Why Europe matters for Britain : the case for remaining in PDF
Preview Why Europe matters for Britain : the case for remaining in
Why Europe Matters for Britain Why Europe Matters for Britain The Case for Remaining In Referendum Edition John McCormick © John McCormick,2016 All rights reserved.No reproduction,copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced,copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988,or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House,6–10 Kirby Street,London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright,Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2016 by PALGRAVE Palgrave in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England,company number 785998,of 4 Crinan Street, London,N1 9XW. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue,New York,NY 10010. Palgrave is a global imprint of the above companies and is represented throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom,Europe and other countries. ISBN 978–1–137–57682–8 paperback This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.Logging,pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Contents List of Illustrations vi About the Author ix Preface xi Introduction: Britain's Place in Europe 1 1. What Is Europe? 11 2. Europe as a Peacemaker 30 3. Europe as a Marketplace 47 4. Europe as a Democracy 67 5. Europe as a Community 85 6. Europe as a Political Model 105 7. Europe as a Global Player 126 8. Fourteen Reasons Why Europe Matters to Britain 146 Notes 164 Index 174 v List of Illustrations Figures 1 Comparing federations and confederations 28 2 Public opinion on the euro 63 3 What Europeans think of EU membership 72 4 Identifying with Europe 94 5 Citizenship of the European Union 95 6 Support for joint EU policymaking 113 7 The world’s biggest economies 136 8 The world’s biggest corporations 144 Tables 1 A guide to the EU institutions 17 2 Regional integration around the world 122 3 The world’s three biggest trading powers 137 Boxes 1 Six myths about the European project 20 2 Seven reasons why Europe is peaceful 38 3 Seven advantages of civilian power 43 4 Twelve benefits of the single European market 55 5 Potential benefits of Britain adopting the euro 65 6 What do Europeans think of the EU? 74 7 Eight channels for the protection of public interests in the EU 80 8 How the EU has helped change the identity of Europeans 93 vi List of Illustrations vii 9 Ten qualities that help define what it means to be European 102 10 Six advantages of thinking like a European 110 11 Six misconceptions about European law 117 12 Five benefits of a European foreign policy 132 13 Six benefits of a European trade policy 139 14 Big corporations and European influence 142 15 Fourteen reasons why Europe matters to Britain 151 Document 1 EU mythology at work 22 Map Map of Europe xiv About the Author John McCormick is Professor of European Union Politics at Indiana University in the United States and has held visiting positions at the University of Exeter and the University of Sussex in the UK. He has written widely on the EU and other subjects, with books that include Understanding the European Union (now in its 6th edition), European Politics, The European Superpower, Europeanism, and Contemporary Britain. ix Preface Europe has been dominating the headlines of late, but rarely for happy reasons. First we had the breaking in 2009 of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, and it was not long before the woes of one small European country took on deeper and wider significance: euro zone leaders were divided over how to respond, the very viability of the single currency was questioned and there were doubts even about the future of the European Union. Then Britain saw renewed squabbles within the Conservative government about membership of the UK, leading to a decision to hold a national referendum, and prompting new debate about the pros and cons of UK membership. Then we had the breaking of the immigration crisis in 2015, which raised numerous troubling questions about the willingness of Europeans and their leaders to continue supporting one of the foundations of the European Union: open borders. It became hard to find anyone prepared to step up in praise of integration, and even long-standing pro-Europeans struggled to maintain their sunny dispositions. As the euro zone crisis deepened in late 2011, I was asked to write a chapter making the case for the EU in a university textbook.1The exercise made me realize that while more than 20 years of studying and writing about the EU had left me convinced of the benefits and advantages of Europe, I had never outlined them comprehensively in writing, and nor – come to that – had anyone else. Meanwhile, there was much about the quality of the debate over Europe that I found troubling: it was not so much that the EU was being so roundly denounced in so many quarters, but rather that so much of the denunciation was both wrong-headed and misinformed. Someone clearly needed to step up before truth was forever sacrificed on the altar of myth. The result was the publication in 2013 of my book Why Europe Matters. The announcement of the UK referendum came soon after and – combined with the particular problems in the public debate about Europe in Britain – prompted this new book, xi xii Preface which focuses on making the case for continued UK membership of the European Union. Because it is the EU that has been the target of so much of the recent analysis and speculation, it might seem that the title of the book should be Why the European Union Matters for Britain. But integration has always been about more than the work of the EU, or its precursor the European Economic Community. We should not forget the work of the Council of Europe, the European Court of Human Rights, the European Free Trade Association and a large and diverse community of specialized professional bodies, interest groups and think tanks working on European matters. We should also not forget the efforts of individuals and groups working outside formal institutions, as well as the effects of broader political, economic and social pressures, such as the cold war, international- ization and globalization. Of one thing we can be sure: Europe is more than a body of laws and a network of institutions, and in arguing why Europe matters to the UK I am including the ideas and attitudes that together constitute the modern European experience. To avoid distracting semantic logjams, I use the term Europe to mean the region as well as the broad process of European integration and cooperation, and occa- sionally use the phrase European projectto describe the laws, poli- cies, institutions and people involved in that process, and I refer to the European Union when writing specifically about its work. As for my background, I am a university professor of political science and have been studying the European Union since the early 1990s, writing about it mainly for students and other academics. I was born in Britain, but I have spent most of my life elsewhere (most recently, a long-time residency in the United States). I today live a transatlantic existence, carrying UK and US passports as I travel back and forth across the Atlantic but on neither side feeling entirely at home nor entirely foreign. This allows me to look at both the EU and the UK as an insider and an outsider, impressed by the changes I see in Europe, deeply concerned that the UK continues to remain on the margins, and my views about politics influenced most immedi- ately by my daily experience of the American model. As an academic, meanwhile, I have been dismayed by how little of the work of my peers has entered the public debate about Europe. Academics work hard and publish a great deal, and much of it is
The list of books you might like
