Should the Liberal Democrats embrace Euroscepticism?
The Liberal Democrats’ German cousins, the Free Democratic Party, in an attempt to gain votes and differentiate themselves from their conservative coalition partners tried to entice voters by dabbling in a little Euroscepticism in recent state elections. With falling poll ratings and a population increasingly doubtful at picking up the tab for spendthrift Mediterranean states, it appeared to be a strategy that was destined to succeed. Yet in Berlin, they polled 1.8% of the vote.
Sound familiar? Like the FDP, Liberal Democrat members are fretting about retaining their identity whilst in coalition. However, the plight of Philipp Rösler’s FDP has shown that differentiation for the sake of it is risky.
A reoccurring theme in the comments section of this blog is incredulity at how libertarians or classical liberals can support Britain’s continuing membership of the European Union. So perhaps LV should persuade our fellow Lib Dems to re-invent themselves as fully fledged Eurosceptics by following these online Cassandras basking in self-congratulation at the demise of the Euro? Like the German electorate’s response to the FDP’s Eurosceptic flirtation, for me it would have to be a resounding ‘Nein Danke’. Being populist doesn’t make you popular.
At its heart, the European Union is a liberal project: the four fundamental principles of the EU are, after all, the free movement of goods, persons, services and capital. Our purpose should be to make our European partners stick to these principles and the EDLR has a good record in fighting for liberalism in Europe:
“One of the core elements that bind European liberal democrats together is the belief in and strive for an economy that is based on market principles where individual economic and political freedoms are guaranteed as the most effective system for ensuring future prosperity, encouraging competiveness and ensuring longer-term employment.”
And if Bob Crow wants the UK to leave the EU, it must be doing something right…
Nonetheless, I acknowledge that the theory doesn’t always become reality. Like Simon Goldie, I believe that Nick Clegg should flesh out a reforming liberal narrative for the EU. Clegg already has a good template on which to build – his contribution to The Orange Book entitled ‘Europe: A Liberal Future’:
“…it is essential that Liberal Democrats demonstrate that being pro-European is perfectly compatible with the legitimate doubts and quibbles which many people harbour about the EU…to be pro-European does not require an abandonment of basic critical faculties. A true pro-European stance should be creative, innovative and bold…It represents the height of political pessimism to believe that pro-Europeans must automatically cede all ground on the reform and improvement of the EU to the anti-Europeans.”
Thus, our party should be at the forefront at speaking out against expensive interventionist follies such as the CAP and the new EU financial transaction tax which will hit Britain disproportionately. Such an approach is necessary to illustrate that we can be pro-European but not slavish to every policy that emanates from Brussels. A Eurosceptic approach advocating withdrawal would be wrongheaded, misguided and ideologically inconsistent for a liberal party.
The Liberal Democrats can still retain their enthusiasm for the European Union – highlighting the political, economic, social and cultural benefits – though criticising its excesses and mistakes. We don’t need to jettison our liberal, internationalist and European credentials to gain a few crumbs off the table of the Eurosceptics.
Anyway, would we want to share a platform with Peter Obore after his ‘idiotic’ showing on Newsnight?
September 29th, 2011 at 4:30 pm
Your main argument (repeated) seems to be that you can pluck a couple of people out from the EU-sceptics group and go, “Eurgh.”
That’s not good enough. When you divide a Continent into two camps, you’ll find unsavoury types on both sides:
I present to you Manuel Barroso, a man recently known for declaring that democratic governments should hand over decisions to him and his unelected group. And he has form; this was not a one-off. Who can forget his making the Irish vote again until they gave the ‘right answer’? I’d go on, but it makes me nauseous. And don’t claim that the Constitution and Lisbon Treaty were different; d’Estaing said they were basically “the same”, and he wrote much of it.
As a supporter of democracy, his attitude (and those who follow him) is the biggest threat to democracy in Europe at present. Putin fiddling gas taps has nothing on this man. Oborne can write columns in the Telegraph (preaching to the converted) and Crow can make your London commute tiresome. The difference is overwhelming.
September 29th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Amen,
I’ve long awaited the day when Europhiles like myself can, without confusing people, be as scathing about the EU as we are about the UK government of the day. (Without it being thought we want to pull out of the UK). Oh hang on I’m a supporter of the UK government now. But you get the idea.
September 29th, 2011 at 4:41 pm
#Richard
I agree that you can find unsavoury people on both sides. Denis MacShane springs to mind…
I’ve never said that the EU was perfect. Some of its activities have been, as you say, ‘nauseous’. But I’d rather still be a member of the EU, fighting it reform it along liberal lines, than to be outside of the club.
#Joe
Thanks!
September 29th, 2011 at 6:15 pm
Excellent article.
Here’s another one: http://www.jcm.org.uk/blog/2010/01/the-libertarian-case-for-european-integration/
It basically argues that if, as classical liberals and libertarians, we don’t like to see the duplication of government functions, why not support abolishing the national layer rather than the European one? So rather than “withdraw from the EU”, why not argue “withdraw from Westminster.”
September 29th, 2011 at 6:42 pm
The fallacy that keeps being made is the for-us against-us rationale: if you are for the EU, you are in favour of every single one of its actions. If you are against an EU action, you are against the EU. This is not how any country or federation can be run.
Mr Manns, I think the main point of the article wasn’t “aren’t eurosceptics horrible?” but “The EU needs reform desperately, and the Lib Dems are the best placed parties to reform it.” It’s not an article on whether or not we should be in the EU, but how we should go about making it palletable to British citizens.
I think most pro-Europeans would agree with you that there is a democratic deficit, that the EU is a hydra, and that the EU passes a number of regulations to the deteriment of member’s interests. I would point to France and its Southern gang and say “that’s whose interests are being served”, rather than tarring the whole of Europe’s parties with the same brush.
Ms. Clark, I think you’re quite right to point out the folly of popularist politics and the Liberal Democrat’s risk of betraying itself if it attempts to reflect public opinion rather than it’s own opinion.
September 29th, 2011 at 6:43 pm
Sorry, that’s Mr. Clark. I have a cold.
September 29th, 2011 at 6:51 pm
Toby, don’t worry. It comes with having a unisex name…
September 29th, 2011 at 7:25 pm
Peter Obore was being very rude last night, but I do sympathise with his frustration. Still, wouldn’t want to share a platform with someone like that.
September 29th, 2011 at 8:01 pm
@Leslie
“So perhaps LV should persuade our fellow Lib Dems to re-invent themselves as fully fledged Eurosceptics by following these online Cassandras basking in self-congratulation at the demise of the Euro?”
Ouch. Well at least by refering to Eurosceptics as Cassandras you acknowledge that they were right about the Euro and right for the right reasons.
So what are the Cassandras foretelling now? that in a few years time will play out and you will be calling them Cassandras all over again? Well, the Cassandras are foretelling that the EU is incapable and beyond reform, that the Euro can only exist in a political and fiscal union with with an unacceptable loss of democracy and sovereignty, that the EU is not an optimal currency zone like the US, that the debt-fueled bail-outs and stimulus packages won’t deliver stability or growth just stagflation and the lingering entrenchment of the consequences of a decade of malinvestment from a cheap credit-fueled asset bubble brought on by lax monetary policy from the central banks and fiscal incontinence by EU states.
September 29th, 2011 at 9:12 pm
As your resident classical liberal Tory commentator, the fox has seen the rabbit. I have no problems with the concept of the EU, it is in the delivery that disgusts me. Green, employment and taxation policies that stifle competition, an unelected politburo, sorry Commission, a rubber stamp Parliament coupled with a culture of corruption (CAP, expenses et al), I have had a gut full.
Quite frankly the Liberals will be marginalised even more unless they grow a pair on the EU. My pin up party in Europe are the Dutch Liberals. Austrian School Economics, free trade, socially big ‘L’ liberals, amended the smoking ban and Eurosceptic.
September 29th, 2011 at 11:38 pm
There is nothing liberal about a supra-level state and a currency union that is so rigid that we have now seen it proved to be fragile.
The liberal answer is unilateral free trade with all.
September 30th, 2011 at 8:00 am
Guido that supra-state analysis also applies to the United Kingdom. And in both cases the principle cause of crisis is bad national governments not the existence of the euro.
September 30th, 2011 at 11:46 pm
Leslie, why do you believe that the growing EU scepticism in the FDP is due to a cynical attempt at vote gaining rather than an honest, liberal assesment of the EU?
October 1st, 2011 at 11:16 am
This sounds fairly dopey. The electorate did not buy the FDP’s euroscepticism and they were punished not for being too pro- or anti-Europe, but for not keeping their promises in regards to blocking bailouts. Bailing out banks, which is what the bailouts of Greece are, was the policy of the previous Grand Coalition, opposed at the time by the then-oppositionist FDP, Greens, and Left Party. Now we see that only the Left Party voted against the funds for Greece, the FDP whipped by being in govt and the Greens by their desire to look respectable and join the next govt. We see in Berlin libertarian voters switched to the Pirate Party, not to Euro-federalist groups.
You can be pro-Europe and against this irresponsible economic policy…or Eurosceptic and for it (like the Tories).
October 1st, 2011 at 1:46 pm
#Dan,
Would you say that their sudden shift from being a pro-European party to noising off about Europe had nothing to do with an assessment of their place in the opinion polls? I believe they saw a gap in the market (as most German parties take a pro-EU line) and attempted to project themselves as Eurosceptic. It was opportunistic and failed. I quote from Reuters analysis,
“While some polls last week suggested this [Euroscepticism] could boost the FDP’s support by a few points, and that there would be support among Germans for a eurosceptic party, even some politicians inside the party thought the euro strategy had backfired.
“I believe it was a mistake to profile our pro-European FDP as a eurosceptic-style party,” said Cornelia Pieper, deputy foreign minister and FDP deputy chairwoman.”
October 1st, 2011 at 1:52 pm
#Thomas,
Being a dope, I must bow to your intellectual superiority.
October 1st, 2011 at 8:11 pm
Nothing libertarian about the EU, 40% of its budget goes towards the common agricultural policy. Boo to subsidies and protectionism. Want to reform it? Dispersed loss and concentrated benefit, taking effect over an entire continent – good luck with that.
Also, FDP are pretty unpopular for other reasons. Like their support of nuclear energy. Germans go nuts about that for some reason.
October 5th, 2011 at 1:01 pm
@Dave Atherton: The European Parliament a rubber stamp? I don’t think so. It has veto power on legislation, and also on all international treaties (the latter unlike in some other supposedly democratic countries), and has been known to use it. I wish it had more power to initiate and amend legislation, but the separation of powers between the Parliament and the other two bodies (Council and Commission) gives it a lot more independence than some other legislatures (especially national parliaments — in a parliamentary system under single-party government, parliament is usually a rubber stamp).
October 5th, 2011 at 1:09 pm
The Lib Dems need to set out a specifically ‘liberal’ vision of the EU, and we also need to campaign on this, especially in European Parliamentary elections. I think that Lib Dem MEPs do a good job of constructive criticism of the EU; unfortunately this message does not get out to the public, because we don’t advertise it in our election communications. [I dispaired at our literature for the 2009 EP election: it looked almost like a local election campaign.] Lib Dem campaigns for the European Parliament really need to be about “Vote Lib Dem, vote ALDE, for a LIBERAL EU”, and explain what our MEPs do to help bring this about. [And we should also poke fun at the Tories and their raving right-wing bedfellows in the European Parliament.]
October 5th, 2011 at 1:54 pm
# Alex Macfie
‘Hear, Hear, Hear!’ *waves order papers about frantically*