The “out” proponents regurgitate the following
arguments in support of their efforts to convince the UK electorate to vote NO
in the upcoming referendum:
i.
The EU is undemocratic, bureaucratic, ineffective and too
expensive
ii.
The EU undermines UK sovereignty (by eroding border control and
diminishing the UK judiciary)
iii.
A trade accord is possible outside
the political union (the UK only signed up for the common market)
iv.
EU inbound net migration undermines UK employment
v.
The EU is a Trojan horse for German dominance
vi.
The EU causes British global influence to diminish or undermines
NATO
vii.
The UK can flourish and prosper outside the EU
viii.
Reclaiming British values, means reclaiming British sovereignty away
from the collective
All the above (every single argument) is a blatant
falsehood (whether deviously manufactured or naively and ignorantly adopted). All
evidence and rational reasoning attests to the fact. Why certain (seemingly
intelligent) people attempt to put forward these barren arguments and choose to
embrace the anachronism of euro-scepticism and nationalism is a more
interesting intellectually debate than why these arguments are false in the
first place. This ought to be a separate study. But first we need to call out
the delusions, and not be deterred in the process by the Pythonesque audacity
of the challenge: What has the EU ever done for us! For the EU of course, by
any account has done and continues to do for us and for our children a lot more
than the Romans ever did!
- A Modern Institution
Far from being undemocratic, the EU is based on the
rule of law. It draws democratic legitimacy from all the European peoples
electing their national representatives (MPs and MEPs) and their governments.
All decisions are made based on mutually and democratically agreed rules.
Membership is discretionary not enforced. Any member state can leave. The
governance of the EU is based on the co-decision process, bringing together the
EU bodies (Commission, European Parliament) and the Member States (Council). The
division of powers is in the heart of the EU, with a strong independent
judiciary, respecting national traditions and sovereignty, on the basis of the
principle of subsidiarity. It is a complex and elaborate system of governance
fit for a complex world. It is appropriately polycentric, fit for the age of
global networks and the internet.
The EU legislature is the most progressive and
forward looking in the world and leads the way for others to follow on issues
such as consumer protection, data protection, privacy, competition law,
environmental protection (with the sophisticated pioneering initiatives on carbon
emissions or the REACH chemicals regulation) etc. Most laws that ensure our
lives in Europe are materially superior compared to any other place in the
world are thanks to EU initiatives, i.e. trans-national collective initiatives.
Future global challenges such as climate change, terrorism, security,
inequalities, etc. demand more international and regional cooperation – not less.
Relative to the tremendous benefits, the EU costs next to nothing, given that
it does not really have typical executive powers or administration (this
remains the domain of member states) but it is limited to acting as a pioneer
of policy initiatives and a coordinator between states.
- An Empowering Organisation
The EU is a system where old fashioned national
sovereignty is pooled together in a qualitative way that results in a
multiplying effect of the collective power, and not a mere aggregation. The EU
is the largest market economy in the world. It has clout and is able to
negotiate with the other giants of this world (US, China, India, Russia etc.).
The EU is able to negotiate collectively the strengthening of US – European relations,
either at the defence and security level, or at the level of the economy. The
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could not have happened without
a strong EU.
- A Harmonising Influence
The greatest fallacy in this debate is thinking
that it is possible for a free trade zone to exist without political union.
Free trade requires the removal of barriers to trade and borders. It is not
just about tariffs and customs. Uneven or varied regulation is an obstacle to
free trade, which adds cost that the consumer has to pay. To smoothen the
regulatory variances it is necessary for different jurisdictions to work
together politically. To have standing collective political and judicial institutions
(such as the Commission, the Council of Ministers, the Court of Justice, etc.) that
constantly iron out the regulatory differences through an on-going process of
harmonisation. The privilege of unilaterally enacting better regulations in one’s
country is far less appealing (from the point of view of free trade) than the
ability to harmonise laws across neighbouring countries that seek to come
together in a genuine common market. There can be no common market without a
strong political union. Rationality dictates more not less trans-national
cooperation on all levels.
- A Beacon of Mobility and Booster
of Growth and Employment
Workforce mobility is one of the pillars of the
EU (together with the freedom of movement of goods and capital). Capital and
goods by their very nature are mobile and know no borders. They are at the
heart of globalisation. But employee mobility is much harder, hampered by
language, ethnic, religious or purely practical barriers. The reason why the
middle classes have been squeezed hard in recent years in the West is because
work force mobility cannot compete with the mobility of capital and goods. Thus
the rich are able to shift assets and income in low taxation countries, whereas
employees are unable to follow, because of national borders. The EU for the
first time in human history has abolished the frontiers, not in the name of
some naïve dream but in the name of tangible prosperity, where Europe has not
only dared to imagine John Lennon’s dream, but has achieved to put it in action.
The net effect is a boost in economic activity and employment. The world needs
to “pull down this wall” as Pink Floyd would have us – to pull down as many
walls and barriers as possible, to allow for a truly free global market that
would ensure the greatest prosperity for the greater number. The EU is bold
start in the right direction. We need more of the same. Not less. Let’s resist
the politics of fear; the politics of protectionism. Let’s not allow humanity in
the dawn of the 21st century to go back to the petty turf wars of
the past. A strong EU with Britain in its heart is a solid guarantee.
- A Peace Protector
The EU was designed as a peace enterprise and has
been hugely successful in this regard. It has been a bottom up, democratic
unification process, unique and pioneering in the human experience. Thanks to
its polycentric structure and the institutional checks and balances it ensures
no one nation is too strong, but all are forced to work together. The Germany
of our lifetime thanks to the EU has been a force for good, a country committed
to the European project, and committed to the works of peace, the welfare of
its people, who through hard work have made the Eurozone the greatest exporting
economy in the planet.
- A Global Power
The EU has created an imposing first rate
economy. It has forged the European dream of opportunity, peace and prosperity.
In the numbers there is strength. The EU has been able to negotiate (on behalf
of all its members) trade or other treaties with the other giants of this
world. A small example is the pressure placed on US authorities on data
protection issues (in the wake of the Snowden scandal) which has forced the US
to change its laws and bring them more in line with EU requirements. The EU resembles
a sleeping giant. Its own people are truly unaware of its size and might. And
in the emerging unstable and complex world of the 21st century the
EU is ready and able to assert its authority, working in concert rather than in
opposition to the US, although able also to protect its own interests alone where
necessity dictates.
- Together we Stand – Divided we
Fall
British power is enhanced in this conglomeration,
no less than it is enhanced by its participation in NATO. The EU is not in
opposition to NATO. European security is tightly aligned with US security in
this century as in the last. And the two continents will continue to tread this
dangerous and complex world hand in hand as equal partners. EU’s greater focus
on its own defence will serve the US interests rather than undermine NATO. A
lonely UK will do little to reassure our American friends and allies.
- The Greatest Argument of All
There are no true British values other than the
European humanist values. Adam Smith, John Locke, David Hume, Francis Bacon,
Edward Gibbon, Thomas Hobbes, Isaac Newton, Thomas Paine, Thomas Reid all these
great Brits and many others, lighted with the depth of their intellect the
beacon of modernity to the world from these islands in tandem with fellow
European thinkers of the Enlightenment. They placed the individual centre-stage.
They elevated the subject of the
middle-ages to the citizen of our
modern world; they promoted the idea of the rule of law and of division of
power and of the free market; they advocated the notion of inalienable human
rights (protecting the individual from the arbitrary whims of tyrannical autocracy,
or of unchecked majorities). Everything
essentially British, that goes to the heart of one’s dignity is essentially
European. The EU empowers the individual over the limitations of the nation
state. The EU sets modern state institutions in the service of the citizen, and
allows her to spread her wings and fly beyond stifling national borders in the pursuit
of happiness; in the quest for fulfilment of one’s true potential; in the
pursuit of our European dream.
How can Britain, the cradle of modernity, the
beacon of parliamentary democracy, of human rights, of the rule of law, of
science, the country that twice in a century fought for European liberty and
saved the Continent in its darkest hour, now abstain from the Continent’s
brightest achievement, instead of leading the way, as the Brits always do? Will
history say that Britain lost its way and fell to the Bretix delusion, or will
this – the greatest battle of this generation for the future of this nation – be
won with a resounding YES in the upcoming referendum?
