LONDON — With the prospect of more troubles ahead for the European Union in 2013, officials have launched a campaign to remind its 500 million citizens of the benefits of belonging to the 27-nation alliance.
Next year has been designated the European Year of Citizens by the decision-makers in Brussels, who have highlighted a range of advantages, from freer cross-border travel to cheaper cross-border phone calls, to convince a sometimes skeptical public that membership has been worthwhile.
It might seem like a hard sell after a year in which the Union limped from crisis to crisis over a debt mountain that threatened the survival of the euro, the currency shared by 17 E.U. states.
Action by European leaders eventually succeeded in keeping Greece within the eurozone amid fears that a Greek exit — a “Grexit” — could spark the collapse of the single currency.
But that is only partial consolation for a European population facing another year of the kind of tough austerity programs that sparked strikes and protests in the most indebted states in 2012.
The Brussels bureaucrats offer a longer-term view, pointing out that tangible progress has been made in the 20 years since the creation of European Union citizenship that has improved the lives of millions.
“Nowadays traveling abroad entails cheaper travel costs, hassle-free border crossings, package holiday guarantees, access to healthcare systems and cheaper calls when you phone home,” according to the European Commission. “These are just some of the benefits derived from E.U. citizenship.”
Large numbers of Europeans have certainly taken advantage of free movement between member states to improve their job prospects outside their home nations. More than 12 million Europeans lived in a member state other than their own, according to data from 2010, before austerity began to bite.
Anecdotal evidence is that growing numbers of Europeans are now on the move, including French millionaires escaping tax hikes at home and young jobless Spaniards heading to find work in Germany.
Europe may have escaped a “Grexit” in 2012 but a new crisis is looming with the prospect of a “Brexit”, as Britain’s Conservative-led government prepares to spell out its position on its future relations with its European partners.
Prime Minister David Cameron, under pressure from the Euroskeptic wing of his party, is expected next month to reaffirm that he will seek to claw back powers that have been passed to Europe and that he is prepared to hold a national referendum on continued E.U. membership after the next British election.
Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, which brings together the alliance’s political leaders, has warned that the British move threatens the future of the Union.
“If every member state were able to cherry-pick those parts of existing policies that they most like, and opt out of those that they least like, the union in general, and the single market in particular, would soon unravel,” he told The Guardian.
Is Europe over the worst? Or will continuing economic weakness and a potential “Brexit” threaten its prospects in 2013? Tell us what you think. And, if you’re a European, let us know if E.U. membership has proved to be a benefit or a hindrance.
