Giles Merritt, Secretary-General of the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe and Editor of the policy journal Europe's World, looks at the chances for the kind of wide-ranging debate on the EU's future that was called for last week by Commissioner Wallström, and that the Tomorrow's Europe poll aims to create in microcosm:
What Europe needs is more "euroscepticism", not less. With the 50th anniversary of the European Union's founding Rome Treaty now behind it, its smart next move should be to invite rather than avoid criticism of its activities.
In early October, the European Commission is to unveil its new ideas for "selling" Europe. The chances are that while these will reflect a greater willingness to listen to public opinion, the commission's eurocrats won't go so far as to welcome uncomfortable opinions.
A week or so later, the Commission is financing an unusual exercise in Brussels designed to get in-depth feedback on EU issues from ordinary people. Called "deliberative polling", it is a technique pioneered in the US to measure opinion before and after briefing people in-depth on policy questions and engaging them in debate. To be run by the Paris-based think-tank "Notre Europe" started up by former Commission President Jacques Delors, it marks a significant step forward in the EU's listening efforts.
Whether it will add up to actually soliciting eurosceptic opinions remains to be seen. Deliberately setting out to engage its most vociferous critics is a tall order for an outfit like the EU that feels unloved and unappreciated. There is an almost embattled culture among many of its senior officials, who fear that festering discontent among Europe's voters could one day knock European integration off course.
The EU has been going through a particularly sticky patch since mid-2005, when French and Dutch voters torpedoed the idea of a European constitution by voting against it in national referenda. But now the main elements have been re-constituted, so to speak, in a 'Reform Treaty' that looks a lot safer, EU officialdom is anxious to get back to business as usual, and that means making Europe more popular.
Swedish politician Margot Wallstrom has the task of burnishing the EU's image. A possible future socialist prime minister of Sweden, she is one of the few EU Commissioners with charisma. She is nevertheless finding it a thankless job; getting the EU's message over to people of so many different nations and political cultures is a tough and unrewarding proposition.
Euroscepticism represents everything the eurocrats dislike. They worry that opinion-formers like politicians and journalists who oppose their strategies for closer political and economic union could yet tip the balance of public opinion against the EU. Eurosceptic politicians elected to the European Parliament are usually treated with the disdain that true believers reserve for the infidel.
Yet it is a ludicrous idea that these eurosceptics represent a silent majority that could rise up and make the EU history. Popular support for the European project barely changed for much of the last 25 years, and of late it has even begun to strengthen.
At the beginning of the 1980s, when Europe was also going through an earlier bad patch and the media's catchword was "eurosclerosis", 50% of people polled for the EU's Eurobarometer survey said their own country's membership was positive, about 19% said its effects were negative and rest were don't knows. Today, overall support for the EU stands at 57%, and the share of people unhappy with it has dropped to 15%.
There are now no EU countries where eurosceptics are in the majority, and the widespread impression that citizens in western and eastern Europe alike are turning their backs on the EU is in fact totally wrong. Today's reality is that even though voters may find the EU remote, most appreciate the need for Europe to unite in a world where it is set to be dwarfed by China, India and other fast-developing countries."
Reassured by this groundswell of support, the eurocrats should be changing tack and fostering a much more pluralistic approach to EU policymaking and debate. The Commission should be organizing public debates that give equal prominence to dissenting views. The eurocrats must learn that euroscepticism is fundamentally healthy, because it invites closer examination of the policy options open to Europe, and thus increases the involvement of ordinary people in the EU's policymaking process. And greater involvement quickly leads to better understanding of the issues at stake and the reasons why various policies have been adopted that challenge or even over-ride the sovereign powers of individual nations.
The most powerful arguments against the EU and its drive for ever-closer union have always been emotional, not rational. That's why it's high time the European Union grew up politically and became a mature democracy in which dissenting voices are listened to with respect. For half a century Europe's integrationists have sought the unquestioning acceptance of their efforts, and that phase must now be abandoned. It will probably take several more generations before a workable EU-wide political system emerges, but the first step towards that is for the EU to actively encourage people to have their say, however uncomfortable it may be.
Reassured by this groundswell of support, the eurocrats should be changing tack and fostering a much more pluralistic approach to EU policymaking and debate. The Commission should be organizing public debates that give equal prominence to dissenting views. The eurocrats must learn that euroscepticism is fundamentally healthy, because it invites closer examination of the policy options open to Europe, and thus increases the involvement of ordinary people in the EU's policymaking process. And greater involvement quickly leads to better understanding of the issues at stake and the reasons why various policies have been adopted that challenge or even over-ride the sovereign powers of individual nations.
The most powerful arguments against the EU and its drive for ever-closer union have always been emotional, not rational. That's why it's high time the European Union grew up politically and became a mature democracy in which dissenting voices are listened to with respect. For half a century Europe's integrationists have sought the unquestioning acceptance of their efforts, and that phase must now be abandoned. It will probably take several more generations before a workable EU-wide political system emerges, but the first step towards that is for the EU to actively encourage people to have their say, however uncomfortable it may be.
