On the first full day of the ICLS European seminar, Executive Director of the Centre for International Promotion of Security, Manuel Amarila, delivered a detailed presentation on the European Union and its recent expansion, as well as its proposed further expansion and the all important ‘Turkey question’.
This day really got me thinking about what it means to be a European Citizen. For a start, the EU’s motto is ‘United in Diversity’, a motto I can fully relate to working for ICLS in Leicester. It helped me start to overcome a few of my prejudices. Like many Brits, I had not considered myslef a European, mainly because of media influences and our ‘island mentality’. However, after speaking with my new friends from Rotterdam, Berlin and Rome, I realised that Europe is a strong coaltition that can exert pressure (for better of worse*) when engaged in international negotiations. It seems to me that this is the best reason to remain and become more engaged in the EU, because as a democratic institution we can encourage it to use its power in a globally responsible way. It was exciting to discover that between the group of participants at the ICLS European gathering we live in six different European Parliamentary constituencies, which amounts to dozens of MEPs. What an impact we could have if collectively we wrote to all those MEPs, referring each to the other and acting as a strong network across Europe. Watch this space – the plans are developing for bilateral lobbying! The EU can make laws that all countries in the EU must stick to. This sometimes can be troublesome, as in the issue of how Britain weighs food to sell – regional customs must be taken into account – but for some issues that must be tackled, like carbon emissions, making laws which a huge number of people must abide by can make a very big difference. The EU can also act as a buffer zone that enables individuals, communities and collections of communitities (countries) to effectively deal with a larger-scale, more complex world that is the result of globalisation.
Whilst a recent edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Now Show suggested that the best thing about the EU is the English Channel, we must also remember that the English Channel is only 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, has only been seperating England and France for 10,000 years, and most ‘indigineous’ Brits are derived from European immigrants, be they Romans, Vikings, Saxons, Celts or Normans.
*When negotiating trade deals, for example, the EU can exert pressure on countries to improve their human rights records, but on the other hand, the protectionist Common Agricultural Policy has meant that excess government subsidised chickens and tomatoes swamped the markets of Ghana in 2005 and put many Ghanaian farmers out of business as they could not compete with the low, low prices.
