Archive for September 2013
The Single “Like” Market
In 2010, Mario Monti’s report to the EC, “A new strategy for the singlemarket” was bluntly clear in pointing out that “the cost of non-digital Europe is significant” and that “the EU could gain 4 % of GDP by stimulating the fast development of the digital single market by 2020.” A possible gain up to € 500 billion was estimated, the same impact of the 1992 internal market program.
No sooner said than done, in less than 3 years – which correspond to more or less the speed of light in political/bureaucratic terms – the EC set up its first digital agenda, began revising its out-dated data protection rules and has now come up with a regulatory proposal to achieve a “Connected Continent” by removing the remaining obstacles to the completion of a “Digital Single Market”. Now, you can be a Eurosceptic, a Europhobic and even Eurotrash, but you still have to admit this is quite a lot of work.
Growth - we at More Europe! truly believe - comes with more integration and mobile internet, which, being a key to streamlined communication flows among EU businesses, is certainly an integration driver. The real point is, what does that mean for all the fellow EU citizens – like myself – who do not have a good grasp on the complicated concepts of growth and integration but make extensive – yes, often inappropriate - use of Facebook, YouTube and online sport newspapers?
The new EC Proposal foresees, among other things, “the phasing out of unjustified surcharges for intra-Union communications and roaming communications within the Union.” This means - fasten your seatbelts – that you, fellow EU citizen, will soon be empowered to tweet, like, post, comment and bet in every corner of the Union at a reasonable price. With no more roaming charges to pay you will get rid of all the hideous “being-abroad-3G-issues” you have experience every time your Ryanair flight lands or you cross an EU border on a night train.
Forget the “I wish that bitch could read that I am having a drink with her ex-boyfriend” feeling or the “what is the point in going to the museum if my Facebook friends cannot see I am checking in” dilemma. They will know. You will easily be able to cross-border-like your wannabe boyfriend’s Facebook status. No more embarrassment in asking locals for directions or entering a nice bar without having read a good number of TripAdvisor reviews. Your amazing Instagrams will be uploaded right away and you will never ever get lost again or miss a game score because Siri (or alike) will be there for you.
That’s it. No more surprises. Your holidays will be efficient, connected and organized. Like you never even left home.
Cocaine Bust Victory for France, Loss for Single Market
The French Interior Ministry labeled the police investigation a success not only for France but for Europe as well as French judicial police collaborated with Spanish, British and Dutch counterparts. In a press conference in the Paris suburb a spokesperson said, "Thanks to More Europe! there is now less cocaine within Europe's borders."
Despite this victory, internal discussions at the European Union level have garnered conflicting reactions. Speaking on the condition of anonymity one Commission official called the confiscation a "missed opportunity" for Europe "given the fact that once in the single market the product would have been able to flow freely across 28 countries, the EU could have really seen a boost in growth in certain areas."
The total amount confiscated was worth nearly $270 million, which at retail mark-up more than 100% of wholesale price could have made a real impact on the European economy. As one Professor at the London School of Economics put it, "We're not talking about a simple loss of merchandise. Just think about the trickle down economics in this case. Europe's lost a real opportunity with this one."
Currently, there is talk of EU Ministers reviewing JHA policies and their impact on jobs and growth at the next Council meeting but nothing has officially been penciled into the agenda.
De-Constructing Farage
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| Ever hear the one about Cameron's EU policy? |
Anyone
acquainted with the UK’s difficult relationship with the EU will have come
across a certain Mr Nigel Farage MEP, the flamboyant leader of the United
Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). In the UK (mainly England) he’s widely
considered to a peculiar sort of chap, but affable enough to share a pint or
two with down the pub. Perhaps this is true, but what has that really got to do
with anything? Was good policy ever constructed at the pub?
Nigel
Farage has a talent for the ancient arts of demagoguery, he is excellent
at it. Moreover, Farage taps into the long held British affection for the
affable amateur. Unlike nearly everyone else in his party, he manages to avoid
appearing like an offbeat, angry white person. Instead, with the help of
the media, he has cultivated the image of Nigel, everyman's jovial drinking buddy –
who just happens to have some particularly strong political views. He’s on a mission
to make you think that his insights are incredibly reasonable and fair, what he
likes to call “common sense”. He is only outdone in this lovable rogue routine
by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who has perfected this act to fine, election-winning, art.
Like Johnson,
Farage is not seen as a ‘normal’ politician who inhabits the establishment in the
usual sense, which allows him to create the allusion of being a more real,
likable and untarnished figure. Professional politicians have to worry about
policies that might actually be implemented and how the media will spin every
syllable that is uttered from their mouths. Farage the ‘amateur’ has the luxury
of making it all up as he goes along.
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| I drink lots of beer, vote for me! |
Leading
UKIP is also the perfect racket for him. For one, he is by far the
best politician in the party and he likes it that way. He could not function in
a ‘normal’ political party where his ego would not be able to handle being contradicted, forced to follow the party line or serious internal competition. For all his howling about the
anti-democratic nature of the EU, Farage runs his party like a personal
fiefdom. He sits at the top of an autocratic power structure, a
Prince amongst men; himself and the party becoming interchangeable. More
disturbing still, is the cult of the personality that he has built around this
position of power – part vanity, part megalomania.
How
does he get away with this? It helps that his party doesn't really have any
policies to be scrutinised. Even the keystone pledge of withdrawal from the EU
is deceptively straightforward. Were the UK to leave it would create the mother
of all legal quagmires regarding its pre-existing international commitments,
signed as an EU member.
Mr Farage is remarkably quiet on such fundamental details.
Having
said this, UKIP’s recent surge in popularity has very little to do with policy
and a lot to do with not being the political establishment. But this still is
not enough to explain how he and his party have managed to shape the debate on
EU membership over the last decade. It’s
tempting to say that he gets away with propagating what is essentially a
self-serving, anti-EU narrative of half-truths and nationalistic bravado because
he is such a good debater and so at ease in front of a camera. Like the man at the bar you
couldn't possibly win an argument with.
The
problem however is more structural than that. Much of the British media doesn’t have the foggiest idea how the EU functions. A majority of them don’t want to. They
pretend to for the camera, or when penning all-knowing articles, but it is
mostly illusory. It takes genuine understanding to call-out a wily rhetorician
on deceptively spun half-truths; usually that knowledge simply isn
Mr
Farage might be a cheeky chappy,
a rascal, a rogue and a charmer; but this well-crafted narrative is a distraction from the project that Farage has been successfully building.
The views expressed in this post are strictly mine; but you can borrow them.