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The Congress Of Brussels
On Tuesday, British MEP Daniel Hannan hosted a meeting in the name of the Alliance for an Open Europe. The "Congress of Brussels" was planned to help create a new political grouping in the EU parliament dedicated to free markets, national sovereignty and a reversal of the EU's anti-democratic, centralising tendencies. Predictably, the sixty-odd delegates from thirty nations (including 18 MEPs) did not make the headlines in the mainstream media.
The FT, for example, was sniffy, noting the presence of "eurosceptics from US think tanks" and giving the last word to former Tory minister and chairman of Britain in Europe Anthony Nelson, who dismissed the grouping as "isolationist."
At least it mentioned the Congress. It was left to the Brussels Journal to dedicate more virtual column inches to a comprehensive review of the event, complete with quotes from Hannan, who happens to contribute to the news site.
The quote from Martin Howe QC on the European Court of Justice is worth recording here in full:
“By expanding the scope of EU powers, the Court necessarily narrows the scope of the powers of the member states. It reduces (in its own words) the sovereign rights of the member states. It thereby reduces the scope of national law-making where there is a direct connection between the votes of electors; and transfers powers to the EU law-making process where there is no such connection.”
Luckily, Gerard Baker picked up on the story and ran with it in his Times column, describing the Alliance as a "glimpse of defiant reality" Brussels' Fantasyland, where popular votes get ignored in the name of "ever closer union."
Here's Baker:
"...The rejection of the constitutional treaty by France and the Netherlands was a mere adjustment to the detail, a bit of decorative furnishing that regrettably fell off their beautifully crafted Baroque construct. The constitution is being implemented anyway, as, to be fair, they always promised it would be (“If they vote ‘yes’, we continue on; if they vote ‘no’, on we go,” they said at the time). The European Prosecution Office, the EU diplomatic service, the European Defence Agency, all explicit dispensations of the despised constitution, are already up and running."
"In the real world, companies and employees across Europe are learning how to compete with the nimble dynamos of Asia and America, learning that globalisation requires ever more flexible working environments and ever more open and free markets. But in Bru-Bru land, they’re still weaving an ever-tightening web of regulation and control. In September, on the very day the President of the European Commission courageously announced he was going to abolish 69 absurd regulations, the European Parliament was considering new measures on the control of eels and circuses."
Baker is cheered by the youth and dynamism of the Congress delegates. As he rightly notes, Euroscepticism has long been a popular cause, but one which makes for uncomfortable company. In France, you have poisonous extremists like Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front and Arlette Laguillier's Trotskyite sect, while in Britain you tend to get florid colonels and vaguely creepy men with a computer's memory for EU spending figures.
Hannan's Congress, by way of contrast, was dominated by younger members - "mostly the under-40 crowd", writes Baker.
While fewer than 20 fellow MEPs attended the meeting, reports suggest that an Alliance could become the European Parliament's third or fourth largest political grouping with up to 70 members. This might be optimistic - the libertarian Alliance would hope to pull MEPs from Poland, where the new ruling party could not be described as "free market." Even Czech president Vaclav Klaus' party is holding off a decision until next summer - and Klaus has been named the Alliance's patron.
That said, there may be some room for optimism from the UK, where David Cameron was elected leader of Hannan's Conservative Party on the same day as the Congress was held. Cameron restated his claim that he would pull the British Tories out of the federalist EPP-ED grouping in the EU parliament and seek to build a new alliance of parties among MEPS from central Europe. Many commentators - including EURSOC - regard Cameron's promise with scepticism.
Indeed, it seemed that Cameron hoped to kick the ball into the long grass for a year or two, delegating the handling of the party to his new shadow foreign secretary William Hague.
Every Tory leader knows, to his cost, how divisive an issue Europe has been for the party. While Europhile Tories in the House of Commons have been reduced to a simpering rump, Conservative MEPs are often loyal supporters of European integration - and jealous protectors of the perks and power they receive as EPP allies.
Hague was barely behind his desk before he had to fly to Brussels to reassure Conservative MEPs who had "gone native" in Brussels that leaving the EPP-ED would not mean that they would have to sit with fascists.
Even if the Tories are not natural allies of Europe's fringe groups, it's hard to see how they can remain aligned with the EPP. The EPP fiercely supports the EU constitution, is dedicated to closer EU integration (including taxation!) and regularly cosies up to the "opposition" European Socialists in order to run the EU parliament under a consensus.
And this, perhaps, is where Hannan's alliance comes in. David Cameron declares himself open to new ideas - does he possess the will to risk breaking out of the EU mainstream? It's what the voters want - and what the mainstream of his party demands. Let's see if he's up to it.
