What the horsemeat scandal and fish quotas tell us about Europe | Andrew Watt
When things do not work in Europe, Member States seeking to recover the powers surrendered. But often only supranational solutions have any chance of success
Scandal horse meat - the meat being declared contraband across borders and in processed foods - is spreading across Europe. According to the Financial Times a few days ago, the process involved horse meat "from a slaughterhouse Romanian sold to a French supplier of Cyprus by a merchant, and went to a food processing company before landing French supermarkets in British and French. "Since then," monkey "has spread to Germany and burgers to lasagna.
It must be recognized that beyond the immediate scandal shows noise, is that the illusion is to believe that Europe can function as a "common market" without any paperwork and limits the sacred national sovereignty as fiercely Eurosceptic critics. Production for the market should be regulated. And if you want to enjoy the benefits of a highly developed division of labor International - and they are real - then we must agree on common standards between trading partners
Now, in principle, these rules could be implemented without pooling sovereignty. All you have to do is get a legitimate representative of 27 countries to sign a common set of rules to be ratified by 27 national parliaments sovereigns. It's just that, then give each country a veto and a great temptation to use it to play games with other strategic partners 26. Each case and change time, you need to get all 27 members and a new agreement. Intergovernmentalism this does not seem likely to generate effective solutions. And that's what we need to remember the next time you read about the EU regulations run to thousands of pages. Even in this case, are not, what happens if a country does not apply the common standards? If they want to have any influence, supranational elements are certainly needed in the application. All this shows how stupid to criticize in principle intervene in national affairs supranational and loss of national sovereignty. (And no, this does not mean, of course, means that all Brussels requires Member States is beyond reproach.)
- The recent debate on the EU budget also clearly shows the limitations of intergovernmentalism. Wherever unanimity is required, things quickly descend into a room in which zero-sum national politicians are classified according to the success with which they have intimidated their partners, and even serious newspapers to mark the event as Part 27 tracks Boxing: Cameron - win - win; Merkel! Holland - loser! The problem is that it masks the real news, and the result is a budget plan that is totally illogical from the standpoint of rationality address the challenges faced by European citizens.
- An example surprising and encouraging more recently, also comes from the bar food: fish. For decades, the European Ministers of Fisheries met regularly and formally agreed to continue fishing waters in Europe. They even cynically allowed excessive fees that were set to be trampled with impunity. Would probably have been in its intergovernmental dispute until the fish had been caught much earlier: The fish is ours! Nein, der Fisch geh?rt one! I want my fish back!
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