The European Elections: What is at stake for the citizen? An analysis of the EU’s legitimacy and policy challenges THE EUROPEAN ELECTIONS: WHAT IS AT STAKE FOR THE CITIZEN? An analysis of the EU’s legitimacy and policy challenges This book is published by Academia Press for Egmont – The Royal Institute for International Relations. Founded in 1947 by eminent Belgian political leaders, Egmont is an independent think- tank based in Brussels. Its interdisciplinary research is conducted in a spirit of total academic freedom. A platform of quality information, a forum for debate and analysis, a melting pot of ideas in the field of international politics, Egmont’s ambition – through its publications, seminars and recommendations – is to make a useful contribution to the decision-making process. President: Viscount Etienne DAVIGNON Director-General: Marc OTTE Director European Affairs Programme: Marc LEPOIVRE Egmont – The Royal Institute for International Relations Address Naamsestraat / Rue de Namur 69, 1000 Brussels, Belgium Phone 00-32-(0)2.223.41.14 Fax 00-32-(0)2.223.41.16 © Academia Press Eekhout 2 9000 Gent T. (+32) (0)9 233 80 88 F. (+32) (0)9 233 14 09 [email protected] www.academiapress.be The European Elections: What is at stake for the citizen? – An analysis of the EU’s legitimacy and policy challenges Gent, Academia Press, 2014, 171 pp. ISBN 978 90 382 2362 9 D/2014/4804/148 NUR 740 U2226 Lay-out: proxessmaes.be Copy-editing, and translation articles by Michel Theys and Eneko Landaburu: Xavier FONDER All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the permission of the publishers. Table of Contents 3 Foreword Marc Lepoivre & Stijn Verhelst 7 Introduction Twenty-eight national elections for a Parliament in constant evolution Michel Theys EU Legitimacy 25 A Crisis of Democratic Legitimacy? It’s about Legitimation, Stupid! Eline Severs & Alexander Mattelaer 39 A European Commonality of Destiny Through Social Justice and Strategic Autonomy Pierre Defraigne 59 Institutional Reform in the EU Philippe de Schoutheete 71 The Belgian Parliaments and EU Affairs The reasons behind their limited involvement Xavier Vanden Bosch EU Policy Challenges 91 What Future for the Eurozone? Combining Discipline, Solidarity and Institutional Reforms Xavier Vanden Bosch & Stijn Verhelst 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 107 The Case for a European Social Union Frank Vandenbroucke 123 Re-designing the European Climate and Energy policies post-2020 Clémentine d’Oultremont 141 From Lampedusa to the Post-Stockholm Programme Difficult European solidarity in the field of migration Corinne Balleix 159 The Role of the European Union in the World Eneko Landaburu 2 Foreword From 22 to 25 May 2014, citizens across the European Union will decide the shape of the next European Parliament. In the past, European elections often received little attention from the media or the wider public. In our view, this is a mistake: elections at the EU level matter. In light of the growing role of the European Parliament, the European elections are now even more important than they were before. Neglecting them is simply no longer an option. In order to highlight the importance of the 2014 elections, the Egmont Institute launched a project called “The Citizen and the European Elections”. As part of this project, we asked a range of authors to discuss some of the key issues that the EU will face during the European Parliament’s next term. This publi- cation provides the collection of these various contributions. The publication starts with an introduction by Michel Theys (EuroMedia Services) on the role of the European Parliament. On several occasions over the last years, the Parliament has been the guardian of the European citizens’ rights and liberties. Yet, as is rightly pointed out, the next Parliament will have to reassert its role as the voice of European citizens at the heart of Euro- pean decision-making. Subsequently, this publication contains two sections that each deal with a specific set of challenges for the EU. A first section concerns the need to ensure the EU’s legitimacy. The EU is often criticised for being insufficiently in touch with the European citizen. As Eline Severs and Alexander Mattelaer (VUB) explain in their article, this challenge is not limited to the EU alone; democracies worldwide are faced with the need of finding a narrative that legit- imises their actions. 3 FOREWORD In the remainder of the section on legitimacy, three authors each discuss a particular way through which the EU might improve its connexion with the citizen. Pierre Defraigne (Madariaga-College of Europe Foundation) focuses on the big picture, by arguing that the EU needs a new common project or – as he puts it – a “commonality of destiny”. In the subsequent article, Philippe de Schoutheete (Egmont) discusses possible improvements to the EU’s institu- tional functioning. If properly timed and executed, these reforms would contribute to a more legitimate EU. Xavier Vanden Bosch (Egmont) concludes the section by focusing on the role that national parliaments can play in Euro- pean democracy. He reviews the way in which national parliaments in Belgium deal with EU affairs, and provides recommendations on how their involvement can be improved. The issue of EU legitimacy is of vital importance in the European debate. Yet, it should not be the only focus of discussions preceding the European elections. Such an approach would be overly inward looking, as it hides the major policy choices that the EU will be faced with in the coming years. For this reason, the second section of this publication provides an analysis of the EU’s upcoming policy challenges. A first article in this section on policy challenges is directly linked to the euro crisis. Xavier Vanden Bosch and Stijn Verhelst (Egmont) argue that the euro- zone needs to be strengthened by a combination of solidarity and discipline before the post-crisis window of opportunity for reform closes. In the following article, Frank Vandenbroucke (KUL) argues that Europe should become more focused on social policies. He discusses the characteristics of a European Social Union, which he sees as an ambitious, but necessary, complement to Europe’s economic and monetary integration. Some of the EU’s other policy challenges transcend the European continent. This is the case for climate and energy policies, which are dealt with by Clémentine d’Oultremont (Egmont). She explains that the future European Parliament will have to work towards ensuring the sustainability, security and cost-competitiveness of Europe’s energy supply. Migration is another issue that by its very nature transcends borders. As is discussed by Corinne Balleix (Sciences Po), the EU Member States will have to collaborate amongst them- selves and with other countries in order to provide an adequate response to Europe’s migration challenges. As she argues, more solidarity will be required if the EU is to succeed in achieving its goals. 4 FOREWORD The final article of this publication discusses the EU’s role in the world, the importance of which is underlined by the turmoil in Ukraine. Eneko Land- aburu (former DG European Commission) argues that, until now, the EU has not been able to strengthen its voice on the international scene. He argues that the EU does not need new instruments to achieve a stronger role for Europe. Rather, the Member States should put the existing instruments into practice and rethink some of their current approaches. Our choice for a focus on the EU’s legitimacy and policy challenges is for a large part inspired by the specific election context in Belgium. Two pervasive problems in other countries are much less present in Belgium. Due to compul- sory voting, we should not fear high abstention rates from the Belgians. In addition, no eurosceptic party is expected to make substantial progress at the May vote. Instead, the European elections in Belgium face another danger: that of being eclipsed by the simultaneously held national and regional elec- tions. To counter this risk, we have to raise awareness among Belgian citizens of the European elections and the decisions that will have to be taken during the next legislature. A better understanding of the issues facing the EU is a key step in bringing the citizen closer to European integration. It is our hope that this publication – and the wider project – can contribute to meeting this goal. On behalf of the Egmont Institute, Marc Lepoivre, Director of the European Affairs Programme Stijn Verhelst, Senior Research Fellow 5 Introduction Twenty-eight national elections for a Parliament in constant evolution MICHEL THEYS In the City, the citizen is king. At least theoretically. In the European City currently being built around twenty-eight national democracies, the citizen will soon be called upon, in May, to democratically elect his or her representative in the European Parliament for the next five years. Since the very first election of Members of the European Parliament by direct universal suffrage in 1979, spectacular progress has been made by the “European Economic Community” that we now all know as the European Union. And the powers vested in citizen representatives are equally impressive. But there is a real possibility that European citizens will turn their backs on the upcoming European elec- tions like never before. Why? Viviane Reding, whose term as Vice-President of the European Commission is about to end, is probably right to claim that “the elections of the European Parliament matter more than those of national parliaments because their outcome will affect the future of an entire continent,”1 but convincing the citizens of that state of affairs will be no easy task.