The EU from a Critical Perspective

A selection of articles from EUWatch

The EU from a Critical Perspective A selection of articles from EUWatch Editors: Klaus Heeger Karoly Lorant

Publisher: Independence/Democracy Group in the European Parliament Printed at European Parliament printing press, Luxembourg - 2009 ISBN: 978-92-823-2861-3

The EU from a Critical Perspective

CONTENT
PREFACE Chapter 1 - The Future of the European Union
From 'cooperation' to 'centralisation' - The advent of EU supranational policing (Kevin Ellul-Bonici) Europa Quo Vadis? (Peter Henseler) Political integration-the ultimate goal (Anthony Coughlan) Commenting on the results of the reflection period (Klaus Heeger) A proposal for a new dynamic federalism in Europe (Bruno S. Frey) A more self-reliant Europe The response to global economic and energy insecurity (Colin Hines) The future of Europe: are there alternatives? (Karoly Lorant) The EU after the Irish 'NO' (Interview with Michel Rocard) The European Union between 'non-statehood' and 'supra-statehood' (Peter Henseler) The constitutional implications of the Treaty of Lisbon (Anthony Coughlan) Chapter 2 - Democracy The next 'constitutional' Treaty - What the people should decide (Kevin Ellul-Bonici) Referendum models in the process of Europe's constitutionalisation (Peter Henseler ) A way out - towards a more democratic European Union (Bruno Kaufmann) Why national politicians are so europhile (Anthony Coughlan) An unsettled referendum debate (Peter Henseler) The importance of monitoring members' voting in the European Parliament (Jan A. Johansson) The results of the 2005 and 2006 referenda What do the statistics reveal? (Endre Barcs) Freedom in the "United States of Europe" An exercise in the suppression of dissent? (Kevin Ellul-Bonici) Is the European Union "Le meilleur des mondes possibles"? (Gawain Towler) iv 1 2 7 10 12 19 26 30 44 50 71 83 85 91 99 103 106 112 120 131 136 139 140 153

Chapter 3 - Subsidiarity
Subsidiarity and proportionality a legal-economic approach (Peter Henseler ) COSAC, subsidiarity and proportionality (Interview with Sarita Kaukaoja) i

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The subsidiarity principle and the EU institutions (Markus Nyman) Subsidiarity at the service of technocratic centralism (Christophe Beaudouin) The primacy of the community law (David Sehnlek) Is the Committee of the Regions promoting closeness and subsidiarity? (Markus Nyman) The white horse of bureaucracy (Martina Rozsvalov)

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175 179 187 188 192 195 198 201 203 205 208

Chapter 4 - The Charter of Fundamental Rights

Limiting fundamental rights in the interests of the market (Frank Keoghan) What will remain of the French 1789 human and citizens' rights? (Anne-Marie Le Pourhiet) Fundamental rights and freedoms: The dawn of an unprecedented legal revolution (Christophe Beaudouin) The impact of the charter of fundamental rights (Interview with Peter M. Huber)

Chapter 5 - The Future of the Euro

The Euro and the OCA: Will the Monetary Union collapse? (Peter Henseler) Political Union - the end game of the Euro (Interview with Paul De Grauwe) The birth and death of the euro (Anthony Coughlan)

Chapter 6 - The Financial Crisis

Prisoners Dilemmas, Locomotives and the EU Some Considerations in Connection with the World Crisis (Kurt W. Rothschild) The financial crisis: Strengthening or weakening the EU? (Peter Henseler) The EU in the turmoil of the financial crisis: The particular vulnerability of the central and east European countries (Janos Plenter) The impact of the financial crisis on the European Union (Mogens Ove Madsen)

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214 219 226 235 239 241 244 249

Chapter 7 - Defence
Finland and the militarisation of the EU's non-aligned member states (Esko Seppnen) From common market to common defence The Common Foreign, Security and Defense Policy of the EU after Lisbon (Franz Leidenmuehler) After the Lisbon Treaty, what is our defence strategy and what kind of foreign policy does it serve? (Claude Gaucherand) ii

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France, NATO and European Defence (Thomas Valasek) A call to vote NO against the militaristic Treaty of Lisbon (Tobias Pflger)

255 261 265 266 270 274 283 290 299 300 305 307 309 313 335

Chapter 8 - Immigration
Do we need solutions at EU level for the immigration problem? (Interview with Nigel Farage and Johannes Blokland) A European approach to the refugee problem is needed (Jan Harm Boiten) Immigration policy: From loss of sovereignty to loss of identity? (Christophe Beaudouin) Immigration and integration problems the EU and its member states are facing (Karoly Lorant) Is there a European solution for immigration? (Klaus Heeger)

Chapter 9 - Energy
The New EU Energy Policy (Interview with Andris Piebalgs) Common energy policy: a house of cards built on shifting sands (Nigel Farage) Greenspirit - The causes of climate change (Interview with Patrick Moore) The Baltic Gas Pipeleine Power Politics with Conflicting Interests (Henrik Dahlsson)

Chapter 10 - Europe in numbers LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

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THE WHITE HORSE OF BUREAUCRACY

By Martina Rozsvalov
Parkinson: Given that work (and especially paperwork) is elastic in its demands on time, it follows that there need be little or no relationship between the work to be done and the size of the staff to which it may be assigned. Likewise, the lack of occupation is not necessarily revealed by manifest idleness. The task to be performed swells in importance and complexity in direct proportion to the time allotted for the task What do British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson, Czech author Franz Kafka and British writer George Orwell have in common? Although they lived in different times, they all described how far red tape, the socalled paper tiger, or as we say in Czech, the white horse of bureaucracy, can get in our lives way. WORK EXPANDS SO AS TO FILL THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR ITS COMPLETION. Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. This was the opening sentence of the humorous essay Professor Parkinson published in The Economist in 1955. Parkinson did not believe that a growing civil service reflects a growing workload. The essay proposed the contrary, based on the results of a study of the British civil service. Parkinson was particularly qualified to make such a statement, having worked in the British civil service and experienced first hand how bureaucracy operates. Given that work (and especially paperwork) is elastic in its demands on time, it follows that there need be little or no relationship between the work to be done and the size of the staff to which it may be assigned. Likewise, the lack of occupation is not necessarily revealed by manifest idleness. The task to be performed swells in importance and complexity in direct proportion to the time allotted for the task. The importance of Parkinsons Law lies in the fact that it is a law of growth based upon an analysis of the factors by which that growth is controlled.1 George Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1948. The novel, set in an imaginary totalitarian future, made a deep impression across the globe and entered popular use with its title and many phrases, such as Big Brother is watching you, Newspeak and Doublethink. It tells the story of Winston Smith, a functionary at the Ministry of Truth, whose work consists of editing historical accounts to fit the governments changing policies. The adjective Orwellian alludes to the system depicted in Nineteen Eighty- Four. It can refer to any form of government oppression, but it is particularly used to refer to euphemistic and misleading language originating from all-knowing government bodies with a political purpose to impose control over its citizens (Ministry of Love, Ministry of Truth).2 The third author, Franz Kafka, a Czech-born, German-speaking writer, became famous for his posthumously published novels describing the alienation of 20th century man. Kafkas nightmares of dehumanization, bureaucratic labyrinths, and totalitarian society have much in common with the works of George Orwell (Nineteen Eighty- Four; Animal Farm). The term Kafkaesque has become part of our modern vocabulary, describing some vague notion of a dark, bureaucratic and hopeless world. Typically, Kafkas stories revolve around a protagonist who is caught up in a frustrating and sometimes fearsome web of bureaucracy, petty politics, or other circumstances that render his life fruitless and meaningless. The protagonist is a person like many of us, often in some professional middle class role a doctor, a land surveyor, 179

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a senior bank clerk, or a salesman who is confronted by faceless and nameless low level bureaucrats who control access to the high level bureaucrats who make the critical decisions that affect lives individually and collectively. This bureaucracy forms an impenetrable barrier towards resolving the issues confronted by the protagonist. A SELECTION OF EU ABSURDITIES 2005-2008, OR HOW ELASTIC THE SCOPE OF WORK OF A FUNCTIONARY IS So how do these wisdoms apply to the European Unions regulatory framework? In various ways, the EUs propensity towards the nightmares portrayed by Orwell and Kafka is by way of the bureaucracy detailed by Parkinson. Here are some examples of EU legislative acts and reports adopted or dealt with by the European Parliament (EP) which are reminiscent to the works of Parkinson, Orwell and Kafka. What characterises these bureaucratic measures is their excessive nature, adding no value to the product, but making it more expensive and problematic for producers. SPECIAL MEASURES TO ENCOURAGE SILKWORM REARING The Council Regulation (EEC) No 845/72 of 24 April 1972 laying down special measures to encourage silkworm rearing has been substantially amended several times. Silkworm rearing is of some importance to the economies of certain regions of the Community. This activity is a source of additional income for farmers in those regions. Measures therefore had to be adopted to help ensure a fair income for silkworm rearers. To that end, measures had to facilitate the adjustment of supply to market requirements, and a European aid replacing all national silkworm aid should be granted for silkworm rearing. The growers should make sure that aid is granted to silkworm rearers for each box of silkworm eggs used, on conditions that the boxes contain a minimum quantity of eggs, to be determined, and that the worms have been successfully reared. The aid per box of silkworm eggs shall amount to EUR 133.26. COMPULSORY ELECTRONIC SHEEP IDENTIFICATION OF OVINE AND CAPRINE ANIMALS In December 2007 MEPs voted on a planned compulsory introduction of electronic identification for ovine and caprine animals as amended by the Committee on agriculture and rural development in an earlier date, i.e. on 31 December 2009. This proposed Council regulation3 has led to severe criticism from farmers groups because it is feared that the extra cost and administration will seriously harm this particular farming sectors, forcing many to give it up altogether. Already now, sheep farming offers low financial returns and added financial and administrative pressure could prove to be the killer blow. Almost 10 months after the vote, MEPs woke up with a feeling that individual electronic tagging is unnecessary and overbearing. So a cross-party group of MEPs launched a new campaign through a written declaration to stop the compulsory electronic tagging (EID) of sheep and goats. The declaration should prompt a European Parliamentary debate on the subject, provided it is signed by over half the 785 MEPs. Good luck to the farmers!4 HARMONISATION CONCERNING FARM AND FORESTRY MACHINERY AND VEHICLES The EPs committee on legal affairs regularly supplies plenary sessions with different reports on directives concerning harmonisation of various types of machinery and vehicles. Hinting at

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these examples does not intend to detract the necessity of safety devices but to demonstrate the immense volume of EU legislation. For example, concerning forestry tractors, member states have to comply with the following directives (adopted by the EP during the December 2007- February 2008 plenary sessions): - Directive on the coupling device and the reverse of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors;5 - Driver-perceived noise level of wheeled agricultural or forestry tractors;6 - On the suppression of radio interference produced by agricultural or forestry tractors (electromagnetic compatibility);7 - On rear registration plate lamps for motor vehicles and their trailers;8 - Installation of lighting and lightsignalling devices on wheeled agricultural and forestry tractors.9 Another striking example is the EPs legislative resolution on the proposal for a directive on the retrofitting of mirrors to heavy goods vehicles registered in the Community.10 A CERAMIC SHEEP EU regulation includes such absurd examples like the definition of ceramic sheep as an article designed essentially for the interior decoration of homes, relating to the classification of certain goods in the so-called Combined Nomenclature. In the Commission regulation it is literally stated that the goods described in column 1 of the table set out in the Annex shall be classified within the combined nomenclature under the CN code as indicated in the column: An article, in the form of a sheep, measuring approximately 10 cm in height. A knitted fabric, representing the fleece, covers most of the ceramic body leaving part of the head and four hoofs visible. The fabric is glued on the ceramic body.11 QUALITY STANDARDS ON COMPOST The proposed EC directive on soil protection aims at establishing harmonisation of standards on compost. Article 10 reads as follows: The use of compost shall be encouraged with the aim of maintaining soil fertility, enhancing soil organic matter levels and fighting erosion. For that purpose Member States shall adopt compost quality standards (TA).12 It is another way of saying that since farmers are not specialists in their field, the central planners should see to the quality standards they are missing. NUMBER OF SEXUAL PARTNERS How many sexual partners have you had? was a question the EU wanted to ask. Eventually, the EPs Committee on employment and social affairs in the European Parliament did not approve the Commissions proposal to collect information about womens private lives in the 2011 EU population census. The amending proposal was intending to include the collection of rather personal information, including such matters as when a woman started an intimate relationship with a partner, or if partners share/d a household. Many MEPs argued that the EUs line of questions was too intimate and biased, as the questions focused only on 181

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women. Eurostat argued that such information is often important for fertility statistics. Yet collecting such information goes beyond the powers of the European and national institutions. In effect, the final regulation on population and housing censuses did not include the controversial amendments.13 GIVING CITIZENS A VOICE DEBATE EUROPE In 2008, the European Commission launched Debate Europe, an initiative under the so-called Plan D: Dialogue, Democracy and Debate, launched in 2005 after the French and Dutch rejection of the proposed EU constitution, and designed to increase citizens involvement in the European Unions decision-making process or in other words, to promote active European citizenship. 14 To enhance Plan Ds mission of promoting active European citizenship, Debate Europe uses a variety of communication strategies to amplify and integrate the citizens voice into policymaking on any number of EU-related subjects.15 A very interesting example on how to work together on such strategy in practise is shown in a recent speech by Margot Wallstrm within an exchange of views with Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, Michel Martin, at the Constitutional Affairs Committee. Commissioner Wallstrm wants to pool the resources on a new massive campaign aiming to again try to persuade Irish voters to vote in favour of the Treaty of Lisbon. The Irish voters, it seems, got it all wrong so they need to vote again. The Commissioner is calling the following an effective, democratic communication: ...The referendum was very little related to the Lisbon Treaty. Taxation, Irish neutrality, abortion, gay marriage and euthanasia dominated the campaign even if these issues - certainly important per se - were not directly related to the Treaty. The main reason for the NO vote and for the abstentions was a lack of information and understanding of what the Treaty is about......We must not forget that today, 24 Member States have completed political approval for the Treaty. By the end of the year, this figure is likely to rise to 26....We are solutions-oriented and willing to know on which issues Irish society requires reassurance. Any solution has to be respectful of the position already taken by the very large majority of the Member States and acceptable to the Irish people. The Commission will work with the Government of Ireland and the Presidency as it has being doing in the past for other cases to find solutions that may be acceptable by all. The decision to create a Sub- Committee on Irelands future in the EU is a step in the right direction. It will help shed some light on how Ireland envisages its future in the EU and to point the way to solutions. ...A more emotional no campaign worked better than a more factual yes... Unless we pool our resources and work together on this, we will see in the future more surveys showing that people do not have enough information to make fair and objective judgements about the EUs decisions...Effective communication, I believe, plays a central part in the EU democracy....16 The question is whether only the no voters misunderstood the Treaty. Maybe the yes voters misunderstood it too. So while citizens are to be given a voice, they should not disagree with the European project, otherwise they may have misunderstood the issue. The motives of those who voted yes apparently did not need to be analysed, for only they understood what they 182

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were voting for. This means that the voice the EU wants to give citizens is conditional on whether they agree with the Commissions views. The Commission is now focused on public relations because the citizens do not realize how much they benefit from the EU and if they were more informed about the benefits of the internal market and the other policies of the EU and learned more about how the EU works, they would inevitably started to love it(!). It is certainly true that many citizens do not know much about the EU. However, there is little evidence providing that citizens with more information about the EU and its policies would increase popular support for the project. Opinion polls reveal that public understanding about the EU has increased over the last decade at the same time as public support has declined. Why is that? Maybe as people learn more about the EU they also start to understand that economic integration benefits only some social groups, that the beneficiaries of significant amounts from the EU budget are difficult to identify, and that it is almost impossible for them to change the direction of EU policies. PROMOTING EU CITIZENSHIP AND EU CONSCIOUSNESS A new programme Europe for Citizens, in force since January 2007, has been planned for EU citizens as an opportunity to interact in initiatives and projects with a European profile in order to foster citizens participation, development of their European identity and sense of ownership of the European project as well as to enhance tolerance and mutual understanding between them. Through this programme, citizens ought to be involved in transnational exchanges and cooperation activities which should contribute to developing a sense of belonging to common European ideals and encouraging the process of European integration.17 The EU wants to be visible in areas where people can relate to it, so it promotes EU citizenship in simple daily life, such as sports, the milk to school project, phone charges, or cultural events such as concert festivals. CONCLUSIONS So was Parkinson right? Dealing with EU legislation and activism on a daily basis, we might naturally identify ourselves with the protagonists the heroes of the stories, who, in spite of the frustration, persevere in their struggles. However, when thinking about our day-to-day lives, we wonder what could be done in order not to become entirely mindless and complacent toward acting out the minor roles in Kafkas writings. How far can EU regulations still go? The EU is a complex system of multilevel governance which does not function as a classical parliamentary democracy. It comprises a system of bureaucratic experts and respective committees networks which makes it possible to enforce certain national, regional or social interests. The procedures are often informal, dependent on contacts, yet tied with a thorough bureaucratic baseline. As new powers have been passed to the EU during the past 20 years, concerns about the democratic deficit have intensified.18 Prof. Simon Hix believes that the main problem with democratic deficit, when producing policies on the EU level involving a notional average European citizen, is a lack of a real political debate and a political choice about these policies. That means that the EU is not really a democratic polity. Democracy is, as Hix emphasizes, a competition for political office and over the direction of the policy agenda. Yet in the EU no such competition exists. Furthermore, the new treaty reforms are unlikely to bring the EU closer to the citizens, and may even undermine the legitimacy of the EU further if a second attempt to ratify a new treaty is rejected. As a 183

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solution he suggests to change some of the informal practices and procedures of the EU institutions. Hix thinks that the EU should become more politicized and gradually modify its stiffness into a real political contest.19 Since the EU currently consists of 27 countries having different historical experiences and political cultures and traditions, we might be careful with giving more powers to the European Parliament and the Commission, or to support qualified majority voting as a standard procedure in the Council. As Michael Oakeshott, British philosopher and a dominating figure of conservative thought emphasized, the public administrative and personal life management should better be guided by the principle of familiarity. Once we are to orientate ourselves in a certain situation and use our skills accordingly, we need to be familiar with it.20 The values described by the British philosopher are lacking in most international organizations, including such specific organisation like the European Union is. In fact, the real examples of familiarities within the cope of Europe are born in the national or family background. Nobody exactly knows what the EU identity is or what it should be... The extension of qualified majority voting in the Council (which would follow the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty) would simplify the adoption of European regulation, effecting even very private realms. Given the tremendous legislative capacity of the EU - which often seeks a very detailed regulation in all possible aspects- the life in the EU could in some time become hardly bearable and literally Orwellian. Only the future of currently unknown affairs will answer the question of how elastic the evolution of EU bureaucracy can be. NOTES: 1 C. Northcote Parkinson, Parkinsons Law or The Pursuit of Progress (London, 1958). http://www.berglas.org/Articles/parkinsons_law.pdf 2 Orwell, George: Nineteen Eighty-Four (London, 1949). 3 Proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 as regards the date of introduction of electronic identification for ovine and caprine animals (COM(2007)0710) 4 European Parliament legislative resolution of 13 December 2007 on the proposal for a Council regulation amending Regulation (EC) No 21/2004 as regards the date of introduction of electronic identification for ovine and caprine animals (COM(2007)0710 C6-0448/2007 2007/0244(CNS); report Graefe zu Baringdorf (A6-0501/2007) 5 (COM(2007)0319 C6-0175/2007 2007/0117(COD)); Mayer report (A6-0474/2007) 6 (COM(2007)0588 C6-0344/2007 2007/0205(COD)); Speroni report (A6-0019/2008) 7 (COM(2007)0462 C6-0256/2007 2007/0166(COD)); Speroni report (A6-0018/2008) 8 (COM(2007)0451 C6-0252/2007 2007/0162(COD)); Mayer report (A6-0017/2008)) 9 (COM(2007)0192 C6-0108/2007 2007/0066(COD)); Mayer report (A6-0022/2008) 10 (COM (2006) 0570 C6-0332/2006 2006/0183 (COD)); Costa report (A6-0124/2007) 11 Commission regulation concerning the classification of certain goods in the Combined Nomenclature (EC) No 1462/2006 of 2 October 2006 12Legislative resolution of 14 November 2007 on the proposal for a directive establishing a framework for the protection of soil and amending Directive 2004/35/EC (COM(2006)0232 C6-0307/2006 2006/0086(COD)); Gutierrez-Cortinez report (A6-0410/2007) 13 Regulation on population and housing censuses (EC) No 763/2008 184

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14 COM (2005) 494 final 15Http://ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/wallstrom/communicating/conference/dialogue/i ndex_en.hm 16 Reference: SPEECH/08/499 Date: 06/10/2008 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/08/499&format=HTML& aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en 17 Europe for Citizens http://ec.europa.eu/citizenship/index_en.htm 18 Andreas Follesdal (University of Oslo) and Simon Hix (London School of Economics): Why there is a democratic deficit in the EU: A response to Majone and Moravcsik In: Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.44, Issue 3, pp.533-62. 19 For instance, the Council should fully open up and thus become more transparent and the European Parliament should have more powers granted (such as the ability to amend all areas of the budget); hence more would be at stake in the European elections. In Simon Hix: Whats Wrong with the European Union and How to Fix it, Polity (29 January 2008). 20 Paul Franco: The Political Philosophy of Michael Oakeshott (New Heaven, 1990). dec3:Layout 1 25/03/2009 15:44 Page 35

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