Barroso urges Britain to get over its inflated sense of worth
The time has come for Britain to take account of the new realities of the 21st century, he said. And the facts are that while Britain may seem big beside Ireland, it does not look so big beside China, he argued.
The Portuguese politician has gained a reputation for being afraid of national leaders, especially of the bigger member states and is constantly caught repeating their sometimes-conflicting opinions.
But in this lecture he has certainly not minced his words. His timing was good too, coinciding with a poll from the Eurosceptic Open Europe group showing that the majority of business people interviewed want to renegotiate the EU treaty.
They want to strip away the political structure leaving behind just a free trade area. They blame Brussels for too much regulation and appear to believe that without what they see as the political structure, there would be less red tape confronting business.
None of this is unexpected from the business sector, which would prefer to have an open, rule-free market operating across the soon- to-be 27 member states.
But what is strange about the survey of 1,000 chief executives is that they trust Mr Barroso more than Tony Blair, his successor-in-waiting Gordon Brown or the Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
The only British politician they appear to trust more than Mr Barroso is the Tory leader David Cameron, according to the poll.
The commission president underlined that the raison d’etre for the EU is not the common market, and not a plot by foreigners to rob the Britain of its sovereignty. Rather it is to ensure peace and he said it has worked.
He categorised the huge and debilitating tension in the EU as a battle between those who fear the future and the outside world, and those willing and confident enough to engage with it.
The EU has been designed to be both an economic and a political project and the challenges of our time should give it a new core purpose.
These challenges are climate change, growing competition from China and India, global pandemics, mass migration, international terrorism, demographic change and energy security.
Mr Barroso said these were universal challenges which no nation state could hope to tackle successfully alone.
“The smaller member states know that. The larger ones may not feel this as strongly. But I think it is true for all EU members, large and small. Size is relative. The United Kingdom looks big next to Ireland. It looks small next to China.”
The commission president warned Britain that much of its influence in the world is due to membership in the EU.
“But one of the reasons that these countries want to keep good relations with the UK is precisely because it is an influential member of the EU. Lose that influence, and you lose some of that interest”.
Mr Barroso finished his speech with a vital question for Britain and the rest of the member states — do you want to make the EU work? He asked that the answer be yes.
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