Why Would Anyone Want to Join the European Union Now? Daniel Hannan
http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9804/pub_detail.asp
According to the Commission, the EU now faces its gravest crisissince the Second World War. Why does anyone want to clamber aboard such a visibly listing and dilapidated vessel? The question occurred to me over the weekend at a conference in Croatia for Centre-Right parliamentarians from the Balkans region, organised by the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.
One of the more important functions of the AECR is to propagate free-market and souverainiste doctrines across Europe, challenging the monopoly hitherto enjoyed by the palaeo-federalistEuropean People’s Party. Many politicians in the applicant states, especially in the former Yugoslavia, see the issue in slightly inchoate terms as an argument between modernity and backwardness. Opposition to the EU, in their minds, is associated with Communism, xenophobia and war-crimes. Part of our task is to show that you can be liberal, internationalist and Eurosceptic.
Most of the local people I spoke to saw the EU, tragically, as an antidote to corruption. Corruption is certainly a serious problem in Croatia: the former prime minister is awaiting trial on charges of abuse of office, and anti-sleaze campaigners fear physical attack. The truth, though, is that you cannot legislate against greed. What you can do is to widen or narrow the opportunities for embezzlement. It is an inflexible rule of politics that, the larger an organisation becomes, and the more remote from the electorate, the worse its officials behave (see here). The sheer sums of money available in Brussels, and its distance from taxpayers, will give Croatian fraudsters, like those from every other member state, a vast new range of opportunities.
The solution to corruption is, of course, to reduce the scope of the state, thereby limiting the opportunities for graft and nepotism. Some high-minded Croatians see this, and argue that the country needs to clean up its own affairs rather than looking to Brussels. A brave woman called Nataša SrdoÄ, who runs the Adriatic Institute, has launched a patriotic crusade for free markets and clean government. When I say “brave”, I don’t choose my words lightly: two journalists were murdered in a car bomb a couple of years ago, and the daughter of an anti-corruption prosecutor was gunned down in broad daylight.
Should Croatians join the EU? It’s up to them: unlike us, they are being allowed a referendum on the subject. If they vote in favour, I shall support their bid, and if they vote against, I’ll try to ensure that they get the best possible terms as an associate member (see below). They should, however, go into the process with their eyes open. Once they are in, as the British electorate learned to its regret, they won’t find it easy to change their minds.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Daniel Hannan is a British writer and journalist. He has been Conservative MEP for South East England since 1999. He speaks French and Spanish and loves Europe, but believes that the EU is making its constituent nations poorer, less democratic and less free. He is the winner of the Bastiat Award for online journalism.
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