The relationship between the British public and the European Union has seldom been a strong one. Decisions by politicians past and present to use Europe as an excuse for inaction or, even more cynically, as a reason for unpopular action, an ill-informed media whose ownership have no desire to see a level of government that might challenge their influence, and a pick-and-mix approach to political integration that leaves the United Kingdom looking insufficiently committed to its partners and overly committed to its citizens are all factors.
It is, of course, made more complex by the fact that we are a big nation, with a glorious past - two world wars, an empire upon which the sun never set, naval domination of the seas and so on - which colours the way we wish to see the world. The advantages of pooling sovereignty are less obvious, the disadvantages glaring and slightly scary to many.
However, if you're a small nation, like Cyprus, or Lithuania, or indeed, most of the members of the European Union, the advantages are many and obvious, the loss of sovereignty - well, how much sovereignty does a small nation really have these days of global trade and investment?
The ability to do trade deals with bigger partners as part of a collective means that you get better terms than you might otherwise get operating independently. As Slovenia, that's probably a given. As the United Kingdom? Well, you might be less easily convinced, especially if, like the overwhelming majority of the population, you know little of international trade negotiations.
As a small nation within a larger collective, Malta has the ability to influence trading standards thus making it easier for its corporate sector to compete within a bigger market whereas, because of its bulk, the United Kingdom might - and I only say might - think that its domestic market is big enough not to have to worry about such considerations. After all, the Americans seem pretty oblivious to such things.
Visa-free travel, access to education in other nations, action on environmental concerns, one could go on and on in terms of potential and perhaps obvious advantages for our smaller partners, and that is exactly why I fear for our future in the European Union. Because, for the British, with our unwillingness to take up the opportunities and our belief, still, in our own power, the advantages aren't so visible, the risks less obvious. All of that, in an environment where politicians and their works are a matter of deep suspicion and distrust, means that making a case for a fairly mysterious institution far away is an uphill battle, especially in the face of a hostile media.
The European Union is not perfect, far from it. But then, how much government is? The European Parliament, with its huge constituencies which make personal contact with your representatives well nigh impossible and an almost total lack of coverage in the British press, has little impact, the institutions are remote and even more impenetrable. And all the while, the focus of our politics is on what 650 or so people do in a bizarre, green-upholstered theatre where protagonists shout at each other and wave bits of paper in some weird performance art version of democracy.
It is no wonder that I fret about the outcome of a referendum - the people will never get to know what it is they risk losing...
No comments:
Post a Comment