Europe's boundaries   Europe- historical landmarks, founding concepts, race groups The European Union continues to propagate an introverted vision of Europe, starting with the usual cultural landmarks - Greece & Rome, Christianity, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrial Revolution but stops short of including empire and imperialism. Next comes the big European ideas: progress, reason, science, tolerance, liberty, democracy. These are taken to define the dynamism of Europe and spring solely from its 'unique creativity', in the phrase of J-B Duroselle, author of Europe: a history of its peoples (London, Viking 1990).   This book was proudly sponsored by the European Commission (EC) and promoted as essential reading for all Europeans. The book says: "The original inhabitants of western Europe were white-skinned, barely touched by the Mongol invasions - or by Asian and African immigrants until after World War II." "Anthropologist Jean Poirier has distinguished three main groups: in northern Europe, the Nordic race: a comparatively long-headed, fair-head group; to the south of that, a central short-headed group comprising the east European race and four dark-haired races: Alpine, Dinaric, Anatolian and Turanian. Finally, a southern group, long-headed and dark-haired, made up of the Mediterranean, south-western and Indo-afghan races. To all these should be added a further race, the Aino, in the easternmost part of Asia."   Note the definition of EU citizens in terms of a European ancestral state, Christianity and ethno-cultural markers. Such a definition is embedded in a transnational white history and ethnicity, and hence marginalises the millions of EU inhabitants who cannot claim to this heritage. In fact, the people who fail to pass the test as being 'European' are stigmatised as 'threats, burdens, illegal immigrants'.   The new EU members and the plight of Turkey Each of the ten new countries that became EU members in May 2004 tried to exclude another by presenting itself as more European than the next. Thus the Czech Republic claimed to be truly European by assigning 'Asian' qualities to Slovakia, as did Ukraine to Russia. Similarly, Slovenia claimed Europeanness by stigmatising Croatia and Serbia as 'Balkan', whereas Croatia insisted that Serbia lies outside Europe. According to right-wing historian Paul Johnson, “There are profound racial differences between Nordics, Anglo-Saxons, Germans, Latins, Celts and Balkans.” But they are viewed as European.   On the other hand, the Turks are viewed as an alien presence in Europe and have been so far debarred from membership of the EU which is regarded as a Christian club. (No matter how many are  practising Christians). Turkey's application has created the most wrangles. Should it count as a European country. In 1990, David Owen warned: "We don't have to let Turkey in. You have to be clear about the boundaries of Europe and they are not on the Turkish-Iranian border." In 2002, just a few weeks before the EU Copenhagen Summit was due to consider Turkey's membership, the former French President, Valery Giscard d'Estaing, declared sneeringly: "It's capital is not in Europe; 95% of its population live outside Europe. It is not a European country... If Turkey became a member of the EU, it would be the end of Europe.. it would emerge as the biggest member state in the EU... with the biggest bloc in the European Parliament." Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Vatican's top theologian told Le Figaro on 11 Aug 2004 that Turkey had always been in permanent contrast to Europe. It should seek its future in an association of Islamic nations, rather try to join a European community with Christian roots.   EU boundaries extend to North Africa, Caribbean and further ashore France and its 'possessions' How European was France in 1957 when the Treaty of Rome was signed? In 1954, President Francois Mitterand had claimed in the National Assembly: "Algeria is France because Algerian departments are departments of the French Republic." This meant that 80% of French territory was located in Africa.   France claims four possessions (overseas departments): Reunion (in the Indian Ocean), Guyana (South America), Martinique and Guadaloupe (in the Caribbean). These are considered as much part of France as Brittany. Payments are made in euros and the inhabitants are 'citizens of the EU' with voting rights in the Euro Parliamentary elections, right to travel freely in EU. In addition, there are three French colonies that come under the EU's legal framework for Overseas Countries & Territories (OCTs). These citizens are EU citizens with 'European' passports who can vote for the Euro Parliament.   The case of Spain: Ceuta & Melilla History The two territories of Ceuta & Melilla, just 20 sq km between them, are the sole remnants of the empire created by Ferdinand and Isabella, following the end of the Moorish presence in Spain in 1492. From this coastal foothold, the Spanish army fought a series of bloody campaigns in the arid mountains of the Rif, in a futlie attempt to subdue the Berber tribes and carve a mini-empire for Spain. More than once, the Berbers guerillas inflicted heavy defeats on the Spanish army, culminating in the humiliating defeat at Annual in 1921, when some 60,000 Spanish soldiers were killed by Abd-El-Karim's shortlived republic of Rif. Melilla was the base of the Spanish Foreign Legion, whose crazy commander, Milan Astray, used the slogan 'Long live death!' Virtually all the commanders from the African campaigns, including Francisco Franco, led the uprising against the Spanish republic in 1936 when the civil war began. In 1939, Franco set up his dictatorship which was to last until his death in 1975. Today, both enclaves are under civilian control but the Spanish army dominates. In Melilla, some 10,000 soldiers protect a population of 54,000 Spanish citizens, together with a Berber population of 14,000. In Ceuta, Muslims are also a minority in a population of 60,000. Morocco continues to claim sovereignty over the enclaves and there are tensions with the Muslim population. In Jan 1996, hundreds of Spanish soldiers went on the rampage in Melilla, wrecking Muslim-owned cafes and bars, and attacking North Africans in the street. - following the killing of a Spanish soldier. These pogroms can be traced to the old fear and hatred of the 'Moors' who ruled Spain for over 700 years.   Spain joined the European Community in 1986, just 10 years after the end of the Franco dictatorship. In Euro-speak, Spain had returned to Europe but it insists on hanging on to two enclaves in North Africa: Melilla and Ceuta in Morocco. These two are fully integrated into metropolitan Spain and so are considered as part of the EU. In fact, since Spain is part of the euro zone (the EMU), these enclaves are more integrated into the EU than non-EMU members like Britain, Denmark and Sweden. But this fact  remains one of the best-kept secrets in the academic and political debates on European integration.   Spain also claims the uninhabited islet of Perejil - located in the Strait of Gibraltar, just 200 meters off the Moroccan coast -rather as Britain claims Falklands/Malvinas off Argentina. In the summer of 2002, Spanish elite troops landed on Perejil (Leila to the Moroccans) and captured a dozen Moroccan soldiers for having set up an 'observation post' a few days before. The Euro Commission joined in support, calling the presence of the Moroccan soldiers an occupation and threatening Morocco with economic sanctions. The Spanish foreign minister used the incident to reaffirm Spain's 'undisputed' dominion over Ceuta and Melilla.   Ceuta and Melilla have come to serve as important hubs in the EU's determination to keep out 'illegal immigrants' from Africa and elsewhere. The Spanish government, with EU support, has invested $120m into the building of a radar system (an electronic wall) in the Straits of Gibraltar. In Ceuta, the EU has spent over $40m on erecting a 5-mile long fence, hedged by barbed wire and equipped with electronic sensors and thermal cameras. The reinforced EU borders around Ceuta and Melilla are floodlit by searchlights at night - thus providing inhabitants and interlopers alike with literal 'enlightenment' about the precise African boundaries of the EU.   Finally, it turns out that Ceuta is the precise site where European imperialism began - it was the Portuguese conquest of Ceuta in 1415 that marked the advent of the European empires and ironically, and Ceuta holds he dubious honour of being one of the last relics of that empire today. Yet the Moroccan bid to join the EU in 1986 was resolutely turned down because the country is not European. So how come that the Moroccan people of Ceuta and Melilla are in the EU while Morocco is dismissed as non-European?   Other OCTs The Danes and Dutch have OCTs while Britain's OCT is the Falkland Islands. These all carry 'European' passports.   Colonial legacy ignored, a sanitised history presented The debate on EU enlargement has studiously kept out the impacts of colonialism on the formation of national identities in Europe and in shaping the very meaning of Europe.   The EU borders outside Europe are not mentioned in the official statements. In 1997, the European Commission preferred to state: "The EU today embraces more than 370m people, from the Arctic Circle to Portugal, from Ireland to Crete." The EU's disinclination to acknowledge its southern outposts stems from its reluctance to confront its colonial history. In a speech to the Euro Parliament in April 1999, EC President Romano Prodi said: "Europe in the course of its history has had a  great heritage to live up to, a heritage which still forms the richest store of culture and knowledge amassed by mankind." An earlier White Paper on Education & Training (1995) declared with pride: "European civilisation has a long history and is very complex... Europe (was) first to bring about a technical and industrial revolution that changed the world... Being European is to have the advantage of a cultural background of unparalleled variety and depth." Not a word about the crimes of genocides, slavery. land grab and theft that enriched Europeans and justified by claims of racial and cultural superiority.   In his book Europe as I see it (London, Polity 2000), Prodi declares: "Over the centuries we have consistently forged new relationships with peoples and countries who differed from ourselves. Our inherited tradition has dominated history (because) of this ability of ours to lead and to set an example to other peoples and races. Without the profound values of tolerance and respect for human rights, the world would be less civilised... "  A whole range of atrocities, wars, killings and exploitative structures tied to colonialism & imperialism are excluded from consideration. The UN World Conference against Racism, Discrimination & Xenophobia (2001) had included statements such as the following: "Theories of superiority of certain races and cultures over others promoted and practised during the colonial era continue to be propounded in one form or another, even today." Such a formulation rankled in some western capitals, which live in denial, promoting the facade of Europe as a civilised, democratic entity. [One is reminded of what Frantz Fanon and Jean-Paul Sartre had to say. Frantz Fanon (1925-61), author of Wretched of the Earth and Black Skin, White Masks said: ‘European opulence is literally scandalous, for it has been founded on slavery, nourished with the blood of slaves… The well-being and progress of Europe have been built up with the sweat and the dead bodies of Negroes, Arabs, Indians and the yellow races… Europe is literally the creation of the Third World.’ Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80), French philosopher, novelist & critic who wrote the Preface to Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth added: 'the European has only been able to become a man through creating slaves and monsters…' ]   But the EU is unrepentant, refusing to acknowledging past colonial horrors. On the contrary, in a presentation to the Euro Parliament in 2000, EC President Prodi cheerfully declared: "Europe needs to project its model of society into the wider world... we have a unique historic experience to offer - the experience of liberating people from poverty, war, oppression and intolerance..."   Reference 1. Matthew Carr, Policing the Frontier: Ceuta & Melilla, Race & Class, vol 39 (Jul 1997) 2. Peo Hansen, In the name of Europe, Race & Class, vol 45 (Jan 2004)