The EU must become a permanent member of the UN Security Council
19.10.2020
The United Nations was formed after World War II. Among the UN was established its Security Council that has five permanent members: Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom and France. These countries were the winners of the war, and therefore they became the permanent members.
However, the climate of international politics has changed from the old days. The United States has been withdrawing from its status as the leader of the Western world. At the same time, some permanent members of the Security Council do not hold anymore the status of superpower as they did in the past. With all these changes, the permanent members of the Security Council do not represent the current situation of international politics as the relations of power have changed.
At the same time, the European Union is lacking the status it deserves in international politics. One must keep in mind that the EU covers about 500 million people, which is many times bigger than the number of inhabitants in some permanent members of the UN Security Council. In addition, the EU is an enormous economic zone, but in the field of international politics it is only a small player. This means that currently the EU does not have the role it deserves in the world.
Also, after the United States has been withdrawing from its position as the leader of the Western world, eyes have been turning towards the EU. The EU is a large, democratic area that has much more potential to represent democracy and bring to other parts of the world than it currently does.
The situation is problematic, but there is a solution to it: The combination of the permanent members of the UN Security Council needs a change. With this change, the EU ought to gain permanent membership in the Security Council to represent the democratic countries and bring its values to the playground of international politics. At the same time can be solved the problem that such a large area with that much economic power is not represented in the council in a way it deserves.
Of course, to achieve this the EU needs more unification in its foreign policy and there must be a change in how the permanent members of the UN Security Council are elected. But it must be kept in mind that these are mainly matters of political will - and that indeed is required in times like this if the European Union is wanted to be one power center in international politics.