On the issue of democracy, every EU member state has one appointed European Commissioner and one judge at the European Court of Justice. Ministers need to win allies to get their way under the Qualified Majority Voting scheme, but have some vetos in sensitive areas. The EU has shown that if any state wants full access to the EU’s lucrative Single Market, then it must follow all the laws on the freedom of movement of capital, goods, people and services (whether the state has a vote on them or not). The 751 members of the European Parliament, their staff and their paperwork are obliged under EU treaties to move offices once a month, from Brussels to Strasbourg in France’s Alsace (a German-speaking region of France) - and back again ‘to symbolise the post-war reconciliation between Europe’s two great foes,’ at a cost of Euro180m per year. Despite almost universal derision, no-one seems able to change the situation.
‘Free movement’ applies to all EU citizens: Anyone in the EU can live, work and receive welfare benefits anywhere else in the EU. Note: some places in the EU seem to be more popular to live in than others. Around 2.6 million people born in the EU now live in the UK, of whom 700,000 are Polish. On the other hand, 1.2 million people from the UK live in other EU countries.2
In terms of jobs, it is clear that the tariff- and barrier-free economy of the EU has led to a large increase in trade and economic activity across the bloc, leading to an increase in the number of jobs (most especially in Germany, perhaps less so in Greece). The City of London is the EU’s undisputed financial centre with a 70% market share of financial services in Europe - a ‘Brexit’ will certainly imperil this (and the billions in tax revenues it generates). It is estimated that 3 million jobs in the UK depend on EU membership, but those that back a UK departure say that trade will continue under a new series of agreements and may increase if bipartisan agreements can be made with states such as China and the US.
It is impossible to calculate the cost of WWI and WW2 in Europe: Economists have tried and have published wildly varying estimates, from US$1trn to US$1000trn (inflation-adjusted). What is known is that 10 million died in WWI and 50 million in WWII. Since the end of WWII, Europe has now enjoyed 70 years of peace. The UK is a critical military, diplomatic and intelligence partner for the EU and vice versa.
Richer countries in the EU (and Norway and Switzerland), which have already built their own infrastructure, subsidise the building of cement-intensive infrastructure in the less well-off states of the EU. You will not find many cement companies in Greece, Portugal or Bulgaria, for example, complaining about this.
EU member states have progressively handed-over portions of their sovereignty to the EU, under a centralised programme of ‘ever-greater unity.’ In fact, states ‘share sovereignty in a range of policy areas with the other 27 EU nations to make decisions together on laws proposed by the European Commission.’ States must implement EU laws, but have a veto over tax and defence (for now). The British have negotiated an opt-out from ‘ever-greater unity,’ effectively establishing a ‘two-speed Europe’ (if this can be incorporated in a treaty change).
The EU has set extremely challenging targets to decarbonise its economy, which will effectively lead to the closure of much coal-fired power generating capacity (with less pollution but also less synthetic gypsum and coal ash), much higher costs for electricity which is currently hitting industry around the region and which will also hit the cement industry. The EU ETS has been an ineffective farce, albeit so far a lucrative one for some cement producers. It can be argued that the EU has set a strong environmental agenda for the whole continent.
EU social laws impose greater costs on EU states, but have led to greater worker protections, such as minimum annual leave periods, maternity leave and limits to working hours. The Common Agricultural Policy accounts for 39% of EU spending, and is notoriously corrupt and resistant to change. The EU’s fisheries policy, on the other hand, has recently been radically reformed.
There are good and bad things about the EU. One sentence, for me, stands out in Charter’s book: “Without the prospect of a better EU, there is no answer to the attractions of Brexit.’ I’m an optimist who believes that the EU can be reformed, so I’ll be voting to remain.
1 Europe: In or out. Everything you need to know; David Charter, Biteback Publishing 2014. ISBN 978-184954-684-3
2 https://fullfact.org/europe/eu-migration-and-uk/