In this new Age of Empires, why UK must choose Europe over isolation
Most of the UK’s economic problems since Brexit would have been avoided if it had stayed in the European Single Market and Customs Union and it’s time to move closer to the EU, writes former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
At the beginning of November, I came to Edinburgh to give a speech at the annual dinner of the European Movement in Scotland. I felt at home. Edinburgh is a European city.
That Edinburgh is known as the Athens of the North is more than a reference to its Greece-inspired architecture. The phrase speaks too of the city’s intellectuality. Edinburgh and Scotland seem to practise rational dialogue and factual debate. Plato, Aristotle and Socrates would surely be at home in Scotland.
So too would the founding figures of the European Union, who out of the horrors of war sought to build a Europe united economically, politically and culturally. The primary aim was peace instead of war and to replace the moral bankruptcy of fascism and racial superiority with harmony, cooperation and progress.
A haven of freedom and democracy
European political and economic integration has steadily evolved from the founding six countries of Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg and The Netherlands to the 27 democratic nations of today.
In the mid-1980s, when Greece, Spain and Portugal cast off rule by dictator, all three joined the European Economic Community, the predecessor to the EU. Later, when the Soviet empire collapsed many of the European states that had lived under the communist jackboot also voted to join.
To these previously oppressed peoples, the EU has brought once unimaginably high standards of living. Of far greater importance is that EU membership has cemented democracy and the rule of law. Their peoples have the protection of being citizens of their own land and of Europe.
Europe today is a haven for free men and women, for decent values and the politics of partnership and cooperation. All that must be made secure, so Europe is safe from the modern jackboot.
UK shunned Europe’s benefits
I was the European Parliament’s Brexit negotiator. I saw at first hand the unbending position of the then UK Government. It chose a hard Brexit. It shunned all the benefits of the European Single Market and the Customs Union.
I’m convinced that most of the post-Brexit economic difficulties the UK has faced would have been avoided if it had stayed in those institutions. Since those times, the UK has rejoined Horizon, the great science and technology research and development programme.
It is close to agreeing a youth exchange programme. Detailed talks are scheduled on food safety and emissions trading. The direction of travel is clear.
All of Europe mourns the loss of the UK from the European Parliament, Commission, courts, central bank, health agency and many more bodies where the UK’s commitment to the core values of the EU was esteemed.
The very bedrock of the EU is the shared belief in human dignity, in the sanctity of human life, open and fair law, free elections, free speech and that every human being is safe from oppression and discrimination. That is the granite upon which the EU sits.
The optimism of youth
We see no moves in any EU state to leave the Union. Indeed, trust in the EU is at its highest in 18 years, particularly among people aged between 18 and 24.
A Eurobarometer survey this year found 59 per cent of young people have confidence in the EU. Sixty-two per cent of all ages expressed optimism about the future, despite their worries about Russia and the fragile state of global political affairs.
I share their optimism. My conviction is that the EU holds the key to a more secure, more affluent and more competitive Europe. In fact, Europe has no realistic option but to draw closer, to do more to dismantle barriers to trade, to work more closely in manufacturing, technological development, research and development, and create ways to unlock capital to benefit every sector of the economy, including public services.
Growth of imperialist attitudes
The old Soviet empire may have died, but Vladimir Putin wants to build a “Greater Russia”. He imagines a new empire. He already effectively controls Georgia, has a client state in Aleksandr Lukashenko’s Belarus and a friend in Hungary’s Viktor Orban.
Imperialism, whether by territory or economic weight, is gathering strength across the globe. Donald Trump’s “America first” approach sees him attempt to dictate the terms of global trade. His territorial ambitions include Canada, Greenland and Panama.
China, now the world’s second biggest economy, vies with the USA to be the dominant military actor in the Asia-Pacific region. It claims at least partial sovereignty over areas of Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei.
We are living in a new world order. Too many of our politicians see the world through the last century’s lens. When the Cold War ended, we thought democracy had triumphed and a more stable world was assured. If such a happy outcome ever existed, we squandered the dividend.
We face a world breaking down into three or four power blocks. The international rules-based world of the past 80 years is in a perilous state. Europe faces being endlessly storm-tossed by the great economic, ideological and military muscle of the new empires.
UK should not stand alone
The UK is rash to imagine it can, in isolation, pick and choose its alliances around the globe. It is geographically part of Europe. Europe represents some 41 per cent of UK trade (the USA just 16.2 per cent).
The greatest threats to the UK’s territorial security are from Russia, and the USA is no longer the super-dependable guarantor of Europe’s security.
More Europe, not less Europe, is in the best interests of all the peoples of the continent, including of course the UK and Scotland.
Guy Verhofstadt is president of the European Movement International and a former Prime Minister of Belgium
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