The European Nomad-gate
Despite the hiccups, the EU will prevail stronger
Sharad’s Sunday Sojourns (week # 470 | 18th Apr 2021):
“Here we have the Schengen agreement, and the truth is that for years we trusted each other and set border controls on the outer borders of the European Union. And as was the case with the economic and monetary union, with this step, regarding the management of the Schengen area, we did not go all the way in terms of political solutions.” … Angela Merkel.
It is easy to taste Italian pasta and Hungarian ‘gulaschsuppe’ convening at Munich with relative ease.
It is not a great deal to savour Swedish meatballs dipped in sauce and Greek ‘souvlakis’ desk-bound at Barcelona.
The famous Finnish hot and snap cooling saunas can be replicated without much hardship in relatively remote parts of the Netherlands.
And French baguettes and cheese may slowly but steadily find their way across many of the countries in that region with little eyebrows raised.
Last but not the least, you can think about a German breakfast, an Austrian lunch, and an Italian dinner on the same day, provided you choose your driveway carefully, and unpretentiously!
Although it’s just an easy and lightly witty illustration of the amenities relished by the citizens of a cohort of countries in Europe, the illuminating scheme of ‘Euro-citizenship’ has come under some scrutiny of late from different administrations.
For instance, the pandemic led border closures raised severe doubts regarding the inefficacy of this ‘free-travelway’ across the European Union.
This has two angles. First, due to the open border policy enjoyed by the members of the European Union, it is straightforward to exchange FMCG without almost any federal or other administrative hassles.
Second, countries in a better position to deal with the pandemic could lend a helping hand to others in need of serious assistance. Something which serves a lesson to the doubters and deniers, one must say!
Saying that, even though travel for leisure has been seriously curbed, with seemingly far-reaching global travel restrictions in the coming years, the nomadic trait of the citizens of the EU nations should not be undervalued.
Travelling fraction constitutes nearly 4% (data valid till May, 2019), with a jaw-dropping (but conservative) estimate of around 17,000,000!
The discussion, however, mainly deals with migration due to jobs or other wok related activities, rather than purely succumbing to vacations or leisurely activities.
While it is common to discover several Scandinavians possessing a summer home somewhere in southern Europe, or let’s say while several Germans have already made Mallorca (in Spain) their second ‘home’, there lies a political discord amongst the influential corridors in Brussels.
What the head of the EU perceives, is often affected by the top-notch country-members (read Germany, France, Spain, Italy, amongst others), rather than the seemingly ‘smaller’ ones!
To many, they consider that somewhere down the line, although in a much meek manner, this particular trait (of proceedings dominated by the more ‘influential’ member states) is in fact counter-intuitive to the original inception of the EU regulations!
Consider that Switzerland, one of the wealthiest nations on Earth, has chosen not to get ‘involved’.
While you may not wonder, there are dark channels of both apathy and empathy, which raise issues and questions about that status!
However, despite all, and despite the noteworthy metamorphoses, the bottom-line remains the candid ‘liquidity’ and dominant ‘cash-flow’ of the European ‘nomad gate’, if we create a pun with respect to financial narratives.
(Video source: YouTube)
