UK troops take part in a EUFOR Exercise in Bosnia - 2013
As the dust settles after another
European Council meeting to manage the ongoing Brexit Crisis, there is a brief opportunity for those in British politics to ponder how they could
have ended up in such a mess. After more desperate manoeuvring, Westminster and
Whitehall need to step back and start thinking strategically about how to haul
the UK out of its self-inflicted predicament. As UK state institutions struggle
to cope with the challenges posed by Brexit, a fundamental reappraisal of the
British state’s behaviour towards European partners can no longer be avoided.
The extent to which so many in
the UK misread the behaviour of the EU27 states at this most recent EUCO
meeting underscored how far the British state still struggles to engage with
European partners. By singling out Emmanuel Macron as its supposed, many
British journalists generated an easy to follow narrative in which the French
were presented in their traditional role as Britain’s adversary. Yet those who
contrast what they see as German moderation with French hawkishness missed the increasing
exasperation in Germany over the inability of the UK parliament to face the
political realities of Brexit. For months articles by senior constitutional
scholars like Franz Mayer or journalists such as Ulrich Ladurner signalled that German patience
with the British is ebbing away. That other EU states such as Austria, Sweden
and even Greece registered concerns over the risks British instability poses to
EU institutions indicated that Macron’s grandstanding reflects wider doubts
over the UK’s trustworthiness.
British responses to how the EU
has extended Article 50 point to deeper structural problems in in how the UK interacts
with the EU. For decades, UK governments were accustomed to being one of the
EU’s big players despite remaining outside the Euro and Schengen. From this
position, British politicians and civil servants dispensed often unasked for
advice to European partners who still needed the assistance of such a large
state. Yet as EU membership became an increasingly fraught issue in UK politics
during the Eurozone and Syrian refugee crises, British politicians and civil
servants found themselves detached from the constant negotiations between other
European states working hard to stabilise the EU system.
Cut out from the EU’s top table
during such key moments of crisis, by 2016 senior UK politicians and civil
servants had become less skilled at engaging with the strategic priorities of
other European states. While the UK government under David Cameron focused
efforts on China and other emerging powers outside Europe, the day to day domestic
politics of many EU states the UK had become intertwined with were treated as a
secondary matter. In taking the politics of EU states such as Ireland or Italy
for granted, much of the British elite proved badly prepared for a post-2016 world
where engaging with the concerns of each EU27 state has become crucial to the
future of Britain’s economy.
Yet it is not too late for UK
policymakers to finally listen to what EU27 counterparts are saying in order to
restore goodwill the UK has lost across the EU. Rather than wasting scarce
British military resources on grandiose global plans the UK can no longer
sustain, deep engagement with the needs of EU27 states can help rebuild
influence either as a close ally of the EU or still a full member of the EU.
This would involve devoting more resources to assisting military efforts by
France and many other EU states across West and Central Africa, while also helping
Italy manage the fallout from conflict in Libya. Hard work to support
democratic reform in Algeria and Tunisia would also reflect genuine engagement
with Mediterranean EU states for whom these developments are of existential
importance. A deepening of already extensive support for East European
societies facing Russian expansionism as well as struggling states in the
Western Balkans would demonstrate the UK’s commitment to stability in Europe.
Such a shift towards deeper
engagement with the strategic priorities of EU27 states needs to be matched
with much greater focus on the EU’s institutions. UK governments locked out of
EU decision-making would have to devote extensive resources to ensuring that
their concerns are still listened to by its European partners. Even if the UK
remains in the EU, it would need to coordinate with powerful European
structures such as the ECB or Frontex that the British are unlikely to join.
Such a shift to making engagement with EU institutions that shape all aspects
of society and the state the central focus of British strategic thinking needs
to be embedded into every aspect of training and promotion in the UK civil
service. The centrality of the EU to everyday life in Britain should also impel
UK politicians to build much closer personal relationships with counterparts
across Europe whether the UK remains a member of the EU or not.
This comprehensive strategic
effort to restore British influence in Europe would also require UK journalists,
politicians and civil servants to finally take the European Parliament
seriously. Even now a deeply counter-productive tendency of portraying the
European Parliament and its elections as a sideshow persists in the UK. Yet
year in year out the power of the European Parliament to shape policy outcomes
across Europe is growing. Whether inside the EU or not, the UK government as
well as British news media will need to put much greater effort into
understanding the European Parliament’s role in order to develop a more
realistic approach towards the EU.
Greater attention to the politics
and history of other EU states in UK media would also provide British audiences
with a better understanding of European societies whose politics will shape the
UK’s future. Television programmes about the history of France’s sphere of
influence in Africa, Poland’s struggle against Soviet dominance or Italy’s war
against the mafia would do more to help inform Brexit debate in the UK than
another docudrama repeating tired old tropes about the Tudors or Queen
Victoria. A renewed commitment to language learning in schools and universities
would help ensure that future UK governments could find more politicians and
civil servants able to understand everything their European partners are
saying.
Many of these measures will only
pay off for in the long term. But a government willing to initiate them would
at least signal to the EU27 that the UK was finally willing to not just make
demands but also to listen. For if the UK fails to engage with the EU properly,
then the British might find in future that European partners they need decide
that the UK will be seen but not heard.
