I was asked to write about ‘Europe’ but I prefer to talk about fish swimming in the Mersey for the first time in 150 years. Or about the most ambitious programme in the world to combat climate change. Better still, what about the right of British workers to enjoy four weeks paid holiday a year or measures to slash extortionate mobile phone roaming charges abroad.
Of course, all this progress stems from EU policies. But to most people these are everyday, not European issues and that’s my point. We regard Europe as ‘foreign’ and ‘over there’, when in truth it’s all about domestic debate.
The modern world currently faces huge challenges – economic meltdown, climate change, migration and security among others. To tackle them, we need action at local, national, European and global levels. Britain cannot deal with climate change alone. By working with other like-minded countries though, we have now got an EU climate change package, which has made Europe a strong player in global talks on what should succeed Kyoto.
The governance of Britain depends on policies at local, national and European levels. Take one level away and you seriously undermine Britain’s ability to thrive in the modern world. We must stop thinking of Europe as part of foreign policy and instead regard it as domestic policy. That’s why we need to elevate the Europe minister to the cabinet, with a remit to work across all government departments to ensure the effective development of the European dimension of our domestic policy.
During my 20 years in the European parliament, I have witnessed tremendous changes. In 1989 the Berlin Wall still stood and the European community had 12 Western European member countries. Since then, the EU has grown to 27, the eurozone has 16 member countries and the single market is largely complete. Moreover Europe, among other things, has run 18 peace missions on three continents since 2003. A quite remarkable change.
Britain’s role within the EU has dramatically changed too. I lived through the BSE crisis and the Tory government’s unbelievable arrogance. Labour gaining power in 1997 was a breath of fresh air. Here was a British government determined to engage. Under the Tories the parliament would get the odd visit from whoever was Europe minister, now you can hardly move without bumping into a British minister or official.
The Labour government’s influence runs throughout European policy. We championed enlargement. It was Tony Blair and Robin Cook who showed great leadership over Kosovo. We pushed the commission into a more business-friendly approach and a focus on job creation. It was Tony Blair who prophetically warned MEPs in 2005 of the importance of energy policy. That was largely dismissed, until a few months later when Russia first turned off the gas taps to Ukraine. Now energy policy is a top EU priority.
Paradoxically, during the European Convention that drew up the Constitutional Treaty, Britain opposed proposals for an EU energy policy. That graphically illustrates the typical British reaction – if it’s our idea, it must be good; if it’s somebody else’s, it’s bad; and if it bears the Europe label, it must be handled with full body armour.
The government lives in constant fear of appearing to give something away to “Brussels” and so bring the self-righteous indignation of the tabloids crashing down on its head. Given our tabloids can easily turn the most benign European idea into a child-eating monster, you can appreciate the problem.
Tony Blair was our most pro-European prime minister yet. In 1997, however, he knew that people cared little about Europe and he had more pressing priorities, correcting years of Tory neglect. He was right. The result, though, was that Europe fell down the political agenda, leaving a vacuum, which the anti-Europeans and their doomsday fantasies filled.
British governments instinctively hope Europe will go away. Well it won’t. Europe is part of the fabric of our governance. The sooner we recognise that, the sooner we can start to treat Europe as domestic policy with a European cabinet minister ensuring that all ministers make the European dimension of their work visible.
The current economic and financial crisis is deeply worrying. Yet it also offers the EU great opportunities. We need more internal cohesiveness, though. The EU is still caught between supranational and inter-governmental institutions. We have liberated the financial markets and deregulated the flow of capital but left supervision to member states – with disastrous consequences.
The election of a new American president has put international co-operation back on the agenda. The EU is multilateral to its core and should seize the moment to build global co-operation, not just on finance but also economically and politically. We may depend heavily on Russia’s gas but, equally, Russia needs us as customers. We are also China’s biggest trading partner. We have more power than we think and we should work with Obama to build a more secure, cleaner and prosperous global future.
The opportunities are there. Labour’s leadership in Europe depends, though, on it winning the domestic argument, starting with June’s elections campaigning on the issues, not on ‘Europe’.
Gary Titley is Labour Member of the European Parliament for the North West Region and former Labour Leader in Europe