Twitteretter

In two weeks the UK will abandon the common European project. To some, hankering for an imperial grandeur which will never return, to others, to enjoy the freedom to individualistically grab opportunities offered by a changing environment and to build a new greatness. We don’t yet know the final terms, but what we do know is that the status has evolved from Remain (pre-referendum) to Leave with agreement, to not so good agreement, to no deal Brexit to a further stage, which many are not even aware of, fully unprepared Brexit. If anyone had told us in May 2016 that the UK would be leaving the EU and UK companies would, 2 weeks before, not know on which terms, that the bureaucratic system needed to support transition would not exist, we would have thought this prediction fanciful or worse, interestedly defamatory. That is, however, exactly where we are. At the very worst possible end of the range of possibilities on offer at the start. By design or ineptitude? It does not really matter...

In the last few days I have assisted, with dismay, to the rule of law debate in the context of the approval of EU budgets for the coming six years. Hungary and Poland are digging their heels, refusing to approve the budget unless funds release is decoupled from rule of law performance. Their argument is that these are separate issues and should be handled as such. The disagreement really hinges on each party’s understanding of the EU. In fact, the different understandings of what it is, in different member states, pose one of its greatest challenges. Some see the EU as a common market, an economic construct, but others see it as a political union. The answer really is in its founding treaties, which have democracy and the rule of law at their centre, and economic cooperation attached to them. This is the Union Poland and Hungary joined. They may have done it for economic reasons, but they entered a, first and foremost, rule of law, democratic club. Rule of law is not negotiable  Le...

The EU has announced a 750 billion (American) euro recovery fund. It will be used by countries as they need it, will be deployed to fund strategically important sectors and, unlike recovery cash in the aftermath of the last financial crisis, will be repaid from EU funds. This sets up the scene for poorer countries to benefit the most and for richer countries to pay most of the bill. The EU has, finally, after over 20 years in the wilderness, remembered that solidarity is one of the values at the heart of its project. It’s only one policy, one announcement, but it has the potential to be a paradigm change, to build a more equal, faster growing and more competitive Europe. I’m both relieved and heartened that, when we expect to be let down by our politicians, the leaders of the European economic powers and the top European bureaucrats have answered the call of history and stood up, refusing to withdraw from the fight against exacerbated, selfish nationalism. The EU has a chance. We all d...