John Palmer reviews What's Wrong With the European Union and How to Fix it by Simon Hix.
(Hix, 2008, Polity Press, 228pp)
In
the midst of what has been a largely introverted - even turgidly morbid -
debate about the future of the European Union following, the "No" vote outcome
in Ireland's referendum on the EU Lisbon Treaty, the publication of a book
which grapples with just why voter malaise with the EU has become such a
problem is a healthy antidote. What's Wrong with the European Union and How to
Fix it by Professor Simon Hix of the London School of Economics challenges much conventional wisdom by insisting that the EU suffers
from too little politics - not too much.
At
the heart of Hix's analysis is a conviction that it is long overdue for the
peoples of the EU to be given a far greater voice in shaping the political
future of the Union and the political
character of its leadership. Hix believes that with - or without - the Lisbon
Treaty - there should be far greater and more transparent choice about who
should become the next President of the European Commission - the key executive
body of the EU. This - he rightly believes - will encourage the political
parties to openly contest each other's programmes for handling the current
economic, social, environmental and other challenges facing the Europe in an ever more inter-dependent world.
