An umbrella bearing the EU flag is carried outside the UK High Court. Picture by Yui Mok PA Wire/PA ImagesThe people’s decision on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union is unquestionably of fundamental importance to the UK. In the present debate ‘Brexit’ seems to have been accepted as a fait accompli, often reluctantly, because ‘the will of the people has to be honoured’. Perhaps we should not forget what the will of the people actually responded to. Those who too readily submit to the ‘vote of the majority’ should not be allowed to develop excuses and apologetic narratives for a completely different matter. Until now, nobody has objected to the fact that Britain is a particularly staunchly representative democracy, where plebiscites are an extreme rarity. But the present one, which was deliberately set up as an advisory referendum, shall not only decide on the membership of Britain in the EU, but also on the possible disintegration of the country, a move of fundamental constitutional importance. A journalist wrote in the Guardian that he voted for ‘Brexit’, ‘because the European Union is a failed project; because Europe is moving in an increasingly free-market direction; and because I wanted to shake up the status quo.’ It does not sound convincing that shaking up the status quo should mean destroying what is there with no idea what should replace it. If the euro crisis or the refugee crisis are this ‘failed project’, then one must acknowledge that Britain has not been significantly affected by either, as it is not part of the euro and Schengen zones. The free market is clearly not a concern for the leading Conservative ‘Brexit’ representatives.
‘Brexit’ supporters could have had a point if they had ever taken the trouble to contrast the European idea with the current reality. The European idea, in short, is, never ever war again between France and Germany and between Member States generally. To achieve this, a confederation of sovereign and equal states has been formed with an underlying common understanding of the ideals of liberal democracy and human rights. These are given effect by a common policy in relation to persons (‘European citizens’), solidarity, and by a common economy. Thus the common market is a tool of politics and practical political philosophy, not an end in itself. Where economic decisions impinge on the equal status of a country and its people, or jeopardise human rights, also social rights, the economic policy has to change to give effect to the European idea. This policy, if it is to be successful, is not one of effacing distinctiveness and levelling of peoples and cultures to impose some new politically desired identity (this is the method of nationalism); it rather operates with a more complex idea which I call the ‘Herderian paradox’ after the German man of letters Johann Gottfried Herder: the more standardisation is enforced, the more the countries are driven apart. This notion seems to be beyond ‘eurocrats’ and nationalists alike. The right balance is that of a politically complicated unity in diversity which has to be readjusted for each era, so that the EU is a breathing body with elements which are once closer to, once wider from, one another in different times. If anyone dismisses that as too idealistic, then he is just the living proof of how corrupted the state of affairs already is.
The weakening of the European idea and its values started especially with the rescuing of the banks in the financial crisis of 2009-10 which was mostly implemented through the states taking on large public debts funded by taxpayer’s money, and this created sovereign debt was then collectivised in the ESFS and ESM devices. That situation was used to justify economic austerity measures particularly against poorer Southern European countries. When the newly elected government in Greece in early 2015 announced that it wanted to abandon these austerity measures because these make it impossible that the Greek economy could recover, Greece was nevertheless forced to agree to an extended policy of austerity. As a reaction to a referendum in which the Greek people rejected the proposed agreement, Greece was compelled to accept a much harsher deal in long bail-out negotiations with EU representatives on 13 July 2015, a course of action which was widely seen as undemocratic and potentially humiliating to a Member State of the EU. Since Germany had a leading role in these negotiations and the method of conduct, it needed to divert from its then negative image in summer 2015. So Germany invited a large number of refugees from the warzones of the Middle East. Because of its demographic situation Germany wanted obtain the cheap labour force of supposedly skilled young people without having to pay for their education. Now Germany and the EU send refugees and migrants back, assisted by a questionable agreement with Turkey. German and EU officials keep deploring the lack of solidarity among Member States in the refugee crisis. But Germany itself refused to take more than 8,000 refugees as late as in June 2015. As the EU appears wholly grounded on free market competition now it stands for the exact opposite of solidarity against the founding principles and the European idea. The competition among EU Member States, not only Luxembourg, for undercutting tax liabilities for multinational enterprises shows that nicely.
