Everyone must assume their responsibilities. Europe cannot live in a state of anxiety until the ratification process of the Lisbon Treaty is completed. Almost every week there is some news or other that appears to foster uncertainty: in the United Kingdom, the Conservative Party campaign for a referendum is being transformed into an open campaign against the treaty itself; in Slovakia, ratification is sliding away indefinitely; in Ireland (where a referendum is obligatory), the stress is still being put on the percentage of citizens who are hesitating between voting yes or no. Elsewhere, the campaign of lies about the content and significance of the new treaty has regained pace again. We have also started to read in different publications that the date of entry into force could be put back (this could actually prove to be positive).
We need to get out of this climate of anxiety and alert and look at the situation more serenely. Participation in the deepening of the EU is not compulsory for anyone; the new treaty will even introduce the right of secession, whereby any member state can withdraw from the Union. If a country does not believe that participating in European integration is positive, that the Euro has brought monetary stability and that cohesion policy is a powerful contribution to balancing the quality of life of European countries, it can choose another way forward. Except in the case of totally voluntary secession, the rights that have been acquired remain: participation in the common market, presence in the institutions. Let's not dramatise the hypothesis of the population or parliament in one member state or other rejecting the new treaty; other member states could relaunch it as it stands between them, without having to recommence long and complicated negotiations.
There will be legal complications but first rate politicians (like Guy Verhofstadt), nevertheless, consider that they will have to go through this, and that the creation of a hard core will be inevitable in one shape or other. This needs to be looked at calmly and it needs thinking about right away. It does not mean ignoring what is going on in the different member states - on the contrary, it means having to provide better and more information about what the new treaty means and a response to the lies, while keeping calm about the possible outcome. Afterwards, each country will have to assume its responsibility with regard to the choice it has made.
Regarding some national developments. At first glance, developments in the United Kingdom appear strange. The authorities in power are increasingly concerned about being present in Europe and are underlining the importance of the EU to their country. Gordon Brown is currently not saying anything other than that between the nation state and globalisation, there is nothing. He even affirmed that for his country, the EU represented the key to economic success. At the same time, the Conservatives are railing against the new treaty. Their leader David Cameron said that he intends to renegotiate it (as if this were realistic). According to Geoffrey Van Orden (spokesperson for the British Conservatives at the EP on defence questions) this treaty aims to create a European state, as it threatens national sovereignty. It is true that figures such as Andrew Duff and others continue to valiantly support Europe and its evolution but the polls still indicate that in a referendum there will be a clear majority against. In any case, remaining outside the Euro, with an increasing number of derogations, voluntary British marginalisation is being consolidated and further extended.
The way in which Ireland is preparing for a referendum is very positive. The authorities are busy providing the people with a maximum of information in a variety of different ways about what the Lisbon Treaty represents, but by avoiding propaganda and highlighting the advantages of the new treaty to Ireland. Citizens will be informed about it and will choose.
Developments and polemic in other member states of central or Eastern Europe appear to be mainly dominated by internal issues in which the EU is barely involved if at all. The attitude of the European institutions has to be simple and straightforward: avoid propaganda and giving the impression that “Brussels” (or what this term suggests to public opinion) is intervening in the ratification process, while making it understood to everyone that the exit door is still open.
At the same time, in a few member states where ratification has been completed (France) or considered as such (Belgium), those who previously fought against the Constitutional Treaty are now resurrecting their old lies. This is a pitiful spectacle because they are being so dishonest and deceitful. I'll be coming back to this issue.
(F.R.)