Europe is not a good marriage: the divorce is near (Kristof Willekens)

It is almost too ironic: the nation that has benefit more than no other form the financial and infrastructural support provided by EU now says “No” to the Lisbon Treaty. A treaty that itself is a major patchwork for the initial Constitutional Treaty. This firm and clear “No” does not really seem to bother the EU patrons and is considered to be an “Irish problem”. Sin verguënza! There are several observations that need to be made towards the attitude of the great leaders that this is just an Irish problem. Primo, European leaders are trying to create an image of all against one, the one being Ireland, against all other EU members that have or will ratify Lisbon. Of course, this “No” more than what in argumentation is called a “straw man’s argument”. If there were more countries besides Ireland to organise a referendum, there is no doubt that more nations would (again) have said “No” to this new treaty. For instance, what about the United Kingdom, Poland or the Czech Republic? And didn’t France and The Netherlands already reject the Constitutional Treaty?

Secundo, it is true that in Ireland, as well as in France and The Netherlands in 2005, the No-campaign used false arguments and mostly relied on creating the idea of a monster state that governs far out of reach of national politicians, but the rejection of the initial and the new treaty cannot be put down to a global fear towards globalisation only. Unfortunately, the Eurocrats and great leaders of Europe consist on attributing the negative attitude of the population to just fear caused by globalisation and loss of certitudes in both personal and professional life. With this, they harm the EU-project, instead of defending it. The real threat for the EU is not the rejection of the treaties, but the way Eurocrats and the great leaders of Europe respond to that rejection.

For, those who take the effort of really listen to the real sighs of the European citizens learn that like in a good marriage, saying “No” to certain options does not mean one is wanting to file for divorce. What really concerns citizens, is their individual position in the great system that the European Union has become today. And this is not even about the democratic deficit that some consider as being the cause of negative attitude towards the European Union. No, it is just about something that can be resumed as the feeling that one has no longer the “control on the policy”.

Many of the Irish voters have clearly indicated not rejecting the EU as a whole, but only the way the EU works today. They are not rejecting the EU, they just want a better EU. And it has no doubt that in the 26 other member states, many people have the same opinion on the EU.

The way out of the actual crisis is not the attitude of the Eurocrats and the great leaders consisting in pointing out the No-voters as spoiled or even worse, dull. On the contrary, we can only assure the future of the EU-project if we at least give the impression of listening to the sighs of our citizens, whose opinion is the first and most important criterion of the success of EU policy.

After all, isn’t EU-cooperation said to give more guarantees on the creation of future prosperity and the protection of social and cultural rights on the European continent? If the Eurocrats really believe they can do better than individual national governments, it should not be difficult for them to go out in the field and convince the citizens that they should say yes to the EU-project…


The author is President of the Mises Youth Club in Brussels.

More articles by Kristof Willekens on www.misesyouth.org.
More articles by Vincent De Roeck on www.libertarian.be.