The EU Presidency: another blow to European democracy?

(c) Xaf

The news this week that Czech President Václav Klaus would be dropping his opposition to the Lisbon Treaty means that the way is now clear for the Treaty to come into force. It has been a long road: it began as the European Constitution, which was hit into touch by voters in France and Holland back in 2005. Since then, many of the core elements of the Constitution have been incorporated into the Lisbon Treaty, including the establishment of a President of the European Council, dubbed the European President.

Current debate has centred on whether the European President should be high-profile figure like Tony Blair or a conciliatory negotiator, like Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Junkers. But all of this hides the fact that the European Union itself is in trouble. Eurosceptic political parties and groupings gained at the 2009 European Parliament elections, coupled with rejections of the European Constitution and Lisbon Treaty in traditionally pro-European states such as Holland and Ireland, have put European Union leaders in a difficult position. Part of the problem is that people don’t really feel European. The EU seems like a big bully, forcing us to pass reforms that we are unsure about and dipping its hands into our wallets while its there.

That’s why the real problem that the Lisbon Treaty presents us with is that the much touted Council Presidency is unelected. German philosopher Jürgen Habermas argues that civic engagement precedes national identity. What he means is that national identity is not an innate characteristic that all people have. Instead, it is developed through engagement in civil society and politics. This way we feel part of something, that we belong to something, when we engage with political decision-making or government.

The problem for the EU is that we hardly ever get the chance to engage with the decision-making process. We get to vote every five years for a new parliament but the European Parliament is not the kind of powerful legislative assembly that voters expect. Even worse, the UK media narrative on the elections in June treated the vote as a kind referendum on the Brown administration. When Labour did badly, the news focussed on a series on resignations from the Cabinet as though the only impact of the vote for a European Parliament was to weaken the position of the British Prime Minister. The election didn’t really feel like we were engaging in European politics at all.

The EU hardly helps itself. The way that Irish voters were forced to reconsider their ‘no’ vote was genuinely scandalous and the cynical repackaging of the European Constitution as a Treaty to avoid difficult referenda only adds to the overall image of the European Union as undemocratic, secretive and unaccountable. The EU seems complex, boring and irrelevant to the average voter and it will continue to turn people off as long as it fails to engage people in meaningful democracy.

Rather than whether the President is Tony Blair or Jean-Claude Junkers, it really matters whether they are elected to the office. The most vibrant democracies interest and excite their citizens and that’s what the EU needs to do. To engage with people, the EU needs a personality-driven, media-fest of a Presidential election. We need a head-to-head campaign between the candidates with TV debates and news coverage that broadcasts their most embarrassing gaffes directly to Europe’s 500 million voters. The campaign needs to be dramatic, captivating and dominating of the world’s news agenda. The indecipherable Euro-babble has to be thrown out. The candidates must stride the campaign trail talking about the big issues, apparently without a care for the shape of bananas or the cocoa content of chocolate.

In short, the EU needs a sexed-up election. It is the best way to make Europe interesting and engaging and to make European voters feel that they are part of something more important than just a political union. This would be the first step towards building a European identity.