Refreshing the European Project
SIMON MUNDY
Then And Now
Manuel Barroso started his term in office as President of the European Commission by addressing the first Berlin Conference of A Soul for Europe in 2004 by declaring that it was time to build Europe on its culture, not just its economics. There was an unparalleled sense of optimism then. The expansion to 25 Member States at that time had been accomplished with only a disunited Cyprus under a cloud. Even the Balkans had calmed down and Turkey was a serious contender for joining in. The huge new European Parliament building in Brussels was nearing completion and was a statement of confidence in supra-national democracy. Seven years after the Euro’s creation, it was a leading world currency outperforming most others. Trade and employment was going nicely and even Africa was thinking Europe might be a more interesting partner than China.
Ten years later, the scene could hardly be more different. Two sides of the Mediterranean are disasters, challenging all the values of European tolerance, civilised governance and safe haven. The economies and politics of the Northern Mediterranean have not been more fragile since the 1970s. The countries of the old Eastern bloc, so happy for their citizens to settle in Western countries as the visa barriers came down, are now resisting becoming importers rather than exporters of people, prey to fears of outsiders just like island England. Racism and aggressive nationalism stalk Europe again as worries about jobs and incomes show no sign of going away. The post-war generation grows old and fretful. The thirty-somethings resent how much work it takes to make a living. The young are angry at the mismanagement by their parents and grandparents. The Euro totters.
Worst of all, the idiocy of British Conservative leaders in allowing and then losing a referendum is leading to the first break in Membership since the Union was created. Whether that break is by all, half or three-quarters of the British state matters a great deal to its pro-European population as its 200-year-old stability crumbles. The threat to the EU, though, is that “Brexit” gives hope to other nationalist parties to follow suit. Germany tries to hold everything together, but its economic orthodoxy and propensity to sound patronising wins it few friends and only grudging thanks. France looks uncertain and resentful. Russia gloats.
What Should We Do?
Perhaps the one thing that the Southern Left, Northern and Middle Right are likely to agree on is that the EU has been a disappointment, seeming to benefit infrastructure and institutions but too rarely making people believe it is helping them as individuals. Europe’s structures of governance are too complicated, too inflexible and too easy for large nations and corporations to bully. However, that is also true of the United Nations, surely just as much in need of reform, yet nobody (except the demagogue now in charge of the Philippines) would seriously advocate leaving it.
There are four European inter-governmental organisations, each with their own historical reason for existence, strengths and flaws. Two (the EU and European Central Bank) are rich and resented. Two (the Council of Europe and Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) are impoverished, respected, but largely ignored. It is the two latter, though, that stand up for individuals against states and officials. They should be championed by the press and cheered by citizens. Instead, governments do all they can to undermine their authority and the media sideline their success while lampooning their pronouncements.
The post-WWII and post-Berlin Wall structures need reinventing. They do not need demolishing immediately because that would be too disruptive and would jettison too much that is important (though not always popular). Instead they should be superseded by a new organisation that can place the rights and interests of the individual at its heart, recognising that it is only to enhance the lives of individuals and the planet itself that government should exist in the first place. While this body is being developed there should be a moratorium on changes in membership or function for the old ones.
What Should The New Thing Be?
There is one old forum that carries the affection of historians and is not sullied by subsequent mistakes — the Congress of Europe, which in 1948 gave birth to the European Cultural Foundation and the Council of Europe. The Congress should take over, becoming an umbrella body that can subsume the other four and, like UEFA, include all the land and sea from the Atlantic Ridge to the Bering Strait. It should have a constitution which substantially shifts the balance of power away from territorial states.
Its authority should come from a College of five institutions, each representing a different aspect of democratic reality — the first, a directly elected Assembly for which candidates could only state their political views and expertise, not their country or political party; the second, a College of Cities and Local Authorities; the third, a College of Regional Assemblies (those with cultural identity but not UN status); the fourth, a Conference of Nation States; and the fifth, a Parliament of Universities. Each of the five would elect members to the College of the Congress itself, which would govern human rights, constitutions, banks, business, environmental protection, education and security. Legislation would require the approval of the Assembly plus two of the other colleges.
Like It?
Surely it is worth proposing? Importantly, though, its invention should be the work of citizens, not national governments even if they, and their Parliaments, will have to submit to it sooner rather than later — target date for its establishment, the centenary of the League of Nations in 2020.
Simon Mundy is a writer, festival director and policy adviser who, for the last three decades, has operated in Wales, London and Brussels. However he will now be found in the far north of Scotland fighting to remain a European. He has written more than 20 books (including poetry and novels). He has chaired or been a board member of many arts organisations, was a co-founder of Culture Action Europe, and acts as an adviser to UNESCO, the Council of Europe and the European Festivals Association. He is a Permanent Fellow of Felix Meritis, Amsterdam.
Read more about the A Soul For Europe Pre-Conference debate here.
