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There can never be a democratic EU unless there is a demos and creating a demos out of 28 (27 now) disparate nations is extremely hard, probably impossible. But Europeans do have very much in common. The Greco-Roman tradition and a Christian culture being the most important things.
Shouldn't EU have a very restrictive policy on immigration INTO the EU if it wants to create a common European identity? Perhaps even the Fortress Europe policy that Gerhard Schröder and Angela Merkel have said Europe must avoid.
Had Mrs. Merkel and the EU followed this policy Europeans would be very much happier, the UK would not be leaving and Marine Le Pen would not be a strong contender in the next French presidential election.
They don't want a demos:
ReplyDelete"...the current members of the EU are, ultimately, not the intended democratic community of the EU. An express aim of not allowing the European Parliament to initiate legislation was that it might inhibit integration efforts. Similarly, the EU is “resolved to continue the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” (not merely the peoples of current EU countries).
What this means is that the definition of the people who, if unanimous, should be able to affect the outcome of their political system is transitory and open to ongoing interpretation. I do not mind if it is big or small, but the point is that it is not bound to the EU’s current citizenry. As things stand, the EU Commission may choose a policy because it is in the interests of the EU’s commitment to ever closer union, regardless of the interests of any member state or particular EU citizens. Unanimity among EU citizens is not sufficient grounds for not introducing such legislation in the European Parliament.
The French theorist Pierre Manent is most adept at explaining what this commitment to transitory peoplehood means in his book A World beyond Politics? There he states:
It seems that democracy, in the European construction, is striving to escape the sad necessity of having a body. So it gives itself a body without limits, this Europe with indefinite expansion, a Europe defined paradoxically as an indefinite expansion.
This is the EU as an anti-democratic machine. It is not anti-democratic due to any lack of institutional checks and balances but due to its commitment to separating a notion of citizenry from that of peoplehood, in order to ensure that the legislative process remains ultimately unaccountable."
Dr. Dominic Burbidge
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2016/06/17204/