The European Union - New Thoughts
/The European Union
When I last wrote about the problems of the European Union and their implications for a new book, my mind was focused on the debate between economics and politics. I was still deeply immersed and influenced by the arguments that were advanced by Ernst Haas on neo-functionalism and the federalists within Europe.
I have now read David Cameron’s ‘EU speech at Bloomberg’, delivered on Wednesday January 23, 2013. He has a point of view that any thinking person simply has to engage. Put simply, David Cameron has argued that the first purpose of the European Union was to secure peace, and this he argues, has been achieved. Today, he maintains, the main, overriding purpose of the European Union is different: not to win peace, but to secure prosperity.
Given the continuous economic problems the EU is still experiencing, it would appear that the future of the European Union lies in fixing its economic problems and this influenced my original thoughts on whether to concentrate on economics as espoused by Haas or a political solution, which in essence would strengthen the institution of the EU itself by creating a federation with all the implications that this would entail. Now I feel there are three options:
1). Continue with more of the same, but as Cameron argues, “More of the same will just produce more of the same – less competitiveness, less growth, fewer jobs.”
2). Strengthen the ‘federalist’ component by creating a central bank, a single market, a single currency, a federal parliament, together with a new central government on the lines of either Germany, Switzerland or the United States of America. This would immediately stop the economic rot, but is this the only solution?
3). Create a confederation of states that devolves power back to the states within the European Union; a European Union that respects the rights and individualism of each state while strengthening the notion of a single market without necessarily adopting a single currency.
I think that this argument sets up the analysis for the book in a tighter framework. I am happy to pursue both courses of action intellectually to see whether we can tease out through debate what would be a better way to increase competitiveness and growth within the EU.
I am still wedded to the notion that the intervening variable is nationalism (with a small ‘n’) as how the states will eventually integrate into a new European Union will be done at the national level. Some states within Europe may even split into smaller entities. I am persuaded that Belgium will definitely move in this direction. The Catalans and Scots are also firm candidates in this regard, but the focus on how the nation states of Europe will eventually form a perfect union will remain in the hands of the traditional states themselves.
Nationalism as a concept is difficult to define, and will remain the focus of my intellectual pursuit for the time being.
