Europe is in a twist over Robert Mugabe

José Socrates, the prime minister of Portugal, and the holder of the presidency of the Council of the European Union, has been planning a high-level summit between the European Union and African countries over the 8th-9th December. There has been mounting speculation that Portugal might extend an invitation to the Zimbabwean leader. Yet Mr. Mugabe is banned from visiting the European Union: His policies have not only reduced Zimbabwe to a basketcase, but have also repressed political opposition extensively, leading to famine and widespread human rights abuses.

Today, the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, said on television that he would not attend any meeting between the European Union and Africa should an invitation be extended to Mr. Mugabe. Mr. Brown recognised the importance of the summit, which he said had great potential in fostering closer relations between Europeans and Africa’s countries. As he put it:

I applaud the prime minister of Portugal for what he is trying to do to build stronger relations between Europe and Africa. This is a summit that is necessary for Africa’s sake.

But he stated that Mr. Mugabe’s presence would ‘divert attention’ from pressing matters like African poverty, good governance and health. The British prime minister went on to say that the Zimbabwean tyrant’s misrule was ‘a tragedy that requires the whole of the world to speak up and also to act.’ Pointing to the terrible problems facing Zimbabwean society, Mr. Brown highlighted the wretched misgovernance of Mr. Mugabe’s regime:

Four million people have left the country. Four million people on food aid because of famine by Christmas, eighty percent unemployment, life expectancy at thirty seven.

As such, the British prime minister’s intention to boycott the European Union-Africa summit—should the Zimbabwean leader be allowed to attend—is right. Given his record, Mr. Mugabe’s presence would be deeply inappropriate; it would give the Zimbabwean dictator an opportunity to strut like a peacock on the world stage, while breaking the travel ban imposed on him by Brussels. It would undermine European values, and would move attention away from pressing matters where European assistance could help improve the lives of millions of Africans. It would also show us to be weak. Some African leaders and the African Union have demanded that the Zimbabwean leader be invited. Yet neither Mr. Mugabe or the African Union have the right or authority to choose who will and will not attend summits organised by the European Union. That, after all, is the prerogative of the host, and we should be willing to remind any party that thinks otherwise.

Robert Mugabe is a blot on the face of contemporary Africa, and we Europeans should do whatever we can to help Zimbabwean reformists oust him from office, thereby ending an impediment to progress and hope.

Making Brussels into an imperial capital

On Thursday, the vice-president of the European Commission and the minister-president of the Brussels-Capital region revealed plans to extend and revamp the European quarter in Brussels, providing much-needed new offices and buildings for the institutions of the European Union. Skyscrapers may even be on the cards, as well as an extensive facelift for the whole area. This should be welcomed. Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union, and should inspire Europeans as much as Washington inspires many Americans, and Moscow stimulates many Russians.

Indeed, so influential has Brussels become in recent years that it is now comparable to Washington in political importance, having a similar number of journalists, lobbyists, think tanks and political consultants. While London, New York, Paris and Tokyo may rank supreme for economic power and cultural reach, it is Washington and Brussels that are the political powerhouses of our age. Both cities may one day be joined by New Delhi and Beijing as the twenty-first century moves on, but for the time being, the two imperial cities are the centres of global power; one is the command centre for the United States, and the other is the core of the burgeoning power of the European Union.

The Berlaymont building, which houses the European Commission, is the centrepiece of the European quarter. Refurbished in 2001, it is clad in glass and built in the shape of an irregular cross. Across the road sits the bulky Justus Lipsius building, which is home to the Council of the European Union. This is a rather austere edifice, with lots of concrete and brown marble walls. It resembles in some ways a modern fortress, and has a large helipad on top. Although home of the European Union’s principal legislature, it is a rather unattractive place; ultimately, it should be removed and something better put in its stead. A little further across Leopoldpark is the new and monumental Brussels section of the European Parliament, which is divided into two parts, the Paul-Henri Spaak building and the Altiero Spinelli building. This is a vast complex, with five office towers, and a large oval hemicycle—where the Parliament sits. It is by far the most impressive of all the European Union’s buildings, and towers above the city, frequently reflecting the sun in all directions. A number of smaller European Union administrative offices are also dotted throughout Brussels’ European quarter.

Satellite image of the European quarter, Brussels


View Larger Map

The problem is that other than the Parliament and the Commission, none of these buildings are either large or grand enough to offer much inspiration. While some of the buildings of the European quarter rise above Brussels like crystal edifices—decked in steel and glass—the buildings on either side of Rue de la Loi cannot possibly be compared to the imposing buildings on Whitehall or Pennsylvania Avenue. Unlike the beauty of London’s Westminster Palace, Berlin’s Bundestag or Washington’s Capitol, the European Union’s centres of political power are not iconic but functional. As such, Europe’s capital does not have the imperial aura and grandeur of a truly monumental city, which damages the visibility and international identity of the European Union itself. This has to change.

Part of the proposals outlined on Thursday plan to prevent further ghettoisation of European institutions in the European quarter, suggesting instead that new European buildings should be spread out across the city. This is a mistake. The European quarter should remain centralised, reducing transport times, and increasing the visibility of the institutions themselves, all clustered in one area. In fact, the entire district should be redesigned, and new buildings constructed more suited to the task of representing the greatness of the European continent. Wide boulevards are needed, as well as monuments and palaces for cultural stimulation. Let us have a ‘Monolith of Unity in Diversity’, a ‘Statue of Peace’, and a ‘Monument of Liberty’, espousing the values to which we as Europeans all stand. Let these monuments outshine anything before them, and let them be an inspiration to all the world.

The task of building a capital city worthy of the European Union in Brussels will be no easy task. London, Washington, Paris and Rome were not built in a day, or even a year. But should we so desire, our continent’s capital could become a beacon of hope in an unjust world, and a showcase for all that is best in contemporary Europe.

UPDATE (19th Sept. 2007): Having spoken to a few colleagues, I would like to take this opportunity to clear up any confusion this article might cause. I would like to point out that I am in no way advocating that Brussels should ‘control’ the Member States in the way empires have in the past. Rather, what I am advancing is that Brussels needs the ‘grandeur’ of other capital cities, many of which were designed and built during the imperial age (e.g. the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries). I invoke the words ‘imperial city’ for no other reason other than to suggest that the European Union’s de facto capital city should assume some of the characteristics of London, Paris and Washington; that is, grand architecture, monuments and statues, which will remind present and future generations of what we as modern Europeans have achieved.