Ireland's National Forum on Europe hosted a debate on Wednesday 23rd November on whether or not the European Union should continue to enlarge. Chaired by Irish Senator Maurice Hayes, the discussion took the form of a traditional debate, hardly surprising given that the hosts, the Trinity College Dublin debating society known as The Hist, is the oldest club of it. The motion to be debated was "That the European Union can expand no further", y, chosen, the society said because 'future EU expansion remains a controversial issue in a Union which has been unsettled by the 'no' votes in the French and Dutch referenda on the European Constitution." Dutch Socialist Party Senator Tiny Kox, however, chose to tackle the question at base, questioning not so much whether new member states should be admitted, but whether the Union in its present form should exist at all. He was seconded by Thomas Rupp of the London-based European No Campaign as an independent, cross party network of parties and NGOs which brings together 'no' campaigners and supporters of EU reform in a Europe-wide network whose aimis to stop the proposed Constitution. (see here) Opposing the motion were Irish Minister for European Affairs Noel Treacy, leading pro-EU public figures Alan Dukes, Labour MEP Proinsias de Rossa and Turkish Ambassador to Ireland Berki Dibek. Senator Kox gave the following speech:

The European Union has expanded too fast, too far and in the wrong direction. That is why the French and the Dutch said NO to the proposed European Constitution, despite the urgent request of the vast majority of politicians to say YES. In voting NO the public took a sensible decision, whereas the politicians' approach proved to be wrong.

There are a number of reasons why this was a good decision. Firstly, the proposed text proclaimed free and fair competition and private enterprise rather than cooperation and solidarity to be the cornerstones of society; it would have increased the powers of the European institutions at the expense of national sovereignty; and it would have opened the road to militarisation of the Union and the development of not only an economic and political but also military super state.

Most Dutch people - myself included - understand the necessity for European cooperation. We know that the Netherlands is part and parcel of Europe, both a sort of the beginning, as we are on the coast, and an end, as the delta of great European rivers; that a great part of our prosperity derives from European production and trade; that Europe needs the Rhine and the Meuse, the port of Rotterdam and the airport of Amsterdam - just as the Netherlands needs its relations with the rest of the continent. It is for this reason that the Netherlands was one of the founders of European cooperation, not just of the European Economic Community but also the Council of Europe.

But just as the mythological Europe was kidnapped by the god of the gods, Zeus, the post war European Community was - in the eighties - kidnapped by the gods of economy, those who form the European Round Table of Industrialists, the big European multinationals which had little interest in a Europe of the people and great interest in the Europe of profit.

They pressured politicians to change the European Community into the European Union, a Union in which there would be ever more market and ever less government.

The treaty of Maastricht of 1991 was the result of the kidnapping of Europe by the multinational companies, as were the treaties of Amsterdam and Nice and the introduction of the euro as the single currency of the bigger part of the Union, and the transfer of monetary and budgetary sovereignty from national banks, most of which were under a degree of democratic control, to the European Bank in Frankfurt, which is specifically exempt by the Treaty from any such control.

The European Constitution would have been the crown on this development, and the beginning of the economic, political and military super state of Europe.

But the coronation failed because the people in France and the Netherlands said NO - just as many people in the rest of the EU-nations now would say the same, were they asked the same question.

European cooperation is far too precious to leave in the hands of the big companies and their political accomplices.

The European Constitution is dead - long live European cooperation!

In conclusion I would like to make six proposals which I believe would get Europe back on the right track without provoking further popular discontent:

1. Let us get rid of the idea that we have some kind of duty to unite Europe. Not unity but cooperation should be our focus. We do not need one Europe, with one constitution, one identity, one capital, one currency, one budget, one army, such a course would not lead to the European Dream but to the European Nightmare;
2. Let us return to the idea of cooperation for the mutual benefit of participating nations and their citizens instead of more profits for Big Business; only then can Eastern European countries and new member states have a fair chance to benefit instead of being taken over;
3. Let us realise that democracy is not an abstract idea but a concrete form of living together, that up to now it has is only proven to be vital and effective on the national scale; there's no such thing as European democracy and a real European Parliament. The European Union would never be entitled to enter the Union if assessed by the political criteria which it uses to judge new member states;
4. Let us abandon the idea that there is only one way for the development of the world in general and Europe in particular - along the lines of neoliberal economy and neoconservative ideology;
5. Stop swearing at the French and Dutch for killing the Constitution - they just did what the others would have done if they had had the chance - at least in Sweden, Denmark, the greater part of Eastern Europe and absolutely in Great Britain; let us consider the European Union as one of the many ways of cooperating in Europe - we also have the Council of Europe, NATO, the OECD, the United Nations, as well as countless professional, scientific, cultural, political and other civil society organisations.
6. let us agree that our goal should not be a Europe as powerful as possible but a Europe as civilised, cooperative and social as possible, both internally and with regard to the rest of the world, so that it will not be 'us' against 'them' but 'we all together'.

Tiny Kox is the leader of the Socialist Party of the Netherlands' group of four members of the 75-strong Dutch 'Eerste Kamer', the Upper House of the Dutch Parliament. Read more about the SP at http://international.sp.nl/

See also

http://www.spectrezine.org/europe/mcgiffenEU3.htm