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Monday, 20th June 2005
European Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson's Fabian Europe lecture
offers a wide-ranging vision for how European debates about economic
reform and the future of Europe's social model, enlargement and
democratic legitimacy need to change in the wake of the French and
Dutch referendums rejecting the EU's Constitutional Treaty - and why
Britain needs to change the way it deals with European partners.
European reformers have failed to make the social justice case for
economic reform, argued European Commissioner Peter Mandelson in a
major Fabian Europe Lecture responding to the French and Dutch No votes
on the EU Constitutional Treaty. Reformers would only win the public
argument for painful but necessary reforms if they could present a
convincing vision of a "modern social Europe" and show that "reform is
for a purpose: not to Americanise Europe but to make our European model
of society sustainable for generations to come".
Mandelson called for a "change of tone and substance" to make the
British government more effective in EU debates: "There is a paradox
that in Britain, New Labour has been strong advocates of a modern
social democratic mix of market flexibility with massive public
investment and the first successful attack on poverty in a generation.
In Brussels, Britain has sounded neo-Thatcherite as though nothing has
changed from the 1980s. Both tone and substance need now to change if
the British Government is to command attention and win the backing it
seeks on the continent".
Mandelson also argued that the British government should be
"consistent and courageous in their reformism" and so be prepared to
see the UK's budget rebate reformed as part of a broader fundamental
debate about the EU budget: "Refusal to talk about much needed budget
reform is part of the old conservatism in Europe which the Barroso
Commission is determined to change. But Britain should be careful not
to play into the hands of this conservatism. Ministers must be
consistent and courageous in their reformism, and be prepared, in the
context of a deeper re-think about the EU's budget, to look at
reforming Britain's rebate. For a start it is surely wrong to ask the
poorer new accession states to pay for any part of the rebate".
Questioned further about his comments on the British rebate,
Mandelson said that "I am not criticising the government for standing
up for the rebate because, given the state and structure of the current
budget, the British budget rebate is justified". But he argued that the
British government should not lose sight of wider and more fundamental
arguments: "a sense of perspective and proportion is required by all".
Fabian lecture highlights
Europe faces a "fundamental choice of directions"
Responding to the French and Dutch No votes, Mandelson argued that
"the problem is not the Treaty - it is that there is no consensus about
what Europe is for and where it is going". Europe now faces a "deep
crisis of direction and legitimacy" and fundamental choices: "One way
we sink into protectionism and populism - either the populism of the
Left that rejects globalisation or the populism of the Right that
blames foreigners for everything. And if we make that choice, we really
will sink".
Sceptics betray British national interest
In a strong attack on British anti-Europeans who think "thank God
they're failing" and want to disengage from Europe, Mandelson argued
that without Europe, "Britain .. would walk naked into the world of
globalisation" … "disengagement from Europe at this time would be a
total betrayal of Britain's national interest".
Economic reform for social justice
"Essentially we need a new social consensus for economic reform as
New Labour has achieved in Britain, based on a social justice argument
… What we have to show now in our policies is as much concern for the
losers, as for the winners".
"What we need today are new approaches and new institutions to
tackle the new social challenges of extending opportunity throughout
the lifecycle– tackling inherited disadvantage by investing in the
social support and education of young children and their mothers;
providing high standards of schooling in ethnically diverse and
socially fractured communities; promoting skills and lifelong learning
for those who missed out at school; reaching for world class standards
of excellence in higher education and research; opening access to
retraining and help with adjustment for the victims of economic change;
helping older workers reintegrate to the labour market and abolishing
the traditional concept of retirement: integrating migrants and
minority groups more successfully than we have so far succeeded in
doing into our local communities. These are examples of the common
challenges a modern Social Model should be addressing".
Addressing the needs of the 'losers' in Europe is essential if Europe is to proceed with enlargement.
"I believe in enlargement as a means of extending democracy, human
rights and our values to a wider Europe. but there will be no consent
for enlargement to the Balkans, Turkey and beyond, unless we first
address the problems of the "losers" back home"
"All politics is local, ultimately including even the geopolitics of enlargement".
Peter Mandelson's Fabian Europe Lecture – Building a New Consensus
for Europe – was delivered on Monday 13th June 2005 in London. The
Fabian Society would like to thank our event partners Hill &
Knowlton for their support, and Clifford Chance for kindly hosting the
lecture.
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