Future of Europe: asking EU citizens

Serendipity is stumbling across a Facebook presentation of Mathew Lowry’s blog post The limits of public participation in policy. I had tried to explore how the future presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron started presenting and returning to the idea of democratic conventions and if president Macron’s Sorbonne speech had clarified the working of these democratic conventions.

Macron had painted the democratic conventions as an essential tool to relaunch the European project. However, they seemed to boil down to town hall meetings in willing member states, without democratic legitimacy but with potential for some interaction.

Lowry discussed if the participants in the ‘Future of Europe’ process influenced president Juncker’s State of the European Union (SOTEU) speech, as promised. His conclusion was clear: of course not.

The ‘Future of Europe process’ means the physical  Citizens’ Dialogues I described in a blog post, but also the online activities and votes Lowry took a special interest in.

He received no answer even to his one specific question on how the European Commission was processing thousands of contributions into a coherent whole for the promised impact on president Juncker’s State of the Union speech.

The promise was hardly seriously meant. Lowry went on to discuss success criteria for online public participation: specific, transparent, focused audience, resource credibility and institutional credibility.

The three presidents and their advisors have cause to read and reflect on taking EU citizens and ideas like democracy seriously: Emmanuel Macron who invented the democratic conventions, Jean-Claude Juncker who supported the proposal and promised to contribute with the Commission’s experiences from the Citizens’ Dialogues and Donald Tusk who has promised to present a leaders’ agenda [for the Future of Europe] within two weeks.

12 ideas for The Future of Europe

The other happy coincidence on Lowry’s Facebook post came from Richard Medic, who brought to my attention the publication 12 ideas for The Future of Europe - New narrative for Europe communications campaign (June 2017; 64 pages), about getting young people interested in European debates.

Nothing beats ownership for citizens in general, but let us study if the report offers food for thought regarding impact from voters and experts.

Ralf Grahn

State of the Union: Citizens’ Dialogues

The blog post State of the Union: EU citizens, reform and future offered enlightened and responsible EU citizens references to the substance of the discussion about areas of EU reform and visions for the future of Europe. But we are hardly done with the European Commission’s State of the Union 2017 web page, or even the State of the Union 2017 brochure, where the pages from 97 to 101 offer a superficial glance at Citizens’ Dialogues.

The Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker launched a Roadmap for a More United, Stronger and More Democratic Union.

However, there can hardly be more EU democracy without EU citizens, or much more EU capability without added or more effective EU powers. Competences commensurate with the global and internal challenges must emanate from a sovereign people - in this case the citizens of the European Union - something increasingly important to understand due to global risks, as well as dangers to the standards of democracy, fundamental rights, the rule of law and human progress.

Citizens’ Dialogues

Accessible through the State of the Union 2017 web page, the Commission has published a brochure in pastel colours (instead of readable black on white) called Citizens’ Dialogues on the Future of Europe (32 pages). In English only, the leaflet starts by telling us that the EU27 decide on their union, but that the Commission encourages citizens’ participation.

The brochure mentions the White Paper and the five reflection papers about the future of Europe, and it displays a selection of pictures of commissioners and questions or comments from various Citizens’ Dialogue events.

If the brochure can inspire EU citizens to participate in upcoming Citizens’ Dialogues, or follow them online, it has served a purpose.

In an article in Social Europe, To Build Europe We Need Citizen Lobbyists, professor Alberto Alemanno, the author of Lobbying for Change, posed questions about democracy and participation:  

While public sentiment about the European project has rebounded, Europeans remain largely dissatisfied with whether their voices and concerns count in Brussels. Despite recurrent calls for radically reforming the European Union to ensure a greater involvement of EU citizens, little is expected to change between now and the next 2019 European Parliament (EP) elections. The 2017 White Paper on the Future of Europe is noticeably silent on the issue. And it won’t be the thousands of citizens’ dialogues orchestrated by the EU Commission across Europe over the summer that will re-engage EU citizens with Europe.

The Good Lobby  - @TheGoodLobby - wondered on Twitter what I would make of the Citizens’ Dialogues.

The European Commission shows good will. While nothing can replace democratic government based on free and fair elections - the European level as a real democracy - I think it is commendable that members of the European Commission, representing the general interest, use their trips to the member states for direct contact with citizens interested enough to show up at a Citizens’ Dialogue event.

These contacts bring a small breath of fresh air into opinion silos created by national media and politicians, even those covering or participating in Council meetings. The influence is minuscule both ways, but we can ask what the alternatives are, as long as the citizens of the union lack ownership.

The EU’s intelligibility deficit is a question of cause and effect. Ownership - becoming the prime mover - gives EU citizens’ understanding a chance. Democracy would  simplify the structures and raise the stakes: living with the effects of own collective choices.

Ralf Grahn

State of the Union: EU citizens, reform and future

Our customary check of the European Commission’s State of the Union 2017 web page, reveals no visible updates since yesterday and the language selection remains one out of twenty-four: English only. We return to the State of the Union 2017 brochure, where the next section is Citizens’ Dialogues (from page 97).

According to the brochure (page 98), there had been 312 Citizens’ Dialogues in all in the member states since the start of the Juncker Commission; of these 129 on the future of Europe since March 2017.

You can check upcoming and past Citizens’ Dialogues on the future of Europe on the dedicated Commission web page. Many of these events offer live streaming.

For a meaningful debate, shouldn’t citizens of the European Union know at least something about ideas for EU reform and the future of Europe being discussed? Or, are we past ideals about facts and civic responsibility?

Here a few references to the substance of the debate.  

Future of Europe

In addition to president Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the Union 2017 address and related materials, including the draft Commission Work Programme (CWP 2018), the participants and other interested EU citizens can find relevant documents about EU reform and the future of Europe from the European Parliament (EP), the European Commission and the European Council (EUCO).

European Parliament resolutions

For quick introductions we find the press releases Parliament sets out its vision for the future of Europe (16 February 2017), Future of Europe: debate on reforming the EU (24 February 2017) and Future of the EU: MEPs discuss five scenarios set out by Jean-Claude Juncker (1 March 2017).

The three official EP resolutions are:

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0049 of 16 February 2017 on improving the functioning of the European Union building on the potential of the Lisbon Treaty (Brok and Bresso report; 2014/2249(INI))

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0048 of 16 February 2017 on possible evolutions of and adjustments to the current institutional set-up of the European Union (Verhofstadt report; 2014/2248(INI))

European Parliament resolution P8_TA(2017)0050 of 16 February 2017 on budgetary capacity for the euro area (Böge and Berès report; 2015/2344(INI))

Commission White Paper and reflection papers

The European Commission opened the debate by a so called White Paper (so called, because it did not contain concrete proposals):

White Paper on the Future of Europe - Reflections and scenarios for the EU27 by 2025; Brussels, 1.3.2017 COM(2017) 2025 final

The White Paper with the five scenarios was followed by five reflection papers on the future of the social dimension, globalisation, the economic and monetary union (EMU), defence and the EU budget (I leave out the annexes):

Reflection paper on the social dimension of Europe; Brussels, 26.4.2017 COM(2017) 206 final

Reflection paper on harnessing globalisation; Brussels, 10.5.2017 COM(2017) 240 final

Reflection paper on the deepening of the economic and monetary union; Brussels, 31.5.2017 COM(2017) 291 final

Reflection paper on the future of European defence; Brussels, 7.6.2017 COM(2017) 315 final

Reflection paper on the future of EU finances; Brussels, 28.6.2017 COM(2017) 358 final

Bratislava roadmap

In the European Council’s Bratislava declaration and roadmap the heads of state or government were determined to make a success of the EU at 27.

Under the Estonian presidency of the Council and chaired by deputy EU affairs minister Matti Maasikas, yesterday the General Affairs Council (GAC) prepared the ground for the 19-20 October European Council (EUCO), which is expected to discuss migration, Digital Europe, defence and external relations - themes with the potential for future oriented discussion. The GAC also discussed the priorities for the Commission Work Programme (CWP 2018), with the Commission expected to adopt the CWP 2018 in October. Before the end of the year, the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission plan a joint declaration on legislative priorities for 2018.

Come Thursday, the EUCO president Donald Tusk is going to chair a dinner for the EU27 leaders ahead of the Tallinn Digital Summit. After mentioning a number of issues potentially important for EU reform and our European future, but without raising questions of the power of EU citizens or institutions, Tusk invited the leaders to an informal discussion about substance method and objectives.

Ralf Grahn

More Europe Manifesto calls for European Electoral Act

After my latest post about a single seat for the European Parliament, we return to More Europe. In order to overcome the crises in the eurozone and the wider European Union, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe.

You can read and sign the appeal on the More Europe blog. You can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope and under the hashtag #moreurope, and you can help to spread the word among citizens of the European Union.

The initiators act as EU citizens. Hence they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, their seventh proposal aims at an electoral Act for the European Parliament.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

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7) We propose the creation of a European Electoral Act to regulate European Parliament elections. This measure will prevent European Parliament elections campaigns to develop in national key. It would also help citizens to learn about the work of their representatives in the European Parliament, it will foster public debate and participation among citizens, and promote the visibility and understanding of policies that are decided and implemented at a European level.

The platform More Europe calls citizens to support and join the defense of a greater European integration. We appeal citizens to join forces and contribute to build a bottom-up project, which will allow all of us to feel a greater identification with the common project of the European Union. This is necessary to preserve the current unity of our continent, that has historically been fragmented, and that is currently possible thanks to the process of European integration and the institutional design created by all of us.

European Parliament

The European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) already had a consultative assembly from 1952, drawn from national parliaments, as a democratic embellishment, later shared with the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC or Euratom).

Despite some progress, it took until 1979 for the first directly elected European Parliament to emerge.


Existing electoral rules

The (consolidated) contents of the common electoral rules have not been conveniently available to EU citizens, as I found out ahead of the EP election 2009 (but also got help).

Since the legal portal Eur-Lex still does not seem to offer (easy) access to the Act in force (consolidated), the best resource available is probably again the consolidated version in a Duff report, this time the one we discuss below. See ANNEX I – Consolidated version of the Act concerning the election of the representatives of the Assembly by direct universal suffrage annexed to the Council decision of 20 September 1976, and of the subsequent amendments thereto (pages 9-13).


AFCO report

If we jump to more current events, we find that Andrew Duff MEP has drafted a report adopted by the Constitutional Affairs Committee (AFCO) of the European Parliament, but not voted on yet by the plenary.

The proposal would attribute an added 25 seats in the EP to candidates proposed by the European political parties (Europarties) throughout the 27 member states. These members would be elected in a pan-EU constituency from transnational lists.

Every elector would have two votes - one for the national or regional list and one for the transnational, pan-European list:

Committee on Constitutional Affairs: DRAFT SECOND REPORT on a proposal for a modification of the Act concerning the election of the members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage of 20 September 1976; 20.9.2011, rapporteur: Andrew Duff

You can follow the next steps of the procedure under 2009/2134(INI).


Weaknessess

The descriptive part highlights some of the existing weaknesses worth mentioning:

H. popular recognition of Parliament's democratic function remains limited, political parties at European level are still in the early stages of development, electoral campaigning remains more national than European, and media reporting of Parliament's proceedings is irregular,

I. overall turnout in the elections to Parliament has fallen steadily from 63 per cent in 1979 to 43 per cent in 2009,

The low proportion of women candidates is mentioned.

The Duff report offers an introductory view of the state of EP electoral rules and a number of proposed amendments and points to negotiate with the member states. I invite my readers to evaluate and to discuss these issues as well.


European Electoral Act

The More Europe Manifesto seems to have set its sight slightly higher, by calling for a European Electoral Act, more than some ad hoc amendments and principles.

The shorter name would be an improvement in itself.

The initiators want to make the European Parliament election campaigns more European, make the work of the European Parliament better known, foster public debate and participation among citizens, and promote the visibility and understanding of policies that are decided and implemented at a European level.

In a union based on its citizens, the vote of each elector should have roughly the same weight. However, the existing rule of ”degressive proportionality” may prove a hard nut to crack, both within the European Parliament and especially among the member states (unanimity twice).

Even the cautious step of an extra EU-wide vote is seen by some as diluting national representation, instead of as a step forward towards real and lively participation by EU citizens at the European level.

Here, progressive member states need to show leadership by forming a reform group.


More Europe proposals

I have mentioned the positive More Europe initiative of the Spanish eurobloggers in earlier posts: announcement, free movement, EU symbols and education about European integration, fiscal and social harmonisation in the eurozone, EU-wide constituencies and the next Commission president to emerge with a clear political mandate from the voters in the elections to the European Parliament, as well as the call for a single seat for the European Parliament.

The More Europe proposals are worth discussion among citizens and politicians. Read and sign the appeal on the More Europe blog, participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope and under the hashtag #moreurope. Read, think and share in Europe 2.0 mode.



Ralf Grahn

More Europe Manifesto: single seat for European Parliament

After my latest post about the More Europe Manifesto I wanted to compress the conclusions about EU or eurozone level democracy into Twitter mode:

#Euro crisis Everything else has failed - why not try EU #democracy

#Euro Alternatives are #Merkozy or #democracy leading #eurozone

Citizens for Europe

But let us return to More Europe. In order to overcome the crises in the eurozone and the wider European Union, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe.

You can read and sign the appeal on the More Europe blog. You can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope and under the hashtag #moreurope, and you can help to spread the word among citizens of the European Union.

The initiators act as EU citizens. Hence they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, their sixth proposal aims at bringing the so called travelling circus of the European Parliament to an end.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

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6) We believe it is essential to set only one seat for the European Parliament, either in Brussels or Strasbourg, in order to reduce costs and duplication of duties. We believe that this austerity measure will bring the institutions closer to citizens. If Brussels is chosen as the only headquarters, we suggest that Strasbourg remains as a symbol of the creation of the EU and become a peace and common history museum.

One seat

Before the Treaty of Lisbon officially introduced the citizens' initiative (ECI) – in Article 11(4) TEU – the campaign collected signatures for locating the European Parliament solely in Brussels. When I looked, 1,270,847 persons had signed the One Seat initiative, said to save about 200 million euros annually if enacted.


European Citizens' Initiative (ECI)

The ordinary legislative procedure applies to the provisions for the ECI procedures and conditions (Article 24 TFEU).

Even if the principle is clear, a lot of ECI details are laid down in a Regulation, available in all 23 official EU languages; in English:

REGULATION (EU) No 211/2011 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 16 February 2011 on the citizens’ initiative; OJEU 11.3.2011 L 65/1

The Regulation 211/2011 will apply only from April Fools' Day 2012 (officially 1 April).

The European Economic and Social Committee EESC) has published a brochure for organisers and the wider public:

Your Guide to the European Citizens' Initiative (2011; 24 pages; available in 22 languages)

The admissibility criteria seem to point in the direction of more or less normal legislative issues, within the Commission's powers to make proposals, not high politics concerning the nature of the EU itself or even Treaty details.

Article 2(1) limits the admissibility in the the following manner:

Article 2
Definitions

For the purpose of this Regulation the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘citizens’ initiative’ means an initiative submitted to the Commission in accordance with this Regulation, inviting the Commission, within the framework of its powers, to submit any appropriate proposal on matters where citizens consider that a legal act of the Union is required for the purpose of implementing the Treaties, which has received the support of at least one million eligible signatories coming from at least one quarter of all Member States;

Intergovernmental cooperation

Like most of the really important matters in the European Union, the seats of the institutions have been agreed between the governments of the member states (”owners”). Protocol (No 6) annexed to the Lisbon Treaty states:

Sole Article

(a) The European Parliament shall have its seat in Strasbourg where the 12 periods of monthly plenary sessions, including the budget session, shall be held. The periods of additional plenary sessions shall be held in Brussels. The committees of the European Parliament shall meet in Brussels. The General Secretariat of the European Parliament and its departments shall remain in Luxembourg.

Officially, Strasbourg is the seat of the European Parliament, a fact opponents often glide over, although most of the work of the MEPs, most of the time is done in Brussels.

As a Treaty level provision, the seat of the EP is behind two unanimity locks: agreement by all the governments of the member states and ratification by all the members (national parliaments).

The seat of the European Parliament is an example of the outcomes with ”freely cooperating sovereign nation states”, a principle cherished by the government of the United Kingdom, to name just one prime proponent of sub-optimal outcomes.


French opposition

Despite public outcry and a majority of MEPs coming out in favour of one seat (Brussels), including an impact assessment 'A tale of two cities' and the @SingleSeatEU campaign, the French government continues its adamant opposition to any change. Some governments have come out in favour of one seat, too.

The More Europe Manifesto is slightly more cautious than the one seat campaign, the MEPs' vote and the Single Seat campaign, but the tenor is the same. They even want to offer Strasbourg compensation, should Brussels emerge as the sole seat.

I suppose that all the initiatives would like to see the General Secretariat joining the rest of the Parliament in its future single location.

Somehow the sensible solution would be to let the European Parliament decide on its own location and organisation. Now the EP is seen as wasteful, without the powers to change the obviously unsatisfactory state of affairs in this respect.


More Europe proposals

I have mentioned the refreshing More Europe initiative of the Spanish eurobloggers in earlier posts: announcement, free movement, EU symbols and education about European integration, fiscal and social harmonisation in the eurozone, as well as EU-wide constituencies and the next Commission president to emerge with a clear political mandate from the voters in the elections to the European Parliament.

Read and sign the appeal on the More Europe blog, participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope, hashtag #moreurope, and help to spread the word. The More Europe proposals are worth discussion among citizens and politicians.

***

Citizens of the European Union are entitled to express their opinions and to help forming public opinion in favour of reform.

Gutta cavat lapidem...



Ralf Grahn

More Europe Manifesto: EU symbols represent values

As I mentioned here and here, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the impending catastrophe in the eurozone and the wider European Union and to start a virtuous circle of development for the citizens of the union.

You can join the appeal on the More Europe blog and you can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope, hashtag #moreurope.

They act as EU citizens, so they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, they see the symbols of the European Union as important expressions of our shared values.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

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2) The symbols and the flag of the EU are not just objects. Otherwise they represent our values as a community, which are fundamental to the progress and democracy of the European society.

***

In a declaration (52), attached to the Treaty of Lisbon, sixteen of the member states expressed similar sentiments. They are Belgium, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Malta, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and the Slovak Republic.

They declared that the flag with a circle of twelve golden stars on a blue background, the anthem based on the ‘Ode to Joy’ from the Ninth Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven, the motto ‘United in diversity’, the euro as the currency of the European Union and Europe Day on 9 May will for them continue as symbols to express the sense of community of the people in the European Union and their allegiance to it.

The Europa portal offers you information about the symbols of the EU and additional links. Wikipedia broadens the scope to our continent Europe, with symbols from myth, history and art.

This makes me think of the Deutsches Historisches Museum, which published a catalogue with a magnificent collection of art depicting the idea of Europe (Idee Europa) through the ages, for an exhibition in 2003. I wish that every European family could have a DHM book of its own.

The appeal from the eurobloggers on the More Europe blog and on Twitter @moreurope reminds us that our common cultural roots and our shared destiny go much deeper than mere material advantages.



Ralf Grahn

More Europe Manifesto for free travel

As I mentioned yesterday, a group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the impending catastrophe in the eurozone and the wider European Union.

You can join the appeal on the More Europe blog and you can participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope.

They act as EU citizens, so they want to build on European achievements important for ordinary people. Their appeal is now available in eight languages.

After stating the need for greater European integration, the first concrete accomplishment they want to safeguard is the right to free movement.

“More Europe” Statement

Given the dramatic social situation in many Member States caused by the economical crisis and the anti-European voices predicting the breakup of the Economic and Monetary Union, the undersigned ask for More Europe.

We consider it is necessary to move to a greater European integration in order to address the current situation of social and economic crisis affecting Europe and for this reason we will join our forces as European citizens. To achieve our goal we claim that:

1) The Schengen area of free movement is the result of the political and social work of a generation knowing the devastating consequences of World War II. The Schengen area guarantees equality, security, communication, cooperation and, to sum up, freedom between European citizens. This statement supports the defense of the EU area as a whole. Any exception on this means unequal rights among European citizens and residents.

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The Schengen Agreement was later incorporated into the EU Treaties. The Schengen Area of free travel now comprises 25 countries, with some 400 million people, and four more countries are heading towards membership in the area of free movement.

Sign the appeal on the More Europe blog and participate in the Twitter discussion @moreurope.



Ralf Grahn

Eurozone: Citizens concerned

If the national governments want something better than the impending crash, why don't they get to grips with the issues of democratic empowerment and sufficient powers at European level?

This is where we stand today: Eurozone: A matter of common concern, a real concern for citizens and businesses alike.

According to Jacques Delors, the former president of the European Commission, the euro and Europe are on the brink of the abyss. Notre Europe has collected the interviews and media reactions: Jacques Delors face à la crise de l'euro.

In Le Taurillon, Nessim Znaïen highlighted some proposals by Delors in the interview published by Le Temps.

Spencer Kimball, on European Dialogue, stated that US, EU debt crisis escalates in the face of political gridlock.

The Green MEP Reinhardt Bütikofer cautiously speaks about the need for empowering the European Parliament in the management of the euro crisis.

The calculus of not saving the Euro goes beyond economics, but it is in fact a political decision, Maxime Larive wrote on the Foreign Policy Association blog.

The blog of the office of György Schöpflin MEP noted the threat of intergovernmentalism. The Franco-German plans to govern the euro are expressly designed to circumvent the Commission and the European Parliament. The pressure to reassert state-national interest over a European-level interest neglects and probably damages the EU’s conflict resolution function.

Come September, when, or rather if, the permanent bailout mechanism takes over the role of the ECB, we shall see whether these crisis measures are enough to save the euro, Finn Maigaard wrote on the Foreign Policy Association blog.

Finland insists on getting collateral for participating in the second Greek rescue package. Other eurozone governments have reacted and the markets are raising alarms, Peter Spiegel wrote on the FT Brussels blog.

The current crisis in Europe isn’t just a Greek or German or Irish or Portuguese problem, it’s a European one, Jason O'Mahony wrote.

Protesilaos Stavrou wrote that if things stay as they are then we will reach a dead end that will signal the start of the collapse of the euro and of everything that took decades to build. The blog post offers practical proposals on remedies for the systemic crisis.

The European Central Bank is forced to act as a fire department, because chancellor Merkel postpones the saving of the euro. After months of silence, the German president Christian Wulff finds nothing better to say than to criticise the independent ECB, Eric Bonse wrote on Lost in Europe (in German).

Laurence Boon, on Telos, explains that eurobonds are no miracle cure, but they could be a help on certain conditions.

Megan Green reasons that Eurobonds could work, but we'll probably never know. Throughout the euro crisis, EU leaders have repeatedly demonstrated that their top priority is their own national self-interest, despite the huge potential downside risks this poses to the common currency.

Although the European Union is formally a democracy, it does not act like one. We're in the middle of a massive crisis, but when it comes to the solutions, we are talking about national solutions to European problems, wrote The European Citizen.

***

If the national governments want something better, why don't they discuss politically legitimate government and sufficient solutions to European problems?

The new articles on 841 euroblogs are just one click away. Follow and participate in the discussion about the eurozone and other European issues on multilingual Bloggingportal.eu, an important part of the European public space.



Ralf Grahn

Germany leading eurozone and EU reform?

Could Germany lead reform to take the right decisions at the right level, in a democratic manner? As Hamilton wrote, ”the means ought to be proportioned to the end”, but powers needed for the eurozone and the European Union should be based on their citizens.


Eurozone

Only the European Central Bank can act right now, but eurobonds would be sensible in the medium term, said Dr Daniela Schwarzer of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik SWP): Eurokrise: Der Preis des Zauderns (4 August 2011).

The title evokes the cost of delaying effective action in the eurozone, when the market players keep driving the politicians. The ESM is too small to prevent a market run on one of the bigger euro area members, and it is hard to imagine that a rescue fund large enough would be politically feasible.

Just a few days before the weekend, Schwarzer saw the ECB as the only euro area institution with the ability to act, despite the drawbacks.

Eurobonds would mean a quantum leap in integration, but instituting common borrowing as part of ”crisis management” would further harden resistance by opponents to the euro currency.

In June 2011, Schwarzer had criticised the decision makers of wasting a year, even if some progress had been made: Eurokrise: Das vergeudete Jahr (22 June 2011).

I see willingness to advance beyond the mute national governments, but little in the way of democratic reform.

Interested readers can find more on the through the SWP web pages ”Die Eurozone” as well as the broader SWP-Themendossier ”Finanz- und Schuldenkrise”.


Germany in Europe

With its population and economic clout, Germany is needed for indispensable reform to strengthen the European Union and the eurozone on a democratic basis, but we see little inclination among the current German political leadership. Researchers seem to be more ready for incremental progress in various policy areas, but discussion about remedying the lack of democratic legitimacy remains vague. See:

Annegret Bendiek, Barbara Lippert and Daniela Schwarzer (eds.): Entwicklungsperspektiven der EU - Herausforderungen für die deutsche Europapolitik; SWP-Studien 2011/S 18, July 2011, 147 pages

***

The German government and its allies need to set a new course towards democratic and substantive reform.



Ralf Grahn

Painful reading for an EU citizen: Hungarian media law in EP

After the discussion about the importance of EU founding values – for the citizens of the European Union and for the EU in the wider world – it was painful to read the press summary from the European Parliament: Hungarian media law sparks controversy at the European Parliament (18 January 2011).

Instead of putting European founding values and citizens first, the representatives of the European People's Party (EPP) persisted in legal sophistry and in belittling the issues at stake.

I had hoped that the unfortunate early comments from EPP leaders such as group leader Joseph Daul and EPP president Wilfried Martens would – on reflection – have been scrapped in favour of a principled approach from the strongest political group in the EP, the other EU institutions and the member states.

I was wrong, painfully wrong.



Ralf Grahn



P.S. After a week of technical problems, the multilingual aggregator Bloggingportal.eu is again online, bringing you the posts from 732 Euroblogs. European political awareness is needed more than ever.

UK and the fall of the ”EU dictatorship”

”Gov(ernmen)t sees off revolt by Tory eurosceptics”, if we believe the AFP, but readers of Mail Online are happy to be served ”Tory eurosceptics win battle over UK 'sovereignty clause' ”.

In UK discourse about the EU even the most basic of facts are contested, if we assume that the reporting concerns the same Parliament and the same European Union (Bill).

Those who are able to stomach it can delve deeper into parliamentary debate on Europe, UK style.


EuroGoblin

Ahead of the parliamentary debate in the United Kingdom, EuroGoblin was more interested in the coming vote than in the crusade from the Daily Express: We Are the Knights Who Say … No! (10 January 2011).

In my view it would be wrong to ignore the astounding argumentation concerning the ”EU dictatorship” by the self-proclaimed ”world's greatest newspaper” The Daily Express, presented on 23 pages in order to ”Get Britain out of the EU” (8 January 2011).

That a newspaper can thrive on such writing anywhere in the free world beggars belief, not only with regard to editorial standards, but the quality of large parts of the political establishment and the educational system of the nation.


BRICs rising and Europe sinking

I wrote a comment on the EuroGoblin blog, where I tried to explain why the European Union needs less retrograde thinking and a whole lot more of energy in a world increasingly shaped by the BRICs. Even if the United Kingdom is an extreme example of toxic discourse, the rest of Europe is well on its way to oblivion:

I am actually less insouciant than you [EuroGoblin], because the debate in the United Kingdom is characterised by varying degrees of backwardness, even more than in Europe generally.

In the real world various Asian countries have already surpassed the EU member states in educational achievements (Pisa), China is about to pass Europe in research and development within a decade, the world’s industrial output is increasingly produced in Asia, the Chinese armed forces are strenghtened at a rapid pace, the US and European governments are in hock to China, and as consumers we spend more than we earn on Chinese goods.

There seem to be only token efforts to put the European Union back on the world map and on the road to economic prosperity.

Discussing various scenarios of backward mobility (as in the UK) gives me the impression of criminal neglect from our beloved leaders.

Energy and democracy

In my view, the citizens of the European Union need an energetic and effective union in the crucial matters of security and prosperity, but this union has to be based on its citizens, meaning full EU level democracy and political accountability.

A Britain erring between the Scylla of still more sterile sovereignty or the Charybdis of EU withdrawal is certainly not the leadership model Europeans need for the high seas of the 21st century. The best we can hope for from the United Kingdom is to do as little damage as possible.

But where are the leaders the rest of us EU citizens need?



Ralf Grahn



P.S. Oh, US is US, and EU is EU, and never the twain shall meet? Forgive me, Kipling, but it will be interesting to see what my new acquaintance The Worden Report makes of his comparison of federalism in the United States and the European Union in the end. In my humble opinion, Europe has substantially more than a healthy dose of Anti-Federalist (News)Papers for the challenges of the 21st century, especially in the English language.