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The European Union: An Introduction The Eurosceptic perspective <<Your Name>>

The European Union: An Introduction The Eurosceptic perspective <<Your Name>>. The EU today : 27 members, 501m citizens -The most recent members (Romania and Bulgaria) joined in January 2007. The EU – what’s the point?. Provide lasting peace and security

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The European Union: An Introduction The Eurosceptic perspective <<Your Name>>

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  1. The European Union:An IntroductionThe Eurosceptic perspective<<Your Name>>

  2. The EU today: 27 members, 501m citizens-The most recent members (Romania and Bulgaria) joined in January 2007

  3. The EU – what’s the point? • Provide lasting peace and security • Build economic strength and development through a common market • Restore European influence in the wider world • Create ‘an ever closer union between the peoples of Europe’ ?

  4. EU Enlargement

  5. Creating the European Union: EU Treaties

  6. How does the EU work? European Council -Heads of State or Government from Member States -Meets twice every six months, to set EU ‘agenda’ European Commission -Appointed bureaucracy, headed by 27 Commissioners -Manages EU budget and common policies -Monopoly on proposing law Co-decision Council of the EU -Ministers from Member States -Votes, largely by QMV, to accept/reject Amendments European Parliament (EP) -736 directly elected members (MEPs) -Cannot propose legislation only Accept, reject or propose Amendments European Court of Justice (ECJ) -Oversees implementation of law

  7. Law-making – The Ordinary Legislative Procedure • Commission proposes law • EP and Council debate and vote on adopting law (co-decision) • If adopted, Member States are obliged to implement law (through comitology) • ECJ can act against, and fine, Member States if they do not implement the law properly “The EU’s ways are complicated to the point of incomprehensibility” -Dr Helen Szamuely, Bruges Group

  8. EU ‘competences’ • The European Commission has sole power to propose new EU laws. It is responsible for UK policy on: • Trade (e.g. WTO), commerce and industry • Social and labour issues • Agriculture (CAP), fishing (CFP) and the environment • Overseas development aid • Between 60 and 80% of our laws now originate in an unelected bureaucracy in Brussels!

  9. EU policies: CAP • Under CAP, EU farmers are paid a Single Farm Payment (SFP) on top of what they receive from selling produce. • CAP also sets quotas on what farmers produce, to ensure higher prices, and imposes tariffs (tax) on agricultural imports. • CAP takes up 41% of the annual EU budget and costs the UK c.£10.3bn p.a. • “The way to build lasting economic growth in Africa…is for Europe to end the CAP.” -Sir Digby Jones, Former Chairman CBI

  10. EU directives and regulation • EU legislation cost UK business £88.3bn between January 1998 and July 2010. • Some examples: • Working Time Directive • Services Directive • Child car seats for under-12s below 4’5”. • Permanent headlights

  11. The €uro • The euro was launched in 1999. Notes and coins were introduced in 2002. • There are 17 Member States in the Eurozone. • It was intended to make it easier to do business across the EU. • ‘One size fits all’ interest rate in the Eurozone is fitting no-one. • 2010 Eurozone crisis - €273bn has been spent so far bailing out Greece, Ireland and Portugal. • Why risk entry?

  12. The EU Constitution • The EU drafted a Constitutional Treaty in 2002, which was signed by representatives of the member states in 2004. • The Constitutional Treaty was supposed to combine existing Treaties to clarify what the EU’s responsibilities were. • But it actually increased the power of the EU: • National vetoes on 63 issues lost (to QMV) • Created an EU President and Foreign Minister • EU given ‘legal personality’ • No limits set on extension of EU power • It included things such as an EU ‘national’ anthem and the EU flag, yet ignored key issues such as reforming the CAP and liberalising Member State economies

  13. The “reformed” EU Constitution • France and the Netherlands both rejected the EU Constitution in referendums in June 2005. • The response of the Constitution’s author : “Let’s be clear about this. The rejection of the Constitution was a mistake that will have to be corrected.” - Valery Giscard d’Estaing • The Constitutional project was resurrected under the guise of the Lisbon Treaty • It replaced the Constitution (but 96% of its content was the same as the Constitutional Treaty)

  14. The Lisbon Treaty ‘We are united in our aim of placing the EU on a renewed common basis before EP elections in 2009’ - Berlin Declaration, March 2007 • The Lisbon Treaty was signed in December 2007. • However, Ireland rejected it in a referendum in June 2008 • Following controversial negotiations, Ireland voted ‘Yes’ in a second vote in October 2009. • The euro-sceptic Czech Republic President, Vaclav Klaus, campaigned against the Treaty, but eventually signed it. • The Treaty came into force in December 2009

  15. Enlargement • On 1 May 2004, 10 new countries, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, joined the EU. • Romania and Bulgaria joined in January 2007. • Yet the structure of the EU was built for 6, not 27, Member States. It needs reforming. • Average GDP per head in the 10 Member States that joined in 2004 was just 52.9% of the EU-15. • The ‘Copenhagen Criteria’ has been too loosely applied and was not met by Romania and Bulgaria prior to accession. Turkey is even further off. • Enlargement has raised many issues regarding immigration to the UK, the response to which has been chaotic.

  16. What do the public think? • In 2010 only 29% of British people considered membership of the EU to be ‘a good thing’ • Just 49% of the entire population of the EU had the same response to the question. • By a margin of 60% to 30%, chief executives support moves to radically reduce the powers of the EU to a basic free trade area. QA7. Generally speaking, do you think that [your country’s] membership of the EU is…? Ans: A good thing. – Eurobarometer 2010

  17. i. Why is the EU so unpopular? • Complex, undemocratic, and distant from its citizens. • Unaccountable and corrupt – the Court of Auditors has refused to sign off EU accounts for the last 16 years! "The creeping unification of Europe ... [has been] managed by the bureaucrats from Brussels behind the back of the citizens of individual member states." -Vaclav Klaus, Czech President

  18. ii. Why is the EU so unpopular? • The trade rules of the EU disadvantage lesser developed countries around the world. • The EU has serious economic problems: high unemployment, low growth and a growing government pensions debt, not to mention the ongoing Eurozone crisis. • It is hamstrung by regulation and protectionism. • “There is a view that the more regulation you have, the more Europe you have." • -Gunter Verheugen, EU Commission Vice-President

  19. Better off out? • The EU is expensive, costing each UK taxpayer approximately £300 last year. • The EU should stop the tide of regulation and focus on where it can make real changes: free trade and CAP reform. • The EU must return Member States’ power to revoke legislation. “The EU is making us poorer, less democratic and less free.” – Daniel Hannan MEP “Europe should do less, but do it better!” – Jacques Delors, 1992

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