LETTER FROM LONDON
UK’s
pro-European politicians have only themselves to blame
The
idea that the UK government has long been critical of the EU is an
airbrushing of recent history.
By RAOUL RUPAREL
6/5/16, 6:49 AM CET
There are plenty of
excuses flying around the Remain camp about why the EU referendum is
still neck and neck, less than a month ahead of the vote. A common
gripe I hear among those who want the U.K. to stay in the EU is that
their job has become increasingly difficult. No one has made the
pro-EU case in the U.K. properly for decades, Europhiles claim. They
blame a Euroskeptic media that has hammered Brussels for years. They
blame the current administration for not embracing the EU and for
pandering to party politics.
But they leave out
an important part of the story. The reality is that the situation is
very much of their own making. If the U.K. does vote to leave the EU,
the Europhiles will be as much to blame as the Euroskeptics.
* * *
The reason the
pro-EU case has not been made effectively in Britain for years is not
because Britain is inherently biased against the EU. Simply, the
Europhiles have always been ineffective. Sure, their case is
inherently a bit trickier to make — it lacks emotional pull, for
one thing — but they have plenty of economic arguments on their
side, as they have readily pointed out in the referendum campaign.
The idea that the
U.K. government has long been critical of the EU is an airbrushing of
recent history. Let us not forget that for 13 years the U.K. had an
avidly pro-EU government. It can hardly be argued that the Labour
party under Tony Blair or Gordon Brown failed to stick their neck out
for the EU.
Blair did set out to
put the U.K. at the heart of Europe — even if he probably ended up
doing precisely the opposite. The issue was not that Blair wasn’t
pro-EU enough. Ultimately, Blair’s government overreached and went
beyond the public’s readiness for further European integration.
This began early in
Blair’s tenure as his government toyed with U.K. membership in the
eurozone, a move widely supported by pro-EU organizations and
businesses. The Europhiles were wrong about the euro and, although
that doesn’t mean they are now wrong on EU membership more broadly,
it has seriously dented their credibility. The Leave campaign has
certainly used this to their advantage.
The Europhiles’
missteps were compounded in the debate over migration. The decision
not to impose transitional controls on new EU member countries from
Eastern Europe undoubtedly boosted anti-EU and anti-migration
sentiment. The public were told not to worry, and that migrant flows
would be small. Clearly they were not. The result was an avidly
pro-migration government that failed to clarify the underlying
economic and political arguments in favor of migration, and failed to
bring the public with it.
And then, of course,
came the Lisbon Treaty debacle. When the government pushed through a
flawed treaty that handed more power to the EU, then reversed on a
“cast iron guarantee” to hold a referendum on it, people rightly
lost faith in the nature of the EU and the U.K.’s role within it.
The cherry on top
was the decision to reduce the U.K.’s budget rebate in exchange for
… well, nothing. Or at least, nothing significant as far as anyone
can remember. The U.K.’s net budget contribution jumped from £4.7
billion in 2009-10 to £8.9 billion in 2010-11.
On their own, any
one of these decisions might have been forgivable and forgettable.
Unfortunately, they were indicative of a larger trend: A political
elite in the U.K. (and the EU) who failed to properly communicate
their decisions or bother to explain why further integration was
necessary, or even desirable. This gulf has grown consistently over
the past two decades and has a great deal to do with the rise of
UKIP, deepening divisions in the Conservative Party and the promise
to hold a referendum on the U.K.’s EU membership.
So why does all this
matter? Europhiles seem to forget they have lost the war — the U.K.
is now a Euroskeptic country. Trying to make an emotional argument in
favor of the EU will not work. A more nuanced, pragmatic line —
that accepts previous overreach on integration — is the only way to
appeal to the broader British public on the EU.
If the U.K. does
vote to stay in the Union, it cannot simply revert back to old ways —
the government will have to take account of public divisions on
sovereignty and integration. Otherwise they could find themselves
having to wear as much responsibility for the U.K. leaving the EU as
anyone else — be it now or in the not too distant future.
Raoul Ruparel is
co-director at Open Europe, an independent European policy think
tank.
Authors:
Raoul Ruparel
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