The Real Reason for EU Treaty Change

The author discusses the double whammy against the EU today: On the one hand, the three major crises hitting Europe (the eurozone, foreign policy, and refugees) attack the core of what makes a nation, and the obvious remedies — more cooperation, more burden sharing, more solidarity, and more integration— attack that core even further. The remedy looks like the very illness Europe wants to fight.

To answer Europe’s crises with more integration, which the author believes is what Europe needs, Europeans must also change the place into which their sovereignty is pooled. If, as a result of such integration, sovereignty is lost in the democratic institutions of government back home, then the new vessels of sovereignty in Brussels must be at least as democratic and accountable, if not more so, than those at the national level. And the national level will have to get a whole lot more scrutiny than it has now.

This is the real reason for treaty change in the EU today. If you want more Europe, you need a different Europe.