Peace and prosperity begins at home

Date: 17/11/05

The urban riots in France made for uncomfortable television viewing: watching a familiar society devolve into violence is a bit like standing on the sidelines of a seriously dysfunctional family. In both cases common sense dictates that the matter is internal and should therefore be politely ignored - and yet there is a wish to reach out and help stop the negative cycle.

European Commission President Jos�anuel Barroso appeared to understand this fine balance in deciding this week to release immediately EUR 50 million of credits already earmarked for French cities.

A gesture of solidarity rather than intervention, it allowed the EU to reach out to France without actually becoming involved.

At base it is the correct response - but nonetheless incomplete, for the French problems are relevant to the EU as a whole. This is partly because many member states have unintegrated migrant populations, but also because our peaceful coexistence as a union rests on a precondition of peaceful coexistence within each state.

Over the past few years security has become a focal point of interest in the EU, extending into areas such as research and industry. Indeed, the renaming of the Commission Directorate-General Justice and Home Affairs as DG Justice, Freedom and Security reflects this trend, which stems from the terror attacks in New York (2001) and Madrid (2004). But such focus on external threats obscures the original intentions of the Union as an internal security policy - which may now be coming under threat.

The founding fathers of the institution that we have come to call the EU sought to create a longstanding framework which would ensure that states, most especially France and Germany, would live together in peace. To this end they decided to put into the common domain those material assets over which wars could be fought for wealth, most notably coal and steel. At the same time, however, they sought to cherish and highlight the social democratic model of government in order to eliminate, or at least keep to a minimum, internal discontent within each state. For internal discontent had always been a cause of war in Europe no less than national rivalry over wealth, territory or hegemony, since rulers throughout the centuries had pacified their disgruntled people by attacking others.

The adherence to both intents delivered success: in its shared prosperity and social democratic systems, the EU evolved into an area of peace and security. But over the past few years prosperity has declined and the various social democratic models have come under repeated attack as economically unviable. To these problems must be added the large and ever growing populations of unintegrated migrants in many member states.

Defining the identity of a nation and its people has always been one of the mysteries of history, but it is clear that over the past 60 years France has found it difficult to bestow whatever is uniquely French upon the many millions who have legitimately come to live within its borders. They have therefore been effectively excluded from the French social model. Many of the Turkish guest-workers in Germany have similarly stood outside that which is German and this pattern of exclusion repeats itself throughout many member states.

In each, the roots may be unique, but in total it all amounts to the same: large groups of 'others' who have not benefited from the social democratic model, which is an integral component of the European project.

Seen in this light, the riots in France are a common threat which demands at the very least a common consideration: a deep understanding that the peace and security of all member states rests on the internal peace and security of each.

We must therefore find a way of helping France restore its own - and preventing other states from going the same way.

• Ilana Bet-El is an academic, author and policy adviser based in Brussels.

Commentary feature looking at the significance of internal security for the European Union in the light of recent unrest in French cities.