ImageIs Europe becoming less uniform? Lack of uniformity among member countries mattered less when the EEC was formed. The people were poorer and more dutiful. Relations and negotiations were conducted among a cosmopolitan elite.

This is changing in two ways. As Europe emerged from post-war reconstruction and the ensuing cold war, national characteristics were able to flourish again in the warmth of peace and relative prosperity. At the same time, national political elites started to become more dependant on their increasingly aware populations for continuation of their political careers and membership of the elite at the European level.

Thus the trend toward uniformity implied by the Monet vision failed to happen in some important respects. Economically illiterate European politicians pitchforked most of Europe into a single currency, with the result that the gulf in styles of economic management between North and South Europe caused greater strains.

Even within Northern Europe the economies have run in different styles. Britain borrows, Germany saves and shuns credit cards by choice. Britain advocates free trade, France lightly disguised protectionism. France and Germany have policy strategies, Britain claims to favour the free market, which is often an excuse for avoiding policy choices.

As more south European countries have joined the EU - for the money - so the amount of corruption has leapt. Romania, Bulgaria and many Balkan countries are institutionally corrupt. Southern Italy is institutionally corrupt. If you doubt this, your Christmas book list should include the richly written and stomach churning Gomorrah (for Italy), and McMafia for Bulgaria, the Balkans, and the rest of the world.

The more you gaze on Europe, the more foreign it seems.

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