If one were to judge much of what is reported or commented upon by the media, the European Union is destined to fail and to disintegrate. Popular disenchantment and Euroscepticism seem to be gaining the upper hand as ‘Brussels’ gets the blame for most of the woes that ordinary European citizens have had to face since the financial crisis broke out in 2008.
We have recently witnessed the dramatic developments related to the situation in Greece, a country that can boast of having given birth to the very notion of democracy and almost found itself bankrupt and cast out of the euro area. More mind-boggling perhaps was the contradiction of a country forced to accept a deal with conditions that are even tougher on it than the package a majority of Greek citizens had rejected in a referendum just a few days’ earlier.
The deal, which the Polish-born president of the European Council and of the euro summit, Donald Tusk, and French President Francois Hollande seemed to have brokered between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and which was then endorsed by all 19 euro area countries, does not resolve the issue permanently. Indeed, negotiations will now start for another bailout, the third since the onset of the crisis.
On the other hand, less than a month ago, at the European Council in Brussels, British Prime Minister David Cameron set out his plans to his 27 colleagues for an (in/out) referendum in the United Kingdom. The Council agreed to revert to the matter in December.
Therefore, whereas, on the one hand, the handling of the Greek situation may have fanned popular disaffection with the European project, on another front, the EU will be facing a fresh challenge not only because the UK is bound to hold the in/out referendum by 2017 and, therefore, there is a real risk of the UK actually leaving the Union, but also because we are not aware of what Cameron actually wants.
He is asking for reforms. So far, we only know that, broadly speaking, the reforms he is seeking relate to sovereignty issues, safeguarding the position of the non-euro area EU member states, limiting the rights of migrants to State benefits and cutting red tape to ensure economic growth.
However, the EU is composed of 28 countries and, surely, Cameron cannot expect to have the EU remodelled according to what would go down well with the electorate in the UK. The EU is not about the aspirations of merely one of its members but an exercise in solidarity among 28.
When one looks at the events of the past weeks, much as though one would have wanted to avoid a Grexit, clearly this could not come at any price. The EU is a union of sovereign states that voluntarily agree to share sovereignty in a number of areas where it is felt that acting together is more effective than doing it alone.
We need to write a new narrative that can reconnect the European Union with its citizens and restore hope in a better future
When, on May 9, 1950, Robert Schuman, then foreign minister of France, had submitted his proposal to set up a European Coal and Steel Community as the first step to the creation of a Fédération Européenne, he had declared that “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.” There are two key elements in this statement.
Firstly, there is no ‘single plan’ to unite Europe. There is no British, French, German or Maltese plan. The EU has managed to get this far because no one country has tried to impose a model for European integration. Federalists co-exist with those who insist on highlighting national sovereignty.
The recently published so-called ‘Five presidents’ report’ on ‘Completing Europe’s economic and monetary union’ has outlined the need for a genuine economic union as well as a financial union, a fiscal union and a political union as the formula to complete the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). This report is bound to re-ignite the debate.
However, the key question remains whether the euro can succeed in the long term without the framework necessary to sustain a true economic and monetary union. In an interview published last Sunday on Journal du Dimanche, Hollande called for a “stronger organisation” behind the euro led by “a vanguard of countries”. He declared: “I have proposed taking up Jacques Delors’ idea about euro government, with the addition of a specific budget and a parliament to ensure democratic control”.
Secondly, European unity is being built step by step through “concrete achievements”. Undoubtedly, so many of us take these achievements for granted, starting from the fact that the European project has guaranteed the longest period of peace in European history.
To those who would counter that war in Europe would be impossible, I would reply that one need only look at the situation in our neighbours to the east, Ukraine and Syria in particular, and to those in the south, especially Libya.
Surely there is much to criticise in how the EU functions today. However, the EU is what it is because this is what its member states wish it to be.
At its core, the EU remains an international organisation that depends on free choices by sovereign member states. It exercises those competences which these countries have agreed to and in a manner in which they determine and set out in international treaties.
Indeed, it has institutions such as a council, a parliament, a commission and a court of justice. Yet, these very institutions act in accordance with the treaties, that is, according to the will of the contracting parties - sovereign states.
Hence, it is ultimately these member states that must shoulder responsibility for what the EU is today. Pointing the finger elsewhere is a useless exercise that will not get us anywhere.
What is required is the political will necessary to reignite enthusiasm for the European project by moulding it into a concrete vision for a future that can ensure the well-being and prosperity of all its citizens.
When addressing a public lecture held in Malta recently, the Polish Undersecretary of State for Parliamentary Affairs, European Policy and Human Rights, Henryka Moscicka-Dendys, spoke of the need for a new narrative to address and convince young persons in particular on the validity of the European project.
A few days later, her Italian counterpart, Sandro Gozi, who was also speaking in Malta, referred to the need for a new European governance that promotes enhanced cooperation between member states “as an instrument of strengthening the EU, by reducing barriers between citizens and institutions”.
Europe is at a crossroads. Much has been achieved and it is important that we continue to highlight the successes. However, we also need to look at what is not working so well in order to strengthen the existing framework, having the courage to change where change is needed and not just for the sake of change.
I consider greater involvement and more active participation by citizens as vital elements in such a process.
Despite many efforts to encourage this, even at the local level, most Europeans do not appear to be interested in engaging in any serious debate on the future of Europe. I do not expect everyone to be passionate about Europe, yet I worry about the apparent lack of interest.
We spent an entire decade discussing the advantages and disadvantages of Malta joining the EU.
Once that goal was achieved and with the two main political parties more or less speaking with one voice on European issues (not a bad thing in itself), although public opinion surveys indicate a comforting trend in Malta where the EU is concerned, I still worry about the absence of any keen interest in Malta on European issues as could be seen, for example, by the absence of politicians, senior civil servants, academics and journalists, to mention just a few, at the public events addressed by Moscicka-Dendys and Gozi.
We cannot afford to allow the European project to fail. However, to do so, rather than merely criticising its shortcomings, we need to write a new narrative that can reconnect the European Union with its citizens and restore hope in a better future.