In an interview with New Europe, the EESC president talked about the implications of the EU's austerity policy. He also warned against underestimating the power of the anti-EU parties and giving too much power to technocrats.
Austerity is not a solution to the crisis, as we can see in the case of Greece. Why?
We should have been warned by history which showed that austerity measures imposed by Germany after the First World War resulted in rising extremism. Then, when a dictatorship comes into power all the economic problems disappear because they just put strong economic policies, of course in a wrong way, and this shows how fake the idea is that you can solve all the problems with the economy.
Our crisis is first a crisis of society because we lost our values and goals and on the other hand the EU is also in this situation because of this loss of values and goals.
The economy is just a symptom of this sickness and not the cause and austerity was not the right diagnosis... Austerity creates a lack of hope and now we have to rebuild this hope.
Though they seem divided and unorganised, anti-EU parties seem to be rising in popularity. Are you worried about this?
I think that all these parties are working for their different aims, but globally they are on the same line which is dangerous. OK, they can fight for patriotism, separatism and so on, but although they are disorganised, concerning Europe they have the same objective which is the collapse of the EU. They don’t propose any alternative to replace the EU.
Europe is a small continent with many conflicts of interests and border and historical disputes. If we return to the past, this could be very dangerous. But if they win an election, they will find a way to work together in the European Parliament with the possibility of taking as many as 1/3 of the seats. So we should not underestimate the power of these parties.
What do you think about lobby here in Brussels?
From the beginning, the important message of the EU was that there was a true and structured dialogue with the civil society and this is the legitimate, clear and normal society dialogue that should be organised. On the other hand, lobbying is about private interests. In Brussels, the result is they try to interfere with normal democratic issues. Everyday, the private interests are gaining influence in Brussels in the European Commission and the European Parliament...
Apart from that what I see as a danger for democracy in Europe, there is excessive power in the hands of the technocrats and not enough respect for the recognised actors of civil society.
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