The European Union:
A EUROREALIST VIEW
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What is the EU?
• The EU was founded in 1957 under the
Treaty of Rome by France, Germany,
Italy and the Benelux nations.
• The aims:
– Prevention of future war.
– Creating ‘an ever closer union
between the peoples of Europe’.
– Encouraging economic co-operation
and development.
?
The EU today: 27 members, 501m citizens
-The most recent members (Romania and Bulgaria)
joined in January 2007
Why Should We Care About the
EU?
• Approximately half of our laws now
originate in an unelected bureaucracy in
Brussels!
• Being a member of the EU costs us money.
The UK contributed £9.2bn in 2010.
• Only 29% of UK citizens think membership
of the EU is ‘a good thing’.
• It is such a politically sensitive issue that
none of the major political parties want to
talk about it.
The Widening and Deepening
of European Integration
• The EU has expanded from 6 to 27
members.
• EU ‘competences’ now include many
areas of policy traditionally reserved
for nation states, e.g.
– Single currency
– The ‘Social Charter’
– Border control
Why We Should be Concerned
1.
2.
3.
4.
The EU is undemocratic.
The EU threatens national sovereignty.
The EU is corrupt and unaccountable.
The EU is crippling the UK economy
and business with red-tape and
protectionism.
5. The EU is keeping the developing
world in poverty.
1. The EU is Undemocratic
European Commission
Unelected bureaucracy, but holds a monopoly
on proposing new law.
Council of Ministers
European Parliament
Meets in secret to
accept/reject
amendments, largely by
QMV.
Traffics legislation at break-neck
speed and can only accept,
reject or propose amendments
to legislation.
2. The EU Threatens Sovereignty
• The EU has imposed more laws on us than
parliament has in 700 years:
– c.33000 Pieces of legislation adopted up to
the end of 2010
• QMV means the UK can vote against a
proposal, yet still have to enact it.
• EU law now trumps UK law.
The EU Constitution
• The EU drafted a Constitutional Treaty in 2002, which was
finalised and signed by representatives of the member
states in 2004.
• The Constitution was supposed to combine existing
Treaties to clarify what the EU’s responsibilities were.
• But it was actually a further step in eroding sovereignty:
– The EU would derive its powers from its own
constitution, not its Member States.
– EU given a ‘legal personality’
– No limits were set on the EU’s powers
– QMV to become the norm of EU decision-making with
national vetoes on 63 issues lost
The “reformed” EU Constitution
• France and the Netherlands both rejected the EU
Constitution in referendums in June 2005.
• The response of the Constitution’s author :
“Let’s be clear about this. The
rejection of the Constitution was
a mistake that will have to be
corrected.” - Valery Giscard d’Estaing
• The Constitutional project was resurrected under
the guise of the Lisbon Treaty
• It replaced the Constitution (but 96% of its content
was the same as the Constitutional Treaty)
The Lisbon Treaty
‘We are united in our aim of placing the EU on a
renewed common basis before EP elections in
2009’
- Berlin Declaration, March 2007
• The Lisbon Treaty was signed in December 2007.
• However, Ireland rejected it in a referendum in June 2008
• Following controversial negotiations, Ireland voted ‘Yes’ in a
second vote in October 2009.
• The euro-sceptic Czech Republic President, Vaclav Klaus,
campaigned against the Treaty, but eventually signed it.
• The Treaty came into force in December 2009
The Lisbon Treaty
• What’s included:
– Institutional changes:
• Removal of the pillar structure
• Co-decision  ordinary legislative procedure (slightly greater role for
the EP)
• New mechanism for the enforcement of the subsidiarity principle
• Extension of QMV in Council of Ministers
• Formalisation of the European Council and its President
– Democracy and Rights
• Citizens’ Initiative
• Withdrawal procedure
• Charter of Fundamental Rights becomes legally binding
– Europe as a global actor
• Legal personality
• High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs
• External Action Service
High
Representative
for Foreign
Affairs: Baroness
Catherine Ashton
President of the
European Council:
Herman van
Rompuy
3.The EU is Corrupt and
Accountable to No-one
• Limited lines of accountability between the EU
and its citizens.
• The EU’s own auditors have refused to sign off EU
accounts for the last sixteen years!
• EU accounts show limited links between the
billions poured in and where the money actually
goes.
• EU commissioners and civil servants have
immunity from prosecution for life within the EU.
Annual Increases in the EU Budget
4.Crippling the Economy
• The total gross cost to the UK of EU
membership in 2008 was £65bn
• £28bn on meeting EU regulations
• £17bn on additional food costs due to CAP
• £3.3bn lost due to CFP
• £14.6bn direct funding
• In 2010, the EU cost UK taxpayers around
£300 each
• The UK’s defence spending is only £37bn pa!
• Without the costs of EU membership and
regulations, the UK could be £356bn richer
by 2018.
The €uro
• The euro was launched in 1999. Notes and coins
were introduced in 2002.
• There are 17 Member States in the Eurozone.
• It was intended to make it easier to do business
across the EU.
• ‘One size fits all’ interest rate in the Eurozone is
fitting no-one.
• 2010 Eurozone crisis - €273bn has been spent so
far bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal.
• Why risk entry?
Crippling Business
“EU legislation costs European
business £405bn a year. There is a view
that the more regulations you have, the
more rules you have, the more Europe you
have.”
-Gunter Verheugen
• The total net cost of major EU regulations for UK business
was £88.3bn at the end of July 2010
• In a poll of 1000 chief executives, 54% said the costs of the
extra regulation outweighed the benefits of the Single
Market.
• The costs to businesses are considered one of the main
barriers to growth
• E.g. EU rules on safety standards for chemicals in 2010 had
the potential to cause many companies to cease
manufacturing as they were financially unable to comply.
Protectionism
• The EU restricts free trade by imposing tariffs (a tax)
on imports to the EU.
• It also subsidises EU producers e.g. through CAP.
• Certain EU members, notably France and Spain,
openly flout the four economic freedoms
• This is all against the principle
of the Single Market which the
EU nominally aims to achieve.
Protectionism: the cost to the UK
• CAP costs the UK c.£10.3bn per year: £398 per
household.
• UK citizens face an extra £17bn on their food bills
because of the CAP
• This hits the poorest in the UK the hardest.
5. The EU is keeping the developing
world poor
• Exports from developing
countries are effectively
blocked off by EU tariffs and
subsidies.
• Excess agricultural produce in
the EU is often dumped in
Africa.
• E.g. Sugar – The EU has among
the world’s highest sugar
production costs, yet it is the
world’s biggest producer of
white sugar.
World white sugar
exports: percentage
share of the market
(2001)
Enlargement
• On 1 May 2004, 10 new countries, mainly in Central and
Eastern Europe, joined the EU.
• Romania and Bulgaria joined on 1 January 2007.
• Yet the structure of the EU was built for 6, not 27, member
states. It needs reforming.
• Average GDP per head in the 10 Member States that joined in
2004 was just 52.9% of the EU-15.
• The ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ has been applied too loosely and
was not met by Romania and Bulgaria prior to accession.
Turkey is even further off.
• Enlargement has raised many issues regarding immigration to
the UK, the response to which has been chaotic.
Immigration
• Enlargement has resulted in huge migration:
– Between 2004 and 2009, net migration from Eastern
Europe totalled 304,000
– Many came from Poland.
– June 2007-08: 100,000 people migrated from Central
and Eastern Europe to the UK
– Numbers dropped during 2008, but increased again
from 2010
• Migrants are more economically active than the
domestic workforce and have put c.£240m into the UK
economy.
• But social cohesion is a huge problem.
Better off out?
• The EU should stop the tide
of regulation and focus on
where it can make real
changes: free trade and CAP
reform.
• The EU must return Member
States’ power to revoke
legislation.
“The EU is making us poorer,
less democratic and less
free.” – Daniel Hannan MEP
“Europe should do less, but
do it better!” – Jacques
Delors, 1992