Europe marches ahead - Decency and rationale of EU made real

It is more than a little reassuring that as the centenary of one of Europe’s greatest tragedies moves ever closer — the outbreak of the First World War in Jul 1914 — that two relatively minor events confirmed the European project still has significant momentum and retains the capacity to change millions of lives for the better.

Romanian and Bulgarian citizens yesterday got the right to work freely across the EU, seven years after joining the community. Nine countries ended restrictions — Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, and Spain — becoming the latest to do so.

Because Romania and Bulgaria are two of Europe’s poorest countries, fears of mass migration have been expressed — Germany expects an influx of around 180,000 people looking for work. Unfortunately, these fears have been occasionally voiced in thinly veiled racist terms and fanned for the very worst kind of political gain. It is to the credit of the great majority of EU citizens that the development is seen as a pragmatic expression of the objectives of the European project and an opportunity for tens of thousands to escape the dehumanising grind of almost permanent poverty.

The second welcome event was when the 15th anniversary of the establishment of the euro was marked by another country joining the now 18-member strong currency zone. This acceptance has a significance far beyond Latvia joining the group as just 18 months ago there was unavoidable and terrifying speculation about the young currency’s survival. The prospect of the euro collapsing, the prospect of counties with shattered economies — Ireland included — being thrown into the international currency traders’ shark pool was more than sobering. Such a catastrophe would have been far too high a price to pay even for capitalism’s hubris and the banking recklessness that crushed a cycle of prosperity and security across so much of the world.

This episode was epitomised by speculation that Greece might have to leave the currency because its public finances were so catastrophic, even by our own reckless standards. As an aside, it would be informative to consider the effect of 2011 and 2012 street violence and near anarchy on Greek streets. It may have acted as a perverse safety valve but it did little or nothing to improve the lot of ordinary Greeks.

There is a darkening cloud over the European project, one that has the potential to have a fundamental impact in this country. The clamour in Britain to consider leaving the EU grows and will reach a crescendo for the next while as the impact of relaxed immigration restrictions are considered and possibly exaggerated. Whether this transpires into anything more than a festival of self-assertion fuelled by bombast is moot but it is impossible to believe that, on mature reflection, Britain might turn its back on a process that more than anything makes a recurrence of the events of Jul 1914 and Sept 1939 seem impossible.

Europe without Britain would be a poorer, less balanced community but Britain without Europe would be isolated in a way it has not been for a century and far more vulnerable than even the most strident Little Englander imagines. Britain’s cessation from the EU would be a tragedy for all concerned. What Europe really needs is a Britain prepared to take a stronger leadership role in the community to counter balance German and French dominance.