BACK TO BASICS: WHAT THE EU IS AND HOW IT WORKS

By Kaj Leers

June 28, 2016

It was the refugee crisis whot won it. 

Many of the British citizens who voted to leave the European Union on June 23 clearly had two related issues on their mind, exit polls show. The most prominent consideration was the wish to control Britain’s borders. Second was the wish to keep immigrants out.

Of course, the second issue directly influenced the first. Stopping immigration was the motivation, closing borders the means.

Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party on Friday morning was himself almost surprised at the Leave campaign’s success. When a Dutch television news crew asked him what in his opinion had turned the tide, he replied “Immigration!” with eyes wide in positive astonishment. Polls had been showing a neck-and-neck race between the Remain and Leave campaigns, but it was only when Leave dropped everything else and focused solely on immigration fears in the last three weeks that the Leave campaign got a boost, Farage said.

Whether the theme changed people’s minds, increased turnout for the Leave campaign, or both, is yet to be established. What is certain is that immigration is very much a hot topic on many a European’s mind thanks to the refugee crisis of the past two years.

If anything, the events of the past two years show that the European Union has failed in delivering what many Europeans want: an end to the apparently unstoppable influx of refugees. On the one hand this can be attributed to a failure of the European Union as an institution.

In this view, the EU is a separate, supranational organism led by anonymous bureaucrats. It acts like a federal government of sorts, pushing national leaders around as it sees fit, shoving unpopular ideas and measures down people’s throats. This view has been espoused for years by politicians of the left and the right and has for the most part not been countered. Many centrist politicians opted for electoral reasons not to challenge the popular framing.

In reality, the European Union is led not by empty suits in glass buildings in Brussels, as some politicians and an EU-hostile media have led people to believe for years, but by the member states that make up the Union. They are after all the countries that pay for the EU. As is true everywhere, those who pay get to call the shots. In this sense, the European Union is organized much like a foundation. 

A foundation has managers who are given a mandate by the board that resides above them. The board is filled with representatives of organizations that finance the foundation. They hold the purse strings. Is it then fair to hold the management accountable? Up to a point, yes. But in the end it is still the board that is responsible for the actions of the foundation.

As is obvious, the board of any foundation won’t accept the management criticizing them for wrong decisions -- at least not publicly. Going against the board usually brings dire consequences for management, and they know it. Yet the management also depends on the board for the foundation’s success. 

If the management proposes some very sound ideas, such as organizing tight border controls to regulate or stem the influx of refugees, but the board refuses to put up the money and the manpower, then the foundation cannot but fail. 

This is exactly what happened when the European Commission proposed programs -- at the behest of member states -- to organize border controls along the Mediterranean coast. Unfortunately Great Britain pulled out of one of those programs because the project’s mission also entailed saving people from drowning.

As you’re reading this, Greek authorities are swamped by refugees on Greek islands. They came from Turkey and now have to be processed. They have to be fed and clothed, which costs money. When the deal between the European Union and Turkey on refugees was put into effect, member states promised to put in their bit by sending experienced civil servants, guards, and money to help the Greeks. Member states have yet to make good on those promises.

And so it goes on and on.

Yes, European politicans need to stop bashing the EU for all the decisions the very same politicians make behind closed doors. Yes, they need to start talking about values, not just about the economic benefits of being in the European Union. But they also need to start telling the truth about how the EU works -- that it is an amalgam of compromises fought over every day by nation-states. That the EU is the sum of its parts. And above all, the member states need to take a pause, improve how the EU works for everybody and deliver on their promises. The onus is on them, no one else.