The continent was in ruins; the horror of the conflict had left a mark that would be challenging to overcome; hatred was ready to flare up again; division between East and West was looming. How could lessons be learned from the recent past? What initiatives could be taken to ensure recovery?
Jean Monnet's imagination combined with Robert Schuman's experience and courage to produce the famous declaration of 9 May 1950.
"World peace cannot be safeguarded without creative efforts commensurate with the dangers that threaten it. The contribution which an organised and living Europe can make to civilisation is essential to the maintenance of peaceful relations.”
These are the opening words of the text that changed the history of the continent, providing a profound and illuminating justification for an initiative that was both modest and spectacular.
The ‘Schuman method’, thus initiated, has led the European Union from one success to another for 75 years, despite its imperfections, the frustrating incompleteness of the unification project and the constraints of a union of ever-increasing numbers of peoples and States.
The international situation is once again challenging Europeans, who have overwhelmingly supported this achievement, but who risk becoming complacent in the comfort of stability and prosperity.
The return of revisionism and Putin's expansionist war, the Chinese challenge, Trump's regression, and the development that is spreading to new continents are combining with the explosion of science and technology to create a long-forgotten instability.
Yet Europe, although lacking in self-confidence, has exceptional assets to take up the gauntlet and make a decisive contribution to the quest for a new world order in the face of those who want to destroy the current one.
It remains a beacon of democracy, human rights, respect for the human person and human dignity in a liberal, fair, open and community-based society. Its confidence in the rule of law as an effective means of regulating relations between individuals and states, albeit sometimes taken a little too far, remains a global benchmark in the face of the resurgence of extremism, populism, fascism and dictatorship.
Admittedly, it is far from perfect, with its weaknesses, its inability to inspire pride in its citizens, the flaws in its multi-layered democratic structure, its poor communication, which causes its own members to doubt it, and ultimately its permanent humility, even in its greatest achievements, such as the single market, its single currency and its technologies.
But it continues to make progress in cooperation between its peoples and to generate genuine enthusiasm around the world.
Its voice carries further than it might imagine.
It is now up to Europe to take the initiative in calling on the world to come together.
Europe must stop focusing primarily on itself and instead bring a message of hope to the world, based on what it has achieved.
This is a message of peace based not on complacency or weakness, but, where necessary, on the strength of deterrence and commitment and, of course, cooperation.
We must advocate for an open world that considers new powers and the development that is spreading across all continents, and organise global governance, for example through the United Nations, by including the states that must participate in it.
We must initiate new methods of assistance for those who are experiencing war, poverty and underdevelopment and who are breaking with the past; not just by setting an example, but by devising processes that involve and respect all cultures and traditions, identities and histories; by opening up to new forms of competition that make us stronger and offer hope to our competitors; by sharing more of our increasingly threatened prosperity; and by changing our attitude and rejecting isolationism and nationalism.
Will there be European leaders to take up Schuman's torch and restore Europe's pride in achieving something within itself that is also a message for the greatest number?
This is the real question for 9 May 2025, which will be celebrated on every continent. It is of brutal relevance.
