The Week USA – August 31, 2019

14 NEWS Best columns: Europe

ITALY

Being designated a UNESCO World Heritage

Site should be a boon for any locality, said Paolo

Martini, but in fact “it’s a curse.” After the Dolo-

mites in the Italian Alps got the nod in 2009, they

“experienced an impressive sequence of natural

disasters” and an explosion in “destructive tour-

ist speculation.” Now it’s the turn of the Veneto

region in northeastern Italy. After intense lob-

bying by vintners, UNESCO recently added the

Conegliano and Valdobbiadene hills—home to the

sparkling wine prosecco—to the heritage list in

recognition of its unique checkerboard landscape

of terraced vineyards. This designation will only

encourage the rapacious wine industry. Grape

cultivation has already expanded massively in

Veneto, from some 70,000 acres in 2010 to nearly

100,000 in 2018, yet the region keeps greenlight-

ing ever more vineyards. These farms are some

of the most polluting in the country, using more

than twice the average amount of pesticides and

degrading and eroding the soil. And is the wine

any good? Michil Costa, the famed hotelier with

a Michelin star to his name, says he won’t drink

prosecco, noting that when “466 million bottles

are produced in an area filled with industrial

monoculture,” the resulting beverage lacks char-

acter. Forgive me if I don’t raise a glass to cel e-

brate UNESCO’s honor.

Brexit could well break up the United Kingdom,

said Iain Martin. In the 2016 national referendum,

Scotland—unlike England and Wales—voted

overwhelmingly to remain in the European Union.

Now a new poll has shown that a majority of Scots

support declaring independence so that their coun-

try can rejoin the EU when the U.K. eventually

leaves the bloc. Scotland’s nationalist first minister,

Nicola Sturgeon, is already insisting on a new ref-

erendum on independence, and the Labour Party

says it would not block such a vote. That is why it

is up to Britain’s ruling Conservative Party to save

the three-centuries-old union. We should remind

the Scots that ours is “one of the most successful

and close-knit partnerships going.” We share a

currency, and Scotland exports some $60 billion

worth of goods to the rest of the U.K., and only

about $18 billion to the EU. But it’s about more

than trade. “For all the rivalry, we are family.”

Prime Minister Boris Johnson should promise the

Scots constitutional reform, so that a post-Brexit

U.K. would be a newly constituted entity, “some-

thing closer to a federal collection of states, pooling

defense and foreign affairs.” If the union is to be

saved, it will have to be updated. “But to do it, the

Conservatives will have to be bold.”

Ge

tty

“Germany is risking its most important

alliance,” said Philip Volkmann-Schluck

in Bild (Germany). That was the message

the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, Richard

Grenell, delivered last week, warning that

America will remove its troops from the

country and relocate them to Poland un-

less Germany honors its NATO defense-

spending obligations. Alliance members

are supposed to spend at least 2 percent

of their gross domestic product on de-

fense, but we spend less than 1.4 percent

on the military. “The German govern-

ment is even planning to lower the rate

after 2021.” Grenell fumed at how “of-

fensive” it is to “assume that the U.S. taxpayer must continue to

pay to have 50,000-plus Americans in Germany but the Germans

get to spend their surplus on domestic programs.” The ambas-

sador was echoing what U.S. President Donald Trump has long

insisted: Germans aren’t paying their fair share.

To hear the Trump administration tell it, the U.S. troops here are

“an undeserved gift to the Germans,” said Stefan Braun in the

Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany). Nothing could be further from

the truth. During the Cold War, America’s bases in Germany

served as a bulwark against the Soviets, defending Europe and

the U.S. And Germany is now “the linchpin of global U.S. opera-

tions,” said Christoph von Marschall in Der Tagesspiegel (Ger-

many). The U.S. base at Ramstein serves warplanes and drones

that fly missions in the Middle East and Africa, while the Land-

stuhl military hospital has treated thousands of American troops

wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Stuttgart hosts the U.S. com-

mand center for the European and Afri-

can theaters, and Grafenwöhr boasts a

vast training ground. All these facilities

are worth billions of dollars and could

not be easily replicated in Poland. Nor

would it be legal under a NATO-Russia

treaty to station so many U.S. troops in

a former Warsaw Pact nation.

The U.S. president doesn’t care about

upholding treaties, said Konrad Schul-

ler in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zei-

tung (Germany), but that doesn’t mean

he’ll follow through with his threat.

He is a professional bluffer. Remem-

ber two years ago, when he threatened North Korea with “fire

and fury” if it didn’t dismantle its nuclear programs? Pyongyang

keeps testing missiles, but Trump makes excuses for this behavior

and praises dictator Kim Jong Un. Same with Iran: Trump sent

aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf to protect ships, yet when

Iran sabotaged and confiscated tankers, he did nothing. Trump

“will not do what he threatens.”

Trump and Grenell’s “style may be harsh,” said Marc Felix Serrao

in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Switzerland), but they’re telling

the truth. “Europe’s largest economy” really isn’t doing its bit to

help to defend Europe. Underspending has crippled the German

military: Warplanes have been grounded for lack of spare parts;

troops are going without bulletproof vests and winter clothes; and

fewer than 50 percent of tanks are battle ready. Berlin should step

up defense spending—not because of Trump’s threats but because

it’s in Germany’s national interest.

Prosecco

is ruining

the countryside

Paolo Martini
Il Fatto Quotidiano

UNITED KINGDOM

Grenell meets with U.S. service members in Germany.

We can’t

let Scotland

slip away

Iain Martin
The Times

How they see us: A threat to pull troops from Germany