- Sputnik International
World
Get the latest news from around the world, live coverage, off-beat stories, features and analysis.

Post-Brexit Europe: 'End of Brussels-Centric, Deeply Integrated Shangri-La'

© AP Photo / Martin MeissnerPolice patrol the EU commission building, after a bomb exploded nearby, at the subway in Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday, March 22, 2016
Police patrol the EU commission building, after a bomb exploded nearby, at the subway in Brussels, Belgium, Tuesday, March 22, 2016 - Sputnik International
Subscribe
In her analysis on what the European Union will look like after Britain's exit from the block, former Spanish foreign minister and former senior vice president of the World Bank Ana Palacio provided an overview on the current state of affairs, and a very unusual picture of the future of the union.

Chief Executive Officer of Irish airline Ryanair Michael O'Leary poses with his company's logo projected on his face as he attends a press conference at a hotel in London on August 31, 2016. - Sputnik International
'Arrogant Nonsense': Ryanair Boss Says EU Will 'Screw' UK in Post-Brexit Deal
After Brexit, Europe will be far from a harmonious union, Palacio, now visiting lecturer at Georgetown University, and a member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on the United States, suggested in her article for the Prague-based Project Syndicate website.

The former politician further elaborated on whether the "EU’s status as an enterprise dominated by its member states is permanent" and whether the member states will be able to maintain their supremacy in the EU decision-making process.

Or will it be the European institutions dictating the policies of the block to the member states?

"In fact, with member states’ domestic politics playing a more important role than the European Council in driving whatever EU policy momentum exists, even an intergovernmental EU may be too much to hope for," she suggested reminding of the recent remarks of EU Council President Donald Tusk before the block's summit in Bratislava, who then said that after the UK leaves the block, “giving new powers to European institutions is not the desired recipe.”

Anti- Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)activists sink the lettering TTIP in the Maschsee in Hanover on April 21, 2016 ahead a meeting of leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Italy on April 25, 2016 - Sputnik International
World
Secretive Transatlantic Trade Deal Threatens to 'Put Europe's Democracy at Risk'
The former politician suggested that important political processes which are taking place in the major European countries, such as Germany, Italy, France and the Netherlands suggest that the EU policy, at least for the nearest future, will be defined by the member-states and not the European institutions.

"It is likely that parochial interests will become even more dominant, at least until major elections are complete. An opening for a European approach may follow, but only if the current torpor does not lead to institutional atrophy," she suggests, citing as an example the next year's federal elections in Germany, constitutional referendum by the end of this year in Italy and next year's elections in France and the Netherlands.

Ana Palacio also cites the statistics revealed by Hubert Vedrine, a former French foreign minister, which suggests that only 15-20% of Europeans are Europhiles, another 15-20% oppose the EU outright, and the remaining 60% are "euro-allergic."

"It is a rough but fair portrait," she says.

"Put simply, for much of the public, EU institutions lack legitimacy. The reasons are well known: poor communication, a democratic deficit, finger pointing between member states and the Commission, a flawed institutional architecture."

An arrangement of newspapers pictured in London on June 25, 2016. - Sputnik International
Brexit Press Coverage: Mixing News, Opinion and Lies
"The result is clear: in the struggle over how Europe will develop, the EU institutions lack the authority or support to put up much of a fight – or even fully enter the ring. But this moment of national navel-gazing among the member states may actually present an important opportunity for EU institutions to work on closing the legitimacy gap," she suggests.

Now is the time not for risky shortcuts, but for meticulous, well-planned, incremental measures that gradually and consistently earn the public’s trust, Palacio suggests.

She further explains what it means: "resisting the urge to wax poetic about future actions that never actually materialize, or to roll out impressive-looking programs with few real-world effects."

Instead, it means "completing key initiatives, most urgently the banking union; improving accountability; and ensuring that the public understands what the EU institutions are doing. And it means staying out of political conflicts, which neither the European Commission nor the European Parliament are in any position to win."

The former politician explained that most people are "tired of empty rhetoric and half-baked initiatives."

Only if the EU institutions deliver genuine action, in a credible and transparent manner, can they ensure that the current inter-governmentalism is just a phase and that the future of Europe is Europe.

Looking ahead, Palacio has a view which markedly differs from today's reality.

"While it is impossible to say exactly what the EU that emerges will look like, it seems clear that it will look nothing like the Brussels-centric, deeply integrated Shangri-La long sought by many at the Commission," she concludes.

Newsfeed
0
To participate in the discussion
log in or register
loader
Chats
Заголовок открываемого материала