Ambassador's Corner
WEEKLY MESSAGE FROM AMBASSADOR JOHN BRUTON
March 27, 2007
The birthday of the European Union
Last Sunday was the 50th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome. On 25 March 1957 six
countries with 168 million people between them joined together to form what has
now become a European Union, which has expanded to include twenty-seven countries and 493
million people.
I would like to make a few personal reflections on this historic birthday.
The early steps of the European Union were quite modest. No new members were
added until 1973 when the United Kingdom, Denmark and Ireland joined. While
tariffs and quotas were quickly abolished, many non-tariff barriers remained
between
Member States. It was not until after the
Single European Act of 1986
had introduced majority voting in the
Council of Ministers, on what Americans
would call interstate commerce, that most of the remaining non-tariff barriers
to interstate trade and investment were eliminated.
Some barriers still remain in regard to some cross-border services and energy.
Now, at last, even those barriers too are in the process of being removed by
initiatives of the Barroso Commission
[below].
In the beginning, the European Union project was primarily a diplomatic
exercise. It was not until 1979, twenty-two years after the EU was founded, that
the first direct election to the
European Parliament took place, and even today
campaigns for that Parliament are still primarily national affairs within each
Member State.
EU citizens do not yet elect a President, as Americans do. Nor do European
Parliament constituencies cross the boundaries of Member States. So there is not
yet an electoral contest that generates a Europe wide debate on the choice of
direction for the Union’s future.
To the extent that which politicians can only advance their careers is by
appealing to national electorates, we should not be surprised if sufficient
effort is not made to cross national boundaries to explain the full benefits of
membership of the European Union. Those benefits can thus be taken for granted.
There are other ways in which the EU and the United States differ. The European
Union spends 1% of Europe’s income at “federal” level, whereas the United States
of America spends 20%. The European Union does not have the autonomous power to
levy taxation or to borrow money. Its expenses are met by contributions by each
of the twenty-seven Member States, who retain the sole powers to tax and borrow.
The United States may amend its constitution if two-thirds of both houses of
Congress approve followed by three-quarters of the states (or by special
convention, which has not happened since the US Constitution was ratified). But
in the European Union, the Treaties (which are our “constitution”) can only be
amended if each EU Member State agrees. The admission of new members also
requires the agreement of every existing member, and Member States may withdraw
from the European Union.
What conclusions can one draw from all of this?
The first one is that, far from suffering from a “mid-life” crisis, the European
Union is actually a very young institution. It is a work-in-progress, and it is
at a very early stage in its constitutional
development. It is at a formative stage similar to that of the United States
under the Articles of Confederation between 1781 and 1789. But there is one huge
difference, the United States at that time consisted of thirteen states and four million people (including African
slaves), mostly speaking one language. The European Union, now consists of
twenty-seven nation states, with twenty-three official languages, and nearly 500 million
people!
The second conclusion one can draw is that it is truly remarkable that the
European Union has achieved so much on the basis of such modest financial and
constitutional resources.
It has created the world’s only multinational democracy.
It has facilitated an economic environment in which, since 1957, European
(EU-15) GDP per capita has risen by nineteen times in real terms whereas US GDP
per capita has risen by fifteen times.
The average European enjoys a life expectancy that is four years longer than that
enjoyed by the average American. In polls, Europeans routinely register a higher
level of satisfaction with life than any other group of people in the world and,
thanks to EU’s strong commitment to economic and social cohesion, income
inequalities in Europe (EU-15) are in general lower, and in most of these Member
States well below, the level of income inequality in the United States.
More remarkable than that is the fact that the European Union has opened the
door to membership to new states, almost all of whom were, at the time of
joining, considerably poorer than the existing members, and has been able to do
so at each stage with the unanimous agreement of all the existing Member States.
On this basis, the Union expanded from six to nine in 1973, from nine to ten in 1981,
from ten to twelve in 1986, from twelve to fifteen in 1995, from fifteen to
twenty-five in 2004 and, most
recently, from twenty-five to twenty-seven in 2007.
On each occasion the existing Member States, who agreed to each enlargement,
knew that bringing a new member meant admitting a new competitor to the market,
admitting a new vote to the decision-making table and admitting new workers who
would be free to work in their labour market. All this involved risks. It
involved embracing change, rather than seeking security in the status quo.
I believe that this enlargement of the European Union has only been possible
because there is an overarching ideal that guides the entire project. That ideal
is one of unifying Europe, of building an “ever closer Union” in Europe.
If the creation of the European Union had been viewed merely a diplomatic or
financial negotiation or a mere mercantilist balancing of interests, it would
never have succeeded as well as it has.
The challenge of the European Union for the next fifty years will be to convince
two further generations of Europeans that “an ever closer Union” in Europe is a
valid idea for their time too, and that they too should be willing to take
risks, and make sacrifices, to achieve it.
Please send me your comments about this or any of my weekly messages or other EU matters. I
look forward to hearing from you!
John Bruton
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