8/11/2019 The European Paradox - Cottyhytpy

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The European Paradox

European Union is the by-product of evolution of the European Coal and Steel Community

created in 1955. Robert Schuman, then French foreign minister, helped initiate the idea. As

professor Alemanno emphasized that it was the memory and legacy of World War II that make

the community possible. (Video lecture 2 - 31-3: 00.52). Taken together, EU is, as of 2012, the

worlds largest economy.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union).

Despite its successes, Europeans, usually the young, still think negatively about EU. This is a

European paradox. As the assignment guidelines put it: The EU Paradox in short means that

despite many positive aspect of EU intervention, the EU is very often seen only in light of its

negative aspects.Actually, 67 percent of its citizens think their voices are not counted in the

European Union. ( video lecture: 2 - 8 - 1-8: 00.54)

Why like this? Firstly, I think media played a part in making Europeans hate Europe. By the

way, Im a Cambodian living in Southeast Asia and is a regular reader of The Economistmagazine. Find it that the magazine position toward EU is sometimes too extreme. Sometimes, I

picked the worst part about EU and generalize it. As one of our classmates Gareth Lee puts it I

think the problem is that the image of the EU presented by the media is so negative, particularly

in the UK, that when we are given the facts about the EU in a balanced way it seems like

propaganda.If youre unconvinced, read this article. The magazine called Eurozone leaders as

sleepwalkers.(http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-

need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkers)

In addition, some newspaper and websites also make the problem worse. For example, a Greek

newspaper depicted German chancellor as Hitler. So, the media sometimes only makes theaudiences confuse rather than inform. So, this is an unhealthy trend. There are real differences

but propaganda makes things worse.

(http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-

as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.html)

Secondly, I think the negative sentiment of Europeans, especially the young ones has to do with

recent but lingering economic recession and austerity. A Phew research shows that EU

popularity is at or near its lowest point. Only 37 percent think of it positively.(

http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/14/the-new-sick-man-of-europe/). In fact, we know that

Germany and France demanded that Greece and other countries in need of help like Spain;

Portugal and so on imposed drastic austerity and budget balancing. The austerity and budget cut

in each country hurts deeply. So it is not surprising that European started to lost faith in so called

European Project. In 2012, only 2 percent of Greece people rated their economic conditions as

good. (ibid)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Unionhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Unionhttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/14/the-new-sick-man-of-europe/http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/14/the-new-sick-man-of-europe/http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/05/14/the-new-sick-man-of-europe/http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/angela-merkel-depicted-as-nazi-in-greece-as-anti-german-sentiment-grows/2012/02/10/gIQASbZP4Q_blog.htmlhttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21578386-euro-zone-desperately-need-boost-no-news-bad-news-sleepwalkershttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union

8/11/2019 The European Paradox - Cottyhytpy

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