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Europe as a global player: a parliamentary perspective.

by Poettering, Hans-Gert

Harvard International Review • Spring, 2007 • PERSPECTIVES

In the 28 years since the European Parliament was first elected, it has developed from a largely advisory forum into a full-fledged branch of Europe's legislature. Since the Single European Act of 1986 and the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, the role of the European Parliament in EU decision-making has increasingly changed from one of marginality to one of centrality. Today, members of the European Parliament share law-making powers with the Council of Ministers across many policy areas. The Parliament has truly come of age.

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The advent of co-decision between the Parliament and the Council has made the Parliament a major actor in the EU legislative process. The Parliament has become an integral part of a new European political system, in which the vast majority of decisions require explicit approval of the Parliament. Whether it be the liberalization of transport, regulation of financial markets, limits on carbon emissions, or product standards and consumer protection, the decisions of the Parliament are now as important as those of member states in setting EU law.

In recent years, our work as members of the Parliament has shaped and advanced European integration in many fields. We pushed forward the process of EU enlargement when there was reticence in some other quarters. The single market and the single currency would never have occurred without the early and sustained advocacy of Euro-parliamentarians. The political majority in the European Parliament is now critical in determining who is chosen as president of the European Commission. Furthermore, as a result of parliamentary pressure, foreign and security policy has become an integral part of EU activity.

When I first became a member of the European Parliament in 1979, the individual sovereign states guarded their own foreign and security policies, making the policy area something of a taboo subject at the supranational level. This disunity, however, changed in the mid-1980s, when the Single European Act formalized modest arrangements for "European political cooperation." The Maastricht Treaty converted them into a formal Common Foreign and Security Policy, for the first time raising the possibility of a European defense. Today, more than a dozen EU military and policing missions can be found throughout the world. While deployment of EU troops or police forces outside the European Union was unheard of in 1979, it is a daily reality in 2007.

A European Constitution

As the European Union becomes more involved in world affairs and as domestic integration deepens, it becomes more important that the European institutions function as effectively and democratically as possible. These objectives can most effectively be obtained through the ratification of the European constitutional treaty. We need the reforms espoused by the constitution to successfully fulfill our role in EU and world affairs.

European integration has gone through cycles of crisis and self-doubt in the past, but it has usually emerged stronger as a result. When the European Defense Community failed in 1954, it subsequently took less than three years to reach an agreement on the Rome Treaties. When the first effort to establish a common currency failed during the 1970s, the experience of further monetary crises pointed to the continuing necessity for a full economic and monetary union, a logic that led to the adoption of the euro in 2002. While the difficulties in securing ratification of the European constitutional treaty by all member states have been a blow to the development of the European Union, I believe that they can be overcome, just as European integration has cleared previous obstacles that initially seemed insurmountable in its 50-year history.

One clear lesson from the recent ratification crisis is that there is a need to connect more closely European citizens with the project of European integration. Some of the citizens of France and the Netherlands who voted against the constitutional treaty in referenda in the summer of 2005 did so because they regarded the European Union as insufficiently coherent, democratic, or transparent. Yet ironically, the constitutional treaty actually includes many of the changes that are necessary to strengthen democracy, coherence, and transparency in the Union. For example, it extends the mandate of the president of the European Council, gives the European Parliament even greater legislative power, clarifies the competences of the Union, and simplifies the types of legislative action--all in an effort to improve the overall consistency, clarity, and accountability of EU institutions.

The foreign policy component of the constitutional treaty is especially important. Only an effective and democratic European Union along the lines foreseen in the constitutional treaty can be a credible actor in the world, and furthermore, a reliable partner for the United States. Though commentators like to distinguish between "soft" and "hard" power, I would prefer to distinguish between coherence and incoherence in foreign policy-making. The truth is that even though decision-making at the EU level is now integral to determining the foreign policy of the member states--and the global presence of the European Union is already an important reality in world affairs--the Union as such is not in the position to act coherently in its own right. This limitation stems in varying degrees from the Union's legal status, the institutional division between the Council and the Commission, and the Union's lack of free-standing military resources. The provisions of the constitutional treaty, which establish the post of European foreign minister and create a European external action service, are important for the emergence of a more comprehensive and credible EU foreign policy.

Responsible political leadership in the European Union is rightly committed to putting these provisions into practice. So far, the constitutional treaty has been ratified by two-thirds of the European Union's 27 member states. It is also supported by the vast majority of members of the European Parliament. Our common objective is to implement at least the core propositions enshrined in the treaty--the key substance of the original text--before the next elections to the European Parliament in June 2009.

Europe and Globalization

A constitutional treaty will make it easier for Europe to address the pressing issues of our time, at home and abroad. Globalization poses new challenges to European policymakers in the economic sphere and in many other fields. Europe has been slower in taking full advantage of the opportunities of globalization than the United States, let alone China or India. But the European Union has been fully aware that just as globalization brings new opportunities, as it empowers individuals and expands the global market, creating billions of new consumers, it simultaneously requires changes in European citizens' attitudes toward job security, welfare, and most importantly, investment in human capital through education and life-long learning. The majority of citizens in the European Union would resist any form of globalization that undermined the principles of human dignity, but this outcome need not materialize. The market dynamic can and should continue to be underpinned by a safety net for the weaker members of European society. This is an essential principle of a social market economy.

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In a way, European integration has been, and continues to be, an anticipated form of regional globalization. It has been driven, by and large, by political decisions designed to support the freedom and cohesion of European societies, to facilitate the creation of a single European market, and to provide a greater measure of legal certainty to activities in the European sphere. It is based on supranational law and therefore offers a sort of framework in which a free market can flourish to the benefit of more citizens. Based on this experience, we believe that globalization will progress most smoothly if it goes hand in hand with some legal rules--not ones that undermine the forces of the market, but rules that safeguard the interests of citizens, both as consumers and producers.

Projecting Stability into the World

To date, globalization has too often left out important parts of the world community, notably in the Arab world and sub-Saharan Africa. As both these regions are physically proximate to Europe, we are particularly sensitive to this situation. In fact, it is both a strategic and a moral obligation that we pay more attention to what is taking place in these regions. Poverty, insecurity, and fear can easily produce a dangerous combination of illegal migration, fanaticism, and violence.

The European Union is now the largest donor of development aid in the world. Some critics claim that this assistance is some kind of compensation for the legacy of European colonialism in lesser-developed countries. I think it emphasizes instead Europe's firm desire to be a constructive partner in building a better world.

Europe's political leaders and institutions are determined to fight terrorism and any form of political violence. We are gravely concerned about an ideology of Islamic radicalism that includes the use of violence as a means to succeed in its political and religious goals. We absolutely condemn terror in the name of politics or religion, and we are concerned that the continuation of any form of radical Islamic terror will undermine the chances of a dialogue among cultures that is more vital today than ever.

Europe is an immediate neighbor of the Arab world. The bulk of immigrants into the European Union originate from northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, with Spain being the biggest recipient. Muslims have become the second largest religious group in the Union, representing around 3.5 percent of the total population. Mosques are a common sight all over Europe. In our position, a cross-cultural dialogue is crucial. By the nature of our situation and our history, the European Union is absolutely determined to guarantee a peaceful cohabitation of Christians, Muslims, Jews, and all other religious, secular, and atheist people. We can only do this on the basis of mutual respect.

An important component of the emerging foreign policy of the European Union is the effort to project stability into the immediate neighborhood of the Union and into the wider world. The recent enlargement of the European Union was a spectacular example of the success of that policy: the prospect of EU membership played an important part in ensuring the democracy and prosperity of the former Soviet republics and client states which are now safely members of a democratic European family. An enlarged European Union has recently developed a complex web of policies to stabilize its immediate surroundings and to promote peace and affluence beyond its borders. Our partnerships with Russia and other Eastern European countries that are non-EU member states are designed to build a more stable relationship with that part of Europe's neighborhood.

Likewise, the European Union is part of the "Quartet" along with the United States, the United Nations, and Russia that designed the Road Map for Peace in the Middle East. Many obituaries have been written for this Quartet process. But in the end, I believe, a comprehensive solution to the vexing Middle East conundrum will have to follow the main elements of the established Road Map and, in fact, will need the commitment of the Quartet countries. We want a comprehensive, equitable, and lasting peace that recognizes the right of existence of both Israel and a viable Palestinian state. The Euro-Mediterranean Partnership--in which the European Parliament plays a leading role--is an important vehicle for bringing all European countries together with the Arab coastal states of the Mediterranean and with Israel.

Transatlantic Partnership

Rising to the challenge of globalization also requires deeper transatlantic cooperation. Most major global issues we face cannot be resolved solely by the actions of either the European Union or the United States. In general, when we cannot reach agreement across the Atlantic on major global challenges, policy simply fails to be enacted at the international level and the credibility of the Western world decreases. In order to resolve key issues from climate control to global terrorism, the European Union and the United States must be active partners in a common endeavor.

The ties that bind the United States and the European Union are deeply rooted. We are each other's largest economic partners, whether in terms of trade, capital flows, inward investments, or jobs. Ownership of many of our companies is now in effect vested jointly in the hands of both US and EU citizens. Our great universities cooperate actively. There is a regular, intense exchange of ideas, emails, and visitors across the Atlantic. At a political level, however, there is still much to be done. We have the achievements of the NATO Treaty, we have our regular EU-US summits and parliamentary exchanges, but we have no systematic framework within which to organize our overall relations. As early as 1962, President John F. Kennedy proposed a transatlantic treaty broadening the bases for our relationship for this very reason.

In the absence of such a framework, we can still work positively together on a common agenda. The current German presidency of the Council has already declared that strengthening transatlantic relations, particularly in the economic sphere, is one of its major external policy priorities. Chancellor Angela Merkel has talked of promoting "ever-closer economic cooperation" across the Atlantic, signaling that she particularly wants to see progress toward an EU-US Transatlantic Economic Partnership, based on some variant of a "Transatlantic Market." The latter concept is not a free-trade area or a customs union; rather, it is in effect a single market, in which EU and US technical standards, regulatory regimes, and competition policies would progressively converge. The idea has long been advocated in resolutions of the European Parliament. Indeed, it is a good example of how the Parliament has shifted the policy agenda, in this case, by going out in front of the member-state governments.

The concept of a transatlantic single market has, for the first time, been picked up by the president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, in Brussels, and by the US president and administration in Washington. It is an idea whose time has come. Legislators in the European Parliament, together with senators and congressmen on Capitol Hill, will need to be closely involved. If Parliament and Congress are to approve the result and make all the legislative changes necessary to implement it, it is sensible that we be partners from the start in its design, negotiation, and delivery.

Maintaining the "Atlantic Civilization"

The future of European integration and of a strong transatlantic partnership are important political objectives and key components in maintaining our "Atlantic civilization." The European Union is developing new scenarios to advance both greater unity and stronger Euro-American relations. The German presidency of the Council currently is attempting to identify methods and timelines for achieving each. As a result, there is now a very serious possibility that Europe will overcome the crisis over the ratification of the European constitutional treaty and emerge strengthened by this process. The European Union needs the substance of the reforms enshrined in the treaty, not only to better manage its affairs as a union of 27 or more member states, but also to confront the new and pressing policy challenges posed by globalization and to discharge its responsibilities in the world. Equally, there is an increasing likelihood that we will see significant progress toward a closer transatlantic partnership, at least in the economic sphere, with the concept of a barrier-free single market across the Atlantic firmly on the agenda. These twin achievements would represent major stepping stones toward building a less dangerous and more prosperous world.

HANS-GERT POETTERING MEP is President of the European Parliament.