Europe and the world - the European Union and the Lisbon Reform Treaty
Issued : Monday 25 February, 2008
Speech by Michael D Higgins TD
Spokesperson on Foreign Affairs
The challenges facing the global community at the present time are immense and require a global response.
It is obvious that a new discourse that accepts global responsibility and that has the capacity to recast, even replace, existing structures of economics, society and culture at global level is needed. It is needed in order to take on the challenges of climate change and the quest for sustainability, new threats to world peace and the need to recognise diversity, tackling an obdurate poverty that affects ever more people, or the need for inclusive models of development.
The crisis in international institutions that have lost support and that urgently need reform cannot be ignored. It is clear that a common response from Europe is required. This challenge has existed for some time, and it and goes beyond the terms of the Lisbon Treaty. It is, however, a context that cannot be ignored. The issue that has to be decided immediately in the forthcoming referendum is as to whether this necessary response from Europe is assisted by a yes vote or a no vote. Labour at our most recent Conference voted to support the adoption of the Lisbon Treaty. In adopting this position Labour is affirming its belief that the Treaty will deliver a structure that can address the administrative challenges of an enlarged, and enlarging, Union in a democratic way. Labour also recognises the challenges that remain in terms of the existing and future policy of the Union.
The kind of Europe towards which democratic socialist and Labour Parties have always aspired is one that envisaged an international community built on our common shared humanity characterised by such values as solidarity, equality, rights, justice, peace, and recognition of the value of work in all its aspects. This thinking has yet to be achieved at a general level within the Union and among member states. Indeed Labour, while recognising and welcoming the leadership in such areas as climate change, including insistence on global targets, must remain concerned that the value of solidarity is reflected in association agreements with developing regions. In relation to these international agreements, the Lisbon Treaty simply continues the capacity, and the need, to define such relationships. The debate on the European Union’s relationship with the developing world has to be won among the citizens of Europe who in turn must ensure that their political will is delivered into the Council by the member states.
The existing mechanisms for transparency in the European Parliament and national Parliaments, irrespective of the Lisbon Treaty, need to be deepened and developed. The project which Labour espouses as a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International, that includes the values of solidarity, equality, rights, justice, peace and recognition of the value of work in all its aspects, requires us to pursue our policies at both a national and transnational level. Labour has always been an international Party. In a Report for the party of European Socialists, ‘Europe and a new Global Order’, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen wrote: “We need global progressive alliances for change. Such alliances will have to bring progressive political forces together around shared political aims. They will go beyond the borders of social democracy and include progressive civil society institutions, NGOs, trade unions and businesses devoted to building a sustainable world of democracy, peace, security and social justice.” That is the scale of the project with which we must engage.
The Lisbon Reform Treaty is not established to achieve all of this, but some of its key elements will assist in creating a space for the project. For example, the establishment of the European Charter on Fundamental Rights as legally binding beyond national borders at European level is an advance, extending as it does the concept of democratic freedom beyond the civil and political area into the social and economic area. Similarly, the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into the Treaty represents an important step towards the universality of human rights. Such an explicit reference can be a valuable platform for departure towards acceptance on a general scale of the United Nations Charter with its aspiration for a universally accepted code of human rights. The proposals in relation to climate change and environmental responsibility, including the need for change in economic policies, is necessary, progressive and worthy of support. The discourse that is necessary to address the current global challenges has to include civil, political, social, economic and cultural dimensions. For example, the imposition of a single model of economic growth cannot be allowed to defeat the important principles of cohesion.
Hence the general emphasis in the Lisbon Treaty on a social economy has been welcomed by the European Trade Union conference. The Treaty simply provides a space for a discourse that, while unavoidable and necessary, has not reached a conclusion on a number of fundamental issues of balance between, for example, cohesion and competitiveness. There is need for a wider, more inclusive debate beyond the decision on the Treaty that addresses all of these issues, issues that will decide the future direction of Europe. Citizens of Europe must also participate in the debate on the efficacy of decision making and the achievement of a fuller transparency in decision making at every level of the European Union. The addressing of the democratic deficit poses challenges for the citizens of member states at the level of member states’ institutions themselves. The democratic deficit is not simply European. It is also national and local. The Treaty does not purport to solve all of the issues of democratic deficit currently in the European Union which are of concern to citizens.
It recognises, however, the importance of citizen participation and goes some way towards reducing that deficit by, for example, increasing the powers of the European Parliament, allowing for transnational combinations of citizens’ initiatives, and facilitating better scrutiny of national Parliaments. Much of the responsibility, however, of reducing the democratic deficit, we must accept, lies with member states, their Parliaments and their citizens. A shared European view, reflecting a discourse that includes the values that Labour shares with other sister Parties in Europe, offers a better prospect of a new and more ethical global order than projects of the economically powerful, whether acting alone or in combination in such groups as the G8. This kind of shared European view offers the best prospect for addressing the global issues that now face us, whether in terms of climate change, world poverty, the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals, or the building of sustainable peace based on security, freedom from poverty, and the necessities of life.
Through our membership of the Party of European Socialists and Socialist International, the Labour Party is part of the international socialist movement working for equality and to empower citizens, consumers and workers in a world in which global economic forces tend to dominate over the individual and the local community. For Labour and for our colleagues in sister parties throughout Europe, the purpose and practice of the European Union must relate to the fundamental needs of its peoples and citizens in terms of jobs, security and balanced overall development, within a democratic and participative framework. It must also relate, and respond effectively, to the great world challenges of peace, justice, sustainable development as well as combating climate change, hunger and poverty. The Lisbon Treaty does not guarantee that this will be the immediate European project. It does, however, make it possible for European citizens to seek and achieve these goals. It is clear that an ideology of the market in economic policy does not of itself deliver either justice or efficiency. In order to serve society the market as economic mechanism requires to be governed by rules and standards which respect citizens’ wider concerns and rights, such as workers’ rights, environmental protection, consumers’ rights and access to essential public services. It must also respect solidarity between the regions of the Union and between the Union and the world.
As the world’s leading donor in Development Aid, the character and assumptions of the policy and practices of the European Union can give a lead. The opportunity of achieving a convergence on a rights-based Development policy is contained as a possibility within the Treaty. Again, it will be a matter for achievement, but the opportunity exists, as it does for structuring trade policy with the developing world in such a way that is both fair, globally responsible, and sustainable. The possibility of achieving a common European Union position on an ethically driven foreign policy will remain a project of the member Parties of the Party of European Socialists. It is Labour’s belief that the Lisbon Treaty offers an accessible space for such a discourse as will advance this policy. The Treaty envisages a Europe of equality in all of its forms.
As Rasmussen wrote: “The old Europe was a Europe in which people were excluded, persecuted and oppressed because of ethnic origin. Over the last few decades, the EU has fixed common principles for combating discrimination, taken the lead in the fight against xenophobia and social exclusion and maintained high labour and social standards. Our vision of the new Europe is an inclusive society based on solidarity. Common principles will be translated into national and local policies, giving new opportunities to people who are marginalised or in danger of becoming so.” The history of Ireland’s participation in the European Union is a positive one. Be it on issues of labour protection, of environmental responsibility, of equality, or the vindication of human rights, the experience has been one of being able to accelerate the movement towards deeper democracy and justice. This is an experience that a Europe with shared values can advance in a global sense.
The Lisbon Treaty is not an end point. Rather it is an opportunity, a platform from which new policies and thinking, which recognise our global interdependency, our intergenerational responsibility and our ethical obligations to each other, can evolve. When the Treaty is accepted it should not be seen as the establishment of a single version of Europe. There will remain a need for a plurality of economic models of development. There will still be the need for new forms of connection between economy and society that would make economic policy accountable, and there will also be a need for new structures of decision making to achieve inclusion, transparency and accountability.
The necessity of establishing a dialogue between cultures and belief systems is one that is best shared by the member states of the European Union. Countries like Ireland that do not carry the burden of old empires or of a colonising history should seize the opportunity of contributing to a new version of Europe and the world. Of its nature, the Lisbon Treaty represents a balance of both the aspirations and the reservations of the member states. In having to choose between a minimal approach which would encounter few reservations among the members states and their varying demands, or seeking to forge something of greater merit, it is creditable that the Treaty has chosen the latter. The European Union will have a major role to play in what is now urgent: reform of the United Nations and its derived institutions such as the World Bank and the IMF.
A European Union position committed to this reform can be a powerful voice. The kinds of reforms which are necessary at the level of the UN cannot come from the self-interest of nations who have acquired a strong position within the United Nations based purely upon being victors in World War Two, or on economic power alone. A shared European view that represents all of the member states can be qualitatively different in its influence.
Furthermore, it can help achieve the reforms that are appropriate for a body to which authority must be restored- the UN- that is genuinely global. It can reflect a political will on behalf of the people of Europe that represents the best prospects for peace, security and sustainable development. The debate on the future of Europe requires all of our participation during and beyond the debate on the Lisbon Treaty.