BRUSSELS: The tsunami that has swept across financial markets is a global catastrophe. If handled correctly, however, the crisis may yet raise the esteem of the European Union and its institutions.
The EU’s legitimacy problem has two different aspects: apathy, leading to a low turnout in the European parliamentary elections, and outright euro-skepticism. The voter-turnout problem partly reflects frustration about the present state of the EU, and also people’s impression that they can exert little influence by voting one way or the other.
Euro-skepticism, on the other hand, and the looming threat of anti-European populism, is directly linked to the idea that the EU is not merely incapable of offering a solution to the crisis, but in fact is part of the problem. So, although the EU represents our best hope of ensuring that Europe is internationally competitive in today’s increasingly difficult environment, it is actually being blamed for globalization.
Many people confuse these two aspects of the RU’s legitimacy problem, and believe that somehow turnout in European elections can be increased by pointing out to people how good and important the EU is. But in most cases, this is not possible.
At first sight, the easiest answer to the problem of low voter turnout is to give more power to the European Parliament. But if this was the solution, then we would not have had steadily declining turnouts since the high point of 63%, at the first elections to the European Parliament in 1979. After all, since then the EP’s influence and powers of joint decision-making have grown constantly.
The trouble is that, EP elections must be “about something if voters are to be interested, which means they must involve a real choice. And a real choice requires Europe-wide election campaigns by all parties. This would also involve making the choice of the European Commission’s president dependent on the outcome of the EP elections.
But, in fact, both of these conditions have already been met; in 2004, Portuguese Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso was appointed President of the Commission because he came from the political organization with the strongest election result, the European People’s Party. And this year’s elections saw a more intensive presence of party organizations at European level than ever before.
Instead, I believe that the most important way to reawaken voters’ interest in European elections will be to open up the election of the Commission’s President to them, and create a genuinely Europe-wide political debate during the next election campaign.
The Euro-skepticism problem can be tackled only if the Union itself starts to perform better, and is seen to be doing so. That is why in the aftermath of the failed referenda four years ago in France and the Netherlands on the Constitutional treaty, the Commission tried to emphasize the idea of a “Europe of Results that would seek to convince citizens of its worth through concrete achievements.
Given the gravity of the economic crisis, the time has come for the EU to demonstrate its strengths whenever possible. The aim must be not only to win back the hearts of Europeans who have become skeptical, but also to convince them that the Union is indispensable to meeting the challenges Europeans face.
Europe’s citizens understand that the relatively small nation-states that make up the EU are no longer able to face these enormous challenges on their own. In Ireland, last autumn’s financial crisis provoked a turnaround in public opinion about the EU, and even in Iceland, although it lies on the periphery of our continent, membership of the EU and the euro have become a priority. European countries have become so interconnected that isolated national measures on issues like financial-market regulation are hopeless.
A changing world in which new powers like China and India play an increasingly important role will not wait for Europe to make up its mind. The EU must instead show leadership through its efforts to solve the world’s current problems.
As for the European People’s Party, for us the economy is not an end in itself but should serve the people. The economic crisis was caused by shortsightedness and a lack of control in the global financial system. Now we must redefine the role of regulators in financial markets and in the wider economy, for we cannot let the financial sector walk off with the profits and leave taxpayers bearing the losses.
That doesn’t mean that we are advocating a move to socialism; we want better and smarter regulation, not regulation for its own sake. We see five keys to recovery:
. New job creation must be a core priority, with reform and investment in education and life-long learning necessary to create opportunity for all;
. A prolonged global economic slump must be averted, and European governments must continue to improve coordination on fiscal and monetary policies;
. The international financial architecture must be rebuilt. European regulations are not sufficient for a healthy global financial system;
. The recession is an opportunity to increase investment in green technologies to make Europe less dependent on fossil fuels;
. Protectionism must be prevented, within Europe and without. Europe’s internal market is a success story that has indisputably created growth and jobs.
A “Europe of Results is achievable. It can strengthen the EU’s legitimacy, though, only if policy recommendations such as these, and the successes that result from implementing them, are communicated clearly and effectively to the general public.
Wilfried Martens is president of the European People’s Party and a former Prime Minister of Belgium. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT Project Syndicate, (www.project-syndicate.org).
