Enrique Barón Crespo
La era del federalismo
Barcelona, RBA Libros, 2014
Enrique Barón Crespo, a Jean Monnet chair and Brussels insider, has devoted much of his public and intellectual life to building a more united Europe. A holder of doctorate degrees in both economics and law, Barón Crespo started his political career in Spain as a Socialist MP and later on as cabinet minister for transportation (1982-1987) under then Prime Minister Felipe González.
Following his election to the Spanish Parliament in the first free elections after the death of General Franco in 1977, the author became a member of the Constitutional Committee that drafted the democratic Constitution, which among other things established regions with legislative powers vis-à-vis the central government.
A decade later, Barón joined the European Parliament in the first batch of Spanish MEPs after following the country’s accession to the then European Communities. Within just two years, he was elected President of the Parliament, overseeing critical events in Europe’s history such as the fall of the Berlin wall. He continued in the European Parliament as a particularly active MEP until 2009, when he retired. During this time in active politics he has also served as the President of the Socialist Group at the European Parliament and President of the European Movement International. In addition, Barón Crespo has published several books on the future of Europe and the European idea, most notably Europe at the Dawn of the Millennium, published in 1999.
Following the publication of his memoirs in 2013 titled Más Europa ¡unida!, Memorias de un socialista europeo, Barón Crespo has authored La era del federalismo, in which he makes a strong case for federalism in Spain, Europe and ultimately in the World, based on his own political experience as well as on relevant historical examples that are described in the book. The historical references to the US, the textbook case of federalism, and to the foundation and evolution of the European Communities are not a mere academic exercise, but cleverly connected points in order to explain the current predicament of European affairs and to propose the changes necessary to achieve a fully federal union in the Old Continent.
One should not underestimate such a clear commitment to a Federal Europe from a former President of the European Parliament and consummate Brussels political operator, at a time when so many experts and policymakers still cling to euphemisms in order to avoid using the “F-word”, even when in fact they may be advocating for federalism. In other words, Enrique Barón is not just a Europhile; he openly describes himself as a Federalist, and what is more important, he largely succeeds in crafting his relevant intellectual contribution to our common fight. As a friend of Enrique myself, and co-author of the book’s epilogue, I can share a story with you. In early 2013, after the foundation of the Union of European Federalists branch in the Madrid region, we invited him as the keynote speaker to one of our very first public events. It was at the follow-up dinner when Barón Crespo told me and other guests that that evening´s debate had inspired him, and as a consequence he would be writing a book on federalism. Needless to say, he has followed through on that promise and even dedicated the work to the young federalists.
The book begins by reminding the reader that many key countries of the G-20 are federations, including certainly the United States of America, but also Germany, Brazil, India, Mexico, Canada. This starting point allows the author to consider Globalization as the era of federalism, quite a remarkable statement. We also learn that Enrique´s first encounter with federalism dates back to 1962, when he first visited Switzerland, a multinational federation with roots going back to the Middle Ages, and made up of 26 cantons with four official languages. Coming from Spain, which was under the centralist, authoritarian regime of Franco, his experience in the Alpine country left a strong mark in the young Enrique. His Federalist thinking is “integral”, in the sense of being applicable (and necessary) both for political decentralization of unitary states, in which peoples with strong identities can peacefully live together, and also for the coming together of nation states for the sake of sharing a common destiny by setting up a supranational political entity. The European Union (EU) is a case in point of federalism from the bottom-up.
Barón is cautious to consider the EU as a federation, although he points out that it is a member of the G20 and is certainly a federation in the making. First of all, the author recalls that the Schuman Declaration of 1950 stated precisely that the ultimate goal of its step-by-step integration was a European federation. This is no afterthought but a consequential point, even if the different Eurosceptic tribes chose to ignore it.
A careful reading of Jean Monnet’s memoirs makes it clear that this was indeed the case; the difference back then between many functionalists and the federalists proper was mostly one of method. This must be remembered when a government from a certain Member State proposes the call for “an ever closer union” to be deleted from the Treaties. Furthermore, it is particularly unfortunate that in its conclusions made on the 27th of June 2014, the European Council stated that “the concept of an ever closer union allows for different paths of integration for different countries, allowing those that want to deepen integration to move ahead, while respecting the wish of those who do not want to deepen any further”. While one can agree on the first part of the statement (the different paths of integration) and also that, as a matter of fact, Member States cannot, and should not, be forced into further sovereignty sharing, it is dangerous to give credence to views that seek to limit or redefine the nature of the club they freely joined in the first place. I, for one, think that the Schuman Declaration remains valid and current, and it should be considered part of the material constitution of the EU even if it is not part of the Treaties.
The author also attempts to clarify the meaning of federalism, even going back to its original etymology, which may make reference to either unity or trust. Barón rightly thinks that these two ideas, union and confidence, are key to federalism, to the aspiration of living together under a common purpose. Pages 36, 37 and 38 of the book outline the main features of federalism as the best way to achieve international peace and internal freedom, many of them (if not all) already present in the 10th and 51st articles of the Federalist Papers written by Madison. These key characteristics are, apart from the desire of sharing a common destiny, the following: a more or less clear distribution of competencies among the different levels of government, subsidiarity, decentralization and autonomy, constitutionalism, individual rights emanating from common institutions and norms, territoriality, balancing of subnational and national powers, and permanent negotiation between the centre and the component parts of the federation.
A whole chapter of the book (the third) is devoted to review the “battle of New York” during the debate on the US Constitution back in the 18th century, including the so-called Hamiltonian moment that followed it – the consolidation of the States’ debts by the Federal government – and its permanent influence on the Federalist thought. In my view, the author’s list of federalist features should be completed with, at least, the prevalence of the majority principle over unanimity in decision-making, and the attribution of certain specific competencies to the federal government, particularly the issuance of currency, taxation, counter-cyclical budget power, defence and foreign affairs.
The fourth chapter titled “The European Federation” is devoted to the relationship between federalism and peace in the immediate post-war context, and the first steps of European integration. It is worth recalling that the federalist ideology and its preoccupation with the problem of war has deep and old intellectual and philosophical roots, going back at least to the works of Immanuel Kant. A world composed of fully independent and sovereign nation states is the Hobbesian state of nature, in which the strongest power at each point in time makes the law, in a context of a permanent struggle for predominance over the rest.
This state of international anarchy can be solved either by one of the states becoming hegemonic, hence dominating everyone else, or by a democratic world federation. International organisations and alliances lacking a supranational character, while helpful in many respects, are unable by their own very nature to solve the problem of the absolute sovereignty of the nation states. The project of a European federation that started in 1950 is an attempt at guaranteeing permanent peace in Europe and contributing to world peace. The first goal has certainly been achieved, since no EU Member States have been in a state of war with one another since 1945. It is not a small achievement, which, as the author underscores, started with the apparently modest proposal of setting up a joint management of coal and steel production.
Perhaps the culmination of Barón Crespo’s analysis is in the fifth chapter, which describes a “federalizing” EU, particularly after the Treaty of Maastricht and the addition of the monetary and political pillars to the European construction, until then mostly focused on the administration of the common market.
The author hails the Euro and the launching of a European citizenship as major federal achievements. Indeed, monetary union is a typical feature of any federal organization, as pointed out earlier, while the European Central Bank is a federal institution at least in its decision making process, as the recourse to national veto is not possible. The author considers that the Euro is mostly a success, being the currency of 19 Member States and the second unofficial world reserve currency. It is also true that even Greece, the country most damaged by the financial crisis, is still to this day struggling to remain at all costs a member of the Eurozone. This positive assessment of the Euro is to be complemented by acknowledging the need for a correlative fiscal union, to ensure the long term stability of the single currency. An ambitious program of fiscal federalism is found on page 125, with the proposal to harmonize taxes related to the single market (VAT and corporate tax) and to establish a supranational Financial Transaction Tax and a C02 Tax, which will allow for a higher EU budget and the creation of a EU treasury capable of issuing federal debt instruments (it is not by chance that Barón Crespo supports the New Deal 4 Europe campaign).
The European citizenship included in the Treaty of Maastricht is also a clear federal step, since individual rights emanate not just from national constitutions but also from the EU material constitution. Today, this has been completed with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is part of the Treaties.
The main problem in advancing federalization further, as Barón sees it, is the shameful recourse to inter-governmentalism, particularly in regard to the economic and financial crisis; the setting up of the European Stability Mechanism and certain aspects of the banking union raise issues of political legitimacy and democratic control.
Certainly, the European dialectic today should not be so much one pitching functionalists against federalists proper, as one between those that defend the Community method (i.e. a federal vision) and those that prefer the EU to be run by the Member States (hence, a confederal vision), leaving the Eurosceptics and the Europhobics aside. One can conclude that the Federalist program is perhaps more visionary than the current orientation of some ordinary Europhiles, particularly when it comes to Treaty change (absolutely necessary), also because we see the fully federal union of Europe in the wider context of Atlantic unity and even of a World federation.
In conclusion, Barón Crespo´s latest book, La era del federalismo, is particularly helpful in understanding and applying the Federalist thinking to the current state of affairs in the EU and to its immediate future; it makes for a great reading.