THE EUROPEAN UNION - IT’S NOT THE ECONOMY, STUPID
New report from think tank says EU supporters should be using moral, not just monetary arguments
As David Cameron prepares for a 2016 referendum, those who believe in the EU need to argue on moral not economic grounds for staying within the union, according to a new report from the religion and society think tank Theos.
The report says that the EU was never envisaged as an economic project – and so its future should not be decided on that basis. Ben Ryan argues in The Soul of the Union those who believe in the EU and support the In Campaign should therefore be looking back to its origins: a desire to seek peace, improve working conditions and the lives of citizens and more recently a commitment to some of the most ambitious international efforts to confront climate change.
It was originally driven by a network of Catholic politicians such as the Christian Democrats, who dominated the politics of the original six members. Their focus on solidarity and subsidiarity, two central concepts from Catholic Social Teaching[1], led the academic Scott Thomas to call the project “an act of theopolitical imagination”[2].
While Catholics influenced by Catholic Social Teaching were the key protagonists, there was a broader sense of the necessity of a legitimate spiritual and moral vision. Yet the In Campaign has allowed itself to argue on purely economic grounds, despite the increasing problems suffered by Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
The issue will be debated at an event at Europe House with speakers including former Liberal Democrat minister Sir Simon Hughes, Dr Helen Szamuely, Head of Research for the Eurosceptic Bruges Group, Professor Brendan Simms founder of the Project for Democratic Union and Johannes de Jong from the Christian Political Foundation for Europe.
“It is time to rediscover the Soul of Europe, “concludes Ryan. “We are being let down by the In campaign, and their limited vision for what a European Union could and should represent. This is a political union with the potential, though it has certainly been poorly realised at times, to be the moral project the world needs. Just this once, it's not about the economy, stupid.
[1] Catholic Social Teaching argues for a triangle of forces in economics: states, markets and civil society, rather than the usual binary of states and markets
[2] See Glendinning ‘Derrida’s Europe: ‘Greek, Christian and Beyond” in Agnes Czajka and Bora Isyar (eds) Europe After Derrida: Crisis and Potentiality (Edinburgh University Press, 2014)
Notes to editors
1. For more information or interviews with Ben Ryan please contact Glenda Cooper on 07736 481017 or Ben on 07823 400680 or via press@theosthinktank.co.uk
2. The report The Soul of the Union can be downloaded at https://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/publications/2016/01/21/a-soul-for-the-union
3. The event Which Europe? will be held on 6.30 27 January at Europe House. Speakers include Sir Simon Hughes, Dr Helen Szamuley and Professor Brendan Simms. For more information or tickets please go to https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/which-europe-tickets-19776975466?ref=ebtnebregn
4. Theos is a religion and society think tank, which offers research and commentary on issues of faith and belief.
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