28 January 2013

Stefan Collignon: The future of the Franco-German couple

With European integration in its deepest crisis since its beginning and with British rats already thinking of leaving the ship, the world would have deserved some bolder initiatives coming from the Franco-German couple, writes Collignon in this Social Europe article.

What is missing today is a similar convergence in the general political philosophy... In both countries prevails an attitude that economic policy is a national task and governments are there to defend the national interest.

However, the euro crisis has proven that this chauvinistic attitude is pushing Europe into the abyss. Merkel’s narrow rigidity and her refusal to assume the responsibilities of the largest economy have been a major force in the unfolding of the euro crisis. Sarkozy’s desire to run Europe by a directoire (which ended up with Merkel in charge) has prevented Europe from becoming more democratic and therefore more acceptable for ordinary citizens. By putting the unelected troika in charge of economic policy in southern Member States, the Franco-German couple infernal has maximised the rejection of “Europe” as a policy tool. Even if he wanted, François Hollande has difficulties to change the track.

There is an alternative. I call it the republican paradigm. It implies recognising that politics is about public goods. Public goods are defined by their externalities, which is why they need a government to be efficiently administrated. Over the last 50 years, the European Union has generated a large set of European public goods, which have externalities that affect people everywhere in the Union. The euro is, of course, the most important of all European public goods, for money affects the economy in its very core. Sovereignist policies increase the negative externalities of national policies for all European citizens, as the Euro crisis has made plainly clear. The proper way to deal with them is to set up a European government that is responsible for all these European public goods – but only for these. Such a government can and must be controlled by proper democratic procedures, so that citizens have a choice over the policies. In other words, instead of the troika imposing austerity, democratic institutions and elections would offer citizens a choice of how to deal with the crisis. I call this the European Republic because contrary to the confused ideology of federalism it clearly focuses on competences for one political domain only: public goods owned by all European citizens who are affected by them.

France and Germany could play an important role in changing the political philosophy in Europe... The European Republic could therefore be an exciting new project for the Franco-German couple. It requires to go beyond the status quo and to open our minds.

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