David Cameron Is Right about Europe

In the early hours of Friday morning, British Prime Minister David Cameron definitively refused to be bullied into accepting the French-German vision (or some would say, nightmare) for the future of the Eurozone and the European Union.

David Cameron was right. He is taking a tremendous beating in the continental European press, but, then stuck pigs squeal and the squealing coming from German and French leaders and media only makes the correctness of Cameron’s decision more apparent.

There are 27 countries in the European Union (EU), and 26 of them voted, some after painful arm twisting by French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel, to go along with the Franco-German view that the EU can be saved, and the Euro currency kept afloat, only if all nations in the EU cede what’s left of their sovereignty to the European Commission (EC). That is, what was agreed Friday morning was that the EC will review every national budget, will have the authority to ask for revisions, and will be able to levy non-appealable fines against any EU member nation which cannot or will not in any given year abide by EC budgetary controls. And, if the agreement is finally ratified by the 17 Eurozone countries (because Britain’s veto prevented a major overhaul of the EU governing treaties by the full 27 countries), the budget deficits likely may not exceed 0.5% of GDP. Even Germany will have trouble meeting that target, and the Eurozone member states such as Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal of Ireland, will never meet it - not in our lifetimes anyway.

And, may I remind you that the European Commission is NOT elected. It is a group of politicians chosen and bartered over by EU member nations. It has produced the world’s largest bureaucratic web of regulations in only 40 years. It decides on commercial, agricultural, financial, environmental, antitrust and all other matters relating to government and daily life in the EU.

I cannot imagine any reasonably sane head of state accepting such a plan.

But, that 26 European countries caved in and Great Britain did not tells us one very important thing.

Europe is not a hotbed, or even a tepid pool, of democratic nation states.  It has for more than a millenium been ruled by kings or emperors, and since World War I by governments whose parliaments are elected and which then elect the head of government - a prime minister or, as in Germany, a chancellor. Ordinary citizens have little say in who governs them, with the exception of France, where the president is now elected popularly. But, the French president appoints the prime minister and the cabinet, and citizens have to agree because there is no ballot mechanism to permit the expression of disagreement.

That is why, I believe, we see more strikes and protest marches in Europe. There are few other ways to tell the government that citizens disagree. No-confidence votes occur, but usually only on those occasions when the prime minister puts his or her government’s continuation in power at stake in the vote.

Great Britain is the great exception to European semi-democracies. While the Parliament is elected and it appoints the prime minister, he then becomes subject to the control of his majority and can face a no-confidence vote at any time, and does, much more often than in continental Europe.

And, of course, we must remember that Britain is the oldest democracy in Europe, beginning in 1215 with the Magna Carta that gave local citizens the right to petition government, serve as jurors and vote for local officials. Only Switzerland is almost as old, its democracy beginning in 1291. So, while there would continue to exist in the rest of Europe absolute monarchies well into the 19^th century, Britain and Switzerland were democracies.

And of the two, only Britain has joined the EU, but with many misgivings and a citizenry that continually demands to have a referendum about its membership. Switzerland continues to stay outside the EU, and it is roundly attacked for its position of independence.

So, dear readers, do not believe that Great Britain has made a mistake. It has merely asserted its right to be an independent democracy. It has said no to bullying and no to being forced to accept controls that would take away its sovereign right to govern its own financial affairs.

David Cameron tried all night to get France and Germany to agree to let London continue as a world financial center outside the new regulations. That was the only compromise asked.

Sarkozy said “Unacceptable,” suggesting that the rest of Europe was growing weary of Britain’s independent streak.

Chancellor Merkel said, when it was all over, “I have achieved what I wanted to achieve.” Do you see much democracy-in-action in these words?

Remember Winston Churchill. He alone stood independent and isolated against all of continental Europe in his opposition to the Nazi threat.

Davis Cameron is following in a long line of British political leaders who have understood that democracy is fragile, that it must be protected, that it is never to be given away piecemeal, and that, at day’s end, only vigilance protects it, as Thomas Jefferson said.