Germany: Stop Supersizing EU

The European Union has had Germany’s support from its inception—and still does. But in the minds of many, the words “European Union” require precise definition.

First, many Germans do not want Europe to expand beyond its traditional borders. Two thirds of Germans are opposed to a further enlargement of the EU. Two thirds also feel the eastward expansion has already had a negative effect on jobs. A German research institute points out that these feelings on expansion are not limited to unemployed Germans; rather, this stance “cuts through every spectrum of German society” (Taipei Times, April 28).

Second, in that union of Old Europe, the German people want what author Frank Rafalski calls “a deepening of EU structures.” In other words, the German people want the EU to be both more “European” and to have a more unified “Union.” It is a simple matter to look at a map and identify what “Europe” is both by its geographic boundaries and its religious tendencies.

Bavarian Prime Minister Edmond Stoiber has been calling for a stronger EU for many years: “There is currently a gross imbalance between the economic and foreign policy weight of Europe,” he said during a speech at the Munich Economic Summit on June 7, 2002. “That can be seen—along with many other things—in the minor way in which Europe has been able to influence the Middle East conflict for example. Europe must assume greater responsibility for peace, freedom, law and justice in the world—politically in the first instance, but also militarily within a UN, NATO and EU framework if necessary.”

Stoiber is also, though, one of the few politicians who has clearly expressed his opposition to certain types of European expansion. During his bid for the chancellorship in 2002, he “suggested openly in a speech in London … that Turkey should not be allowed to become an EU member. Nor, he said, should North African countries. He said there must be a recognition that Europe as an entity has geographic limits. These limits, he said, do not extend to the Turkey-Iraq border” (EU Business, May 21, 2002).

Now, it is clear that the German people agree with the sentiments he expressed so clearly then. Berlin historian Heinrich August Winkler said, “the expansion has been forcefully advanced while the deepening is in danger of being left behind” (expatica.com, May 4). There is no doubt that Germans support the EU constitution, but polls also decisively show popular German opposition to further EU expansion.

We can go a step further than that. The Bible tells us that the final form of the European Union will have 10 kings and nations or groups of nations (Revelation 17:12).

Not only will the EU stop expanding, but at some point it will shrink in size and grow in power. Geographically, religiously and prophetically, Turkey doesn’t fit in that alliance; North Africa doesn’t fit in that alliance; also—make no mistake about this— Britain doesn’t fit in that alliance, and it will not stay. The Roman Catholic club presently called the European Union will end up being exactly that: European and unified.