Members of a Bavarian brass band voting in Bayrischzell (Germany), June 7, 2009 (AFP)

Global vote, local mindset

Candidates and the electorate have turned the largest transnational ballot in history into a vote on national issues. A pity, says El Pais, since global problems increasingly require solutions that transcend borders.

Published on 8 June 2009 at 14:43
Members of a Bavarian brass band voting in Bayrischzell (Germany), June 7, 2009 (AFP)

The match was not played out in Europe, but at the parish pump. Unfortunately, the 27 national contests were sabotaged by a blinkered strategy that has done nothing but hamstring the EU’s position in the world arena. The European Parliament election results confirm widespread disaffection with an election people consider remote and of scant utility: witness the low turnout and public indifference; the use of the EP elections as a second-round parliamentary poll to settle domestic scores; the rise of extremists like Geert Wilders’ xenophobic and anti-European Freedom Party in The Netherlands, which amassed over 15% of the vote; the implosion of Gordon Brown’s Labour Party, with David Cameron’s Tories poised for an early takeover of 10 Downing Street – and promising a referendum on the UK’s remaining in the EU; the triumph of the opposition in Ireland with a no-confidence vote on the government’s handling of the economic crisis; or the German dress rehearsal for the upcoming Bundestag elections in September. National tickets and national issues, in other words, for elections that are still – mistakenly – considered of secondary importance in tackling specific and general problems in a Europe we still do not see as a whole that is greater than its parts.

In Egypt Obama conjured up a “one world” vision in which we sink or swim together, while Europe is still dragging its feet. A waning US re-emerged on the world scene with a global speech given in the Middle East, in Europe’s backyard. In Germany, at the former Buchenwald concentration camp, Obama called for an end to ethnic and religious persecution. These are European values, too. It was only words, to be sure, which will have to be followed by actions, but it did provide a badly-needed fillip and inspiration. Europe has no comparable vision to show for itself, nor leaders to embody it. Now they – and not just European conservatives – are proposing that Barroso remain at the head of the Commission, and Blair seems to be the consensus candidate for first permanent president of the Union.

June 7th turned out to be the triumph of parochialism. Neither the politicians, who don’t understand it, nor the electorate, who, frightened by the recession, are digging their heels into the safe ground of the proximate and familiar, fully realise that there are no national solutions to global problems. None of the major challenges of the present-day world, whether climate change, energy or immigration, can be solved in the narrow national arena. We have passed up an opportunity: the biggest transnational elections in history, in which 380 million Europeans had a chance to vote for 736 members of a supranational Parliament. The only European institution elected by universal suffrage, with expanding powers, including control over a €116 billion budget, and the source of 70% of the legislation that affects us all. We certainly don’t get to elect the European government, and not even Parliament gets to appoint – as would be logical and desirable – the European Commission, the executive body of the EU.

Maybe there is no such thing as a European people, a common European language, budget or tax policy. We still don’t even have a European president or a common foreign and defence policy. And yet, Europe is endearing itself to us. But we cannot keep losing ground. The major non-European powers, China, India, Brazil, are now at hand.

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Which Europe?

Nation states still call the shots

The European elections have shown all too patently that what counts is not a common Europe or continental solidarity, but the nation, the State, the tribe, writes Andrzej Talaga in the Polish daily Dziennik. It is also clear that there is no federal Europe today, nor will there be one tomorrow, as the nation-states are going to remain the leading players in the European political scene. There is, in short, little chance of a European identity replacing national identities.

The EU needs to do some soul-searching and decide what it really wants to be, and how to reconcile the national interests of its member states with the interests of the community as a whole, adds the editorialist. “The European elections won’t change much, but they are an important barometer. A warning signal. Europe, wake up! It’s time to make decisions.”

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