VGE and the grand UK opt-out (Updated)

Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who chaired the European Convention, has given his views on the grand opt-out by the United Kingdom at a conference titled ‘Britain with the EU: a special status’. How much of a loss would it be for the citizens of the European Union if Britain, already outside core areas and a consistent brake on institutional reform, opted for a special status roughly corresponding to a second-tier membership?

Is VGE just stating the obvious: Britain’s accentuated estrangement from Europe under a coming Conservative government?

***

As the father of the draft Constitution, VGE has repeatedly pointed out the substantial similarities between the Constitutional Treaty and the Lisbon Treaty, although the later stages have each diluted proposals by the European Convention.

But ‘Le blog de Valéry Giscard d’Estaing pour la démocratie en Europe’ has failed to live up to its motto ‘for democracy in Europe’. If VGE wants a strong and coherent Europe on the international scene, he should rethink the premises of the European project. Without democratic legitimacy the European Union is going to remain a soft power in a world of assertive hard powers.

The way forward lies well beyond the Lisbon Treaty: Security and prosperity, based on government of the EU citizens, by the EU citizens, and for the EU citizens.

With or without the United Kingdom, at least an advance group has to embrace the EU’s membership criteria for the European Union itself.


Ralf Grahn

P.S. 9 September 2008: Global Vision has the text of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's speech available at http://www.global-vision.net/files/downloads/download547.pdf (in French).
An English version is promised soon.

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.

***

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

EU: Unable to make decisions

The English blogosphere has addressed the latest public statements by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing with its customary narrow outlook, missing both his analysis and his suggestions for the future of the European Union.

Here are a few missing links from the L’Express interview with the former chairman of the European Convention (26 June 2008), but first a link to the whole interview, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing : « Il faut adopter le traité de Lisbonne »

http://www.lexpress.fr/actualite/politique/giscard-il-faut-adopter-le-traite-de-lisbonne_516403.html

Giscard d’Estaing’s analysis is that the institutional life has paralysed Europe for a long time. The problem is not what the European Union decides, but the fact that it does not reach decisions. Europe lacks true leadership, although Angela Merkel appears to be a genuine political leader in Europe.

The 27 leaders who convene four times annually are incapable of making real decisions.

According to Giscard d’Estaing the key to change is democratic. There is a need for responsible actors and the great decisions have to be taken democratically. Evidently this means qualified majority voting instead of unanimity.

The Lisbon Treaty has been ratified by 19 states, which represent 70 per cent of the population of the European Union.

One can deplore the decision of the Irish, who have said that the Lisbon Treaty does not suit them, although it responds to many of their demands.

Europe should handle only the questions for which our countries are too small. International trade, the money, competition, the great environmental problems, the defence of the European continent, these are for Europe. The rest is not!

It is up to the Irish government to think about a possible re-vote. The Irish are uneasy pro-Europeans. They should be reassured, not bullied. (If the Ireland does not ratify the Lisbon Treaty) negotiations are needed with the aim to let the other countries approve the treaty and give Ireland a special status, if that is what they want. It would be a British style development.

The situation has to be solved. The Irish can refuse to apply the Lisbon Treaty, but they can not take the rest of the Europeans hostage.

The coming European elections should look to the future. Should the European Union be a political entity defined by its institutions? Should enlargement continue, or is a pause called for? Should the powers of the EU be extended or (the present ones) respected? I hope that the citizens vote in June on these questions, because the future of 500 million people can not be built on diplomatic negotiations. We do not live in the times of the Holy Alliance anymore.

***

Readers of English anti-EU blogs tend to get a skewed picture of continental discourse on European integration. Learning languages and finding original sources offer independent means of understanding the real European Union better, both its merits and its shortcomings.

Enlightened citizens make for better politics.


Ralf Grahn