A Step Backwards in the Lessons Learned from the World Wars

It is time people were informed about the EU Constitution and its contents discussed

by Karl Müller, Germany

This year and next year, a number of European countries will be having a referendum on the draft EU Constitution. Spain was the first country to do so, with a referendum that took place on 20th February. The Spanish government’s method was, with the help of propaganda, to avoid any objective debate and to win the vote by playing on people’s emotions. What happened in Spain is a taste of the propaganda waves which will roll over all the other countries planning to hold a referendum. It is therefore essential to counter this propaganda by ensuring that people are properly informed. Such an information campaign also needs to touch people’s consciences and their empathy.

The draft of the Constitution is an attack on democracy and on political freedom, on social justice and prosperity, and on peace and equality among the member states and their citizens.

It is an attack on democracy and political freedom

• because the way in which the draft came about was undemocratic – it was not legitimised by the citizens of the member states – and because even within the so-called convention the main decisions were taken by the chair,
• because the legislative bodies of member states will continue to grow weaker, the regulations governing the principle of subsidiarity are a farce, while the executive bodies are granted a lot more power,
• because there will be no separation of powers and all EU bodies are even duty bound to work in “loyal” cooperation with one another (Art. I 19, Par. 2),
• because all EU directives are above the law of member states (Art. I 6), and
• because there is no so-called “European people” that could democratically justify a European state authority.

It is an attack on social justice and prosperity

• because all social rights in the draft constitution are formulated in a rather unclear and non-committal manner, and
• because the draft constitution is clearly committed to a single economic order, namely capitalism (“free movement of persons, goods and services” (Art. I 4, Article III), and an “open” [not social] market economy with free competition” (Art III 177ff.), which we can already say has foundered socially as badly as the controlled economies did.

It is an attack on the peace and equality among the member states and their peoples

• because the draft constitution contains detailed directives which are binding for the foreign policy and the military policy of all member states of the EU, and which will (legally) incapacitate the individual member states in these political areas,
• because the EU is to become a military coalition and all member states will be duty bound to military armament (Art I 41, Par. 3),
• because the EU is also planning the military deployment of task forces world wide (European Security Strategy of December 2003), and
• because reference to the Charter of the United Nations (Art I 41, Par. 1) has not been more than hypocritical lip service since EU states have participated in wars violating human rights, e.g. against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Two arguments have repeatedly been put forward in favour of a strong Europe.

One of them is that the EU is the result of the lessons learned from the experiences of two world wars in the last century.

However, 60 years ago when World War II came to an end, the people of Europe chose a completely different path to the one proposed by the current authors of the draft constitution.

The first demand after the war was, No more war! The plan was to establish an international order which would enable all nations to determine their own lives, ensure that all states have equal rights and that all countries would respect the jointly agreed international law. No power bloc would be tolerated, regardless of its power, if it attempted to wage war on other people or countries and subjugate them.

The second demand after the war was, No more capitalism. Even the Ahlener Programm of the German CDU (Christian Democratic Union) stated in early February 1947, “The capitalist economic system has not met the vital social and state interests of the German people. After the terrible political, economic and social collapse which followed in the wake of a criminal power policy, only a completely new order can be established. The aim and content of this new social and economic order can no longer be profit and power-seeking capitalism, but the welfare of our people. A social economic order will provide the German people with a social and economic constitution in keeping with the rights and the dignity of man, one which serves the spiritual and material rebuilding of our nation, and which ensures both internal and external peace.”

The second argument used to justify a powerful EU is the idea that it could act as a counterbalance to offset the increasingly imperialistic behaviour of the USA. The idea, however, of the EU acting as a counterbalance to the USA is not reflected in the draft constitution. On the contrary, it is the “globalisation” project that is the thread running through the constitution text. From a military point of view, the USA and the EU seek a “division of labour”. The constitution text clearly states that no foreign policy measures of the EU may be directed against NATO or against the USA (Art I 41, Par. 2 and Par. 7). In this context it is possible to understand the dichotomy of the German government being allowed to take a critical stance on the war in Iraq, while the German army took on more duties in occupied Afghanistan thus enabling the US government to have more troops available for other wars. With the unanimity principle that holds sway within the relevant ministerial council, the closest USA allies also have the right to veto within the EU. No independent EU foreign and security policy will be possible with the new constitution.

60 years after the end of World War II, people in Europe have the duty to remember the goals set by mankind after the horrors of two world wars. Those goals have lost nothing of their significance. Accepting the EU constitution would, however, mean a step in the wrong direction, towards political bondage, social injustice and war. Those who realise this will do what they can to stop this constitution coming into force.