Unequal Europe

The inequalities between regions and macro-regions which are, today, one of the main obstacles to the process of European integration have always been a feature of the Continent. The historical character of inequality explains its persistence. Viewed from a long-term historical perspective, it is easy to spot a crucial moment of historical discontinuity: the displacement of the center of the European economy from south to north in the Renaissance. During Antiquity, the expansion of the Roman Empire had created an integrated economic system which included most of Europe and the whole of the Mediterranean, with Italy at its center. This situation persisted across the Middle Ages, with the flourishing of the communes and then the emergence of city-states able to dominate trade, finance and the production of luxury goods. The situation began to change during the early modern period, with the progressive displacement of the center of the European economy from south to north, beginning with the Low Countries.

The historical process which led the center of the European economy to shift northwards is known as the "Little Divergence", to distinguish it from the "Great Divergence", which refers to the rise of Western Europe compared to the great economies of Asia. The Little Divergence led to the emergence of the Low Countries, and from the seventeenth century especially of the Northern Low Countries (today's Netherlands), as the economic heart of the European continent. England would take over this role during the Industrial Revolution.

The Little Divergence, which is a phenomenon having complex and somewhat debated causes, is basically at the origin of the economic (and not only economic) hierarchies that characterize Europe today. The existence of a more-developed area capable of influencing commerce and production beyond its boundaries tends to create a distinction between a center and various peripheries, with unavoidable consequences in terms of power equilibrium and balance of political influence. This is one reason why, in that kind of pactum unionis which gave origin to the process of European integration, the reduction of inequality at first within the EEC, and then within the EU, has always been a priority objective. In an early phase much effort was put into overcoming the North-South divide but in the new millennium, with the expansion of the Union, the priority has become reducing the West-East divide, which also has ancient origins. In the meantime southern Europe had substantially reduced the gap with northern Europe. This was one of the main successes of European integration, which we now see being replicated in the fast economic development of eastern European countries.

The undeniable achievements of Europe in reducing inequality between member states should not hide the problems that remain unsolved. First, reducing inequalities is not the same as eradicating them, and progress becomes harder as the relative positions get closer. The very existence of economic (and political) hierarchies has a different meaning if consider from the center (which benefits from it) or from the periphery (which suffers it). The prospective of losing a situation of relative privilege can easily generate insecurity across whole societies and can lead, at a national level, to the success of political platforms characterized by the lessening of solidarity towards other countries.

Secondly, the EU has been much more successful in fostering the reduction of inequalities between countries than within them. Italy, with its strong (and growing) North-South divide, is a textbook case but also other countries, France or Spain for example, suffer from substantial and enrooted cross-regional inequality. Outside the Union there is the exemplary case of England, where according to many the popular vote in favor of Brexit was the direct result of a strong divergence between London and the South-East on one side, and the rest of the country on the other side. In England, the strong territorial concentration of economic progress was seen by many as the consequence of belonging to the European Union. This was erroneous reasoning, also from a historical point of view (the progressive concentration of English wealth in the South-East of the country was already underway in the late Middle Ages), but potentially believable for many voters. The case of England should act as a warning: without combating inequality and solidarity, the process of European integration risks being shipwrecked.