Many British voters would leave the European Union tomorrow – now it is up to Labour to make the case for staying
Europe has once again emerged as a dynamic force in British party politics. The Conservatives are fatally divided, as they were during the negotiations over the Maastricht treaty in the early 1990s. The Liberal Democrats, meanwhile, are ostensibly pro-European but reduced to protesting from the sidelines despite being a member of the governing coalition. Labour's decision to vote with rightwing Conservative anti-Europeans over the EU budget has created an impression of increasing ambivalence about its European commitment.
In reality, Labour's willingness to enter the division lobbies with the Eurosceptic right was not merely an act of political calculation. It reflected growing uncertainty on the left about how the nation state and the EU should work together in a post-crisis world. Nonetheless, Labour must not appear detached and inward-looking: putting Europe in the "too difficult" box and isolating the party from European and international commitments that are integral to an effective social democratic strategy would be a grave error. The unpopularity of the single currency has provided cover to cease being candid about the need for European action in solving many of Britain's economic woes. But the prospect of democratic socialism in one country is, as it always has been, an illusion.
Indeed, a closed national community seeking to offer high levels of welfare and security to "native" citizens is one socialist model, but hardly an appealing or sustainable one. As such, growing pressures towards nationalism and introspection ought to be rebuffed. It is to the left's advantage that this is fundamentally an age of interdependence, not isolationism.
We need a thorough debate about Britain's future relationship with the EU, as Ed Miliband acknowledged in his speech to the CBI on Monday. The voices of those who have become circumspect about the EU's role ought to be heard. Given a choice, many British voters would leave tomorrow; many understandably oppose any increase in the EU budget. Failure to curb the budget in the light of austerity within member states is foolhardy. The budget itself urgently needs reform, removing the unjustified excess of the common agricultural policy. Moreover, there has been too little drive from the European commission to promote growth and jobs and to secure investment rather than austerity, bringing hope to the people of Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. Two decades of market liberalisation has not been countered by a strengthening of Europe's social vision. Indeed, the EU lacks democratic legitimacy, which only a directly elected European commission president provides.
For all these faults, the British left has to make the case for an effective European Union. The Labour leader has offered a robust defence of Britain's EU membership: it is essential to appreciate that Europe is integral to the future viability of social democracy and to make the positive case. The most insistent challenges confronting left-of-centre politics – promoting a more responsible capitalism, addressing the need for global financial regulation, acting on climate change, reducing economic inequality, ending poverty, and protecting human rights and civil liberties – will only be addressed by countries acting together through institutions such as the EU.
The financial crisis exposed how without regulatory action at the European and global level, big corporations and wealthy financiers evade their responsibilities, refusing to pay their fair share of tax. The only way of clamping down on tax evasion and a race to the bottom is through international co-ordination and regulation. This may, indeed, require greater tax harmonisation, and a cross-European financial transactions tax. To oppose EU action on the grounds of an absence of global agreement is a counsel of despair. Despite the presence of the emerging powers, Europe still has clout in setting the rules of the global economic system.
A new political economy for the left in Britain requires a muscular, activist European Union. For all its faults, the EU is necessary to ensure co-operation and burden-sharing between countries. The UK should be an active participant as a European political and economic settlement is forged in the wake of the crisis, instead of standing on the sidelines. Europe has to be about "us", not "them": quiet semi-detachment won't do. International solidarity remains an animating social democratic principle.
Indeed, a unified EU is at the core of a radical social democratic programme, as past leaders of the European left such as Willy Brandt, Jacques Delors and Neil Kinnock each recognised. We need urgent action to boost aggregate demand and speed a recovery of growth and jobs. Over the next decade the left must forge a more social Europe focused on trade union and workplace rights, a strong welfare state, robust social protection supporting hard-pressed families, environmental sustainability and effective action on climate change. The vision of Britain as an offshore island offering low taxes and deregulation akin to Hong Kong is fundamental to the Eurosceptic right, but goes against Labour's most sacred values.
Quite rightly, Ed Miliband insists the EU requires overarching political and institutional reform. The left's mission, however, is to continue to build solidarity and co-operation between countries instead of merely advancing economic liberalism, while directly challenging Eurosceptic forces in British political debate. Acknowledging legitimate criticisms of the EU's role must not crowd out the compelling case for a reformed Europe. Social democrats should advocate the high road to competitiveness through social investment and ecological sustainability, rather than collective austerity mired in a competitive race to the bottom. Britain must aspire to become a mainstream European country with Nordic levels of wealth and welfare, German-style stakeholder capitalism, a consensual model of politics, and a role in the world based on the finest traditions of left internationalism.
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