SHATTERING CERTAINTIES

The energy crisis directly affected people’s everyday lives, forcing most Western European governments into action. Anti-waste campaigns were organised and Sunday driving bans were implemented to save fuel. The crisis painfully emphasised the degree to which Western economies were dependent on energy imports.

Social cohesion was endangered by the recession, due to rising unemployment, exclusion and alienation. Coordinated action was taken in 1978 when several trade unions organised the first European March against Unemployment, signalling Europeanisation of union struggles and consciousness of transnational interests.

The ‘last coal car’ highlights the decline of long-established heavy industry in capitalist Europe. Once at the forefront of Europe’s post-war boom, such industry was by the 1970s increasingly replaced by the industries of cheaper international competitors such as Taiwan, South Korea or Brazil. European countries turned to nuclear energy in order to become less dependent on foreign oil.

Women increasingly shone a spotlight on continuing inequality between the sexes throughout the 1970s. While most had the right to vote, they still experienced discrimination and restricted freedoms in public and private life. Feminism emerged as an active force that hoped to end patriarchal domination and create truly equal societies.

In 1974 a military coup ousted Portugal’s ruling dictatorship. Army officers keen to introduce democratic and economic reform and begin decolonisation were eventually supported by the Portuguese public. Termed the ‘Carnation Revolution’ due to the flowers placed in soldier’s weaponry, the mainly peaceful events put the country on the road to democracy.

New social movements emerged, with Western Europeans taking to the streets to march under banners supporting gender and LGBT rights equality, environmental issues and peace campaigns. These voices seriously questioned how and whether parliamentary democracy could meet their needs.

The communist leader of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu described his rule as a ‘golden age’. The cult of personality that he and his officials created around him was perhaps one of the most outlandish of all communist regimes. Under Ceausescu the Romanian people suffered some of the worst deprivations and repression of Eastern bloc countries.

The 1980s saw increased Polish opposition to communist rule, building on previous workers' unrest starting in the 1950s. Striking workers at the Gdańsk shipyard established a free trade union called Solidarność, demanding better life conditions and political reforms.

In a few short months, the people of Central and Eastern Europe give a decisive push to the communist regimes that had controlled them for decades. They fall one by one like dominoes and the Iron Curtain, symbol of a divided continent, disappears.

This is the signature of Aldo Moro, Prime Minister of Italy and President of the Council of the European Community, on the Helsinki Declaration. For the first time ever, the conference had given the European Community the chance to speak with ‘one voice’ as a major diplomatic player on the world stage.

The European passport introduced in 1985 highlights the new possibilities of free movement and symbolises concrete efforts of the European Community to create a sense of European citizenship.

1979 – a historic occasion for increased democracy in Europe, with the first direct elections to the European Parliament by citizens of the Member States. No longer would this important assembly be selected by national parliaments; it was now the first international body directly elected by universal suffrage.

Slovenian and Croatian declarations of independence led to armed conflict that then spread to Bosnia-Herzegovina, where ethnic groups clashed. Genocide and ethnic cleansing became horrific trademarks of a war that ended in 1995 with the Dayton Peace Accords. Serbia’s President Milosevic and military leadership would again utilise ethnic cleansing in Kosovo

On the 3rd October 1990 Germany once again became a unified country. The momentum for reunification was increased by a continuing exodus of people from East to West following the fall of the Berlin Wall and election results in Eastern Germany of that year showing that citizens wanted it. The reunification treaty was agreed with the post-war occupying nations, the USA, Soviet Union, France and Great Britain.

A number of politicians, civil society groups and businesses had been calling for the creation of a common currency for years. As far back as 1969, European leaders had considered an economic and monetary union, and the 1960s and 1970s saw public demonstrations in favour of such an initiative.

Over the course of the second half of the 20th century Europe turned from a continent of emigration to one of immigration. As legal immigration was restricted, illegal immigration increased from the 1980s. Objects spilled back to the Tunisian coast area are a tragic symbol of their plight.

Successive economic bailouts, tax payer liability and controversial national austerity measures became a litmus test of citizen’s allegiance to the EU project. Euroscepticism and anti-EU sentiments increased; nationalist and extreme right-wing tendencies flourished with the EU flag burnt in several countries such as Greece, Hungary and Spain.

The number of Member States more than doubled following the end of the Cold War. Sweden, Finland and Austria joined in 1995, followed by 10 countries in 2004. Romania and Bulgaria joined in 2007, and Croatia in 2013.

What is Europeanisation? It’s the acceptance and implementation of common laws by all EU Member States, fostering an increasing convergence of interests and growing similarities. These laws, known as the acquis communautaire, were developed over several decades, and countries joining the EU must integrate them into their national legal systems.

After 1989 people no longer accepted the communist view of history, which promoted the Soviet Union and the Red Army as the liberators of Central and Eastern Europe from the Nazis. For many, the Soviet intervention was simply another occupation. Communist statues and street signs became subject of public debate, were removed or even destroyed.

This euro coin shows the Slovene Franc Rozman, a communist who fought bravely against the Nazi occupation of his country. The red star on his chest – a symbol of communism – appears alongside the EU stars.

The opening up of former secret files and archives in post-communist countries was vital in enabling people to come to terms with the communist past. The true extent of state spying and repression came flooding out.