If I were a teacher
COLUMN
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By Unto Hämäläinen
The European Union is marching into Finland's upper secondary schools. Curriculums are changing this autumn, and high school pupils will be able to choose a course on European identity and the European Union.
The new course comes in addition to other civics education. Leading publishing houses have released such massive textbooks for those taking the course that they will be able to learn many new things.
I went through three of the books, and amused myself with the fantasy of being a teacher of one of the courses myself. What would I say during the first lesson?
First, I would congratulate the pupils for their choice. There could hardly have been a better moment for starting such a course than this autumn.
Finland now holds the European Union Presidency, and the media is bulging with information, news, and opinions. There is plenty of supplementary material and topics of discussion to choose from. We Finns have some of the best seats for observing the work of the Union.
The next time for such a good opportunity will be in 2020, when Finland's next turn at the Presidency comes around.
Even if the Finnish EU Presidency has only been going on for a couple of months in the summer, much has happened during that time.
Who remembers how the Finnish presidency began in early July? Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen was criticised as a grey and colourless figure. This was supposed to be a boring and peaceful period. It appeared that Vanhanen was going to deal with the Presidency with his left hand, as it were - on the other hand, as he actually is a southpaw, his left hand is the stronger one.
Hardly was the ink dry in the reporters' complaints, when the situation changed dramatically. The war in Lebanon began. The EU became a big player in world politics.
As the holder of the Presidency, Finland, and especially Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, got the task of mediation.
First, a common stand for the EU had to be squeezed out. After that, a joint statement was needed from the UN, so that pressure could be brought to bear on both sides of the war.
The achievements of the EU - and those of Finland and Tuomioja - have been downplayed, but if I were a teacher, I would praise them: a magnificent achievement.
We can compare this with the situation three years ago, when the war in Iraq began. Then the EU was divided into three camps: supporters of the attack, its opponents, and neutral expressers of regret. Finland was in the third camp. As there was no common point of view, nobody has even had to ask for the EU's opinion on the war in Iraq.
Now the EU spoke in one voice, and it was listened to. The fighting in Lebanon would not have been ceased so quickly if there had not been a common EU stance. The value of the consensus is underscored by the fact that ten new member states joined the Union just a couple of years ago.
The European Union is also to have a significant role in the reconstruction and peacekeeping operations in Lebanon.
Ahead is a lengthy project in which there will be no shortage of difficulties.
Still, there is cause for optimism. The EU has modest evidence to show that it can calm down wars. In June I toured Croatia. Deep peace prevailed in the country, with construction and repairs going on everywhere.
Walls still bore holes caused by shrapnel. In the 1990s, fighting in the Balkans was just as brutal as that which is going on in Lebanon. Now Croatia is applying for membership in the EU, and after Croatia, other parties to the last war are also in line - Serbia included.
The pacification of the Balkans is still underway. Finland has much to do there. Peacekeepers are maintaining order in former battlefields. Former President Martti Ahtisaari and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn are working to persuade the Balkan leaders to tolerate each other. This week, however, Ahtisaari visited Aceh Province in Indonesia to celebrate the peace that he helped negotiate last summer. EU observers are seeing to the implementation of the peace treaty.
If I were speaking in class, the bright young minds would start jumping at this point. Why can't the EU achieve this, or that?
Let's take out the new textbooks. We can read in them that the European Union was established primarily to keep the member states from going to war against each other.
The goal has been brilliantly successful. The members of the European Union and its predecessor have never fought against each other. Peace has prevailed for more than 50 years.
At this point, the commotion in the class might reach new levels. How dare anyone suggest that such a paltry achievement - a self-evident matter - is an achievement of the EU?
The Germans, French, Italians, or British couldn't fight each other. It is an impossible idea. Nobody would have needed a Union to achieve that.
Granted, perhaps peace would have prevailed without the Union and its predecessors. When the EU was set up, the war was still in recent memory, and talk about a long period of peace seemed like a considerable utopia. Two major wars and numerous smaller skirmishes had been fought in the first half of the century.
I can imagine that at this point someone at the back of the class would say that the European Union is an evil empire that deserves to break apart.
But what if the EU is already disintegrating? Perhaps integration reached its zenith last year when efforts were made to draft a common constitution for the Union. The project was put on hold by the negative results of the French and Dutch referendums.
It could well be that the EU will not become any more closely integrated, and that it will gradually split up. I do not believe in a rapid dissolution: the EU will not go the way of the Soviet Union.
Dear students: if the EU dissolves it will probably unravel as gradually as it came into existence. This means that the dissolution would take another 50 years, so it's worth studying these things even if you didn't like the EU; you can't escape it.
Class dismissed.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 19.8.2006
UNTO HÄMÄLÄINEN / Helsingin Sanomat
unto.hamalainen@hs.fi
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| 22.8.2006 - THIS WEEK |
 If I were a teacher |
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