At a time of war, some will remember the wars that happened in their lifetime. I am one of those doing so while trying to understand why Putin’s war in the Ukraine is appearing to be so different from other wars I remember which were fought since I can remember.

So the Korean war and the one fought by the French in Vietnam which ended with their defeat at Dien Bien Phu do not count: I cannot remember them. The war waged by the Americans in Vietnam during the 1960’s and 1970’s had seemed to me like a distant one even if it was so crucial and bloody. The wars waged by Israel and its neighbours in the Middle East were regional wars happening outside Europe. The same could be said for the wars in Afghanistan, first launched by the Soviets, then by the Americans. The deadly fighting in ex-Jugoslavia too could be classified as regional.

However the war in Ukraine is being experienced as one that is completely different to those already listed. It seems like... and it in fact is... a major European war. For so many years we had believed that a war in Europe on this scale was no longer conceivable. The discovery that this belief was mistaken constitutes a big shock. 

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PROCEDURES

It is very difficult to understand the explanations that were given to account for why, following the occurence of a road accident, the wrecked vehicle or vehicles are kept “in place”. No doubt, the reasons why this is done are weighty, meant as they are to provide the courts, which will need to investigate the accident, the best available information about what has happened.

However this is also coming to mean that all traffic ends up jammed for long hours in the roads, especially when the accident occurs in a main traffic artery.

It is becoming clear that over the years, no attention at all was given to how one could still reach the worthwhile and useful aims set by antiquated procedures. The latter needed to be replaced however by new procedures which took on board modern technology, like in order to preserve the site of the accident without jamming roads though which traffic passes.

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EUROPEAN RULES

In a number of policy areas, for European rules to come into force, there needs to be a unanimous agreement.

For instance, when it came to the taxation of company profits, on the basis of the unanimity rule, Malta and other countries have resisted efforts which continued to be made for the EU to introduce controls and directives intended to affect how taxes were laid out in this area. It’s an offensive that has been proceeding for the last twenty years at least.

Another instance occurs in the field of immigration. Countries like Malta argue that arriving refugees and immigrants should after having been welcomed, be distributed across other Union terrritories. For this to happen, all member states need to agree.

Like all other tools devised in the light of human experience, the unanimity rule sometimes goes your way, while at others  it goes in the opposite direction. Even so, I still doubt whether it would be in the interests of small countries like Malta to give up too lightly a use of the unanimity tool.