PAPER BY DAVID GREEN, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, LIBERAL PARTY

and MEMBER OF THE CONGRESS FOR DEMOCRACY STEERING COMMITTEE

 

PRESENTED TO THE SIXTH CONGRESS FOR DEMOCRACY

on Friday 13 July 2001

 

WRITING OFF THE DEMOCRATIC DEFICIT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

1.    Government by Democracy

While Government by Democracy is a lasting and beneficial achievement of mankind, it cannot survive unless:

1. all levels of government and their responsibilities are easily defined and understood by voters, who can readily identify with the country whose national government collects their taxes;

2. the number of elected members in a national Parliament does not become so great that debate and detailed scrutiny of legislation becomes impossible;

3. the number of voters represented by an elected member does not become so great that representation becomes impersonal, weakening the link between voter and representative;

4. all voters enjoy equal rights to participate in elections, being confident that they are the final arbiters of government policy and that they are able to freely elect representatives whom they can trust to share their values and thus to govern not only in their name, but in their interests;

5. all proposed legislation is open to public scrutiny and all existing laws are forever capable of being amended or repealed at any time.

 

2.    The European Union

1. The European Union has become so large and labyrinthine that its Parliament can never hope to satisfy the above criteria, even if it is allowed to have more say in the running of the EU.

2. The working of the EU is now beyond the comprehension of a majority of voters, whose lack of interest is evidenced by abysmal levels of voter turnout in elections to the European Parliament.

3. The complexities of directives, laws and inter-governmental arrangements created by the EU which currently infest our national and local government are in danger of alienating and disconnecting the governed from their own national and local governments.

4. Proposals to increase the number of EU member states will make matters worse.

 

3.    The Democratic Deficit

The democratic deficit of the European Union is incapable of resolution and will remain a permanent bad debt which should be written off by a radical reassessment of Europe’s future, which will be best served by national governments making common cause on matters of regional concern, while being free to pass their own laws, operate their own economies, maintain their own currencies and levy their own taxes as sovereign states.

 

4.    Conclusion

Her Majesty’s Government must:

1. re-assert its national authority over the EU;

2. begin a process of clawing back all those powers so far ceded to the EU which should rightfully reside at Westminster;

3. disengage forthwith from any British participation in a Single European Army, a Single European Currency, a Single European Tax Regime and any other component designed to provide the basis for a Single European State.