Does this mean that Europe is a utopian place? Far from it although many people do not appreciate what we have achieved and take things for granted. First of all we cannot agree on much more than the above mentioned and thus we debate perpetually. I still have not encountered a better way of handling a society though, and attacks on freedom of speech is for this reason an enemy from within. This brings me to the second point which is a serious predicament: Europe is under threat from both homebred and imported fifth columnists, hating our way of life and not defending the earlier mentioned pragmatic core. Partly this is because of gullibility, self-loathing and due naive ideologies, but also due to vile such.
On top of this Europe is being attacked by Russia. Civilians bombed, including women and children, and instead of helping us out, our closest ally whom we did not hesitate to assist when they called for it after 9/11, threatens us and aim to make sovereign states into commodities. The right of the strong rather than a rule-based world. I can only hope that such backstabbing betrayal will be shut down in order for us to get back to the consistency which has helped countries and people out of tyranny the past many decades. The current onslaught of lies and misinformation portrays the opposite of good ethical principles though, and efficiently kills trust.
Meanwhile however, and without delay as the naive have been ruling for much too long, Europe needs to strengthen the prerequisites for industry, for self-sufficiency and laboriously increase our military power. We need to deal with the above mentioned fifth columnists and define our social cohesion, balancing the paradox of tolerance with sound patriotism. Because there is no one but ourselves.
Thirty years of consistency.