D-Day and the battle for Europe

Seventy years ago, 156,000 Allied soldiers began their battle for a beachhead on the coast of Normandy, setting off a sequence of events which, along with the advance of Soviet forces in the east, would result in the defeat of German forces which occupied Europe from France to Greece. June 6, 1944, is one of the most important days in the history of our blood-soaked continent. Today, 17 heads of state will take part in memorial services on one of the beaches where thousands of young men died in the effort to turn the tide of war.

What no one could predict in 1944 was that D-Day would lead to the longest period of peace, stability and prosperity that Europe has known. Nor could they imagine that the devotion to peace that was born in the flames of war would be in danger 70 years later – not because of some new military threat but because of the carelessness of leaders who themselves never knew war.

After D-Day, the most important date on the European calendar is July 23, 1952, when the European Coal and Steel Community was established. One year earlier – just six years after the end of World War II – France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands had agreed to join in peace and put an end to endless war. The six former enemies were the nucleus of today’s European Union with its 28 member states. Another monumental year was 1989, when the Soviet Bloc collapsed, leading to the accession of eight former Soviet satellites to the EU in May 2004.

Today, 10 years later, the European Union is in crisis. Many member states are in great economic difficulty; deflation, unemployment and debt (public and private) threaten the eurozone; widening inequality between member states and between social groups is...