Faustian Bargain Let's start from the source least likely to run the headline: the Guardian reviews newspaper reports which suggest that...
Faustian Bargain
Let's start from the source least likely to run the headline: the Guardian
reviews newspaper reports which suggest that French voters may reject the
proffered European Constitution, scheduled for ratification on May 29.
The French are becoming increasingly disenchanted with Europe and are ready
to turn their backs on the EU, according to the latest opinion polls in the
French newspapers Le Figaro and Le Parisien. Their polls, published yesterday
and last Thursday respectively, show that more than half of French voters say
they will vote no to the European constitution when the country goes to the
polls on May 29.
Then let's go to the 'why' part of the disenchantment.
Why are the French "feeling sick of Europe", asked Eric le
Boucher in Le Monde. "They regret the enlargement of the EU. They detest
the idea that their public services are open to foreign competition. They
complain about the liberal slant of the union." And they are peeved that
the prosperity enjoyed by Britain, Scandinavia and eastern Europe has not been
seen at home, he said. In France, the benefits of the EU are unclear, Le
Boucher noted - "economic growth has stalled, unemployment is rising
inexorably" - and pessimism reigns.
Historians in the far future will struggle to understand the convoluted inner
logic of the Le Monde observation. "They regret the enlargement of the EU"
which is that which they wanted. "They detest the idea that their public
services are open to foreign competition" and yet they detest the benefits
of the policy they most ardently oppose: "and they are peeved that the
prosperity enjoyed by Britain, Scandinavia and eastern Europe has not been seen
at home". But let us take it as datum and plainly say that the French are
disgusted with the consequences of their own desires.
The Astute
Blogger asks whether the French are, by a funny twist of fate, set to
destroy their own creation: that having created their own Frankenstein monster,
they are now in danger of being strangled by it. (hat tip: DA). The burden of
trying to pursue two contradictory goals may prove too much. On the one hand,
the French are committed to preserving the welfare state while on the other hand
were creating the very conditions that undermine it. According to the International
Herald Tribune:
At a meeting in Brussels, EU leaders took a strong turn toward entrenching Europe's high-tax social model by backing away from a radical deregulation of the Continent's services sector. They wanted to assuage fears among voters in France and Germany that cheaper workers from the free-market economies of Eastern Europe would steal their jobs.
...
It will mean a significant rewriting of the European Commission's services
directive that was meant to allow businesses that provide services - from
consultants to accountants to builders - to compete freely in all countries
across the union. . The services directive had been blamed for the dramatic
drop in French public support for the new constitutional treaty after two
opinion polls showed a majority of French voters could reject it in May's
referendum.
The price of forging ahead with a European Union in which France was allowed
to play by special rules amounted to creating a "separate but equal"
regime on the grounds that Europe 'needed France' in order to remain Europe, a
regime in which some are more European than others.
Jean-Claude Juncker, current EU president, denied that Europe was
splitting in two between the new free-market Eastern economies that joined the
EU last year and an old Europe that wants to defend the west's high-tax social
model. ... In rewriting the services proposals, France sought guarantees
against social dumping by harmonizing social laws. Chirac also demanded
special protection for public services such as health care and for cultural
industries such as television. ... "This is about protecting
uncompetitive workers in France, Germany and Belgium," said Ann Mettler
of the Lisbon Council, a free market think tank in Brussels. She pointed out
that EU unemployment stood at 90 million and that youth unemployment was at 18
percent. "That is not inclusive. It is not social." .
The alarm is genuine though the surprise should not be. The European project
was in part originally conceived as an amplifier for French ambitions and the
pretty flame of the fuse has lost its charm as it nears the primer. People are
beginning to understand the document before them but the political salesmen are
determined to offer any combination of rebates, coupons, special offers and
financing to get the final signature on the contract
of sale. Stephen Benet's "The Devil and Daniel Webster" speaks of
the belated remorse that so often follows Faustian bargains, though like as not
there will be no reprieve from the consequences of this deal.
It was about the last straw for Jabez Stone. "I vow," he said,
and he looked around him kind of desperate -- "I vow it's enough to make
a man want to sell his soul to the devil. And I would, too, for two centsl"
... But till you make a bargain like that, you've got no idea of how fast ...
years can run. For every day, when he gets up, he thinks, "There's one
more night gone," and every night when he lies down ... it makes him sick
at heart.
But with France and the Netherlands close to rejecting the European
Constitution, in spite of the blandishments, the referendum on May 29 is of
critical importance because there really isn't a Plan B in case the European
project is derailed. According to Financial
Times, there are only plans to limit the scope of the catastrophe.
Jean-Claude Juncker, the veteran prime minister of Luxembourg and holder of
the rotating EU presidency, is said by officials to be on standby to
co-ordinate the EU's response if France or the Netherlands votes No. One
senior EU official said: “We may want to issue a political statement quickly
to try to limit the damage. Then we would try to pick up the pieces at the EU
summit on June 16-17.” He said there were no formal contingency plans in
place, and there were still hopes that both France and the Netherlands would
endorse the treaty.
Which leaves the field open to the first European leader able to articulate a
viable and alternative trajectory for the nations of the old continent.
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