In this episode Making Europe series editor and co-author of Writing the Rules for Europe, Johan Schot, brings to you the story of Englebert Hondelink, a technical expert who contributed to restoring peace in Europe after the Second World War.
Hondelink’s approach demonstrated how experts were the ones to foster international relations, overcome rivalry and establish cross-border organisations instead, thus remaking and writing the rules for post-war Europe.
Also in this episode...
Johan Schot puts things into perspective and explains how its technocratic roots influence what is being played out in present-day Europe and the EU in particular. He assesses the rise of right-winged populists in relation to this and refers to the recent Brexit debate.
Schot exemplifies how current decision making structures in the European Union have been shaped by engineers and why those structures need rethinking. He addresses why it remains so challenging to create a much needed European identity as he calls for the European Union to redefine itself in order to approach the great challenges (migration, climate change and growing inequality) we’re facing today.
Links
- You can purchase the book Writing the Rules for Europe at Palgrave Macmillan.
- Read the interview with Johan Schot and Wolfram Kaiser: The Making and Breaking of Europe: Implications of the COVID-19 Crisis
