The moment of truth?
José M. de Areilza
December 23, 2006
The recent European Council of December 15-16 has not given good reasons to be optimistic about the EU in 2007 and its ability to face “the moment of truth” and sort our the constitutional mess. Political leaders made appropiate noises about not starting from zero the new negotiation of Treaty reform and salvaging at least “the substance” of the European constitution, a convenient open ended notion. Also, they expressed their wish to finish by the end of 2008 ratification of the new Treaty, implicitly giving up on referenda, except when mandatory under national rules -who wants too much democracy?
Meanwhile, intense and discreet consultation seems to be going on between Berlin and Paris governments about joint cherry picking from the failed text, as if one more Franco-German initiative to defend their weight in the institutions was all that the EU needed. The rest of the European Council was not encouraging either: Poland blocking European efforts to negotiate a new Treaty with Russia that would include key energy issues, the UK, Sweden and Germany not agreeing on use of the pasarelle clause in article 42 of the EU Treaty to decide justice and home affairs matters through majority voting and everybody saying that further enlargement is conditioned to the EU functioning effectively first (isn’t this against the EC law principle “nobody can benefit from his own wrongdoing”?). Ms. Merkel, however, opted for a softer stance on Turkey in a speech on December 14th, finally some good news, although they did not come from the European Council.
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At the risk of sounding obvious, the root causes of the deepening crisis of credibility within the European integration process are located in the principles of the founding treaties.
Examine the opening words of the Treaty of Rome and compare it with the words of your own article – can you not see the common link? Who are the “High Contracting Parties”? Couldn’t be anything to do with the same “Berlin and Paris governments” or the Sweden “not agreeing to the pasarelle clause” or the “Poland blocking European efforts” by any chance?
The grand European ideal has been proceeding down a constitutional blind alley for the last fifty years and with each added member state its underlying faults become more obvious. One hopes we will (as Europeans) not spend the next fifty years discovering this sad fact.
Unless and until we develop democratically accountable structures of governance functioning on a European scale (that means politicisation of the European arena) and move away from the Europe of Nations model embedded within the founding treaty and every successive intergovernmental agreement (that’s what treaties are!) we will never truly realise the vast potential of this continent.
There is (in the longer term) no space upon the global stage for competing geo-political actors in the form of established old style European Nation States: Germany, France, UK, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Poland et al, to mutually co-exist with an emergent European entity; ultimately one must cede to the other – such a leap of faith will be the real “moment of truth”
To those who cry “European Super-State – Never!” I say “What Super-State!” Federalism is a two way street and for each field of policy ceded upwards to a open and accountable tier of European governance there is an equally vital one capable of devolution downwards to closer to more immediate and tangible geo-political entities. It is this constitutional counterbalancing act that can deliver the kind of open and flexible Europe we all yearn for.
One can be simultaneously “Andalusian and European, Bavarian and European, Scottish and European, Breton and European, Silesian and European, Tuscan and European, Scanian and European because such concepts of affinity are mutually exclusive. Allow German, French, Spanish, British, Swedish, Polish etc. to enter this complex equation and it is any nascent European sense of identity that suffers.
A credible alternative future lies in a Europe of Regions template where larger member states wither and die over a protracted period of time. What prevents this possibility of this strategy gaining popular credence? The vested interests of a relatively small (but very powerful) political élites resolutely resisting the wider circulation of its advantages amongst an increasingly frustrated and disenfranchised European electorate.
We (Europeans) have the power but ignorance and fear seemingly prevents mutually beneficial action.
Peter Davidson
Alderley Edge
NW.England
Comment by Peter Davidson — January 8, 2007 @ 12:11 am