EU Council On Foreign Relations Claims ‘Whiteness’ And ‘Europeanness’ Are A Danger To The EU

Published last month, the ECFR released a report titled “Welcome to Barbieland: European sentiment in the year of wars and elections.” The group explained the premise of their report in the opening introduction:

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Today’s European Union resembles a Barbieland: a place prone to regard itself as more perfect than it really is – and harbouring some notable blind spots.

In Greta Gerwig’s 2023 film, the eponymous character leaves the fantastical Barbieland and finds her way to the real world. Much to her consternation, Barbie discovers not all girls are eternally grateful to her for empowering and emancipating them. Worse, many see her as a source of suffering and oppression.

In the past 12 months, many people who consider themselves “pro-European” might have experienced the equivalent of Barbie’s shock. Within Europe, not everyone is in love with the EU – but, worse, many are visibly disillusioned with the European project, some are simply uninterested, while others see themselves as outsiders to the EU community.

SEE: Apparently Breakups And Divorces Are Increasing After Couples Watch The New “Barbie” Movie

This paper considers the experience of three specific groups: non-white and Muslim Europeans; people in central and eastern Europe; and Europe’s youngest citizens. Over the past year, all three groups have ‘under-participated’ in Europe, though for different reasons.

Other sections of European society might have equal claim to such analysis – this paper is inevitably a ‘director’s cut’. Yet what binds these three groups is the challenge they pose to the EU – whose cherished ideals might expect enthusiastic participation and support from Europeans who should be benefitting from the bloc’s free, open, and equal space. But signs exist that not all are happy. The EU risks leaving several blind spots unattended, until such time that sudden events bring these areas of inattention inescapably to the fore.

But consideration of these three groups together is also warranted by their connection to one joint challenge – which concerns the bloc’s drift towards an ‘ethnic’, rather than a ‘civic’, understanding of Europeanness.

This is not to say the bloc is in imminent danger or even that most Europeans have turned their backs on the EU. “European sentiment” – the sense of belonging to a common space, sharing a common future, and subscribing to common values, which is best observed against the background of major shocks and events – remains strong across most of the EU.

The paper opens with an assessment of the state of European sentiment in 2024. It then examines three ‘blind spots’ the EU must attend to, reflecting on the extent to which they have been exposed by two major events of the past year: the war in Gaza and the European Parliament election. It examines the relationship between these ‘blind spots’ and the risk of xenophobic drift in the EU. And it recommends three key actions for pro-Europeans: firstly, to open up workable channels of participation in Europe for all EU inhabitants, especially those who may currently feel voiceless; secondly, to resist the temptation to adopt an ‘ethnic’ conception of Europeanness, whether for electoral or strategic reasons; and thirdly, to fill the ‘civic’ conception of Europeanness with content to offer a tangible and attractive alternative.

This is the third edition of the annual European Sentiment Compass, which is a joint initiative by ECFR and the European Cultural Foundation. It is largely based on research conducted by ECFR’s 27 associate researchers in summer 2024.

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The ECFR went on to write: “In most countries, non-white and Muslim people were underrepresented in candidate lists … no more than 20 non-white MEPs were elected this year – less than 3 per cent of the total, and well below the 10 per cent share that racial and ethnic minorities are estimated to account for in the EU population.”

Far-right parties appeared to be on the rise in almost every member state, usually issuing promises to stop immigration or even planning (as the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, did) to expel large swathes of the population.

Worse still, parts of the European political mainstream (especially among centre-right and liberal parties) certainly appeared to embrace elements of a xenophobic view of the world – as reflected in the EU’s new migration and asylum pact, adopted in April, or in political proposals to send refugees to third countries, both of which raised major human-rights questions.

One might also wonder whether the EU’s normalised xenophobia may not put some young people off the European project altogether while habituating other young people to an ‘ethnic’ conception of Europeanness, and thus allowing them to feel able to vote for the far-right.

ECFR wrote in its report.

Read more about some of the insights by the Brussels Signal.

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AUTHOR COMMENTARY

Proverbs 11:12 He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

Proverbs 12:8 A man shall be commended according to his wisdom: but he that is of a perverse heart shall be despised.

Of course, these megalomaniacs, these globalists, socially Marxist and radically progressive nuts, would blame their problems on “Whitey” unable to cope with cultural appropriation, and throwing their traditions and unique cultures to the curb to buttress others.

So, never mind, the economic disaster Europe’s leaders have created for itself, and its endless warmongering and adoption of absurd, asinine progressive agendas: “whiteness” – and by extension the “patriarchy” – is the real problem, they tell us.

All of this will feed into, as it has, far greater unrest across the EU by young men who feel and are being put upon; and eventually when the economy breaks the riots and anarchy that ensues will be immense, especially if a radical charismatic leader is then provided to channel that angst and use it for more conquest…

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[7] Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock? [8] Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also? [9] For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? [10] Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. (1 Corinthians 9:7-10).

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