During a recent visit to Malta, the President of the German Parliament – the Bundestag – made some very interesting points and continued with Germany’s new-found drive to promote further European integration.
Professor Norbert Lammert said that further European integration will empower and not undermine the sovereignty of national parliaments, because the European Union’s new vision is to have each and every one of them involved in formulating European policy.
Prof. Lammert goes one further and said that the euro – the common currency – is here to stay. However, he said that for this to happen, there must be common policy, common budget and common taxation – eventually.
Within Europe, and especially when considering the opinions of national leaders, the consensus is that monetary policy will have to be put before national agendas in the future, if the flawed euro currency system is to survive.
One would have to agree on this point. But whether or not one agrees with retaining the euro is a completely different kettle of fish. There are those who believe that Europe should go back to a loose union of states where national currencies and monetary policy is decided by the ruling government. In that way, states such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal (amongst others) could devalue their currencies in complete autonomy from Europe and the eurozone bloc. That, though, is looked at by the eurozone advocates as ‘cheating’.
Most European leaders and business owners do advocate retaining the euro; politicians and technocrats also see that losing the common currency would lead to a slide of the huge strides forward in terms of implementing the plan set out in the Lisbon Agenda.
The truth is that the EU is doing nothing short of what it has always done – it has evolved as time goes by and different challenges and opportunities present themselves. The European Union is unique in that sense and it is also affectionately known as that “unique experiment in democracy”. In the very fabric of its being, the EU has been forced to adapt and change over the years. It has gone from an economic community to a common market, to a union of states. But what is the next step forward? Many say that slowly but surely, Europe will integrate and that there will be new Super Commissions to regulate aspects of the EU relating to economy, taxation, fiscal policy and more.
Will that see sovereignty of national parliaments retained? It is very hard to say. Already we have seen instances where parliaments have had to bend to European pressure – Greece and Italy are two very good examples. But at the same time, there have been instances where single states have dug their heels in and stood their ground on issues which they believe are not the EU’s competence – the UK and the Czech Republic are two such examples.
At the end of the day, it is going to be up to national leaders to make sure that while different states get the best out of closer integration, the ‘barking hounds’ need to be kept at bay. Yes, Europe must integrate. Yes, we must get our finances in order and yes, we must take common decisions. But we are still a union of states, not a Federal Europe – yet.