Frans Timmermans is just about to be embarrassed. And this will not be any old slight, but one with the weight of states behind it. The first vice-president of the European Commission might very shortly be rebuffed by the heads of state and/or government of the EU countries. What has this Dutch Labour party politician done wrong to justify disavowal by our modern day Mount Olympus? Could he, for example, have vilified the nationals and leaders of a specific region of Europe or spoken ill-advisedly, or worse, of EU economic partners? Oh no; much more serious than that. Frans Timmermans has had the brazen audacity to call on the capitals of Europe not to break their word! By signing the European treaties, they pledged, he reminded them in summary, to defend values such as respecting the rule of law, with the separation of powers. Accordingly, he asks them stand united in condemnation – imperative, in his view – of the abuses against the constitution in Poland in recent months.
The authorities in office in Warsaw are incensed. The foreign minister Witold Waszczykowski has gone as far as insinuating that hidden political motives lie behind Frans Timmermans’ defamation of Poland. It would be laughable if this calumny was not as depressing as the initial abuses. It provides a sinister illustration of the resistible temptation towards nationalist extremism to which Union member countries are yielding at the present time. Viktor Orban’s Hungary has already let it be known that it will veto any reprimand the Council might wish to address to Poland. The other Visegrad countries will most probably adopt the same stance. That is why the call from Frans Timmermans for the Council to deal swiftly with the “Polish affair” clearly discomferts the Maltese Presidency, which would prefer to delay the matter until May, or even quite simply hand it over to the Estonian Presidency which will take office on 1 July (see EUROPE 11733).
Any action of this sort would be a terrible insult to Frans Timmermans who would find himself snubbed when he is simply doing is his duty to ensure that the values to which the member states committed themselves are upheld. It would also be a massive slap in the face from the member states to the European Commission, the institution which, despite its many faults, represents the general interest against the states’ specific interests. It would, lastly and above all, be a monstrous helping hand to those political forces which are working throughout Europe to bring down the European project and raise protective walls of national sovereignties. In short, it would provide the clear demonstration that the men and women in power in the member states have not learned anything from this truth, highlighted by German President Joachim Gauck in a speech given at the Sorbonne in Paris on 26 January: Europe “has never had a golden age and will never have one. It is simply the theatre of a never-ending struggle for humanity, for freedom and law, justice and democracy”.
Playing the hypocritical wait-and-see card on the Polish rule of law abuses will do no more than offer encouragement to extremist and nationalist forces wherever they may be in Europe. It would be tantamount to telling them: “Do whatever you wish, we won’t move a finger to stop you”!
No, it is important that European democrats speak up loud and clear and as quickly as possible, that they offer citizens a discourse that is no longer just doublespeak and equivocation! What is needed is, as Javier Solana so neatly expressed it, to be persuaded that, “for the sake of Europe and the world, it is time to put the EU first” (Project Syndicate, 18 February). And it is essential, therefore, that Europe be given the means to meet the challenges facing us, no longer putting up with the tunnel vision that prevents any change to the treaties.
To trump the populists, nationalists and other extremists, it is time for boldness, as former high-ranking Commission official and now Executive Director of the Madariaga Centre-College of Europe Pierre Defraigne urges: “If it does not swiftly achieve political unity, Europe will disintegrate. The status quo is quite simply no longer an option. If it does not progress, Europe will slide backwards: the effect for Europe of member states turning in on themselves in the name of a sovereignty that was rendered obsolete by global changes (continental states and giant global companies) will be like driving along the motorway of History in the wrong direction” (La Libre Belgique, 6 January).
What needs to be addressed are the root causes of populism, so well exposed by former MEP Daniel Cohn-Bendit more than four years ago: “When a section of the population is hit hard, when the majority feels vulnerable and loses its sense of direction, when the future appears threatening, the past is beautified, turning in on oneself is reassuring, sovereignty is comfort. Then Europe is weakened. Right- and left-wing populisms enter the fray and Europe becomes an easy scapegoat” (Le Monde, 3 October 2012).
Only one thing should count now: that everything must be done to prevent the gulf between Europe and ever-increasing numbers of its citizens from widening. And as Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni very aptly put it during a recent visit to London of all places: greater integration is essential to respond to “the illusions of populism” (The Guardian, 14 February). In short, let us silence those in Europe’s capitals who champion the status quo and the over-riding need to maintain a Union that moves forward at the same pace.
No, what is urgently required is a vanguard, to save the essence while there is still time. Will the Visegrad group and other countries decide for reasons of national sovereignty not to be part of that vanguard? That will their choice. But they will still be able to join when their peoples have realised that the vanguard has at last decided to put into effect the promise, too long forgotten, in the Preamble to the Treaty of Rome, in which states seeking “to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe” affirm “as the essential objective of their efforts; the constant improvement of the living and working conditions of their peoples”. It is to be hoped that Frans Timmermans will be there to point that out, too.
Michel Theys