Return Europe to the Europeans
There was, in reality, no institutional crisis opened by the double Franco-Dutch “no” in 2005. The EU has bodies, it has a budget until 2013, it can function. The only real crisis arose from the contradiction between the fierce desire of politicians to build a European state and the scathing denial that the people had inflicted on this desire. This so-called crisis was felt only by the political class, and had value only for them.
The agreement for a new European institutional treaty concluded on June 23, 2007 in Brussels is doubly negative.
First of all, because its aim is to avoid recourse to universal and direct popular suffrage, in order to obtain easy ratification by parliamentary assemblies all committed to the cause of the European super-state, or to that of their national master. The essential thing, for the French State as for the British government, is that this treaty is different enough from the Constitution rejected in 2005 to justify the abandonment of ratification by referendum. The success of their European Council is then measured less by the scale of the ambitions met than by the modesty with which their results can be achieved.
Then, because by taking up the institutional modifications introduced by the late Constitution, this agreement aims to create a union of States and not a union of peoples. In fact, the future text, negotiated in perfect opacity, will take up the essentials of the late Constitution. We wielded the scissors, removed everything that could suggest a Constitution, and we kept the rest by splitting it into existing treaties.
Stable presidency of the European Council, legal personality of the Union, creation of a European diplomatic service, passage of around forty matters to qualified majority, double majority voting within the Council of Ministers… all this contributes to reducing the role of national societies, to exclude civil society from decisions, and to prepare for the advent of a State which will conduct its own military, fiscal, judicial and police policy. It is the materialization of imperial ambitions and the surveillance society, against which no border will be able to protect Europeans.
On the contrary, we believe that Europe must be returned to the Europeans.
European integration offers us a unique historic opportunity to give more space to civil society, to reduce the weight of governments and bureaucracies, to stimulate civic engagement. There are a number of ways to achieve this.
State integration should now be stopped. EU institutions should be brought back under democratic control through the widespread use of referendum consultations. The right of popular initiative should be practicable (the threshold is currently one million signatories, etc.), and be associated with precise, binding consequences. EU bodies should be rethought and evaluated from the perspective of social utility and value creation for European citizens, not just governments. European public funding should be automatically open to civil society organizations as long as they contribute to the common good.
The time is undoubtedly slowly becoming ripe for the creation of a new European political party which would address itself directly to the voters of the different countries, instead of being the emanation of national movements swallowed up by the States. The objective of this party would be the reform of the Union in the sense that we have just outlined, as well as a policy of strong social cohesion in all countries. Without such cohesion, in fact, no true democracy can exist.
