We Must Not Let Eurosceptics Ruin Our Future

It's decidedly unfashionable these days to say anything positive about the European Union. Received wisdom is that European integration has become a 'failed project', an obsession of the political class enjoyed at the expense of ordinary people in the UK. The recent problems in the Eurozone have served to add fuel to the fire with any prospect of the UK joining the single currency howled at with derision by almost all mainstream commentators.

While only one national newspaper, the Daily Express, advocates outright withdrawal, it surely cannot be long before all centre-right media clambers onto the bandwagon. British politics has become hugely Eurosceptic in recent years. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is set to replace the pro-european Liberal Democrats as the third largest party at election time. This in turn has shifted the centre-ground further towards the Eurosceptic cause. Whearas the Conservative Party was previously divided on the issue of Europe, with fierce battles between the likes of Ken Clarke and John Redwood, these days Tory backbenchers and activists are almost exclusively hostile to all things European. The debate now within the party is how to go about distancing the UK from the EU, not whether this is a desirable objective.

There is no doubt that Europe faces challenges and needs reform. The aysemmetric development it has undertaken since the advent of the Euro was always going to create problems. Economies in southern Europe, such as Greece and Italy, are fundamentally different from Germany and France and require contrasting monetary policies in the abscence of fiscal harmonisation. As George Osborne has pointed out, it is a matter of 'remorseless logic' that the only solution to the Eurozone crisis is full fiscal integration (without the UK, of course).

This should not, however, obscure the cold hard reality that the UK needs Europe. Eurosceptics like Nigel Farage & Co simply have no idea of the modern world in which the UK has to exist. For them, it is still 1910 and the British Empire serves to protect our economic and military hegemony across the planet. We do not need help from a bunch of lazy, uncivilised countries on the continent.

The fact is that Britannia no longer rules the waves. China, India, Brazil, and Russia now rule the waves. The only possible way in which we can survive in this new world is by co-operating with our nearest neighbours on a more integrated basis. A Chinese trade delegation would not give much weight to a British representative claiming to represent a mere 60 million people. If that represenative spoke for 500 million European citizens, however, he may start listening.

So what does the EU need to do now? It must re-connect its leaders with the people and convince them of the merits of integration. One biproduct of economic downturns throughout the ages is nationalism. Only by making the argument that trade and co-operation promote growth and jobs will European leaders begin to really sell Europe. It must also address the continuing issue of the democratic deficit. The time has come for direct elections for the European President and the Commissioners. This will go someway towards ameliorating the sense of it all being a bit of a 'stitch up' by a bunch of unaccountable technocrats.

What cannot happen is for national leaders to turn their backs on Europe for good. It would be a fundamental mistake for politicians to retreat into a nationalistic comfort zone and indulge the false claims of Eurosceptics that we are 'better off out'. After all, the loser will not be the mandarins in Brussels, it will be the British people.