Europe's Power - basis for the Economic NATO
- Paweł Konzal
- Feb 28
- 3 min read
Poland and Europe are facing a situation that most politicians, commentators, but also citizens, have refused to hear or think about in recent years. Much attention - and rightly so - has been paid to two of Europe's weaknesses: the military sphere and the lack of its own technological platforms. There is insufficient appreciation of Europe's strengths and uniquenesses, which leads to underutilization of our continent's assets and apathy.
In geopolitics and economics one should act by using one's strengths and securing vulnerable fields. Europe in recent years has focused on one asset only - the size of the EU market - and one way to use that asset - regulations assuming that no single company could afford to pass over our market. Other strengths have been ignored, hence theoretical and practical ways to use them have not been developed. Other than the size of the market, what are the other strengths we should consider using?
Europe is the place with the best quality of life. With few exceptions (Canada, Japan & Korea), European countries dominate the list of countries with the longest life expectancy. Next to Asia, Europe is also the safest continent, with the lowest homicide rate. Although terrorist attacks in Europe attract public and media attention, the number of fatalities is lower across the continent than the number of children killed in the U.S. each year in school shootings, let alone the number of people killed each year in Chicago or New York.
We are happier in Europe than anywhere else - among the 20 countries with the highest levels of happiness (2024 World Happiness Report), 80% of countries are European. Europe is also the second richest place on Earth.
We have the highest number of sites recognized as World Heritage of Humanity and listed by UNESCO - almost as many as Asia and North America combined. Europe also leads in environmental cleanliness and ecosystem vitality (Environmental Performance Index). For these reasons, among others, 7 of the 10 most visited countries in the world are European.
No matter how you look at the threats to liberal democracy, admittedly are also present on our continent, democracy in Europe is still stronger than anywhere else. The rule of law, respect for basic human rights, etc., are much better and stronger in our countries than anywhere else in the world.
So what can we do with Europe's existing strong but so far untapped resources? We must do the intellectual, institutional and legal work to increase the arsenal of actions available to us, arming, as it were, building on the resources available to us. The list of exemplary actions is long.
The European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS) comes into effect in the middle of the year. All non-EU travelers will have to apply for a permit to travel to Europe. The granting of such permits (i.e., the percentage of acceptance of applications), should be proportional to state of the relationship between Europe and other countries. It is also in our hands to strengthen control over compliance with existing EU law - from directives on media and electronic markets to food. An example would be banning the import of products containing pesticides the use of which is already banned in the EU.
It is worth considering building an “Economic NATO” - a positive alliance of countries that abide by the rule of law and respect the order of international law - from Canada to Europe to South Korea, Japan and Australia. The economies of these countries, with a population of 770 million people, account for 1/3 of the world's GDP. Collectively, we have the critical mass to effectively defend against undesirable actions.
The situation calls for calm and not losing hope. At the same time, we must have courage, charisma and be ready to take actions that we would prefer to avoid, but which may be necessary to protect Europe's vital interests if the most pessimistic scenarios were to come true.
