Why Barroso’s pessimism about achieving EU decentralisation is sort of irrelevant

The Open Europe team is back from the UK party conferences and, when it comes to the UK’s attempt to reach a new settlement in Europe, by far the most common comment we get is: “The EU Commission won’t allow it.” Particularly true amongst the Tory grassroots. European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso’s interview today with the Telegraph will no doubt have served to reinforce this view.

He said the only way to reform the EU was to review the EU’s body of legislation, the acquis, on a case-by-case basis:

“The other one is to have a fundamental discussion about the competences of the EU, even in terms of renationalisation. I think the second approach is doomed to failure…Britain wants to again consider the option of opting out. Fine, let's discuss it but to put into question the whole acquis of Europe is not very reasonable…What is difficult, or even impossible, is if we go for the exercise of repatriation of competences because that means revising the treaties and revision means unanimity.”

Barroso is sort of misrepresenting the UK position - the debate has moved away from unilateral opt-outs, but let’s not split hairs. In addition to that, there are two reasons why you can take these comments with a pinch of salt: first, Barroso is gone in a year. Secondly, if it came to it, the Commission has a very limited role in the negotiations over brining powers back anyway.

The European Council has to “consult” the Commission and it also has limited representation in a so-called European Convention (needed for a full-scale treaty change, as opposed to a limited one), but that’s pretty much it. Still, it’s very good to have the Commission on-board of course, for a whole range of reasons (some of the stuff the UK wants outside EU treaty change will require a Commission proposal) but an antipathetic Commission is probably not a deal-breaker.

An antipathetic Barroso certainly isn't.

Hail a true European

On 4 July 2011, a well-known European passed away.

Otto von Habsburg, the oldest son of Austria's last Emperor and the last Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary was praised by European Commission President José Manuel Barroso as "a great European" which "has given important stimulation to European integration".

That is certainly true, but deserves some clarification of which kind of European integration von Habsburg was pushing for.

He was a great proponent of decentralisation, and at the same time did not see this as contrary to the European idea - something which is not always the case with EU officials or certain politicians. In a speech back in 1999, von Habsburg, who was also a Member of European Parliament, recalled how during the European elections in 1994, buses were sent by the European Commission to all over Europe to explain to voters the issues at stake. In Munich, he looked for an hour for such a bus, only to find it somewhere where nobody would pass by.

This small anecdote, according to him, was a good example of the inefficiency of remote bureaucratic institutions. He explained:

"The closer you bring a decision to those it affects, the greater the likelihood that the decision will be good. This centralization is leading also to the new feudalism now being created in the name of efficiency. Bureaucracy is today the cancer of political institutions, and seems to be on the move towards ever greater expansion. If successive governments come with the promise of reducing bureaucratic services, only very few of them are successful. In the end, under the pretext of efficiency, new bureaucracies are being established. (...) The greater our states become, the less efficient and the more expensive they are.”

His words have only become more relevant since 1999. His passing should remind us that the true European idea and also the reason why Europe has been historically successful, is decentralisation, and not centralisation.