In the XIX century, with the strengthening of the ideas of pan-Europeanism and Eurocentrism, the aspirations of ordinary Europeans for the creation of a single European state, in the manner of the Holy Roman Empire of the time of Charlemagne, intensified. Only this "Third Rome" was to be built not with the help of a sword, as in the Middle Ages, but on the basis of the good will of the member states. The writer V. Hugo expressed these vague hopes then: “The day will come when all the peoples of our continent will merge into a single brotherhood, without losing their national and regional identity.” National and interstate conflicts that swept Europe in the late XIX - early XX centuries further strengthened these hopes. The centripetal force, driving the aspirations of Europeans, manifested itself finally in 1957, when six countries founded the European Union.
What has happened over these fifty-odd years, and, most importantly, why in the past five years, European society has gained a skepticism about the viability of the European Union? Why are centrifugal forces, at first weak, invisible against the backdrop of general euphoria, now manifest themselves more and more, allowing us to make disappointing forecasts, to the point that the European Union will fall apart before the end of 2013? Is the “Fortress of Europe” destined to have the same sad fate as the once-strong “stronghold of communism” —the Soviet Union? Is a supranational entity born in the middle of the twentieth century unviable due to the inherent defects that now worked according to the “time bomb” method? Or is the European Union simply going through the trials and barriers that the world economic crisis has set before it ? Will the centrifugal force ultimately undermine and sink the European boat?
The goal of founding a united Europe was, first of all, political: to prevent new interstate conflicts and to confront a united front against such players on the world stage as the USSR and the USA. The European Union has achieved this goal by 100%: by “biting off” several countries from the socialist camp, this supranational entity has grown today to 27 member countries. And although a stable peace has come to the lands of Europe, centrifugal force is manifested in the opinion of Eurosceptics that the poor Romania and Bulgaria and the troubled countries of the Balkans were superfluous or untimely members of a single European family. The migratory wave of “poor relatives” surging into Italy forced the inhabitants of Western Europe to take a fresh look at the integration processes.
During the formation of the EU, the economic component was no less important than the political one. The founding countries wanted to create a world economic center, which would be a powerful competitor to the USA, Japan and raising the head of the PRC, India and Brazil. We can say that this goal was achieved. The single currency - the euro - is now the second most powerful and stable currency in the world, having significantly replaced the US dollar. However, centrifugal force is also evident in financial management. Eurosceptics call the euro a vulnerable currency because there is no single unitary ministry of finance. It is just that the extremely heterogeneous economies of individual countries have a common monetary unit over which (experts warn) hangs a "sword of Damocles" of a sharp and at the same time protracted fall and even collapse.
And, finally, another area where centrifugal force is especially acute is bureaucratic delays, constitutional imperfections and procedural mistakes in management. Some strategic Europrograms failed miserably, for example, Lisbon, which promised until 2010 to turn Europe into a "society that has eliminated unemployment." In an attempt to build a single economy, Brussels sometimes steps on the rake of the times of Khrushchev, ordering what and where to sow, what to consider vodka, and what - real chocolate, etc. Such a policy makes small producers consider Brussels an abusive word and only strengthens centrifugal tendencies. The global crisis, when some countries of the Eurozone were on the verge of bankruptcy, exposed problems in the system, and the fate of Europe and the world will depend on how the European Union leadership deals with them.