Former Portuguese prime minister and former European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso used to say that Europeans were in love with “the intellectual glamor of pessimism.” When I first heard him say that in 2005, I had just started as a correspondent in Brussels after a few years living in the US, and his words rang especially true. There was a stark contrast between the deeply rooted American cultural belief that things could only get better and the routinely bleak view that prevailed in many European countries, even the wealthiest and most privileged ones. France, Belgium, Spain and Italy consistently rank high in global surveys of pessimism.
Americans have become more pessimistic since then, too, especially over partisan divisions, but in Europe, negative and defeatist thinking is often thought to be more intellectually credible, regardless of actual events.
Take 2019, which can now, with hindsight, be viewed as a relatively positive year for Europeans: post-financial crisis, pre-COVID-19 pandemic, pre-Ukraine war. In that year, a YouGov global survey showed Europeans were the gloomiest in the developed world.
There were certainly reasons to be pessimistic last year. So far this decade has been full of tragedy, uncertainty, persistent poverty and rising authoritarianism, even in established democracies. Ukraine continues to be assaulted by death and destruction while military and economic support is waning, and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression seems unrelenting.
The lack of effective European leverage in the Middle East has been painfully evident as the war in Gaza has caused an unprecedented, horrific level of civilian casualties. Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia have re-emerged in Europe, reminders of a dark and not-so-distant past.
Thousands of people have died trying to reach European shores. Educational performance across the continent has declined as poverty and remote learning have taken a toll on students. Heat waves and extreme weather are disrupting communities and even the Mediterranean diet as Europe suffers from the climate crisis.
And yet I can still find reasons to be hopeful for Europe this year.
The new year is to bring the start of EU membership talks for Ukraine and neighboring Moldova. This is at least a glimmer of hope for stability and perhaps even peace. The formal negotiations could take time, but this pathway, once begun, is generally successful in terms of growth and integration. On the 25th anniversary of the end of the Kosovo war, there is also an opportunity to accelerate the prospect of EU membership for the western Balkans, where negotiations have stalled for decades amid rising tensions.
Internal EU decisionmaking needs reform to avoid continuous stalemate as the bloc grows in size, but the prospect of a bigger and more peaceful European community is good news regardless of the many long nights of negotiations we can expect from more seats around the table. Hungary is a cause of constant worry, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s grip on power only gets stronger and suffocates democratic institutions and a shrinking free press, but there is a new force for good in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Poland, a country that has given a lesson to European cynics about how younger generations have the agency to fight back when civil liberties are in peril.
The new year could usher in more train travel across Europe, a symbol of sustainable growth, opportunity and cultural exchange. There could be more competition on routes across Europe and new services connecting Paris and Berlin, Munich and Warsaw, and hopefully Milan and Ljubljana.
The UK remains an exception, as competition for Eurostar seems unlikely, and the service has been reduced due to the burden of Brexit border formalities, but political change might be on the horizon for the UK. It seems very likely that the Labour Party will come to power, and would hopefully be ready for constructive ties with natural friends, allies and trade partners.
All eyes will be on the far-right’s performance in the European elections that take place in June, but people should not forget that this in itself is one of the largest exercises in democracy in the world. Just watch out for turnout and engagement. According to an EU survey, more interest is being noted than there was in the last European elections in 2019.
The Olympic Games in Paris is to test the city’s infrastructure, but they could also be an opportunity to showcase a more walkable metropolis. Sport has the power to bring people together, in a much-needed celebration of human perseverance and excellence.
I can think of multiple other sources of joy. A new park in Antwerp, Belgium, with 30,000 plants. Forest restoration projects in Germany, Spain, Sweden, Portugal and Croatia. New trams in Tallinn, Florence and Barcelona. A new museum dedicated exclusively to female artists in the south of France. The 100th anniversary of Spanish sculptor Eduardo Chillida’s birth at Chillida Leku, a heavenly museum and former studio in Hernani, in the Basque Country, Spain. The centenary of Frank Kafka’s death in Prague, which is an opportunity to celebrate his writing, so relevant to today’s world. A single charger that could save money and reduce waste.
A single charger, a museum or a park might seem like small achievements in the big picture of war, inequality and populism, but they exemplify how routine progress also keeps happening no matter what big crisis we bring upon ourselves by action or inaction.
A new year is, of course, a convention, but one that people collectively identify as an opportunity for a new, better start. Maybe in this year those who share Europe could approach challenges with a less gloomy outlook. Hope, after all, can be glamorous, too.
Maria Ramirez is a journalist and deputy managing editor of elDiario.es, a news outlet in Spain.
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