10:47, 1 October 2009
European Integration is a compulsary course for Business undergraduate students at the University of Barcelona. I have been teaching the course for 15 years now. In those 15 years my students have become each time more demanding about the interests and position of Spain in relation with the EU. Most of my students still consider themselves pro-European Integration but they do not longer take it for granted. In the 1990s, only one or two students out of 300 were sceptical about Spain being part of the EU. In the last years, a good 30-40% of my students want to know which are the costs and benefits of integration for Spain. This does not respond to a more intense public debate in the national arena. Even during the run-out towards the Constitutional Treaty referendum, the political and public debate was very poor. All parties were in favour without much questioning of the contents. The two reasons for my students more mature approach towards European Integration seem to be: the euro (they associate it with higher prices) and the last enlargements (they associate them with Spain loosing financial support from the EU).
The new maturity you mention is a beginning, but some day they might start asking about the benefits and costs for them as EU citizens in a union based on the people of Europe.
I hope I will see that day. Do you really think it will come?
For your new generation of students, Europe is a given. They do not think in terms of pro or con Europe. This debate is outdated in most EU countries so people start to wonder what the EU is exactly about and how it could be improved. To sum up, there are less and less Eurosceptics but more and more EU-critics. I think it’s a good thing. To take an example, I’m French. I like France, it’s my home and I’m loyal to it. But I am very critical about the French political system, which I think could be much more democratic, and I definitely dislike the way the government runs things at the moment. But that doesn’t change the basic fact that I like France as a country.
Now I understand you. I totally agree with you. In fact, they tend to try to analyse the Eu in terms of being more or less on th eleft or right side of the political spectrum. Have you notice the same evolution with your students? How are french students? My french erasmus tend to think of Europe as a bigger France -> FRance has to have a bigger say than other countries in its development; but also something to be proud of as it was a French idea.
From a Portuguese student point of view, and going by what I gather from my fellow students, the Union is also seen as acomplished and irrefutable. The debate, even among those who should be ideologicaly against it, is one of liberalism-vs-interventionism, or of degree of integration, of building an army or not, leaving NATO or not, etc etc. But never is it on the grounds of “leaving the EU” or “dismanteling the EU”.
Fair warning – as a rabbid federalist, I have a rather strong pro-Union bias