What could be the ultimate role of our old Europe within this major geostrategic shift ?
We can observe, nearly all continents want Europe to weaken. Even USA who wants to relocalize its industry is pulling out from Europe, and is served by the Ukraine war to keep gas prices high, so it can sell to Europe — whilst keeping a strong dollar. Russia, China, Brasil, in short, the rizing emerging powers, with the Brics, even though Europe is a big client, also want their share of “success”… with a weaker Europe if possible.
And, those continents have… resources for the next centuries. We don’t. Most of them have a young population (India, Africa, Latam,…). We don’t. We are old.
We, as the old Europe, are facing a historical convergence of deep fundamentals. Europe — as an institution — also had the vision to be the first continent implementing rules and regulations. Some are virtuous (environmetal, social), some are vicious (seed regulation, urban development). Most other continents do not have those rules & regulations, and push Europe out of competition. Those rules also vastly slow down necessary (re-)volutions, and block disruptive innovations. They often move from Europe to other, more welcoming continents.
Europe — main player in the move to globalisation, made itself hyper-dependant on energy, food, resources, from those other continents. And, if we have to believe the “visionaries” inviting to re-industrialize Europe, well, beside the politically correct narrative, sorry, but massive re-industrialization will not happen, we don’t have the human resources for that. We even don’t have them for top priorities like building renovation and tech maintenance.
Others stille believe in the run for tech. Sorry, that one also is already lost. We are too dependance of resources, we have no major industries, and do not have the massively necessary human skills: engineers, techncians, IT,…
It is like running the 100m race with concrete boots and chains. Let’s face it. We still dream of a next golden age. It is not going to happen. If we just take the demographics, and mental/emotional state of the population, we are “has been”. We cannot come up, overnight, with smart moves, with a burned out, freaked out, old population.
But which can be the role of Brussels, in the middle of this announced mega-shift mutation ? Europe, with its deep roots, could and should play a key role.
0→ Realistically, warn “the others” of the flaws in the capitalist free market system: we failed. We destroyed the people (>50% depressed, burned out, long term chronicly ill, resigning,…), the environment (>75% of the living disappeared), and our own economy (started recession, inflation,…). The debt-based model is systemically bankrupt. These are bad results. DO NOT MAKE THE SAME MISTAKES. PLEASE. Come up with something smarter. Together.
1→ Gather: its central positioning, with Brussels in the middle, is an ideal location to gather key stakeholders, experts, innovators, public players, corporations, constructive lobbies, around all functionalities of society.
2→ Connect: people, players, with their resources — tangible and intangible, so they can in the margin of that collapsing society, imagine and create the new. Move the lines.
3→ Test: we have beautiful places with great creative and professional people where we can and should test new approaches on major issues: training, energy, food, housing, mobility, smart/low tech, biodiversity, public real estate valorization, healthcare, education, local regenerative jobs,…
4→ Inspire: those may become a massive showcases for the rest of the world — they are watching us … they really do. And guess what… Europe IS EXPECTED ON SUCH SHOWCASES.
5→ Train: with the successes, share the keys and understanding on live projects on other continents, with multidiscipliary teams.
6→ Scale: with those first field successes, scale them, empower more players and territories to to even better, and reap the benefits, serving the communities and progress of people and regeneration of environment.
7→ Build: yes, build the next generation “cities of light”. Where people will thrive, fulfill and progress.
Yes, that role is historical. Europe can and should be the best at it.
But… it should become a little more humble and accept its failures first. If not, we wil stay in wonderland and face a colossal collective hangover facing ruins. And… fall is waaayyy faster than rize.
With Club of Brussels, we have started. Lets gather, share, test, and scale the successes we have found. Join us. Become an Extrapreneur.
Prof. Michel A. de Kemmeter, founder
