Changing the Way We Think About Europe

In the late Mathieu Segers's last contribution to the debate on Europe, a book entitled The Origins of European Integration, he argued that European integration began with the recognition that values define Europe better than geography, and the belief that state planning is an essential counterpart to the functioning of markets. Those elements were necessary for the effort to bring Europe's war-torn economies together after the terrible destruction of the Second World War. They were even more important to encourage the French and Germans to begin to find a common project in building Europe. The same is true today. Much of what Segers identifies in the pre-history of European integration can be found in French President Emmanuel Macron's vision for Europe's future. Values and planning are essential to the success of any effort by Europeans to take responsibility for their own security. They are even more important for the successful enlargement of the European Union.