Financial Times
November 3, 2011
If, as William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, suggests, the eurozone is a burning house with no exits, the first task is to put out the fire. But this is not enough. The house must be repaired, albeit on existing foundations, because, to be clear, it is the entire European Union that is becoming less efficient and less relevant. The Lisbon treaty did not deliver what was needed.
This is a painful admission. I laboured long and hard to produce a treaty fit for a union of 27 members. The EU is ponderous and unable to make rapid decisions. It finds it hard to finalise and enforce rules to govern the internal market, the Schengen agreement, or co-operating on defence. The commission is weak. The one-size-must-fit-all decision-making system does not suit a heterogeneous union. Rather than responding swiftly and decisively to events, the EU is more likely to produce a mouse. Irrelevance looms.
It is time to admit that the enlargement of the EU from 15 to 27 members was too rapid. Europe’s citizens no longer understand the purpose of the EU, its political aims and what its geographical borders will be. They are lost. For all its increased powers, granted through treaties since Maastricht, the European Parliament, the supposed repository of democratic legitimacy in Europe, is a relative failure.
I have to speak harsh truths: the very legitimacy of the EU is at stake. Winning back public opinion, while fighting a tide of populism, is challenging at a time when painful decisions have to be taken to face the euro crisis. But the EU cannot afford to be cast as a symbol of austerity. It must offer a broader political project, capable of giving hope of a better future.
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