On 12
October 2012 it was announced that the European Union had won a Nobel Peace
Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which grants the prize, asserted that the
EU had aided the transformation of Europe ‘from a continent of war to a
continent of peace’. They were right to do so. Rarely has a Nobel Prize been
better deserved. Eurosceptics, of course, hit the roof. UKIP leader Nigel
Farage inevitable and unfortunately had something to say, stating that the
award brought the Nobel Peace Prize ‘into total disrepute’. But as we will see
the evidence is to the contrary. The EU has done much to promote peace, and
also liberal democratic Government, across Europe. This is of course a good in
itself, but it is also in Britain’s national interest. A Europe made up of
politically stable and prosperous nation states, sharing sovereignty in some
areas, is clearly preferable to us to a Europe of authoritarian and aggressive
entities. British Eurosceptics do tend to appreciate this stability, they are
not aggressive imperialists, but they attribute this stability to NATO and
American hegemony more generally. This has clearly been important, but is
insufficient as an explanation. As we will see it’s been the spread of
liberal-democratic values, attached to the juicy carrot of free market access,
as well as NATO which has been so important for European security.
Europe has
of course experienced conflict since the European Economic Community was
established in 1958. But generally not in EEC/EU member states, an impressive
achievement considering Europe’s history of conflict and ethnic fragmentation.
Let’s look at some recent European Wars. The 1991-95 Yugoslav Wars (the
deadliest in Europe since WWII), the 1992 Transnistria War, the Chechen Wars of
1994-6 and 1999-present, the 1998-99 Kosovo War, the 2008 Russo-Georgian War
and the 2014-present war in Eastern Ukraine. All these conflicts took place in
the relatively limited parts of Europe which aren’t in the EU. It’s also worth
noting that those European politicians who have approved of Putin’s aggression
in Eastern Ukraine have tended to be ardent Eurosceptics, their sympathy for
redrawing the borders of Europe by force suggesting that Europe would be a very
different, and rather less nice, place if they ruled their respective
countries.
Nigel Farage,
for example, argued that the war in Ukraine was a result of the EU’s
‘imperialist, expansionist’ ambitions, and accused the EU of having ‘blood on
its hands’. Le Pen of the Front National asserted that ‘I am surprised a Cold
War on Russia has been declared in the European Union’, whilst Heinz-Christian
Strache, Chairman of the Freedom Party of Austria, urged the EU ‘to stop
playing the stooge of the U.S. in the encirclement of Russia’. Dutch Freedom
Party leader Geert Wilders continued the trend by blaming ‘shameless Europhiles
with their dreams of empire’ for the Ukraine crisis. In short, according to the
Eurosceptic far-right, either the EU or that great liberal-democratic nation
America, were responsible for the decision of a reactionary Russian Government
to invade Eastern Ukraine.
But as I
stated earlier, EU membership doesn’t just tend to make countries more
peaceful, it also tends to make them more liberal-democratic, and better at
protecting human rights. Let’s compare countries which started from a similar
point following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the USSR. Those countries
which were behind the ghastly Iron Curtain. Since the end of Communist
Government they have gone in radically different directions in terms of
democracy and human rights, and there is a strong correlation between the
direction travelled and whether a country has joined the EU. Let’s start with
Press Freedom. According to the 2015 Press Freedom Index, produced by Reporters
Without Borders, out of 180 countries surveyed Estonia ranks 10th,
the Czech Republic 13th, Poland 18th and Lithuania 31st
in terms of media freedom. All are former Communist countries which have joined
the EU. The picture in former Communist countries which have not joined the EU
is less pretty. Moldova ranks 72nd, Ukraine 129th and
Belarus 157th. This picture is reinforced by Freedom House’s 2015
Human Rights Index. This ranked Poland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic and
Estonia as free, whereas Ukraine was ‘Partly free’ and Belarus ‘Not free’.
Again the Democratisation Index 2015, published by the Economist Intelligence
Unit, ranked Lithuania 38th and Poland 48th in terms of
democratisation, whereas Ukraine only managed 88 and Belarus 127th.
There is a clear association between EU membership and liberal democratic
Government.
One of the
most striking developments in European politics since 1970 has been the
transformation of the political systems in a good number of European countries,
many of which had little or no history of democratic Government, into
stable(ish) democracies. In this category we can include the Mediterranean
nations of Spain, Portugal and Greece, which escaped from
military-authoritarian Governments in the 1970s, and parts of Eastern and
South-Eastern Europe which lost their Communist Governments from 1989 onwards.
Most have now joined the EU, with Greece joining in 1981, Spain and Portugal in
1986, eight central and Eastern European countries joining in 2004, Romania and
Bulgaria joined in 2007 and Croatia becoming a member in 2013.
It’s clear
why they all wanted to become members. EU affiliation provided free market
access, the protection of a variety of fundamental rights and more generally
the promise of a more ‘Western European’ lifestyle. To achieve EU membership
however candidate countries are required to fulfil a number of criteria, mostly
defined at the European council in Copenhagen in 1993. In brief, according to
the European Commission’s website, to become a EU member state a country must
have ‘stable institutions guaranteeing democracy, the rule of law, human rights
and respect for and protection of minorities’, ‘a functioning market economy’
and ‘the ability to take on and implement effectively the obligations of
membership’.
To be more
specific, EU candidates are required to adopt and enforce all current EU rules
in 35 policy fields (or Chapters). These Chapters include, for example,
‘Chapter 23: Judiciary and fundamental rights’ and ‘Chapter 24: Justice,
freedom and security’, both of which deal with human rights. In short, to
become an EU member an applicant country must demonstrate that its political
model is broadly liberal-democratic, and considering the perks associated with
EU membership, especially for poorer countries, it has a strong incentive to do
so. Thus the prize of EU membership played an important role in encouraging Mediterranean
and East European countries to move away from authoritarian Government
following the overthrow of their respective dictatorships. It’s reasonable to
assume that, in the absence of the EU, the political systems of at least some
of such countries would be a good deal more authoritarian than they are at
present. To the East of the EU are a number of authoritarian or
quasi-authoritarian states, such as Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Ukraine.
In the absence of the EU, other East European countries may well have developed
similar Governments.
At present,
in the likes of Ukraine, Moldova and those Balkan countries which aspire
towards EU membership, the EU is a powerful pull-factor encouraging some steps
towards liberal-democratic Government. The current Serbian Prime Minister, for
example, is from the Serbian Progressive Party, a Conservative Party which
supports Serbia’s EU membership. In the absence of the EU it seems likely that
Serbia and others would affiliate more openly with Putin’s Russia. The EU also
places some restraints on those of its own members who are oscillating in a
more authoritarian direction. Hungary under Orban, for example, or Poland under
its new nationalist Government. Indeed on 13 January of this year the European
Commission launched an inquiry into whether new Polish laws, which weaken the
Polish Constitutional Court and increase Government influence over public
media, break EU democracy rules.
The evidence
is clear that the European Union has done much to promote liberal-democratic
forms of Government and peace and international cooperation across the European
continent. I hope you share my conviction that this has benefited the citizens
of the newly democratised European nations. But, on a more selfish note, it has
also benefitted the UK. The reduction in European conflict has stopped us
getting dragged into European Wars, as we were in the non-EU nations of Bosnia
and Kosovo in the 1990s. Moreover the proliferation of responsible Government
which obeys market rules has aided trade and British business, whilst the
spread of liberal-democratic political systems has helped to share the burden
of protecting democratic Europe onto more nations, whilst reducing the number
of potential threats. Considering all that the EU has done to promote civilised
Government, and all this has done for Britain, it would be folly to take any
steps which might undermine this. Brexit would be just such a step. As a result
geo-political factors provide yet more reasons to support Britain’s continued membership
of the European Union.