31 October 2013

Guardian: EU must unite against sceptics and populists, says Italian PM

The EU's political mainstream must go into battle against a rise in populism that next year threatens to usher in the "most eurosceptic, most anti-European parliament in history" and scupper hopes of long-term economic recovery, Enrico Letta has warned.

Calling on leaders to confront the issue with less than seven months to go until the European elections, Letta said that the growing popularity of parties such as the UK Independence party, France's National Front (FN) and Italy's anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) was the "most dangerous phenomenon" facing the European Union.

If they were to win more than 25 per cent of the vote next May, he warned, it would be the start of "very negative" trend that could have a potentially devastating impact on the continent's potential for growth. "I believe the risk of having the most anti-European European parliament in history is being greatly underestimated", Letta told the Guardian and five other European newspapers, characterising the challenge as a "great battle" between "the Europe of the people and the Europe of populism".

The underlying issue facing the next parliament would be how to press ahead with continent-wide economic recovery, he said. "But if we want to move from the legislature of austerity to a legislature of growth, and we find ourselves with the most eurosceptic, most anti-European parliament in history, this goal will be immediately crippled, halted".

Letta said he had chosen to "sound the alarm" over the elections because he could not see any coordinated action aimed at tackling the rise in anti-EU populism. "I see that, yes, it's being talked about in European countries, but timidly", he said. "And above all I do not see a European initiative to combat this trend, this phenomenon, which seems to me to be the most obvious and most dangerous phenomenon."

For arguably the first time, he said, he and others in Europe would be looking closely at the results in Britain in May to see how UKIP performs. "A success of Nigel Farage's party would have very negative effects on the debate about Britain's exit from the EU", he said. "If one of the messages to come out of May's elections were that this party had placed first, it would certainly be seen as a step towards Britain's exit", he said, adding that he was "ferociously against" such a scenario. "On this issue [Britain's exit] there is a bit of superficiality in Europe … This time, I believe, it could really happen."

He said the lack of institutional infrastructure, especially for eurozone countries, was an enormous problem and that the 17 – soon to be 18 – Member States should have their own economy minister. He also said that if he had a magic wand he would merge the presidencies of the European commission and European Council into one unified role.

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© The Guardian