The Brexit Delusion

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!

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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 21^st century to go back to the petty turf wars of the past. A strong EU with Britain in its heart is a solid guarantee.

5. 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.

6. 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 21^st 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.

7. 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.

8. 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?