Contrasting Visions of the European Union’s Future
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Version 0 of 1. BERLIN — The widely divergent paths that London and Berlin envision for the European Union came into stark relief on Tuesday, adding to a growing sense that a more deeply integrated Europe would be one with less participation from Britain. Speaking before a foreign policy conference in Berlin, William Hague, the British foreign secretary, painted a “less is more” vision of a bloc strong on trade, but with more power returned to national parliaments of the 27 member states. That contrasted sharply with the remarks of his German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle, who said in a speech to the gathering, organized by the Körber-Stiftung Foundation, that the ultimate goal of ongoing E.U. reforms “must one day be a political union.” “The debate about Europe’s future has to be goal-oriented, we are all invited to build Europe’s future,” Mr. Westerwelle said. “All are invited to bring their ideas, but if one doesn’t want to come along, they will not hold back the others from going ahead.” Germany and many of the smaller E.U. member states have long valued Britain’s pragmatism and influence as a proponent of the free market to serve as a counterweight to more interventionist members such as France. But the crisis triggered in the 17 members that use the euro has also sparked a deeper identity crisis within the wider E.U. Analysts say that for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, the future of the E.U. is linked to the success of the common currency, the euro, and that the pressure cooker of the sovereign debt crisis that has crippled the euro zone provides a unique chance to push for a deeper fiscal and political union. “No German government has been this open to this idea that saving the euro from within might mean that we’ll lose some partners along the way,” said Almut Möller, a European policy expert with of the German Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. While Ms. Merkel has been largely able to quell European skeptics on the fringes of her center-right coalition, David Cameron, prime minister of Britain, faces a stronger group of isolationist lawmakers from within his Conservative Party and doubts about Europe from the British public. The British leader says that only by talking tough will he be able to win back popular support for Britain’s E.U. membership. He will have several opportunities to display that in coming months, including late November, when he will seek to hold back spending on the bloc’s seven-year budget, which some would like to see top €1 trillion, or $1.3 trillion. “This coalition government is committed to Britain playing a leading role in the E.U.,” Mr. Hague told the conference in Berlin. “But I must also be frank: public disillusionment with the E.U. in Britain is the deepest it has ever been.” Mr. Hague went on to say that many Britons view the E.U. as a “one-way process, a great machine that sucks up decision-making from national parliaments.” He called for those the parliaments to be given back stronger decision-making powers, citing the example of Germany’s constitutional court having repeatedly upheld the right of the Bundestag to vote on bailing out weaker members of the common currency. Urged by Alexander Stubb, Finland’s minister for European affairs, to consider joining the pan-European banking union that is being set up by the 17 members who use the euro, Mr. Hague flatly rejected the idea. “The euro zone countries must do what they must to resolve the crisis, but the way forward for the E.U. as a whole is not more centralization and uniformity, but flexibility and variable geometry,” Mr. Hague said. This month, Mr. Cameron’s government tested the waters of quitting the bloc, announcing a plan to opt out of 130 justice and police measures to which it had once agreed as part of its membership in the Union. Instead of triggering an angry outcry, the response from Britain’s partners was more one of annoyance. Gunther Krichbaum, a lawmaker with Ms. Merkel’s conservative party, who heads the committee for European affairs in Germany’s parliament, said such comments were a cause for concern, but underlined Berlin’s position that the decision over Britain’s future rests in London alone. “Europe is not a multiple choice event where one can cherry pick what events to participate in,” Mr. Krichbaum said. “The German view is that Great Britain must figure out for itself what it wants.” |