As Lib Dems we shouldn’t be Europhiles, we should be Euro-Critical.

The European Union is and shall remain a terribly controversial to both the left and right of British politics. Since joining the coalition the issue of our relationship with the EU has often sought to raise its ugly head. As the right of the Conservative Party battle against a more liberal minded David Cameron, both will be quick to blame the “Europhile” Lib Dems for anything which doesn’t hit the populist button arising from the mainland. It’s time we dropped that Europhile tag and became a bit more euro-critical. 

The problem in government is that we have allowed a Tory narrative to dominate any talk on Europe. They have been allowed to speak about it in the most negative and sensationalist terms without a check to their language or an imposition of reality or truth upon their absurd claims. We as Liberal Democrats have allowed ourselves to be painted as mad Europhiles marching towards a European super state, a negative block to the plucky Tories desperately trying to salvage our independence and sovereignty back from the European bureaucratic leviathan. This is simply a misrepresentation of our position.

In fact according to Nick Clegg ‘The British debate about Europe has long been disfigured by intellectual fundamentalism. On no other issue of public policy are positions quite as polarised or as vitriolically expressed. They wording used to categorise people’s views is uniquely rigid. You are either anti-European or pro-European. This is a debate resistant to shades of grey, to the idle ground, to the multitude of subtleties that exist between the two extremes.’ We must seek to bring back the debate to the greyer area.

At a time when the Euro could be in trouble, and there is a growing Euro scepticism within the nation, we risk being left behind on the issue and simply dismissed as far to pro-Europe to actually make a serious case for a European project if we aren’t able to highlight our critical European sensibilities.

A case for a European Project

There is a strong case for a European Project when the combined GDP of the European Union according to the IMF is $16,282,230 million that is bigger than America at $14,657,800 million and China at $5,878,25 million. That means the combined might of the European Union is something to behold if it were put to the correct usage.

Because, if we seriously think that with the rise of the BRIC countries, who are and will continue to promote a ruthlessly amoral foreign policy investing in African and Asian nations without a history of democracy, will come and deal with Britain alone, a tiny piffling nation in the grand scheme of things, then we must seriously be deluded.

We need the might of supranational governance to make a dent, if we want to remain a serious player in world affairs. As Liberal Democrats we recognise this. So where does that leave our own position?

What is the true Lib Dem Position?

Well in The Orange Book (forgive me for extensive quoting of Nick Clegg), Nick Clegg writes about the Liberal Future of the European project, where he says that ‘Liberal Democrats, then, must urgently explain, and explain again, that to be pro-European does not require an abandonment of basic critical faculties. A true pro-European stance should be creative, innovative, and bold in proposing reforms to the way in which European integration is pursued.’ However, it is these critical faculties that have been lost, or given up in any of the Lib Dem narrative on the EU and Europe as a whole.

So how do we as a party promote our position whilst taking our opponents to task, well firstly I’d suggest that we promote the Nick Clegg line which states that  ’The Conservative Party, at least in its present form, has vacated the battlefield of ideas as far as EU governance is concerned. The party, which has done so much to promote international economic liberalisation, remains bizarrely enthralled to atavistic notion of political sovereignty.’ And promote our own good work, such as  persistently voting against paternalistic EU regulation in areas such as social and public health policy or the long established antagonism towards the Common Agricultural Policy

What must we now do as Liberal Democrats?

We must meet every single accusation and mistruth about the European Union with a strong message of relativity to our own system. For example the much maligned European commission. ‘The laughable tabloid caricature of the EU commission as some rampant bureaucratic leviathan empowered to snuff out the remaining embers of plucky British independence would not,  for instance, be sustainable, if it were more widely appreciated that the Commission is half the size of Birmingham city council.’ Or that if it were more clearly understood ‘that up to 90% of all EU expenditure is the responsibility of national governments, and that the total fraud in the EU budget is significantly less than the annual fraud in the UK’s Department for Work and Pensions alone (Which now stands at roughly £2billion out of a total of £100billion budget – the department has not had its accounts signed off for the past 14 years [As of 2004])’

It’s these myths that pervade, and we must counter them, whilst suggesting reforms and remaining critical. We must be more aggressive about countering the myths not only about our own position but also about the EU.

We must repackage our self as Euro-Critical. That is we support a European project that not being a part is political and economic suicide, but that we have the ideas and the balls to tackle the worst parts of the project. That we have the ideas on reform, and that we aren’t giving it up. We must be the home of the sensible European debate.

Because’ If the Liberal Democrats want to be heard in this debate it is essential we set ourselves apart from such black and white discourse.’

If we continue to allow the Conservatives to dominate this discussion, we will all be worse off for it.