Last week (27–29 September) the annual Europe Forum was held in Turku. The event brought together researchers, experts, politicians and other influencers from across society. JEF Finland was also involved in organising the event.
This year’s Europe Forum strongly highlighted Europe’s changed security situation in recent years. This was reflected both in the speeches and in the programme, which gave audiences the opportunity to learn about, among other things, Europe’s strengthening defence, Europe’s role in a changing world order, the role of startups in renewing European defence, and the role of the textile industry as part of national defence and security of supply.
The task of the Europe Forum is to take part in the current debate on Europe and, at the same time, to bring topical European issues to the awareness of a wide audience. In such a global era, a focus on security and defence is entirely understandable. Nevertheless, it is striking how much space the forum gave to so-called “hard security policy,” and how a forward-looking, future-building vision of Europe was pushed into a smaller role. Even in discussions not directly related to strengthening defence, it was easy to slip into arguing for the importance of one’s own topic — be it free media, literacy, the development of the EU internal market, or strengthening relations between EU countries — by pointing out how these, in turn, strengthen comprehensive security or security of supply.
In very many speeches, what was left unsaid was why it is important to maintain defence, comprehensive security and security of supply in the first place. What is it that we are prepared to defend? What are we ultimately aiming for when we invest in defence, boost the Union’s competitiveness, or secure access to information or energy within the Union? For many who are accomplished in the Europe debate and have lived their lives in a free democracy, this may seem self-evident. Still, it would be important to say out loud why a strong Europe and the European Union are worth defending — because without clarifying our most important values, talk of defence and security starts to sound like militaristic arms-racing and war fever, something Europe is already all too familiar with because of its own history.
The European Union was originally born as a peace project for a continent torn apart by the Second World War. The basic idea was to guarantee peace in Europe by deepening the interdependence of European states through a common internal market. Alongside the internal market and trade, European values and their promotion were emphasised. These values include, among others, peace, freedom, equality, wellbeing and happiness.
Now and in the future, the Europe Forum must ensure that the European Union’s founding idea as a peace project remains clear in the minds of the Union’s defenders, so that we do not slide into aimless securitisation and militarisation. Because if we do, we push our European values aside and let authoritarian actors who threaten those values and disrespect them define our agenda. We must defend ourselves against such actors, but only because we in Europe have something entirely unique and worth protecting.
JEF Turku’s political officers
English summary: The annual Europe forum was held in Turku last week. This year, the forum focused strongly on Europe’s unstable security environment, and the topics discussed in the forum were based largely to the field of security and defense. This emphasis is understandable, as the forum’s mission is to process and discuss topical themes related to EU and Europe. However, the forum should also be able to present some visions and outlooks for Europe and emphasize the reasons why defending Europe is important and what, in fact, we are aiming to defend. The focus should be more strongly on values and goals of the EU, not on the security agenda set from the outside of the Union.
For more information: Elle Okker, [email protected]