It was the former President of the EU Council, ie the man employed to organise and run the EU heads of government meetings, the former Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, who first crystallised for me how unfinished the EU, as an institution, is and how in practically all institutions, real progress is only made in response to crisis.
It’s clearly different in business where capable and energetic leaders can emerge (Michael O’Leary of Ryanair being a particularly good example), where vision and capacity can transform a business and a sector. But that’s different from an institution based on a democratic mandate. Most people, especially the winners, get comfortable with a status quo. It takes a crisis or an earthquake event to move a political establishment and of course, the EU itself was formed out of the crises of two world wars with Europe at the centre of both.
Similarly, the EU embraced Eastern Europe well before it was institutionally ready to do so because the fall of the Berlin Wall suddenly exposed the deep flaws in the Communist system. We are now engaged in a long-term project that aims to bind Europe together while respecting national differences.
The euro, as a common currency, is a logical development but as in the US, an effective Central Bank was not formed until after a crisis. In Europe’s case, this took place in 2008. It is clear that we need the same in the insurance sector as we have in the banking sector – a regulatory system that holds the regulators in Malta and Gibraltar to account, the same as the euro members’ banks are supervised and regulated. Again, it has taken an insurance market crisis with a firm in each place going bust that spurs real action. But how widely is the evolutionary continuing state of the EU understood? It’s clear that in the UK and especially in England the main failure of the EU has been its inability to get its essential message across. It was extraordinary that in regions in England that were most dependent on regional aid from Brussels, and most dependent on foreign direct investment to enable exports to mainland Europe take place, that these were the very places that voted most decisively to leave Europe.
Before the euro, a 15% shift in exchange rates would have triggered an adjustment to compensate farmers and food exporters for the violent drop in returns from exporting to Britain – not anymore, and we find British beef and grain suddenly much more competitive.
Common travel
At this stage, it’s fairly clear that the common travel area for people between Ireland and Britain will continue. After all, we opted out of the arrangement that would have allowed us travel without a passport to most of mainland Europe – so there won’t be that much change and I suspect many will welcome a continuation of the legality of rigorous border controls. But already it is clear that food and farm products are going to be in a different place.
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Read more from Dempsey at Large
It was the former President of the EU Council, ie the man employed to organise and run the EU heads of government meetings, the former Belgian Prime Minister, Herman van Rompuy, who first crystallised for me how unfinished the EU, as an institution, is and how in practically all institutions, real progress is only made in response to crisis.
It’s clearly different in business where capable and energetic leaders can emerge (Michael O’Leary of Ryanair being a particularly good example), where vision and capacity can transform a business and a sector. But that’s different from an institution based on a democratic mandate. Most people, especially the winners, get comfortable with a status quo. It takes a crisis or an earthquake event to move a political establishment and of course, the EU itself was formed out of the crises of two world wars with Europe at the centre of both.
Similarly, the EU embraced Eastern Europe well before it was institutionally ready to do so because the fall of the Berlin Wall suddenly exposed the deep flaws in the Communist system. We are now engaged in a long-term project that aims to bind Europe together while respecting national differences.
The euro, as a common currency, is a logical development but as in the US, an effective Central Bank was not formed until after a crisis. In Europe’s case, this took place in 2008. It is clear that we need the same in the insurance sector as we have in the banking sector – a regulatory system that holds the regulators in Malta and Gibraltar to account, the same as the euro members’ banks are supervised and regulated. Again, it has taken an insurance market crisis with a firm in each place going bust that spurs real action. But how widely is the evolutionary continuing state of the EU understood? It’s clear that in the UK and especially in England the main failure of the EU has been its inability to get its essential message across. It was extraordinary that in regions in England that were most dependent on regional aid from Brussels, and most dependent on foreign direct investment to enable exports to mainland Europe take place, that these were the very places that voted most decisively to leave Europe.
Before the euro, a 15% shift in exchange rates would have triggered an adjustment to compensate farmers and food exporters for the violent drop in returns from exporting to Britain – not anymore, and we find British beef and grain suddenly much more competitive.
Common travel
At this stage, it’s fairly clear that the common travel area for people between Ireland and Britain will continue. After all, we opted out of the arrangement that would have allowed us travel without a passport to most of mainland Europe – so there won’t be that much change and I suspect many will welcome a continuation of the legality of rigorous border controls. But already it is clear that food and farm products are going to be in a different place.
Read more
Read more from Dempsey at Large
SHARING OPTIONS