VOLUME 8 NO.4 APRIL 2008 journal Association of Jewish Refugees National sovereignty and national interest s the Treaty of Lisbon wends its states. Our economic system depends on the weary way through parliament, free entry of goods and services from foreign the familiar arguments for and countries and the free export of our goods and Aagainst European treaties are services in retum, by agreement between the rolled out. The populist press echoes to states concerned; because of mutually accusations that under the treaty Britain is advantageous concessions of sovereignty sacrificing elements of its sovereignty, between Britain and Germany, for example, alio wing supranational bodies like the Council Britons drive BMWs and Gennan companies of Ministers a measure of control in British take advantage of the financial expertise of the affairs, and generally conceding to 'foreigners' City of London. Here too, the idea that the powers that it ought to preserve for itself as a national interest can simply be equated with nation-state. Pro-Europeans are forced onto the the preservation of national sovereignty is defensive, arguing that the concessions are unhelpful. inconsequential and that Britain has The states of the Eurozone have gone negotiated opt-outs from the more significant further, giving up control over their individual provisions of the Treaty - or whatever else currencies and thereby over such important they can come up with. levers of power as the ability to set their own What is seldom challenged is the interest rates. They evidendy calculate that the assumption underlying the entire debate - at benefits of belonging to a single currency zone least as it is conducted in Britain - which is and a single market of some 300 million people that the preservation of national sovereignty outweigh in real terms the disadvantages of is an overriding priority, the sole, totemic abandoning national currencies. They may touchstone by which the national interest is have a point. Does anyone seriously think that to be calculated. Rather as in Victorian the USA would he the economic powerhouse attitudes to virginity, national sovereignty is like Britain. that it is if it were divided into several units, on this view a pristine indicator of good, to be It is also easy to cite cases where the each with its own currency? For a medium- kept as far as possible intact; if, inevitably in surrender of national sovereignty is sized country like Spain, having a share in the a wicked world, it is infringed, such deviations indisputably in the national interest. Take the full prosperity and power generated by 300 from the path of virtue should be kept to a cmcial area of Britain's control over its armed million people is, in terms of national interest, minimum, endured with gritted teeth while forces, for example. In the First World War, arguably worth more than having all of that lying back and thinking of England. at the critical juncture when General generated by 40-odd million people, national However, the argument that it is always in Ludendorff's offensive in spring 1918 sovereignty notwithstanding. Sharing control the national interest to preserve national threatened to overwhelm the Allied armies on over part of a large cake can be preferable to sovereignty to the maximum extent is plainly the Westem front, the British put their forces enjoying exclusive control over a small one. simplistic and fallacious. If it were true, then under the command of the French supreme This notion of shared control is habitually nations that followed that path, excluding all commander. General Foch, and the crisis was decried in Britain as 'allowing Bmssels to others from influence over their internal overcome. In the Second World War, the interfere in our sovereign affairs' or 'parting decision-making and refusing to co-operate British forces in Europe in 1944-45 were placed with our hard-won freedoms'. Personally, I find with others over matters of common concern, under the command of an American, General it hard to see what freedoms we as British would be those most successful in promoting Eisenhower. During the Cold War, British citizens have lost. (The British state has their national interest. But the most prominent forces combined with those of other Westem certainly lost some of its powers, but as it is examples of such states are North Korea and nations in NATO, under a joint command an over-centralised constmct ill-suited in many Burma, or in Europe the former Communist stmcture, to withstand the military threat from ways to the present day, 1 can live with that.) regime in Albania - states that reduce their the Soviet Union. These initiatives all The fact is that our freedoms of religion, citizens to levels of misery unmatched in the represented major sacrifices of national speech, assembly and the rest have remained civilised world. It is, of course, possible for sovereignty, and all were unquestionably in unimpaired, or have been reinforced by states of continental dimensions, like China or the national interest. European legislation safeguarding our rights the USA, to be so self-sufficient that they can The whole way in which our national as individuals. effectively act independently of other states, peacetime life is stmctured also depends on In practical terms, 1 owe a significant but that is impossible for medium-sized states mutual surrenders of sovereignty between continued overleaf A|R JOURNAL APRIL 2008 NA TIONAL SOVEREIGNTY AND NA TIONAL INTEREST continued from page 1 extension of my freedoms to the increase in European Union usurping the rights of the it appears possible that Scotland may reclaim European co-operation resulting from the British parliament, but rather that in certain the sovereignty conceded in 1707. That would pooling of national sovereignty: I can take up fields the British parliament is not the be a formidably difficult task. In the same way, an academic or research post in Germany or appropriate body for the task. taking Britain out of Europe would be fraught Austria as easily as a German or Austrian can, Some problems are indeed best dealt with with problems - not because those cunning while my wife, who is a Belgian national, can at national level; others need to be tackled foreigners have devised a fiendish come and live in London without enduring the Europe-wide, others again at regional level. constitutional trap to ensnare the dewy-eyed paper-chase for visas and residence permits The evident success of the devolution of British, but because Britain is inextricably traditionally visited upon foreigners. British powers to parliamentary assemblies in linked by connections of national interest to citizens who tried to live, work and manage Scotland and Wales - however much one may her European neighbours. In the last analysis, their financial affairs in France or Italy will dispute the policies of the goveming parties constitutional arrangements have to reflect recall with a shudder the problems they faced, there - suggests that the devolution of power real national interests, not abstract notions of before the introduction of the free movement 'downwards' to regional bodies in the national sovereignty. of people and labour within the EU made remainder of the UK may well be at least as Anthony Grenville Provence, Tuscany and the Costa del Sol necessary as its transfer 'upwards' to the destinations of choice for Britons in search of Europ)ean level. British reluctance to remove homes in the sun. powers from Westminster means that ANNUAL GENERAL More serious is the argument that the vigorous regional self-government on the MEETING British parliament, our supreme elected body, model of Bavaria or Hesse is unknown in the ofthe has lost powers to Eurojje. That the House of English regions. ASSOCIATION OF Commons is perceived as having steadily lost Importantly, when powers have been JEWISH REFUGEES its position at the heart of national life is very transferred from Westminster to EU TUESDAY 3 JUNE 2008, 11.00 AM much to be regretted, though that is largely institutions, this has occurred with the consent at the due to the failings of the British system itself, of the British parliament, which makes such Paul Balint AJR Centre in particular the glacial slowness with which decisions democratically, as the elected body 15 Cleve Road, London NW6 Lunch will be served at a cost of £5. long-overdue parliamentary reforms are representing the British people. It is perfectly Space is limited. If you would like to enacted, not to mention the vicious constitutional for a parliament to give up reserve a place for lunch, please call misrepresentation of politics and politicians control over elements of national sovereignty, Head Office on 020 8385 3070 by peddled daily by sections of the British media. if its majority decides that it is in the national Thursday 22 May 2008. The problem facing our parliament here is interest so to do. In 1707, at the time of the Agenda that its area of competence is limited to that Act of Union - to take an extreme example - Annual Report 2007 of the nation-state it represents, and the model the Scottish parliament opted to give up its Hon. Treasurer's Report of the European nation-state no longer meets national sovereignty altogether, by deciding Discussion the demands and needs of a globalised world. to unite with England to form Great Britain Election of Committee of It is, for example, plain that environmental and thus to vote itself out of existence. Management* problems can be tackled on a European-wide Scottish nationalists apart, few would *No person other than a committee dispute the enormous advantages gained by member retiring by rotation shall be basis, but hardly by Britain alone; much the elected or re-elected at any general same applies to issues like international crime.