Euro-sceptics are shamelessly exploiting the current economic crisis to misrepresent and undermine the European Union, its history, its institutions, its goals and its working methods. Like a marital union, the EU requires constant attention, support and belief that it can work in difficult as well as good times or else it risks separation and divorce. It is time now for a renewal of vows; to recommit to a federal union that is more stable, more efficient and more accountable.
The economic and financial crisis has showed up the key weaknesses in economic governance at EU level where a monetary policy was introduced without a parallel fiscal policy. Unlike other global currencies like the dollar or yen, the Euro still depends on 17 different economic strategies and bond markets, no common treasury, no common debt issuance and no common banking supervisor. This explains, to a large extent, why the bond markets extort far higher interest rates from Eurozone countries than from the US or Japan despite lower levels of public debt. Some of these lacunae are currently being addressed but progress is painfully slow and consensus on a common vision remains as elusive as ever.
This vision, we believe, should be based on a federal structure, defined and agreed in a new, concise constitutional document to be drawn up by the next European Parliament in conjunction with the Council and submitted to a referendum across the EU. The ‘f’ word has been much maligned in recent years, yet many Member States are themselves federal structures. It is perfectly possible, for example, to be Flemish, Belgian and European all at the same time. Indeed, in an increasingly post-national world, where the global economy is driven by major trading blocs and emerging markets, the European nation states of the 19th century lack economic and political weight. The G8 group of wealthy industrialised nations in 2030 will likely look quite different from that of today. In this context, sovereignty is better pooled at European level than lost at the global level.
However, the European Union struggles to win the hearts and minds of the public. Although the European Parliament has legitimacy through direct elections it still lacks credibility in the minds of many voters who don’t feel motivated to vote for their MEPs. The five-yearly European elections are treated largely as national referendums on the government in office rather than a chance to really debate the political choices to deal with transnational issues like climate change, terrorism, immigration or globalisation and national governments have a predilection for blaming Brussels for everything that goes wrong whilst claiming credit for everything that goes right. There needs to be a sea-change at all levels of public consciousness: European political parties must make a real effort to mount EU-wide campaigns and address the challenges we face together as a Union of 500 million citizens rather than just as 27 separate national entities whilst the prospect of electing the European Commission President from Party lists would be an incentive to improve turn-out so that voting is seen to have tangible consequences.
The next European Parliament, to be elected in June 2014, should become a Constituent Assembly whose chief responsibility would be to draw up a draft Constitution, in agreement with the Council of Ministers. The text should be short and concise (unlike the last attempt) and confine itself to genuinely constitutional aspects of EU governance and be submitted to a referendum simultaneously across all countries of the Union. Individual States could then also determine if they wish to be part of it. That is not only democratic but would force all countries to confront the issue of Europe head on and no longer hide in the shadows. Some countries may wish to forge ahead with closer integration whilst others may prefer a slower lane. There should be no compulsion, nor exclusion from the club. But the current state of muddling along is only creating friction (even animosity) and failing to deal with very real and pressing policy matters that require decisive action.
The European Union was intended to bring together the peoples of Europe after the devastation of two world wars, fuelled by nationalism on the back of economic depression. If we allow these forces to gain a foothold once again on our continent we will have wasted a century of building closer ties and condemned history to repeat itself. Federalism is our bulwark against nationalism. It is the right model for addressing the supranational challenges of the 21st century.
1 The article was originally published in Il Sole 24 Ore, July 11th, 2013