Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is scepticism about or disagreement with the purposes of the European Union, coupled sometimes with a desire to preserve national sovereignty. In this context, antonyms are pro-European and europhile.
Euroscepticism is stronger in Northern European countries, including full European Union members (UK, Sweden, Finland, Denmark), candidate countries (Malta), and non-candidates (Switzerland, especially in German-speaking cantons). Mediterranean countries tend to be more europhile, although eurosceptic movements exist in all European countries in some form.
Eurosceptic issues
The issues that eurosceptics focus on vary from country to country: in countries outside the European Union (e.g. Norway, Switzerland, the candidate countries), eurosceptics focus attention on membership of the union (in the case of Norway, the greatest concern is with the EU's fishing policies); in those which are members, but have chosen to retain independent currencies (the United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden), focus falls on euro membership. Arguments against monetary union are built upon the underperformance of the eurozone when compared with those economies that have chosen to remain outside.
Eurosceptics do not agree with the idea of a centralized European state akin to the United States of America. In truth some eurosceptics see the whole idea of a European union as an invention of EU bureaucrats seeking to create a totalitarian European superstate.
They therefore disagree with measures they see as compromising their sovereignty, such as the European Rapid Reaction Force, the constitution, the establishment of a European Public Prosecutor (or the establishment of EUROJUST), the extension of EUROPOL to include enforcement powers, the harmonization of taxation or welfare benefits, and the abolition of national vetoes. They often propose either radical modifications to the structure of the EU to recognise the power of national parliaments or the withdrawal of their country.
Eurosceptics generally consider the harmonizing of criminal justice systems in Europe unnecessary. They dispute ostensive Europhile claims that judicial homogenization would provide protection against terrorists or organized criminal gangs. Also, they point out that centralized decisions about justice and law represent the lack of choice and cultural awareness they see as typifying the EU.
While some Eurosceptics believe that all current systems of justice offer adequate protection despite their differences, some others, including members of the British parliament, point out that civil law systems of justice are incompatible with common law systems and claim that they do not provide presumption of innocence and other protections [1].
Eurosceptic influences on European politics
Euroscepticism is likely to have been a factor (at least in part) of:
- the Norwegian rejection of EU membership, on both occasions
- the Swiss rejection of membership in the European Economic Area
- the initial Danish rejection of the Maastricht treaty
- the Danish rejection of the euro
- the Irish rejection of the Nice treaty in the first referendum (approved in the second attempt on October 20 2002)
- the Swedish rejection of the euro in a referendum on September 14 2003.
Euroscepticism in Continental Europe
France
On the left of the political spectrum, the Parti des Travailleurs, Jean-Pierre Chevènement and the French Communist Party are eurosceptic. They see the European Union as a means through which unpopular economic measures of free markets, free trade, the gradual demolition of public services and Social Security and increasing technocracy are imposed on the French public, imposing a right-wing agenda.
On the right, Jean-Marie Le Pen (National Front) and Philippe de Villiers are eurosceptic. They are against compromizing French independence and the possible integration into the European Union of countries that they contend are not European in essence, such as Turkey. Le Pen is also opposed to the Common Agricultural Policy and would rather have protectionist measures against imports of foreign agricultural products into France.
Euroscepticism in the United Kingdom
Euroscepticism has been a major political issue in the United Kingdom, especially since Margaret Thatcher's government. However, it must be noted that the United Kingdom insisted on entering the European Economic Community (popularly known as the "Common Market" at the time) against the objections of French president Charles de Gaulle who rightly suspected that such a decision would lead to tensions between the differing interests of the United Kingdom and other member states.
British membership of the EEC was endorsed by 66% of the electorate in a 1975 referendum, though since that time Euroscepticism has grown.
Eurosceptics in UK political parties
The debate between Eurosceptics and Europhiles is ongoing in British political parties whose membership is of varied standpoints. The two main political parties in Britain, the governing Labour Party and the opposition Conservative Party, both have within them a broad spectrum of views concerning the European Union.
In the Conservative Party, debate over Europe has been ongoing since the 1970s, sometimes to the detriment of other issues. Currently, Euroscepticism is a significant current of opinion within the Conservative Party, to an extent perceived to be greater than in any comparably important political party in any other EU member state, but this is representative of the greater eurosceptic population. Europhile elements of the Conservative party on the left of the party also suffered disproportionately more when marginal constituencies were lost in the 1997 General Elections. However, many commentators believe overinterest in the issue to be an important reason why the Conservative Party lost the General Election of 2001. They argue that the British electorate was more influenced by domestic issues than by European affairs. This is illustrated by the result of the 1999 European elections, in which the Conservative Party was unsuccessfully challenged by a breakaway Pro-Euro Conservative Party.
After the electoral defeat of the UK Conservatives in 2001, the issue of eurosceptism was important in the contest to elect a new party leader. The winner, Iain Duncan Smith, was seen as more eurosceptic than his predecessor and concern was expressed that his victory could result in an inflammation of the issue within the party.
As opposition leader, Iain Duncan Smith attempted to disaffiliate the British Conservative Members of the European Parliament from the federalist European People's Party Group. As MEPs must maintain a pan-European alliance to retain parliamentary privileges, Duncan Smith sought the merger of Conservative MEPs into the eurosceptic UEN group. Conservative MEPs vetoed this move because of the presence within the UEN of representatives of neo-fascist parties who do not share similar domestic politics. In 2004, Duncan Smith's successor, Michael Howard, emphasized that Conservative MEPs would remain in the EPP Group so as to maintain influence in the European Parliament.
The governing UK Labour Party is also split into Eurosceptic and Europhile factions. Historically, the party tended towards Euroscepticism, but today under Prime Minister Tony Blair it is strongly pro-European. However, a significant minority of Labour MPs have formed the Labour Against the Euro group, opposing British membership of the single currency and receiving support from parts of the Trade Union movement.
The UK's third-largest parliamentary party, the Liberal Democrats, is strongly pro-European.
British Eurosceptics are often against political and administrative centralization, while remaining in favour of other pan-European measures such as free trade areas.
Some British Eurosceptics, including members of parliament, hold arguments that essentially assert the superiority of British institutions, traditions and methods with respect to those of the neighbouring countries, and then argue that this is a proof that further association or integration would be undesirable. For instance, with respect to European judicial integration, they claim that the civil law systems found on the Continent do not provide presumption of innocence and other protections [2].
Eurosceptic press
In the UK, many newspapers, notably the Daily Mail and the Rupert Murdoch newspapers (The Sun, the News of the World, The Times and The Sunday Times), are Eurosceptic and have published many stories critical of EU policies that the European Union and their Europhile supporters feel are inaccurate or spurious. In response, the European Commission has created a web site dedicated to refuting or explaining the facts behind these stories.
Some British Eurosceptic tabloids such as The Sun occasionally use disparaging slurs and crude jokes about the UK's European partners, playing on former conflicts and national stereotypes. For this reason they have often been labelled xenophobic. Europhiles accuse them of consciously denigrating foreign countries to influence British politics. Serious eurosceptics choose to disassociate themselves with such behaviour, and prefer to concentrate their arguments on what they see as the EU's essentially unaccountable and undemocratic structure.