A Europatriot speaks

The European Union is, without any doubt, the most successful political creation in human history. Countries which have fought and massacred each other for centuries are now members of the same confederation. The most terrible and destructive wars in history have been replaced by the free movement of peoples, opportunities to live and work unhindered in different countries, a free trade area and (for most members states) a common currency. The Union is continuously expanding. Its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of €12,256.48 billion makes it now the largest economy in the World, and its population of over 500 million is 50% larger than that of the USA. There is a queue of countries applying to join, all changing their political institutions to meet the high standards set by the Union for the human rights of its member states. The Union also runs the most successful space programme in the world.

The European Union has had a profound effect on how its citizens live. People move freely across borders that once involved queues and passports. Lorries drive down motorways where once they would have waited for hours for customs clearance. The once fortified and suspicious borders of Europe have become as permeable as those between US states or Canadian provinces. EU citizens increasingly live and work in each others’ countries. There are more than three-quarters of a million British people living in Spain and 200,000 in France. There are even more French citizens living in the UK. The EU promotes common patterns of work qualifications to ease the movement of labour, while schemes like Erasmus and Socrates make it easy for students and academic staff to study in universities in other EU countries.

This all constitutes an extraordinary change for the better in European history, and should be good reason for rejoicing. In most of Europe, the EU is indeed regarded as an essential part of political life. For smaller members states, it provides a welcome means of making an impact in a world otherwise dominated by the USA and China. Separatist movements like the SNP and Plaid Cymru look forward to their countries becoming full members of the EU. Even in the largest states like France and Germany, politicians accept that the EU enables these countries to exercise greater influence while at the same time allowing their economies to benefit from a massive free trade area. The exception to all this approval is England, whose politicians are silent about the benefits of the EU, while a large part of the political right-wing is ‘eurosceptic’ (a code word used by those who wish to leave the Union). Why has this happened?

The key reason is that the European Union has become a bogeyman for eurosceptics, blamed for all the changes in English life that they find unwelcome. In this respect, they resemble sections of the right-wing in the USA who see the ‘federal government’ (which is also mysteriously part of the ‘New World Order’) as the source of all their ills. The press in England has often supported this nonsense, with silly stories about the EU akin to those invented in previous years about the Greater London Council, trade unions, the Labour Party and all their other enemies. Stories of this kind fill a void created by legal bans on racism - newspapers can no longer abuse people of other races or religions, so the EU has become a substitute representative of unwelcome otherness. Needless to say, the media rarely makes any attempt to explain the institutions of the EU and how they work, thereby supporting the myth that the Union is run by ‘bureaucrats in Brussels’ rather than the more complicated reality of power shared between the European Council of member states, the Commission appointed by national governments, and a Parliament elected by the people of Europe.

Unnecessary venom is a problem in politics because it impedes effective debate, and can lead to terrorism. The Oklahoma bombings (against the US federal government and the New World Order) may one day see parallel attacks against EU institutions in this country. Opposition to the EU is also a distraction from the real causes of our present discontents. British soldiers have died in Iraq and Afghanistan not because of the EU, but because of the subservience of UK politicians to US foreign policy. The dreary standardisation of English towns and cities, and the undermining of rural life are the products not of the EU, but of the centralisation of power within England itself and the close alliance between governments and the large supermarket retailers and construction companies. Economic collapse is the result of the power of the financial sector over UK government, which has resisted regulation (including more effective regulation by the EU) and gained a series of favourable tax concessions which have enriched senior staff at public expense. The present system of government in England thus suits some people rather well, and it is convenient to shift the blame to the European Union.

Speaking for myself, I am proud to be a citizen of Europe. If my house had a flagpole, it would fly the 12 gold stars of the EU as well as the St George’s Cross of England.