Open Letter to the European Leaders: Countering the British nationalist takeover with a European democratic blow - Towards a first real trans-European election

Dear European leaders,

We have all got it right, Brexit will ultimately not result in Great Britain leaving the EU. Nevertheless, Brexit is paralysing the European decision-making system. What we are currently seeing is a kind of EU political takeover which looks nothing like democracy, and much more like a “coup d’états” (coup of "states").

In light of the cataclysmic crisis which has struck the world and the EU in the past 10 years, it is a fact that the weak governance supplied by the current European technocratic system is no longer sufficient.

However, the model of European governance, towards which “Brexit” is leading us, is the “National-Europeist” Europe which Franck Biancheri[1]argued would occur if the EU failed to anchor its decision-making system in trans-European democratic legitimacy: the Europe of the “grandsons of Hitler, Petain, Mussolini and Franco”, as mentioned in his visionary article, first published in 1998[2].

Having been intransigent in the face of left-wing Euro-reformist movements, embodied by Tsipras’ Greece in 2015, the EU administration may soon be obliged to submit to the political will of a coalition of European nationalist governments, rallied in 2017.

This will not mark the death of the EU, but rather the death of its founding values, principles and objectives, those which made us accept European integration for the last 60 years: common peace, independence, democracy and prosperity.

 

The democratisation of the European project is, therefore, a primary aim now. It is about liberating the citizens from their national prisons, it is about opening the European horizons to their political aspirations, it is about creating the conditions for a “European democratic blow “.

. In this respect, we need to recognise that the EU is a political construction. Once political union is recognised, democratisation is therefore not only thinkable, but compelling.

. We need to admit that the European legislative elections do not constitute a truly democratic validation of our continent’s great political guidelines: no real European debate was ever born of this conglomerate of national elections. In recognising this, the EU has the right to develop something more convincing than this in terms of European democracy.

. Regarding referendums: we must stop asking citizens if they are for or against Europe. The European construction has been underway for 60 years now. A fish cannot be asked whether he likes water or not without going crazy and suicidal !
 

Instead, it is high time we ask Europeans what they would like Europe to do for them:

. How could Europe allow a return to social peace in EU countries?

. How could Europe help rebuild the capacity for financing infrastructure, hospitals, and schools … what used to be the pride of our continent?

. How could Europe revive economics in a way that is beneficial for all Europeans?

. How could Europe accelerate energy transition and invent new sustainable business models?

. How could Europe define, once and for all, its boundaries and make them protective, without running the risk of becoming a fortress?

. How could Europe soothe its relations with neighbours such as Russia, Turkey, US … without giving way to any of them?

. How could Europe positively contribute to a decrease in the huge global geo-political tensions?
…

As in any democracy, the conditions must be gathered for different views to be expressed and citizens to be able to choose.

Democracy is not a yes-no language. By admitting this, the conditions of a real constructive and enriching debate can be employed, a debate enriching citizens … and their leaders, a debate reversing the current movement.

A “European democratic blow”, is ‘simply’ a European election, a real one, in which visions of Europe are confronted – instead of agendas of constituent states national parties – an election inviting citizens from different countries to a common debate and appointment (single constituency, trans-European lists and programmes represented by multinational teams, joint campaign, identical vote weights).

If you want to do it, you will find a way to.

Are the treaties stopping you from acting? In this case, the treaties are traitors that must be bypassed. The National-Europeists will soon take charge of these treaties anyway. And no one will mourn the deadly “treatocracy”, created to address the lack of vibrant political governance in the EU.

Are there no political parties ready to compete in a trans-European election? The only way to encourage the trans-European movements the continent needs for its democratisation, is by launching a trans-European election. Three decades of Erasmus generations have long since been ready to organise such an election.

Don’t you trust the European citizens who risk giving a “bad” vote? The citizens are not bad-voters, it’s the questions they are asked which are bad. It is time to ask Europeans open European questions instead of asking French, Germans, Italians … closed European questions. This will make the difference.

Isn’t there anything or anyone to elect in the EU? Why not ask us to vote for Euroland[4]  leaders? We number 300 million, indissolubly bound (as proven recently by events in Greece) by our common currency, this common ‘sovereign’. Is there any better launch pad for a political and democratic union of our continent?

Adverse forces are currently striving to take control of the continent. It is in the midst of this fatal danger that you must find the strength and the will to usher in the final stage of European integration, its democratisation. This democratisation must deliver into the hands of its ultimate beneficiaries – the European citizens – the technocratic machine which National-European governments are currently trying to seize.

Give us the election we need and we will give the best of ourselves! Be the first to take up the challenge of the invention of transnational democracy, which the world desperately needs in order to revert its fall into nightmare.

Sincerely yours,

The Franck Biancheri Network Collective, 07/20/2016:

---------------------

[1]Franck Biancheri campaigned ever since he was a college student and until his death, 30 years later in 2012, for European democratisation. He prophesised the failure of the common peace and prosperity project that characterised the years following Second World War, if the EU failed to democratise adequately. Sharing Franck’s views, his friends and former companions came together to create the Franck Biancheri Network,in order to continue Franck’s life-long work. This letter, edited by the afore-mentioned network, is part of the proud line of reflections and actions of the mentioned network.

[2]Source: How Europe in 2009: could end up in the hands of the post modern great grandsons of Hitler, Franco, Mussolini and Petain. Franck Biancheri, 1998 (franck-biancheri.eu)

[3] Nelson Mandela

[4] Franck Biancheri, Europe 2020 and LEAP have been working for more than 20 years on the idea that the EU democratisation should proceed through the Euroland. Source : En route vers un nouveau cadre opérationnel et «souverain» pour l’Europe : Euroland, LEAP, 12/02/2014