Certus February Blog: "Show me the Monnet"

The EU referendum debate is in full swing in the media and at Westminster, now that David Cameron has outlined the terms of the deal he intends to strike with EU Member States. Most political pundits and politicians have made up their mind, but my sense is that voters are yet to fully engage with the specifics.  Maybe they’re bored, or don’t care sufficiently about the EU to have an opinion.

Lat week’s YouGov survey carried out for the Times showed 19 per cent of people would either not vote or were undecided, while 45 per cent would vote to leave and 36 per cent to remain. The 2015 General Election taught us not to take polls at face value, but if, as seems likely, the referendum will take place in June this year, we can expect both sides to up the pace in trying to persuade undecided voters to their cause. 

Both campaigns have their flaws. The ‘in’ brigade seem to have plumped for a ‘fear factor’ approach. The EU is in trouble, their argument goes, in fact it’s in a horrible mess, but for all the faults of Brussels, it is still better to be in than out. This approach was underscored by William Hague, who said in the Daily Telegraph before Christmas: “We will have to ask, disliking so many aspects of it as we do, whether we really want to weaken it.”

Mr Hague went on to say that Brexit could precipitate the break up of the United Kingdom, because leaving would give Scottish Nationalists a means of securing another vote on independence. Other proponents of a ‘yes’ vote have focused on the damage Brexit would cause our economy, notably the future of the City of London. Other stayers have warned against a potential fall in inward investment, a run on Sterling, and the emasculation of the UK as an influence on world affairs (such as potentially losing our position on the UN security council).

In summary, the ‘yes’ campaigners hope that, just as the Scots decided that independence was not worth the risk, so the UK electorate will decide to stay in the EU for fear of the unknown. For many Europhiles this is a profoundly depressing argument. It makes out that the UK is a member on sufferance only, that the benefits of membership are minimal, and that we are only in the EU because to be outside it would be a whole lot worse.

Nobody – certainly few politicians - are making a positive argument for membership. The pro-Europeans in the Conservative Party are a small rump. The only avowedly pro-EU party, the Lib-Dems, have disappeared from the political map, and Labour is content to sit back and watch the Government rip itself apart over the long-running and poisonous EU question.

Moreover, the Prime Minister’s Mandelsonian approach to politics [managing the short term headlines] does not lend itself to setting out a positive vision of our future in the world’s largest trading bloc. 

The pro-European campaign desperately needs an injection of positive thinking, looking forward to a bright future, rather than trading on fear. After all, co-operation between European nation states – politically, socially and economically – should be celebrated and encouraged. The model has proved its worth, delivering peace and prosperity for an unprecedented period of time since the Second World War. The Single Market has been a triumph, providing the basis for huge improvements in economic and social well-being, and promising more to come in the future.

The growth in prosperity within the former Eastern Bloc states after the fall of communism is a modern miracle. As those nation states continue to grow, their markets, culture, labour will continue to benefit all of us.

The EU has been a vital lever in promoting European interests in a globalised world. We Brits need to be part of a larger ‘sphere’ of influence to promote and protect our economies and their citizens.

We should continue to pool our resources and knowledge to advance European science, technology and learning.

As the individual national costs of, for example, defence, weigh ever more heavily on the public purse, cooperation with our European allies will provide protection for our citizens against imported terror, and Russian expanisionism.

Our culture and heritage, our distinctive national attributes, have been in no way diminished by EU membership during the past four decades, but our nation has been enhanced by the opportunity given to our citizens to live, work and travel freely across the EU, and this will continue to be the case, especially for our young people.

A vast array of EU programmes and initiatives will continue to benefit Britain, from further improvements to water quality and enhancing our environment to new infrastructure projects, or investment in areas of high unemployment.

The architects of the European Union, Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, were visionary leaders who wanted to ensure that, through co-operation, Europe would never again be consumed by war.

At present, the UK referendum debate – both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ campaigns, is a race to the bottom. Fear or rose-tinted nostalgia dominate the arguments for and against. We on the ‘Yes’ side need another Monnet with a vision for Britain’s  future in Europe that is inspiring.  And we need one soon.