Time for a European Progressive Party?
Libertas, the Irish group that defeated the political establishment over the Lisbon Treaty, may stand Europe-wide in next June’s European Parliamentary elections. Declan Ganley, the businessman who leads the group, is quoted in the Telegraph and the Irish Times, saying that the campaign, if it happened, would be a proxy referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
The idea of a referendum through a normal Parliamentary election has just been tried in our very own Haltemprice and Howden, and was not a great success. If Libertas and Mr Ganley are serious, they would not be able to run the Parliament on the basis of blocking the Lisbon treaty, even if they campaigned on that basis. They would need to have a proper set of policies and platforms, which would presumably come from the centre-right pro-business space that Mr Ganley himself occupies.
From the Society’s non-partisan position, I think that this would be an excellent development for European politics. If Libertas were to stand, and campaign strongly in all member states, it would be a big step towards a single European democratic space, the absence of which has long been a problem for the EU’s legitimacy (see previously on this blog). Although doubtless sceptical about business regulation and harmonisation, Libertas would not be a wrecking crew like UKIP and other organisations - they would believe as a baseline in the continued existence of the EU, and of Ireland’s membership within it. It is richly ironic that all this potential development comes as a result of a no vote in the Irish referendum.
A successful Libertas campaign could seed a European political space, with Libertas as one of the centre-right players. However, if Libertas are serious about democratising the business of the European Union, there is one other step that I am sure they would welcome: the creation of a similar pan-European movement to put the opposing case. It would be disastrous for debate if the Libertas argument were to come up against a ragbag of national establishments and national political parties - we have already seen the political outcome of that sort of tussle.
Hence the title of this post - if Libertas are going to create the field of pan-European democracy, they must not be left to march around it alone, or be attacked by a poorly co-ordinated army of midgets. One or more parties similarly committed to EU democracy must be created to put the case for closer integration, more social action and more regulation. Then we could have a meaningful election in June, and a stronger democracy in Europe.