Brussels blog

As of today the European Union is going about its business under a new set of rules known as the Lisbon treaty.  In Brussels this is universally seen as a good thing because, to quote Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-presidents of the European Parliament’s Greens faction, the treaty “sets the framework for increased European democracy, better decision-making, higher levels of transparency and closer participation of European citizens”.

Well, perhaps it does and perhaps it doesn’t.  One thing’s for sure: the new arrangements strengthen the European Parliament – hence the enthusiasm of Harms and Cohn-Bendit.  But the Lisbon treaty’s reforms are like the ingredients of a good dinner.  Use them intelligently, and all will be well.  Forget to put in the garlic and the peppers, and it will taste terrible.  In other words, wise leadership and a sense of responsibility to something higher than one’s domestic political audience are going to be necessary to make Lisbon work effectively.

There are two early signs that some EU leaders aren’t learning the lesson.  One is the effort of politicians in several former Soviet bloc countries to discredit Baroness Catherine Ashton, the EU’s new foreign policy high representative, because she used to be treasurer for Britain’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament more than 25 years ago.  The allegation is that CND may have received covert support from the Soviet Union and that this makes Ashton an inappropriate person to run EU foreign policy.

Let me say, first of all, that I never had any sympathy in the 1970s and 1980s for the views of CND, which struck me as remarkably blind to the essential nature of the Soviet regime and its foreign, military and propaganda policies.  However, CND also formed part of a honourable British tradition of radical opposition to government – it was anything but unpatriotic.  No evidence has publicly emerged of Soviet financial support for CND but, even if it did, would that destroy Ashton’s credibility?

Not necessarily.  It would all depend on whether she had consciously accepted Soviet funds.  So far, there is nothing to suggest she did.  Meanwhile, you cannot crucify someone for political opinions, however misguided, held a quarter of a century ago.  Well, maybe you can in the Czech Republic or Latvia, but not in Britain – or in Brussels, where European Commission president José Manuel Barroso used to be a student Maoist in his native Portugal.

The second troubling sign for the EU in the Lisbon era is French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s cock-a-hoop celebration of the new appointments in the European Commission as a victory for France and a defeat for Britain…  But that’s for tomorrow.