3 october 2009, lisbon, again

Saturday 3rd October 2009

On my Europe pages are a mass of articles I’ve written on Lisbon, not least the definitive article on how it will affect economic and monetary union. Ooops, I’ve lost you already. Seriously though, it’s unbelievable that the eu – that’s us folks – has spent nine years now talking about a few relatively innocuous changes to the way it works. It’ll all be a bit better if the irish have indeed voted yes, and the czech president’s truculence is overcome, but it’s hardly game-changing. What’s actually happened of course is that several people and polities have suddenly realised over the last few years how very far we have come, and they want to shout about it. It’s natural human reaction when something has run ahead of your knowledge to say hang on a minute, I want to catch up. The world though doesn’t stop, and nor should the eu. Whilst the “big things”, like the need for global economic and defence blocs and fiscal co-ordination inexorably favour the eu, the “smaller things”, like people’s opinion of where they want to live, go ever stronger against it. The irish may be too sacred to say no today, but little englandism has spread remorselessly across all europe over the last years, as the way the eu is used by its member states is evermore in areas that more directly affect people’s lives. Once it just negotiated obscure trade deals on our behalf. Today it regulates our mobile phone bills and forces us to change our lightbulbs. One of lisbon’s better features is allowing for an orderly exit. Over the coming years, the people of each of its member states need to come to terms with and embrace the benefits of eu integration, or say thanks but no thanks, and move on.