Europe’s growing demographic challenges: John Cassar White
History teaches us that empires do not collapse overnight. They disintegrate gradually as existential risks remain unaddressed by societal leaders.
Europe is not an empire, but the EU can be described as a superstate. It is characterised by some binding structures like freedom of movement and a common monetary policy for a large part of the member states. But it suffers from a dysfunctional and unsustainable system of governance dictated by national interests.
Still, Europe’s main existential risk is worsening demographic challenges, most of which remain unaddressed.
Improvements in healthcare mean that across Europe, people live longer but have fewer children. Of course, some rich countries like the US and Canada face similar challenges but seem to cope better than most European member states. Ironically, one of the EU’s big merits – the freedom of movement – intensifies the demographic risks of the poorer member states.
Young people from the poorer eastern countries, but also from Italy, Spain and Greece, prefer to migrate to the more affluent states where they can earn better wages in a more stable currency.
The sovereign debt crises of the past decade have shown that...