THE EUROPEAN UNION MUST DEVELOP A PATRIOTISM OF ITS OWN.

Speech by John Bruton to IIEA in Brussels on 27th April

The European Union will only survive the dramatic changes that the twenty first century will bring if the citizens of all EU states develop a common sense of European patriotism, alongside their national patriotisms. Appeals to monetary self interest and rational calculation alone will not be enough to keep the Union together in face of a new world dominated by Asian economic power.

European patriotism, like national patriotism, is not something that will arise spontaneously. It has to be fostered by the use of symbols,and appeals to people’s emotions, by political leaders who make a conscious decision to do so. This is not merely a matter for information campaigns and advertising. It is a matter for political leadership.

The 9th May 2010 will be the 60th anniversary of the Schumann Declaration that launched the project that has become the European Union, and it is also the date of an important election in the German state of Nord Rhine Westphalia.

How stands the European Union sixty years on,

• after an unprecedented enlargement to 27 members?
• after agreeing a new constitutional arrangement approved by all 27 countries democratically?
• after 10 years of its own currency-the euro?

Are the electors of Europe proud of what they have achieved? Do they even think about it at all or do they just take it for granted

Are they proud of the fact that, despite being told from the very beginning by the Anglo Saxon press that the project of democratically pooling sovereignty was hopelessly naive, and despite being told by others that Europe was suffering a problem called “euro sclerosis”, are they proud of the fact that, against all those odds, the EU has grown to 350 million people, has a new Treaty is in place, and the euro is holding its own?

EUROPEANS SHOULD BE PROUD OF HAVING BUILT HISTORY’S ONLY VOLUNTARY UNION OF STATES

Are they proud that we in Europe have created the only truly voluntary and democratic union of states in human history?

I am afraid the answer to all those questions is NO, no they are not particularly proud of it, because they are but rarely told by their timorous political leaders that they should be proud of it. So we should not be surprised if electorates in important election like that in Westphalia think only of their own country’s interests.

But unless the European Union’s citizens come to be proud of their Union, the Union will not survive the twenty first century. A Union, whose base is solely in its technocratic achievements, and not in the hearts of its citizens, will not be capable of withstanding any existential challenge that the twenty first century might throw at it.

INDECISION ON EURO A SYMPTOM OF A DEEPER LACK OF POPULAR BELIEF

That is why so many countries ,that are net contributors to the EU budget, focus on ways to get their money back, and why one country even has a special rebate .

That is why we have not had clear and prompt decision making on a loan to the new Greek Government to help it clean up the mess it inherited. Instead of seeing this as a European problem to which a European solution must be found, we have had a series of national political calculations which ignore the mutual interest we all have in overcoming the Greek problem. We have to wait until after an election in North Rhine Westphalia because an insufficient effort has been made to explain to the intelligent electors of that large German state that sorting out the Greek problem quickly before the election is in their interests for three reasons.

In their interests, first, because the euro has been vitally helpful to Germany in increasing its exports by keeping its exchange rate at a more competitive level than it would have been if Germany was still using the mark.

In their interests, second, because it protects German banks who have bought a lot of Greek bonds.

In their interests, third, because the euro is at the heart of EU integration and a failure of the euro would deprive Germany of economic influence over its key markets .

Europe needs a political leadership in every member state that is willing to explain that Europe’s mutual interests are superior to the separate interests of individual states, and that we will all gain both materially and morally by staying together , and building the “ever closer union” sought in the Treaty of Rome so long ago.

A longer than expected visit to Madrid.

I have been in Spain for the past few days, longer than I had planned because of the restriction on air travel. I have met many other people stranded in the same way and have been struck by their ingenuity in finding ways to get home.

In Madrid, I visited the Sorolla museum, in the home of the impressionist artist of the same name. Many of the paintings are of members of his family and of places where he spent some of his life. This gives the museum a personal character which adds to enjoyment of the art itself.

I also visited the Cortes, the lower house of Parliament. Deputies sit on red seats while the Ministers sit on blue ones. The Spanish political system is quite confrontational and a lot of time and energy is now being devoted to historical memory issues deriving from the Civil War of the 1930s, which is surprising when there are so many other pressing issues, notably an unemployment rate of 20%.

The metro system in Madrid is marvellously efficient and clean, and a pleasure to use.

I attended a conference on renewable energy sponsored by the Irish Embassy and the Spanish /Irish business Network. The event was opened by the Irish Ambassador, Justin Harman.

The speeches were very informative. I was particularly impressed by that of Philip Clarke, of ESB International (the consultancy arm of the Irish electricity company).

He said that the goal of getting all our energy from renewable sources was attainable. If electric cars became commercial they would recharge their batteries at night when electricity would be capable of being produced at little or no cost. Wind blows just as much at night as during the day so electric cars would contribute to the viability of wind turbines by providing a market for their product, which might otherwise go to waste. The really expensive electricity was that produced at times of peak use in the mornings and evenings, not at night.

He argued strongly for a common EU Energy policy, which promoted competition and the sale of electricity between countries. Otherwise Philip Clarke feared that electricity generation in Europe would soon be the hands of a few big companies from a few big countries.

He argued for a policy that would encourage households to generate their own electricity by solar panels and even small windmills. This policy would only reach its potential if the householder could sell any surplus electricity, when there was a lot of sunshine or wind in the locality, into a grid which could then transport it to other places in Europe ,where there was a demand for electricity at that particular time.

Philip Clarke has contributed greatly to the improvement of electricity distribution in Spain as part of his work with the ESB and he is based in Bilbao.

Spain is a world leader in wind energy, and Ireland learn a lot from Spain about how to make things happen, and how to turn good ideas quickly into projects that actually work.

Burgos

This week I had the chance to visit Burgos for the first time. I had always wanted to visit this beautiful city, and I was certainly not disappointed by what I found.

I came to Spain to speak at a meeting in Madrid organised by the Centre for European Studies, and to address at a conference entitled “Transforming the crisis into an opportunity” organised by the Burgos Forum for Business and Enterprise in Burgos .

At the Madrid conference I shared the platform with Jose Maria Aznar , who has been a good friend of mine since before we were Prime Ministers of our countries. The former Finance Minister of Romania , Daniel Daianu also spoke at another session of the conference.

Spain, like Ireland, faces a big problem because it devoted too much of its resources to building and buying house property. House construction has always been a volatile sector of the economy and in the past five years Spain built 2.8 million new houses, but has only been able to sell 1.5 million of them so far. Its banks also extended credit for the purchase of development land for the building of even more houses, and that land is now worth only a fraction of what was paid for it .This is exactly the problem in Ireland too.

The lesson I would draw from this is that it is not enough for the government authorities like the Central Bank to ensure that the banks have enough capital and do not use risky financial instruments, which the Bank of Spain did much better than most central banks did, but they should also monitor what money is being lent for to ensure that it is spread over a variety of sectors, and not concentrated in a single volatile sector like property development.

I also told my audience in Burgos that I am very troubled to see the German Constitutional Court being brought in to arbitrate on whether Germany should, as part of the stabilization plan for the eurozone, be allowed to lend money at a 5% rate of interest to Greece. This is a loan, not a subsidy and ,and the Judges of one country are not the people who should be deciding economic policy for the European Union, especially when the people who are elected to make European economic policy are struggling with an unprecedented crisis.

I had the chance to spend several hours touring Burgos on foot. The Cathedral is truly magnificent. It was built in the 14^th century but some of the highly detailed sculptural work looks as if it was only completed yesterday. The art work in the Cathedral shows Flemish as well as Spanish influences, as well as Muslim and Jewish inspiration. One of the Bishops who contributed most to the internal decoration had converted to Catholicism from Judaism. Many of the artists were Muslim Spaniards.

I also visited the monastery of Santa Maria where the museum contains clothing actually worn by the King and Queen of Castille in the 13^th century.

I strongly advise a visit to Burgos, especially at this time of the year.