11TH JANUARY 2008 THE REALITY BEHIND EUROPE FORTNIGHTLY £1.50 Brown doesn’t do foreign policy and he doesn’t do Europe, either The Prime Minister’s lack of interest in external affairs, including those of the EU, mean that we get the worst of all possible worlds urope has become a post-military was not an attitude displayed by Tony M a y o r ’s banquet. The road from Eas well as a post-democratic Blair who, like Margaret T h a t c h e r, Westminster to Washington now runs society. It behaves as if war and even recognised that the world was an via Brussels. As Stelzer pointed out, the possibility of war had been inherently dangerous place, that the the consequence is a weakening of the conveniently abolished. As the peace had to be kept by someone and alliance that preserved Western values distinguished military analyst Colin S. that there were few suitable candidates from assaults from fascism and Gray has written: for the job. communism and has been waging a For the peoples of EU-Europe in Mr Brown appears to be an agnostic new battle against international p a rt i c u l a r, war is not merely old- about such matters. It is this absence of terrorism. fashioned, indeed obsolete, it is wholly belief in the importance of military But Mr Brown’s shortcomings as u n i n t e resting, except as a non- power that has not conveyed itself to Prime Minister go still further. It is p a rt i c i p a t o ry re c reational diversion. Britain’s senior service chiefs who find increasingly evident that Mr Brown The societies of peninsular Euro p e him deeply unsympathetic. This does does not do Europe, either, a state of today face no security problems of a not necessarily put the Prime Minister affairs which was symbolised by his kind that demand a military response, in the camp of those who believe that late arrival for the signing of the at least not as they choose to define the age of military power has been Lisbon treaty. He does not like their problems. When a US surpassed by the age of soft power. He Brussels (which fully returns the administration seeks to persuade its simply has no views on the subject and sentiment) but has no strategy for European allies to cooperate actively given the primacy of economic factors achieving the kind of Europe he says in the latest scheme for ballistic missile in determining the way people vote he he wants to build. According to George defence (BMD), for example, it fails to sees no profit in acquiring any. Parker in a recent article in the recognise the degree to which its Financial Times there is muttering that friends have become thoro u g h l y Risk-Taking he has left the field at the very moment debellicised. The European solution is when Nicolas Sarkozy has started to not simply an opinion of the moment, Such attitudes, or the absence of make the running in the EU. but is now sufficiently deeply rooted as them, inevitably colour his view of “We try to give the impression that to warrant description as cultural: it is America. He is not anti-American in something is going on between Paris an attitude. the normal sense of the term. He and London but the reality is that there apparently admires US risk-taking and is very little”, Parker quotes one Harm’s Way the American can-do philosophy. But if French EU official as saying. Mr Brown admires US foreign policy It is this attitude which explains why and the military strength on which it Non-stop Smoozing European states spend so little on depends, he has evidently kept his defence, and why their armed forces enthusiasm to himself. In seeking to win friends and take care to keep out of harm’s way. The truth is that Mr Brown does not influence people Sarkozy engages in It is one which has taken hold to a do foreign policy. As Irwin Stelzer has e n e rgetic non-stop Europe-wide lesser extent in Britain than in written recently he has effectively out- smoozing. Brown stays at home continental Europe but it has a sourced foreign policy to international devoting his energies to patching up growing number of adherents even in institutions, especially the EU, as was the welfare state and to little local this country. Whatever his defects this apparent from his speech at the Lord Continued on p.2 INSIDE: Tory words fail to reassure eurosceptic opinion p.2 - Sarkozy tells it like it is p.2 - Who gains most from mass immigration? p.3 - Harmonisation ‘to a degree never before imagined’ p.4 - Expansion of Schengen are ‘an invitation to criminals’, say German police p.5 - Brussels names EU first Ambassador p.5 - Commission issues threat over plan to save fish stocks p5 VOL 13 NO 7 Tory words fail to reassure eurosceptic opinion The Conservative leader’s promises in regard to the Constitution are far vaguer than his commitments on membership of the EPP edia reports on New Year’s Eve history of the last decade suggests that stomach for a big fight with Brussels. Msuggested that the Conservative painful experience has made selling One member of Team Cameron told leader had provided the strongest eurosceptics down the river rather ConservativeHome that they would not indication so far that he would tear up more difficult than it used to be. allow a Cameron government to be the EU Constitution if returned to Certainly, the reaction of Tory bloggers engulfed by the same “Euro - s t r i f e ” power even if it had been ratified by of eurosceptic stripe suggests that the that shipwrecked John Major. David Parliament. Conservative leader has not been C a m e ron was one of Michael Mr Cameron’s carefully-crafted successful. H o w a rd ’s inner circle who fierc e l y comments, which appeared in the ConservativeHome’s Tory Diary, for opposed a much-discussed suggestion Telegraph and Mail on 31st December example, declared “Eurosceptics who in 2004 that the Tories propose a were represented as an apparent saw much firmer promises made about referendum on whether Britain should firming up of his position on the issue. EPP withdrawal in 2005 are unlikely stay in or leave the EU. If he was What Cameron actually said was: to be reassured by what looks like cautious then he’ll be even more “If we reach circumstances where the tactical wording”. cautious now that the Conservatives, whole treaty has been not only ratified ahead in the polls, have more to lose”. but implemented that is not a situation Election Prospects Nevertheless Cameron’s decision to we would be content with. try to assuage eurosceptics rather than “We wouldn’t let matters rest there. It continued: “CCHQ is convinced insult them represents an advance of a “We think the treaty is wrong because that enough voters who don’t want kind. It is a reflection of the strength of it passes too much power fro m ratification now won’t want the issue eurosceptic opinion and the To r y Westminster to Brussels. re-opened if, as expected, the Treaty is leadership’s recognition of the need to “We would address that issue at the ratified. What they believe is that take account of it. The lesson for time”. there’s a preference for the status quo eurosceptics generally, and for In fact these words are almost and that status quo may well favour eurosceptic columnists, bloggers, and identical to words used by William Brown by the time of the next General party activists in particular, is that they Hague, the shadow foreign secretary Election”. must not allow it to get away with during a debate on foreign affairs in the The blog’s description of the Tory bland and vacuous assurances. T h e House of Commons on 12th November attitude towards the EU generally is next time Cameron or Hague repeats 2007 and consequently do not surely correct: “The Tory leadership the “we won’t let matters rest there” represent even a shift of emphasis in want to manage Britain’s relationship formulae he, and every member of his the party’s position. with Europe, they don’t want it Parliamentary party must be Their clear purpose was to assuage transformed. Although all of the most bombarded with questions about where the anxieties of Tory eurosceptics and senior members of the shadow cabinet precisely a Tory Government will let to limit support for UKIP. But the are sceptical about the EU there is no matters rest. Sarkozy tells it like it is “The minute France organises a referendum on the simplified treaty, Britain will too. And what are the chances of a yes in Britain?” Nicolas Sarkozy quoted in Coulisses de Bruxelles on 17th December, 2007. Continued from p.1 Brown doesn’t do Europe political difficulties. heart is not in the cause of European those who doubt whether warfare is a “The French are pulling on one end political integration. But his lack of serious possibility and who of the rope, but there’s no one pulling interest means that we have ceased to consequently doubt the value of on the other”, one EU official told try to make the best of a very bad job military power - except as a means to Parker.