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戴维·卡梅伦的欧元复仇

伦敦——与英国某些保守党人不同,首相戴维·卡梅伦以前给人的印象是并不沉湎于欧洲。他对欧盟并未表现出多大热情,但与众多保守党人相比他显然对欧盟的罪过认识不足。

对卡梅伦立场的这种看法已经很难站住脚。他长期构思的欧洲演讲虽然不乏大家一致认可的观点,但也为长期激烈的争论埋下了伏笔——而且此次争论的范围并不仅限于英国。下议院(和其他机构的)保守党人希望确保其领导人在整个欧洲一体化进程问题上与他们同仇敌忾。他们并未忘记或原谅他拒绝就前任戈登•布朗签署的《里斯本条约》举行全民公投的“背叛”行径。他的这次讲话终于可以让他们放心了。

当然,卡梅隆在党内面临着艰巨的任务,需要阐述自己的欧洲政策。卡梅隆因此必须找到合适的措辞。他必须安抚保守党和国内批评者,同时避免宣布即刻公投导致英国退出欧盟,进而对经济和政治造成严重的破坏。他字斟句酌所耗费的时间恰恰证明了解决问题的难度。

其实,卡梅伦的演讲表明了他应对困境的方法无外乎老调重弹——为在批评者面前换取短暂的和平,不惜付出让自己(和英国)的长期问题变得更为棘手的代价。卡梅伦显然希望尽一切可能推迟公投的时间。此前的演讲和采访已经表露了他希望重新谈判英国作为欧盟成员条件的想法。

现在卡梅伦已经斩钉截铁、毫不妥协地表明了立场。他在欧洲困难时刻提出了一项重要的新方针,要求对欧盟的结构和功能进行意义深远的改革(包括将权力收归英国)。

卡梅伦曾多次表示,他希望避免在现有成员条款基础上就是否延续欧盟成员资格进行单一选择的公投。已经有人称在他的欧洲政策中找到了哈罗德·威尔逊的影子,威尔逊曾就英国欧共体资格条款进行了著名的重新“谈判”,并在其后赢得了欧洲问题的全民公投。

无论哪党哪派掌权(威尔逊毕竟是一位工党首相),英国与欧洲一体化的关系注定将会困难重重。这种情况从一开始就不可避免,因为英国与几乎所有欧盟成员国在汇聚主权等根本问题上的分歧既深入又不可调和。

从本质上讲,英国一直相信以民族国家贸易合作为基础组成的松散邦联既符合欧洲也符合英国的需求。但英国加入了欧共体,而不像卡梅伦目前希望的那样仅仅是自由贸易区成员。

但欧洲怀疑论的暗流在英国政坛从未减弱,并且表露在卡梅伦的演讲之中。英国勉强接受了即便在特定领域中的欧洲法律至上,而且在众多其他国家已经这样做之后。事实上在他的演讲中,卡梅伦按捺不住地对欧洲法院提出了批评。

英国对欧洲、尤其是统一市场做出过重大的积极贡献。但英国也一直抓紧一切机会对欧盟超国家项目发起消耗战,反对欧盟资源实力的大幅增加,这样说也毫不夸张。鉴于上述立场反映了英国公众对欧盟的态度,英国这种做法也在意料之中。但英国的做法无论如何都让德国等其他成员国备感苦恼,他们认为坚决支持自由贸易立场并坚定支持法治的国家能在欧盟发挥重要的作用。

现在卡梅伦提出的漫长的重新谈判计划会令双方都损失惨重。首先,这种做法在欧元区危机已经威胁到欧盟长期健康、甚至是生存的基础上再次制造出深刻而漫长的不确定性。

此外,卡梅伦的策略似乎不太可能取得所有人都满意的结果。如果谈判以更大范围的条约谈判为背景,那么或许在可以预见的未来都不会发生。以欧洲理事会主席赫尔曼·冯·范龙佩为首的许多人怀疑新条约的必要性,新条约需要各成员国一致支持(而有些成员国强烈反对)才能切实生效。事实上,卡梅隆在讲话中明确承认了这一点,因此包含针对英国“新方案”的新条约可能需要与所有成员国单独协商。

需要全部欧盟成员国同意的权力归还显然是此次谈判的部分内容——而这导致卡梅伦重新谈判的条件在法律和政治上缺乏确定性。欧洲许多政治家会将向成员国还权看作彻头彻尾的破坏性先例,并因而坚决地加以反对。

结果很可能是任何试图达成“新方案”,包括还权协议的努力会比让英国现在直接举行是否退出欧盟的公投退出的可能性更大。因此,卡梅伦的立场不仅不能让任何一方(包括对欧元持怀疑态度的保守党人)放心,反而预示着英国及其欧洲盟国有可能进入充满动荡的新时代。

翻译:Xu Binbin

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  1. Commented

    Brian Cronin

    Sutherland is Ireland's cheerleader in chief for all things EU and sees nothing wrong in the ECBs foisting of billions of Euro of Anglo-Irish Bank debt on the backs of Irish taxpayers. Of course his position in Goldman Sachs in incidental in all of this. His opinions reflect the simple minded view of the Irish political establishment that what is good for the EU is good for Ireland - a variation on the old fenian rallying cry of "England's difficulty is Ireland's opportunity"(clearly never the case, by the way). Having listened to Cameron's speech, it seems to me that the citizens of many EU countries, except maybe Luxembourg and Belgium, would agree with it's sentiments. The EU has done things arse-ways, a currency union before a political union will not work. However, as there was (and still is not) no appetite for any political union, democracy was by-passed .

  2. Commented

    Margaret Bowker

    At first on reading Peter Sutherland's article, it seemed against any form of renegotiation or referendum, but on coming to the final paragraph, it was clear the uncertainty of an up to four year wait was the main issue. An immediate referendum, whilst solving this problem, could easily cause a bigger one by giving no alternative to an in/out, as we stand, question and risk the 20% undecided vote of a generally euroscptic nation, joining those believing no was the only answer, which the tone of Peter Sutherland's article indicated was undesirable.

    However, a couple of other points were much clearer. The argument that David Cameron might be seen as a modern day Harold Wilson, with regard to renegotiation, didn't seem to carry weight. The Sixties and Seventies were more about personal rights as I remember, in gender and other issues. In the forty to fifty years since that period, the world has changed significantly, particularly in the media and self-expression. Such - this is harmless, just trust us - persuasion would never happen in the present time.

    It seemed also that too little was made of the Single Market aspect of the UK's value. This is extremely important, especially at present with the Free Trade talks betweeen the US and the EU likely to start next month. The UK has a lot to offer and pragmatism will have its place in the EU/UK negotiations.

    Just a brief response, but it was a very thought-provoking, enjoyable article. Last thought - investment is the watchword for the immediate future. Boris is about to say so at Davos apparently, my thoughts were in a commentary in the WSJ yesterday. (Cameron pledges EU vote) There's a lot of potential investment out there. Lack of confidence is misplaced. Let's hope the corporations go for growth.

  3. Commented

    António Correia

    Yes, "The demand for far-reaching change in the structure and functioning of the EU (...) is a major new demarche at a difficult time for Europe". In these days, an increasingly wider consensus on the major flaws of the EU construction, over the last two decades, has emerged and can no longer be ignored: just remember the sinking of Titanic - a huge, record-breaking construction - one century ago...

    The Maastricht Treaty was announced as a "great leap FORWARD". Since then, only "FORWARD moves" have been allowed in the Maastricht-born "European Union" - mainly the creation of the "single currency" and the birth of a Eurozone with more and more states involved, according to their will and their capability of meeting the doubtful set of "Maastricht criteria" when joining the "single" currency area. Any move which may be seen as a "backward move" has been strictly forbidden, even if nobody can take for granted that this disunited "European Union" is moving forward to something that looks like the promised land. In fact, it is increasingly clear that this road is a "road to nowhere", besides being increasingly painful for more and more member states to go ahead, under the approach which has been adopted to "keep the markets calm" and "save the Euro" - while avoiding the appropriate fiscal transfers and resorting to lending under AUSTERITY constraints. In these days, the European Union is repeatedly following the recommendation: "Keep moving FORWARD, either slowly or rapidly, either jointly or at several speeds!".

    Yes, as Paul Krugman recently said, "The Euro is a shaky construction". Besides ignoring the macroeconomic imbalances within the EU, in the "Maastricht criteria" for Eurozone membership as well as in the subsequent "stability" pacts, the Euro has been designed and confirmed – by Delors et al and followers – as a "single currency" instead of a (much more realistic) "common currency". Now, it is very clear that this was a very bad choice, namely because other components of Delors's dream are missing - such as a European budget amounting, at least, to some "3% [!] of the European GDP".

    Two decades after the Maastricht Treaty, a COMPLETELY NOVEL EU TREATY is mandatory - not a mere set of "positive" , incremental amendments -, so as to avoid a sad situation, in the near future, where the foreseen "European common home" becomes replaced by a true "European house of correction". We need to build a true European Union through a cooperative European disunion, where the Euro survives as a "common", parallel currency - INCLUDING FOR THE UNITED KINGDOM and the other nine "non-Euro states" - but no longer as the "single currency" for a fraction of the EU (currently 17 out of 27 member states)

    [ http://building-a-true-european-union.blogspot.com ]:

    ” – The Euro should be a COMMON currency within the future EU – including the EU27 members outside the current ‘Euro Area’ – but not necessarily the SINGLE currency.
    - In this context, the coexistence of TWO parallel currencies should be allowed in each EU member state (under certain conditions, established in a novel European Treaty), within the framework of an appropriate “Cooperative European Disunion” .
    - Besides the “Common Euro”, the complementary currency in each member state could be either a “national currency” (…) or a completely new currency, shared by that member state and some other “compatible” EU member states, taking into account both the relevant macroeconomic issues and appropriate geographic, historic and cultural issues.”

  4. Commented

    Shane Beck

    I don't see the point of a 2015 referendum, since the EU won't renegotiate or repatriate sovereignty (it can't or the EU will effectively unravel) and Britain's long standing distrust of the EU will still be there. Might as we hold it in 2012. Or better yet the EU could bite the bullet and kick Britain out of the EU. After all Britain needs the EU far more than the EU needs Britain.....

  5. Commented

    Gregory Marthews

    What is frequently forgotten by especially worldwide observers of the UK is that the system we have is an archaic system dreamt up by the controlling Elite in 1688 to entrench Parliamentary power. The EU consists of varying degrees of the Republic with entrenched checks and balances to empower the citizens. The UK has no such checks, and so limps along as a poor example of democracy in action. Those in power are canny enough to give enough freedom to ensure that the status quo is not disrupted, while the second chamber is maintained in as weak a form as possible, and the division between the have's and havenot's continues to rise while those who have, entrench their historical advantage through their better schools and greater resources.

    With this in mind the EU project is the one great opportunity for the people of the UK to gain some rights which cannot be taken away from them. However we are currently in a time of great change. The EU is struggling with the global downturn and the need for a banking union to underpin the Euro, so the Conservative Party has seen its opportunity, maybe a quick vote now, when they are at their weakest, allied with a knee jerk isolationism from the media will swing the vote to an outright rejection?

    Look at it from the point of view of those in charge: They had years of Empire which they now look back on in fond regard, only to find that in the modern globalised world they are being outflanked by issues which are stubbornly global and which require the UK to cooperate to a greater and greater degree. Gone are the days when you needed only to send a battleship to hammer a port until it opened up to trade.

    So the question remains, do we wish to move away from such elitism and towards a more meritocratic world? Or do we hide behind isolationism and hope that eventually the world economy will recover enough for us to claim that our system works fine without such usual checks as a written constitution etc?

    The Conservatives are hoping that they can get a vote in now and secure a new relationship which means they do not need to bow to such global pressures. One should ask what laws they/we would like to avoid, and why? Do they wish to undercut the rest of the EU by offering the UK workers at a cut price by any chance? Without any recourse to pesky human rights? Why do we want the right to set shoe sizes to a different scale (for example). How would this help? There is a reason why so much of our legislature is from the EU: there is no point in having a different rule for us. The idea that there should be one rule for one set of people and one rule for another in an anachronism.

    There may be a need for review though. The EU is stubbornly refusing to move towards a more democratic system, while assuming that everyone is on board. And do we need this debate now? Surely any investment in the UK will now go elsewhere in the EU. Why invest in the UK if their access to the EU market is in question?

    So will this myopic political opportunism by the Conservatives work? Can they persuade the people to vote for a change back to the 'good old days' of Empire? Only time will tell.

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