Anyone But Barroso and EU 2.0

I have not joined the Anyone But Barroso campaign, because I have limited my demands to competing candidates for the Commission Presidency. For me, the pan-European election comes first, the personalities second.

But I have been saddened by the fact that the Anyone But Barroso campaign has been in dire straits. Even if the campaigners were right about the need for a new President of the European Commission, the Europarties have failed in the very reason for their existence, to field competing candidates. They failed because of national heads of state or government, who are also national party leaders.

A host of heads of state or government in EU member states have gone back on the miserly concession they made when signing the Lisbon Treaty, to let the votes of EU citizens influence the nomination; this well ahead of the European elections.

N.B. These elites ─ heads of state or government ─are not “Brussels”, but national.


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The Anyone But Barroso campaign site has reported on mischievous use, emanating from Portugal, and a few minutes ago I was unable to access the site because of overload.

Are these dark forces going to target the Financial Times next?

Wolfgang Münchau’s Financial Times column Like a fish, Europe is rotting from the head is a clear indictment of the premature choice of national leaders and the European People’s Party.



Well, I cannot remember even one spontaneous exclamation of joy from EPP grass roots.

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An ever closer union among the members of the European Council against the EU citizens fails in two respects: legitimacy and outcomes.

To the extent possible, vote for the citizens’ European Union 2.0 in the European elections.


Ralf Grahn

Lisbon Treaty: If conciliation fails

The striking thing about the interview with Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, as reported in my 28 June 2008 blog post ‘EU: Unable to make decisions’, was his conciliatory tone. The Irish should not be bullied. Failing ratification, negotiations are needed to solve the crisis for both Ireland and the European Union.

But there is always the risk of failure. Different alternatives need careful thought. Financial Times columnist Wolfgang Münchau has been looking at various scenarios in his articles, with the latest addition ‘The options for a Europe without a script’, published 29 June 2008 on FT.com:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/f24b5eda-45eb-11dd-9009-0000779fd2ac.html

It is natural that political leaders are loath to discuss unpleasant truths as long as there is some hope of avoiding trouble, but it is necessary that free-thinking spirits offer the public realistic options.

According to Münchau we are not at breakdown point yet, but we have to consider the possibility that the Irish may not ratify the Lisbon Treaty in the end.

To continue with the Nice Treaty is out of the question, so Münchau supposes that the ratifiers find a way to enforce the Lisbon Treaty without some. He mentions the options of offering the non-ratifiers a chance to quit, various forms of intensified cooperation among integrationist countries and a regrouping under a new organisation.

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If negotiations fail, Europe faces the stark choice between immobility and action by a narrower membership. Here I agree with Münchau.

But a more effective union would further lessen the democratic legitimacy and accountability of the European project and harden the popular resistance, if not coupled with profound democratic reform. It is time for the European leaders to face up to the democratic requirements of the 21st century.

Europe cannot preach to the world what it doesn’t practice itself.


Ralf Grahn