Blair: Modernize Europe's Social Model!

From left to right:

Jacques Losèr, Gerhard "Auf Wiedersehen" Loser, Tony Winner

The remarkable speech (German version) prime minister Tony Blair gave to the European Parliament on 23 June 2005 is the very antithesis of the socialist and corporatist concept of Europe proposed by German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French president Jacques Chirac.

The issue is not between a "free market" Europe and a social Europe, between those who want to retreat to a common market and those who believe in Europe as a political project.

This is not just a misrepresentation. It is to intimidate those who want change in Europe by representing the desire for change as betrayal of the European ideal, to try to shut off serious debate about Europe's future by claiming that the very insistence on debate is to embrace the anti-Europe.

It is a mindset I have fought against all my political life. Ideals survive through change. They die through inertia in the face of challenge. ...

If Europe defaulted to Euro scepticism, or if European nations faced with this immense challenge, decide to huddle together, hoping we can avoid globalisation, shrink away from confronting the changes around us, take refuge in the present policies of Europe as if by constantly

repeating them, we would by the very act of repetition make them more relevant, then we risk failure. Failure on a grand, strategic, scale. This is not a time to accuse those who want Europe to change of betraying Europe. It is a time to recognise that only by change will Europe recover its strength, its relevance, its idealism and therefore its support amongst the people.

And as ever the people are ahead of the politicians. We always think as a political class that people, unconcerned with the daily obsession of politics, may not understand it, may not see its subtleties and its complexities. But, ultimately, people always see politics more clearly than us. Precisely because they are not daily obsessed with it. ...

Just reflect. The Laeken Declaration which launched the Constitution was designed "to bring Europe closer to the people". Did it? The Lisbon agenda was launched in the year 2000 with the ambition of making Europe "the most competitive place to do business in the world by 2010". We are half way through that period. Has it succeeded?

I have sat through Council Conclusions after Council Conclusions describing how we are "reconnecting Europe to the people". Are we?

It is time to give ourselves a reality check. To receive the wake-up call. The people are blowing the trumpets round the city walls. Are we listening? Have we the political will to go out and meet them so that they regard our leadership as part of the solution not the problem? ...

What would a different policy agenda for Europe look like?

First, it would modernise our social model. Again some have suggested I want to abandon Europe's social model. But tell me: what type of social model is it that has 20m unemployed in Europe, productivity rates falling behind those of the USA; that is allowing more science graduates to be produced by India than by Europe; and that, on any relative index of a modern economy - skills, R&D, patents, IT, is going down not up. India will expand its biotechnology sector fivefold in the next five years. China has trebled its spending on R&D in the last five.

Of the top 20 universities in the world today, only two are now in Europe.

The purpose of our social model should be to enhance our ability to compete, to help our people cope with globalisation, to let them embrace its opportunities and avoid its dangers. Of course we need a social Europe. But it must be a social Europe that works.

And we've been told how to do it. The Kok report in 2004 shows the way. Investment in knowledge, in skills, in active labour market policies, in science parks and innovation, in higher education, in urban regeneration, in help for small businesses. This is modern social policy, not regulation and job protection that may save some jobs for a time at the expense of many jobs in the future. ...

And since this is a day for demolishing caricatures, let me demolish one other: the idea that Britain is in the grip of some extreme Anglo-Saxon market philosophy that tramples on the poor and disadvantaged. The present British Government has introduced the new deal for the unemployed, the largest jobs programme in Europe that has seen long-term youth unemployment virtually abolished. It has increased investment in our public services more than any other European country in the past five years. We needed to, it is true, but we did it. We have introduced Britain's first minimum wage. We have regenerated our cities. We have lifted almost one million children out of poverty and two million pensioners out of acute hardship and are embarked on the most radical expansion of childcare, maternity and paternity rights in our country's history. It is just that we have done it on the basis of and not at the expense of a strong economy. ...

If we set out that clear direction; if we then combined it with the Commission - as this one under Jose Manuel Barroso's leadership is fully capable of doing - that is prepared to send back some of the unnecessary regulation, peel back some of the bureaucracy and become a champion of a global, outward-looking, competitive Europe, then it will not be hard to capture the imagination and support of the people of Europe. ...

Only one thing I ask: don't let us kid ourselves that this debate is unnecessary; that if only we assume 'business as usual', people will sooner or later relent and acquiesce in Europe as it is, not as they want it to be. In my time as Prime Minister, I have found that the hard part is not taking the decision, it is spotting when it has to be taken. It is understanding the difference between the challenges that have to be managed and those that have to be confronted and overcome. This is such a moment of decision for Europe.

The people of Europe are speaking to us. They are posing the questions. They are wanting our leadership. It is time we gave it to them. (emphasis added)

Any more questions, Gerhard?

Jacques?

Case closed.

Update: Here's the pic left-wing SPIEGEL ONLINE chose for the article on Blair's speech. Good old German unbiased reporting... (Hat tip Kosmopolit)

Comments

[Foobarista]

You gotta love that perfidious Albion - I wonder what de Villepin's fave would say about the current situation?

[luisalegria]

When Blair is good, he is very, very good.

A really impressive SOB. Britain has had tremendous good luck in her leaders for almost thirty years.

It makes you wonder what he's going to do when he's not PM anymore.

[jane m]

How come the Brits always get it? Are the French and German innately defective in some way that the just like being depressed sour-pusses determined to go down the path of least resistance indefinitely? Yeah, the 20th century sucked big-time for Eastern and WEstern Europe but if the Brits can pull up their socks and get on with it, why can't the "Euros"?

Hurrah for Tony! He gets it. He is right. May his words be heeded.

[Sandy P]

They can't get on w/it cos that would mean the English were right all along. They've been fighting each other for 1000 years as to which vision would reign supreme.

The Anglos can't be right.

Because that would also mean America is right.

[Gabi]

Interessanter Artikel!

hier

Das eigentliche Amerika I
Rudolf Maresch 20.06.2005

Sam Huntington korrigiert einige der Amerikabilder, die hierzulande Jahrzehnte lang herumgereicht wurden
Es war ein überwältigender Sieg, den George W. Bush letztes Jahr im November eingefahren hat. Und das trotz massivsten Gegenwinds, der ihm vor der Wahl aus New York, Hollywood oder Boston entgegen geblasen hatte. Zudem eroberten die Republikaner die Mehrheit in beiden Häusern und jagten den Demokraten obendrein auch vier Sitze im Repräsentantenhaus und fünf Senatsposten ab. Darunter sogar den des Oppositionsführers Tom Daschle, was es seit über fünfzig Jahren nicht mehr gegeben hatte.

[ulaikamor]

5 years ago, I almost had no respect for Blair. But, man, he has climbed up my respect ranking like a mountain goat on the Everest...

[CJ]

You people are getting too high on Tony. Although he is a better politician and better person than Gerhard and Jacky, Tony doesn't really want to trash the corrupt elitist anti-democratic Euro superstate that is dragging the continent down. Tony just wants Britain, not France, to call the tune in Brussels.

[lemmy]

@ CJ

Which makes this whole EU business somewhat ridiculous in the first place.

France and Germany "claim" they are for the EU and European unity, but flaunt EU the Stability Pact mandate.

The politicians can ramble on about the EU unity, but the bottom line is the individual country's own interests ultimately will come first, especially, as politicians are want to do, if they want to get re-elected in their home countries. Some people out there act like they are shocked.

You may be right about Tony B. wanting the Brits to call the shots (which he will for six months coming up in a few days), but one thing is for sure: Britain's economy is thriving and receiving investment capital. One cannot say the same for France and Germany's economies.

[karl b.]

I've been waiting for this for over sixteen years. Germany is at the Rubicon. Will it cross over and open itself to the real world, reforming itself as it knows it should, or will it turn back, turn inward, and die? Tony Blair and many of us likeminded "liberals" are waiting on the other side to move forward. This may be the last chance for Germany to get it right -- the last metro. My prayers are with Germany and Germans this year that they make the right decisions. There is so much that is right here that it would be a crime to squander it clinging to the past.

The rhetoric from the ideological left will become loud and shrill in the coming months. It already is. One hopes the German voters will see through the mist (warning: pun intended) and give the CDU/FDP a chance to finish up what Schröder started -- in a way that is more effective.

I'm moving on one way or the other, even if I stay here in Germany. I have no more interest in and no more patience for the babbling, hate-filled illusions of the superstitious, ignorant ideologues in this country. Compared to Blair's clear-eyed view of Europe, theirs is medieval.

Ciao!

[Fred]

I would give Germany to the Russians before I give it to a french or british ruled EU superstate.

[Tyranno]

CJ posts:
"You people are getting too high on Tony. Although he is a better politician and better person than Gerhard and Jacky, Tony doesn't really want to trash the corrupt elitist anti-democratic Euro superstate that is dragging the continent down. Tony just wants Britain, not France, to call the tune in Brussels."
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Just," you say? As if it were that simple.
The difference between a relative free-marketeer and the elitest, dyed-in-the-wool Socialists of Germany and France is not insignificant and will have repercussions for generations. Just like Germany and Frances attempt to "standardize" taxation among the EU would have repercussions for generations.
I think Blair will be eaten alive during his 6 months as the head of the EU. France and Germany have not hit bottom yet. The criminal Chirac and his feckless statist twin Schroeder will not go quietly.
They should show up, humbled, heads bowed and announce to the next G-8, meeting, "Bonjour Je m'appelle Jacque et je suis une socialiste!"
The group would welcome them with a hug, "HELLO JACQUE!" We know you have no control over this!
But first they have to (apparently want to) hit bottom.
So stand by for some spectacular American bashing as they, once again, necessarily shift the blame for their own miserable failures onto the worlds favorite rohrschat blot as election time nears.

Tyranno

PS: Is it just me or has the Euro/American MSM gotten awfully quiet as all the world leader/ Bush supporters who were suppose to be thrown out of office have been re-elected, and the only folks paying a price are those who came down on the side of the criminal hussein regime?

Is it just me or does it seem the preferred story lines of the MSM rarely match the day to day reality out here in the real world?

[Thomas]

This is classical Tony stuff. He's better then Jacqy or shredder, but he still remains a "third way" socialist. He still doesn't get it.

Tony : "The issue is not between a "free market" Europe and a social Europe"

I think Reagan must be turning in his grave if he hears that crap. This is the essense of the whole debate, but Tony thinks that's not what it's about ! In a way he's right though : that isn't the issue anymore, the entire world, except Europe (including Blair) understands that free market economics and thus freedom is better then socialism or any other ideal.

Tony : "Of course we need a social Europe. But it must be a social Europe that works."

What a BS !! He clearly means to keep the pampering, but in a way "that works". Well Tony, allow me to tell you something : IT DOES NOT WORK. How many times do these idiots have to run against the wall to understand that ??

Blair is NOT the leader that will make Europe work again. He's some kind of Clinton amicable guy, speaks well etc, but he's just a classical power etatist politician like all the rest.

Tatcher is the only Brit that would have made sense in this debate; all other sensible politicians are situated at the other side of the Atlantic. The Americans must be dying of fear from Europe, BRRRRRRRR.

[Egbert Souse']

Tony Blair is a great man, in the right place at the right time. Europeans, and the rest of us, are lucky to have him. The EU statist model is not sustainable. What is the good of a comprehensive social system if it is not sustainable, if it is only going to last a generation or two? (If they are lucky). Blair is completely right about reforming the EU. The only other options, doing nothing or doing more of the same things that caused the problem in the first place, will only lead to chaos and ruin.

[PacRim Jim]

Blair delineates his principles and stands by them, as much as a politician qua politician can do. The others--what were their names?--are common weathervanes that spin creakily with each momentary zephyr.

[Kees Rudolf]

This is Melanie Phillips' as always interesting opinion:
"In the fight to defend democracy from supra-national institutions that undermine national parliaments, Mr Blair is still firmly on the wrong side."
http://www.melaniephillips.com/articles/archives/001274.html

[Orbit Rain]

...nice picture mirror, I think it's a reflection we see...of thee...