AT a recent conference in Berlin, an American academic who specialises in the European Union made a strong and enthusiastic pro-EU speech, saying Europeans were guilty of talking themselves down. The EU was more powerful than it knew, he said. Europe mattered.

But then he spoiled it all by adding: “Actually, the EU is pretty boring.

Really? The EU is boring? The audience gasped in surprise, chuckled slightly, then started listening to another speaker, this time a European scholar who thought the EU was doing everything wrong.

So what’s right and what’s wrong? What’s true and what’s fake? Is the EU, as US President Donald Trump and the politicians taking Britain out of the Union would have us believe, an evil supranational body which eats national governments alive, seizes control of the soul and then dictates every move?

Or is it a benign 21st century power dedicated to bringing love, peace and democracy to a waiting world?

As they say, only time will tell. But one thing is certain: the EU is not boring.

Consider this: extremist views about Europe have become even more extremist in recent months. Everyone has an opinion on the EU. Everyone knows just what is wrong with Europe. Everyone has a plan to fix it.

The “argumentative European” has replaced Amartya Sen’s “argumentative Indian”. It’s talk, talk, talk everywhere. Conferences, panel discussions, lectures and speeches abound.

Thousands of people assemble for pro-EU and anti-EU demonstrations every weekend. There is music and dancing. Europe is becoming fun again.

This new “un-boring” Europe is a gift of Brexit and Donald Trump. The divisive vote to take Britain out of the EU has divided the country and also divided Europe.

But unexpectedly and ironically, it has also put the EU on the map - and at the centre of conversations - as never before.

The conversation on Europe is getting animated. And that’s not all. Recent national elections in the Netherlands saw a record turnout of voters, some of them young people who had never bothered to cast their ballot in previous polls.

The fire-breathing anti-Islam xenophobic politician Geert Wilders may still have made the headlines – this time for not having secured the majority he expected – but the real story was the emergence and success of Jesse Klaver, the young Moroccan-Indonesian-Dutch leader of the Green Left party, who increased his party’s seats in the parliament four-fold.

Extreme views and polarisation were also in evidence last week as British Prime Minister Theresa May triggered Article 50, starting Britain’s two-year-long legal process of divorce from the EU.

Many British people were understandably in despair while others celebrated their “independence”.

SORROW & RELIEF: Here in Brussels, May’s long-awaited letter was received with a mixture of sorrow and relief. EU Council President Donald Tusk said he was “saddened”.

But March 29 was the “birthday of EU 27”, said European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker.

A day later, the commission chief made headlines again by warning Trump that he would support ‘Texit’, Texas breaking away from the US, if the US leader kept backing Brexit.

During a speech at the European People’s Party (EPP) summit in Malta, Juncker issued a stinging rebuke to Trump and insisted Brexit would not spell the end of the EU.

“Brexit is not the end,” said the former prime minister of Luxembourg, “A lot of people would like it that way. If Trump continued to encourage other European countries to leave the EU, I am going to promote the independence of Ohio and Austin Texas in America,” Juncker said to applause from EPP members.

In fact it’s not just Texan nationalists who have revived their dream of ceding from the United States. There are also calls for “Calexit”, or an independent California.

In addition to acrimonious transatlantic relations and the complications of Brexit, there is going to be plenty of action on the domestic EU front.

Coming elections in France look set to be nail-biting as far right National Front leader Marine Le Pen battles with the centrist Emmanuel Macron.

In Germany, elections in the autumn will pit Chancellor Angela Merkel against Martin Schulz, the new leader of the Social Democrats. While both are pro-European, their economic agendas are quite different. And so on.

True, there is slightly more action in the US these days as Trump clashes with all and sundry over an array of big and small issues.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin is busy with a host of internal and external challenges, including attempts to interfere in the domestic affairs of France and other EU states.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is busy preparing for a national referendum in mid-April. China’s President Xi Jinping has discovered a new role as defender of an open global trading system.

Europeans are also busy - trying to fix the economy, manage refugees and migrants and fight populism of different shades.

Contrary to what the American said at Berlin, the EU is not tedious or boring. In fact, there’s never a dull moment.

The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Brussels

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2017