EUROPE'S POLITICAL CRISIS

For many ordinary people in Europe, the balance between giving and receiving, between debt and liability, responsibility and a place at the table no longer seems fair. Add to that the litany of criticism we have been hearing about for a long time: annoyance with so-called Brussels technocrats and their mania for regulation; complaints that decisions are not transparent enough; distrust of an impenetrably complex network of institutions; and, not least, resistance to the growing significance of the European Council. Attractive though Europe is, the European Union leaves too many people feeling powerless and without a voice. Indeed there are issues in Europe that need clearing up. There are many signs of people’s impatience, exhaustion and frustration. There is more to this crisis than its economic dimension. It is also a crisis of confidence in Europe as a political project.

There is an intensive debate going on at present about Europe’s current institutional framework. For some, a federal European union is our continent’s only chance, while others seek to improve the existing institutions  for example by establishing a second chamber or extending the rights of the European Parliament. Some believe it is enough to maintain the status quo provided we exert greater political will and take full advantage of the possibilities this offers us. And eurosceptics would love to limit the European level. We are thus in the midst of this discussion, not at the end. We will find it easier to reach agreement on the institutional arrangements, on the institutional framework once we have discussed together and at length the fundamental issues affecting the future of the European project.

The European Union is complicated, it truly is, but it has to achieve very complicated things. It deserves citizens who are interested and keep themselves informed. It deserves more than a 43 per cent turnout at European Parliament elections. And it does not deserve to have Brussels made a scapegoat, especially not when national interests or national failures are to blame for any problems.

The real crisis of the EU and the monetary union is not financial but political – or, more precisely, it is a leadership crisis. A lack of vision, courage, and strength of purpose is on display in all European capitals. Europe’s national politicians routinely criticize the EU for its lack of democratic legitimacy, yet they bear part of the responsibility for it. Or have pro-Europeans become so faint-hearted and dejected that they prefer simply to hand over the reins to anti-European populists and nationalists? That would be a disaster, because the crisis now runs too deep to be resolved by technocratic means.