.

Ireland owes much of its present success to the EU. In addition to providing the generous subsidies that helped kick-start the economy, EU membership changed Ireland's perception of itself. From an inward-looking backwater, it became a self-confident player in the globalized economy and a magnet for foreign investment. It opened its doors to migrant workers from Eastern Europe and watched its economy grow while unemployment dropped.

Germany and France, meanwhile, have turned inward. France, in particular, seems to fear globalization — its great phobia is the so-called "Polish plumber." With stagnant economies and chronic high unemployment, both countries imposed tight restrictions on immigration, only to watch French and German jobs migrate to Eastern Europe.

High taxes, rigid work rules and a reluctance to reform have made it difficult for Germany and France to create new jobs. So their smaller, more nimble EU competitors run circles around them.

High hopes

The EU, of course, would never have happened without the financial muscle of Germany and the political engineering of France. Both countries saw European integration and the EU as an instrument for enhancing their own power. And there was a moment between the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the "Big Bang" EU expansion of 2004 when it seemed the EU might morph into a kind of European superstate — a United States of Europe. The high-water mark was the successful rollout of the euro, which continues to pose a challenge to the supremacy of the dollar.

But something was happening below the radar. The EU changed the dynamic of power relations between big nations and small. Until then, politics in Europe was strictly a big boys' game. "It used to be that large nations — the Great Powers — would consult with each other and small nations had no say at all," said Hugo Brady, an analyst at the Center for European Reform, a London think tank.

"Large nations still have a say in the EU. But if they try to say to small countries 'This is what is going to happen,' then that is what is not going to happen," he said.

France, Britain and Germany are "dinosaurs," said Krisztian Szabados, a political consultant in Budapest. "In the EU, it's better to be small."

He said the turning point came during the lead-up to the Iraq war when Germany and France, which strongly opposed the war, failed to persuade smaller counties — most notably the EU members-in-waiting from Eastern Europe — to back their position.

"Germany has traditionally had influence in Hungary. Germany is always our biggest foreign investor. But when Germany pressured Hungary [on Iraq], Hungary chose its relationship with the United States," he said.

The EU has made Europe so safe and secure for small nations that they don't even have to join to enjoy its benefits and protections. Switzerland (pop. 7.5 million) and Norway (pop. 4.6 million) are prime examples of this.