Portugal presses EU for globalisation ‘third way’

The Portuguese presidency wants to avoid a damaging political dispute over how to respond to the challenges of globalisation at the summit of EU leaders next week (14 December).

The presidency has drafted a declaration on globalisation calibrated to win the backing of countries with divergent views.

The draft declaration, which was discussed by EU ambassadors last night (5 December) says that globalisation offers new opportunities to citizens and businesses while trade flows and economic growth have "increased prosperity, transforming the lifestyles of Europe’s citizens and lifting millions worldwide out of poverty". The paper also states that globalisation "confronts us with new economic, social, environmental and security challenges".

The Portuguese draft steers a line on the need for open markets that is closer to the more protectionist stance of French President Nicolas Sarkozy than to the UK government’s strong free trade stance.

The paper says that "the European Union expects that increasingly open market shall lead to reciprocal benefits". Seemingly referring more to future possibilities than existing achievements, it does reflect Sarkozy’s insistence that Europe’s trading partners should open their markets to EU products and meet the same health, safety and environmental standards. The French president said in a speech to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on 13 November that "Europe does not want protectionism but Europe must demand reciprocity. Europe wants to set an example in the fight against global warming but Europe cannot accept unfair competition from countries which do not impose any environmental restrictions on their firms".

Sarkozy often refers to community preference, which means favouring domestically produced goods over imports, in his speeches. He has called for a tax on imports from countries which do not impose measures to tackle climate change on their industries.

By contrast, UK Foreign Minister David Miliband stressed in a speech to the College of Europe on 15 November, two days after Sarkozy’s speech to the European Parliament that "we must keep ourselves open - open to trade, open to ideas, open to investment".

Milliband said that while openness "creates risks and insecurities as well as opportunities" issues closely linked to globalisation like migration could only be tackled by keeping markets open. "If we hold back on open trade, we will only hold back the process of modernising our economies and raising productivity," he said.

On the other hand, Sarkozy talks of a "protecting Europe" which does more to reassure citizens in the face of globalisation.

The Portuguese paper states the importance of the EU’s policies, including the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs, the fight against climate change, energy policy, the need for sound macro-economic policies and stable financial markets, development and migration for responding to the challenges of globalisation.

The Portuguese presidency wants to avoid a damaging political dispute over how to respond to the challenges of globalisation at the summit of EU leaders next week (14 December).