tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23120743652745753552024-03-05T15:36:46.811-08:00Europe and MeGloria Visintinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01627886813403421382noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-91172409883819655172016-06-06T23:49:00.000-07:002016-06-06T23:49:16.380-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Charlemagne: </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An Earlier European Union
and a European foundation myth<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vmX57rsvNz0/V1ZtdhwyueI/AAAAAAAAAFs/vTl0_3ZeX0Yo92YzuRi4xWA3lF7jdVibQCLcB/s1600/Charlie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vmX57rsvNz0/V1ZtdhwyueI/AAAAAAAAAFs/vTl0_3ZeX0Yo92YzuRi4xWA3lF7jdVibQCLcB/s1600/Charlie.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">I image of Charlemagne’s coronation froms British Library MS
Royal 16 G VI, folio 141v, </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=43799">http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=43799</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">On Christmas Day 800,
Charlemagne, King of the Franks, was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. He ruled over
a large part of Western Europe and he still stands as an icon for European
unity. It is unlikely that he expected
his empire to last as the </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">inheritance</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> practice for the Franks was to divide land
among male heirs, nor did he impose uniformity of customs over all his
dominions, which extended from what is now the Low Countries to Northern Italy;
in short the Carolingian Empire offers an early model for unity without
uniformity. The Holy Roman Empire was , however, an expression of an
understanding of a Western Europe that was united, with some elements of shared
culture across its polities. A recent article in </span><i style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.historytoday.com/interactive/timeline-holy-roman-empire" target="_blank">History Today</a></i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.historytoday.com/interactive/timeline-holy-roman-empire" target="_blank"> (April 2016)</a>
by Professor Peter Wilson of All Souls College, Oxford, examined the Holy Roman
Empire as the ‘First European Union’.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It
is not only in his authority over much of Europe that Charlemagne offers a
model of European unity; the myth of Charlemagne became as important in the
medieval imagination as his actual historical power. By the twelfth century the myths and legends
which surrounded the emperor had become a kind of foundation myth of Europe,
extolling the idea of a Western Christendom united against threats from the
East. In these fictional narratives countries which had never been part of the
Frankish Empire, including sometimes England, and even Scotland, were often counted
among the areas over which he had control. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As
a previous contibutor to this blog has noted, the fact that stories of European
unity were largely ahistorical and fictional did not make them less powerful.
Today Charlemagne continues to command a pan-European position, as witnessed
by the Tour Charlemagne in Brussels and the Karlespreis, given annually by the
city of Aachen to honour contributions to European unity, awarded in 2016 to
Pope Francis. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
Leverhulme-funded <a href="http://www.charlemagne-icon.ac.uk/" target="_blank">‘Charlemagne A European Icon’</a> project looks at medieval
developments of the myth by examining the appropriation of the same narrative
material and its expression through different European languages: French, Italian,
English, Spanish, Latin, German, Dutch, and Celtic and Scandinavian languages. This spread of the
Charlemagne myth reveals the long-standing nature of the desire for some level
of harmony and unity across Europe. As in the twentieth century, with the birth
of the European Community, so in the twelfth, harmony was seen as preferable to
war within Europe. Each literary culture stresses the aspects of Charlemagne’s
myth which was most relevant for the particular context of that nation, at a
time, indeed, when a sense of nationhood was just developing. Even with this
awakening sense of national identity, the ideal of unity transcended the
particular.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr Marianne
Ailes,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Senior Lecturer in French,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">University
of Bristol</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">marianne.ailes@bris.ac.uk</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-36204408655419434522016-05-10T12:13:00.001-07:002016-05-10T12:13:45.181-07:00<header class="entry-header" style="background-color: white; color: #373737; line-height: 24.375px; margin: 0px auto; width: 584.266px;"><h1 class="entry-title" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; clear: both; color: black; font-style: inherit; line-height: 48px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 15px 0px 0.3em; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The West Decides: The EU Referendum Debate</span></h1>
<div class="entry-meta" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; clear: both; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; left: 0px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="sep" style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Posted on </span><a href="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2016/05/04/the-west-decides-the-eu-referendum-debate/" rel="bookmark" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: bold; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="1:50 pm">May 4, 2016</a></span></div>
</header><div class="entry-content" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #373737; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.375px; margin: 0px auto; outline: 0px; padding: 1.625em 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: 584.266px;">
<div style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.625em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/steven-c-greer/index.html" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Professor Steven Greer</a>, from the University of Bristol Law School, attended <a href="http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-west-decides-the-eu-referendum-debate-tickets-23109088907" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The West Decides: EU Referendum Debate</a> and writes up his summary of the event.</span></em></div>
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<a href="http://http//www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/steven-c-greer/index.html" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img alt="Professor Steven Greer FAcSS FRSA, Professor of Human Rights, University of Bristol Law School " class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1240" height="150" src="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/files/2016/05/ProfessorStevenGreer-150x150.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: block; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 14px); padding: 6px;" width="150" /></span></a><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 5px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/steven-c-greer/index.html" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Professor Steven Greer FAcSS FRSA</a>,<br />Professor of Human Rights, University of Bristol Law School</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On the evening of Friday, 29 April 2016, a capacity audience in the University of Bristol’s Wills Memorial Building Great Hall witnessed and participated in a lively and impassioned debate, supported by <a href="http://bristol.ac.uk/policybristol/" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">PolicyBristol</a> and the <a href="http://bristol.ac.uk/alumni/the-alumni-association/" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">University of Bristol Alumni Association</a>, about whether the UK should leave or remain a member of the EU.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Introduced by <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/university/governance/constitutionaldocs/senior-staff/pvc-strategy.html" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Professor Nick Lieven</a> (Pro Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Aircraft Dynamics), and professionally chaired by <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/philip-a-syrpis/index.html" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Dr Phil Sypris</a> (Reader in Law), the ‘Leave’ team consisted of <a href="http://www.hannan.co.uk/" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Daniel Hannan</a> (Conservative MEP) and<a href="http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/graham-stringer/449" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Graham Stringer</a> (Labour MP), while the case for ‘Remain’ was put by <a href="http://mollymep.org.uk/" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Molly Scott-Cato</a> (Green MEP) and <a href="http://www.biginnovationcentre.com/single-person?id=2" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Will Hutton</a>(former editor-in-chief of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Observer" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Observer</em></a> and currently Principal of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hertford_College" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Hertford College</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Oxford" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Oxford</a>, and Chair of the Big Innovation Centre).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Before inviting the panellists to open the debate, Dr Syrpis asked the audience for a show of hands. Roughly 80 per cent were in favour of the UK remaining in the EU, 10 per cent for leaving, and 10 per cent were undecided. The formal proceedings themselves began and ended with each member of the panel summarising their case in a one minute presentation. In between the same format applied to a series of six questions chosen by students from those submitted by members of the prospective audience and circulated to panellists in advance. Contributions from the floor followed. Before the event ended, a second show of hands saw little change in the initial figures, with Remain still standing at around 80 per cent, Leave dropping to about 5 per cent and the proportion of undecideds increasing slightly to around 15 per cent.</span></div>
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<img alt="The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol. Graham Stringer MP, Daniel Hannan MEP, Dr Phil Syrpis, Dr Molly Scott Cato MEP and Will Hutton (l-r)" class="wp-image-1241 " height="317" src="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/files/2016/05/EU-Ref-Debate-Panel-Hutton-close-up-_313.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: block; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 14px); padding: 6px;" width="468" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 5px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol. (l-r) Graham Stringer MP, Daniel Hannan MEP, Dr Phil Syrpis, Dr Molly Scott Cato MEP and Will Hutton (c) Bhagesh Sachania Photography</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Acknowledging that both staying and leaving created risks, the Leave team began by claiming that Brexit would benefit the UK in two main ways: it would restore national and local democracy, undermined by the EU’s ‘democratic deficit’, and it would also revive the flagging national economy by creating dynamic economic opportunities, particularly for new trading relationships in the internet age, both with non-EU countries and with the EU itself. For Remain the key issues concerned continued involvement in a noble, outward-looking, internationalist cause, where sovereignty was pooled rather than lost in pursuit of solutions to transnational challenges, such as maintaining peace in Europe and the effective regulation of the environment and the corporate sector.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How would leaving the EU affect the UK’s global standing?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remain had no doubt that the UK would be more globally significant as a member of the EU than outside, not least because Brexit was likely to trigger Scottish independence, thereby reducing the UK’s international presence, and because other countries generally pay more attention to bigger, than to smaller players on the global stage. The Leave team claimed, however, that by exiting the EU, the UK’s commitment to internationalism would be enhanced because it would then be free to embark upon a much more independent foreign policy.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What is the economic case for staying in/leaving the EU?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">According to Leave, Europe is the only economically stagnant continent in the world, the EU caused the southern European economic crisis, and the economy of an independent UK would thrive as a result of freer international trade, national representation on the World Trade Organisation, and cancellation of the £350 million weekly EU membership fee. In a rare moment of consensus, later paralleled by recognition that the EU’s democratic deficit contributed to the rise of political extremism, each side agreed that corporate power needed to be more effectively regulated but differed on whether this was more likely to be achieved in or outside the EU. An impassioned exchange between Will Hutton and Daniel Hannan over the extent to which the UK can currently trade with non-EU states further enlivened an already vigorous debate. Challenging both, Molly Scott-Cato argued that the extent to which any given economy harms or conserves the environment matters more than its size and that the EU manages this better than most states on their own.</span></div>
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<img alt="The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol" class="wp-image-1242 size-thumbnail" height="150" src="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/files/2016/05/EU-Ref-Debate-audience-q-close-up-_313-150x150.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: block; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 14px); padding: 6px;" width="150" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 5px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol (c) Bhagesh Sachania Photography</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">How would leaving the EU affect young people?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remain claimed that leaving would generally affect young people adversely since the resulting visa and quota restrictions would limit their horizons, particularly regarding student exchanges which are currently funded by the EU. But, according to Leave, young people would be in substantially the same position as everyone else post-Brexit – better off on all fronts.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What consequences would leaving the EU have for immigration and geographical mobility?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Leave team acknowledged that it was undesirable to have either completely closed, or completely open borders, and that, while those fleeing persecution from abroad should be offered refuge, immigration to the UK also had to be controlled. It was also claimed that the UK’s current immigration policy is both racist and economically irrational because it privileges EU citizens over possibly more deserving, predominantly non-white, would-be non-EU immigrants whose services might be more urgently required. Remain argued that an open attitude to the outside world is more desirable than a closed one, that geographical mobility in the EU is a two-way street, with Brexit likely to result in up to two million mostly retired ex-patriate Britons being forced to return home, thereby increasing pressure on the NHS and social care, and that infrastructure pressures caused by EU immigrants could be addressed by more investment funded by their contribution to the national economy.</span></div>
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<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What prospect has the UK of forging a special relationship with the EU if it remains a member or leaves?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Remain argued that the UK already has a special relationship with the EU, other member states are reluctant to concede more, leaving could have a dangerous and unpredictable cascade effect, and that belonging to the European Free Trade Association, as advocated by the leave campaign would, in common with Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, entail a continuing commitment to receive EU migrants. It was also claimed that, typical of most divorces, the post-Brexit atmosphere would be embittered and, although the EU would still wish to trade with the UK, it would be unlikely to grant particularly favourable terms, not least in order to deter other states from following suit. Leave argued that, on the contrary, economic rationality would prevail over any desire to hold the rest of the EU together by vindictiveness to a departed UK.</span></div>
<div style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.625em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<strong style="border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What are your greatest fears if the Brexit vote succeeds or fail and who do you think would be the biggest winners and losers in both scenarios?</span></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The greatest fear for Leave was that the failure of the Brexit campaign would further erode what remains of UK sovereignty as the UK became permanently locked into irreversible deeper and wider European integration including monetary and banking union. The biggest winners would be Eurocrats and big business, while the greatest losers would be ordinary people. For Remain, a vote for Brexit would be a permanently lost opportunity to participate in a visionary, though imperfect, international project, coupled with turbulence and economic uncertainty at least in the short to medium term. The biggest winners would be big business, climate change deniers and a ‘rogues’ gallery’ of other elite interests, while the biggest losers would be ordinary people, particularly farmers, young people, and small and medium enterprises.</span></div>
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<img alt="The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol" class="size-thumbnail wp-image-1243" height="150" src="http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/files/2016/05/EU-Ref-Debate-audience-and-panel-_313-150x150.jpg" style="border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); display: block; height: auto; max-width: calc(100% - 14px); padding: 6px;" width="150" /><div class="wp-caption-text" style="border: 0px; color: #666666; font-size: 12px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin-bottom: 0.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 10px 0px 5px 40px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The West Decides: The EU referendum Debate, Great Hall, Wills Memorial Building, University of Bristol (c) Bhagesh Sachania Photography</span></div>
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<em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The event could be followed on Twitter with the hashtag #TheWestDecides and a full recording is also available on the University of Bristol <a href="https://soundcloud.com/university-of-bristol" style="border: 0px; color: #156eaf; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Soundcloud</a> account.</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In</em><em style="border: 0px; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> the run up to the EU Referendum on 23<span style="border: 0px; bottom: 1ex; font-size: 10px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: 0px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">rd</span> June, PolicyBristol will be publishing a series of blogs on policy issues and topics related to the UK’s membership of the European Union.</em></span></div>
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<footer class="entry-meta" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #666666; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; margin: 0px auto; width: 584.266px;">This entry was first postedat http://policybristol.blogs.bris.ac.uk/2016/05/04/the-west-decides-the-eu-referendum-debate/#more-1239</footer>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-2047968652998937182016-05-10T12:07:00.001-07:002016-05-10T12:07:07.163-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‘Filer à l’anglaise?’ </span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Brexit seen from France.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Just as
‘taking French leave’ was once a familiar expression in England suggesting a
tendency to be absent without legitimate reason, typical of Gallic
unreliability, so ‘filer à l’anglaise’ is the corresponding French expression
that draws on the old stereotype of the English as slippery. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">But as the
temperature rises in the debate surrounding Britain’s role in Europe, it’s
interesting to note how enduring and hard-wired some perceptions about our
neighbours are, and from either side of the Channel. Even before David Cameron
returned from Brussels with what he considered were enough concessions for his
government to campaign to remain in the EU, questions were asked as to whether Britain
could ever be relied on to subscribe wholeheartedly to the European project. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">When
Charles de Gaulle repeatedly vetoed British applications to join the EEC, some
of his critics saw this largely as a delayed response to the slights he had
suffered at the hands of <i>les Anglo-Saxons</i>
during the war. But could he have been right about the intrinsic reluctance of
the British to have their hands tied except, of course, when this is done by
the United States? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">One of the
most familiar commentators in France today, Chrisophe Barbier, as well-known
for his trademark red scarf as for his sometimes trenchant views, has suggested
in his editorials in the centre-right <i>L’Express</i>
magazine that perhaps the EU should show Britain the door rather than wait for
it to leave. </span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g9i0QIIlINs/VzIvro7VfrI/AAAAAAAAAEw/alZ5d_W_pCIoX3JT1PFbuoprj2_t61bawCLcB/s1600/D%25C3%25A9bat_Commedia_Christophe_Barbier_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g9i0QIIlINs/VzIvro7VfrI/AAAAAAAAAEw/alZ5d_W_pCIoX3JT1PFbuoprj2_t61bawCLcB/s320/D%25C3%25A9bat_Commedia_Christophe_Barbier_crop.jpg" width="244" /></a></div>
Barbier’s exasperation is not uncommon and stems from the view
that Britain has led, first the EEC and then the EU, a merry dance with a ‘will
they, won’t they’ routine that undermines the ethical and philosophical
commitment its neighbours have to a united Europe.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Looking at the facts, it’s
not difficult to understand the frustration expressed by Barbier and others.
Barely two years after joining the EEC in 1973, having banged on the door for
over a decade, the British government reopened the issue of membership by calling
a referendum. Within ten years of this, Mrs Thatcher’s government was
threatening to derail the European project financially by asking for Britain’s
money back. Even after having approved the Single European Act of 1986 and the
Maastricht Treaty of 1992, which paved the way for monetary union, such was the
hostility to the European project that the government of John Major was largely
undone by those he called the Eurosceptic ‘bastards’ on the benches of his
majority in parliament. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Even under a new generation of moderate centre-right
politicians, many of whom have known nothing but Britain in Europe, whether it’s
the refusal to shoulder part of the cost of bailing out Eurozone economies in
difficulty, or share the burden of accommodating the wave of migrants looking
for refuge in the EU, Britain has given a pretty convincing impression of being
a slippery partner trying to evade its moral, if not its legal obligations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Currently,
while Europe is arguably facing the most serious threats to its future since
the end of World War II, the British government has embarked on a referendum
that is essentially an internal party political matter, aimed at bringing to an
end a 30-year civil war in the Conservative Party, but which has drawn the
attention of European leaders away from urgent matters that concern the entire
EU. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">In spite of this, the reaction from mainstream politicians has been largely
calm and measured. The recent rejection in a referendum, by more than 60% of
the Dutch electorate, of the proposal to grant EU associate status to Ukraine
has deepened the anxiety that a vote for Brexit could embolden the Eurosceptic
sentiment that undoubtedly exists across other EU member states and lead to a
kind of domino effect. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">So there has been more than a hint of irony in seeing a
socialist administration in France effectively coming to the aid of David
Cameron, by taking its cue from him regarding the negative consequences for
Britain should the electorate vote for Brexit. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 107%;">During March and early April therefore, President <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum-german-finance-minister-says-uk-would-be-shut-out-of-european-single-market-in-event-a6910261.html">François
Hollande</a> has made veiled references to the possible difficulties in
accessing the single market, and also in retaining the pre-eminence of London
as Europe’s leading financial market, should Britain quit the EU. </span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The economics minister, Emmanuel Macron, has been less guarded and
warned unequivocally that if the Britain leaves, potential migrants to Britain
would no longer stop at Calais because the frontier would have moved to Dover. Speaking
specifically as economic minister, Macron even invited bankers to move to Paris
should London find itself outside of the EU. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Some parts of the media have sensed, however, that the issue will be
decided by sentiment rather than reason. So on 12April the daily </span><i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.leparisien.fr/insolite/embrassez-un-britannique-ou-comment-eviter-le-brexit-12-04-2016-5709009.php">Le
Parisien</a></i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> highlighted a campaign started by Katrin Lock, a young German
woman living in London, to persuade the British that they are loved, really, by
their neighbours in the EU. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">She and
fellow expats are taking selfies of themselves kissing their British friends
and posting them on line with the hashtags #hugabrit and #pleasedontgouk</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Prof Gino Raymond,</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Gino.Raymond@bristol.ac.uk</span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-52866216321243788122016-04-28T03:59:00.000-07:002016-04-28T03:59:10.692-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What Would One of France’s ‘Great
Men’ Say?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span style="color: #222222;">Victor Hugo’s Vision of the ‘United
States of Europe’</span></b><span style="color: #222222;"><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nE6FZSlG7iM/VyHsawKqAEI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cr_usOLLyEkP3QGZxNtDPjfj6O57Zd-AwCLcB/s1600/Hugo%2BEurope.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nE6FZSlG7iM/VyHsawKqAEI/AAAAAAAAAEU/cr_usOLLyEkP3QGZxNtDPjfj6O57Zd-AwCLcB/s320/Hugo%2BEurope.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
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</v:shape><![endif]--><!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">As fate would have it, on June 23rd at a UK
conference I will be delivering a keynote address about what one of the
nineteenth century’s most globally recognized voices would have to say about the
EU Referendum. Victor Hugo’s popular writing (including the wildly successful
novel </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Mis%C3%A9rables"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Les Misérables</span></i></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">) and his outspoken political interventions as both
a public figure and an elected representative make him a high-profile figure to
invoke. Indeed, Hugo increasingly used his celebrity throughout his long and
storied life to lobby for a universal republic of European nations that he
believed was a natural consequence of the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Revolution"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">French Revolution’s</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> principles of
liberty, equality, and brotherhood. Collective freedom, mutual respect, and
lasting solidarity could become the hallmarks of a modern Europe in Hugo’s eyes.
He would undoubtedly have been a vocal critic of the EU’s present shortcomings
as a political entity, but he equally would have resisted any urge to cut the
ties that bind the continent together. <br />
<br />
It was Hugo, after all, who promoted the term ‘the United States of Europe’. He
first used this phrase in his inaugural address to the </span><a href="http://archive.org/stream/reportproceedin02goog#page/n21/mode/2up"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">International Peace Congress</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> in Paris on 21<sup>st</sup>
August 1849, where he imagined an ‘intimate’ union of European countries
through cultural and commercial ties alike. A bust of Hugo can still be found
standing in front of an extract from this speech in the French National
Assembly in Paris, although Hugo had erected a monument of his own on the
symbolic date of 14th July 1870 when he planted </span><a href="http://maisonsvictorhugo.paris.fr/en/museum-collections/house-visit-guernsey#p5"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">an oak tree</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> as a symbol of
future European growth. Hugo has become something of a public monument himself,
of course, receiving </span><a href="http://h-france.net/fffh/maybe-missed/victor-hugos-funeral-as-historical-fiction/"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">a huge State funeral in 1885</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> and being interred
in the Paris Pantheon as one of France’s ‘great men’ who continues to be
regarded as a bearded patriarch of the French Republic and its humanitarian values.<br />
<br />
My current research explores the cultural influence that Hugo exerted both
during and after his life as a <i>grand homme</i>, so it has been timely this
month for me to think about his conception of Europe, which was at once hopeful
and anxious. While he rarely underestimated the more egotistical aspects of
human nature, he remained committed to an inclusive social philosophy that prioritized
cohesion over distinction. Hugo was acutely aware of the political tensions
that threatened continental stability throughout the nineteenth century, having
himself grown up during the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Napoleonic_Wars"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Napoleonic Wars</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">, and so he repeatedly tried to
direct attention to the need for greater cooperation across the continent. </span><a href="http://smleuropeandme.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/lessons-from-latin-america.html#more"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Simón Bolívar’s</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> proposition of a
holy alliance of Latin American nations at the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_of_Panama"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">1826 Congress of Panama</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> had given Hugo a
model of opposition against the monarchical grip of old Europe – a model which
he believed could reinvigorate the ideals of the French Revolution and
productively reorganise the continent.<br />
<br />
Hugo began by believing that a single ‘great’ figure like Napoleon would be
needed as the driving force behind such a project, but as his conservatism
waned he came to prioritize the sovereignty of the people and the importance of
their democratically elected governments. Towards the end of the 1840s, he
envisaged a multinational European entity whose main goal would be collective
prosperity rather than just national security. This Europe was a continent of
free trade and movement, bound by a shared sense of history and a collective
rejection of autocracy, with military budgets transferred to civilian purposes
so as to improve education and technology. Central to this idea of Europe was
Hugo’s Romantic worldview, which looked beyond divisive and restrictive lines
to stress interconnection and kinship between all things. Open minds demanded
open borders in every sense for Hugo, requiring a focus not on nationalist
vanity but on fraternal fortune.<br />
<br />
When the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Prussian_War"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Franco-Prussian War</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> broke out in 1870,
Hugo’s dream seemed like a farcical fantasy, especially when France herself
descended into a bloody civil war between the ensuing </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paris_Commune"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Paris Commune</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> and the Versailles government. Yet
‘the terrible year’, as he called it, underlined his belief that the European
nations needed to fortify a broadly conceived common ground before any specifically
political infrastructure could be put in place. In this respect, Hugo turned to
his own country in an attempt to move beyond old partitions. His 1872 poetry
collection </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Ann%C3%A9e_terrible"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Terrible Year</span></i></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> stirred
uncomfortable memories in order to open up painful national wounds and target
France’s failure to overcome the divisive legacy of 1789. Two years later, his
final novel, </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-Three"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Ninety-Three</span></i></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">, picked yet more
aggressively at these lesions by dramatizing the civil conflict of 1793’s </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_Terror"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Reign of Terror</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;"> so as to confront France’s internal
tensions between republicanism and reactionary conservatism, as triggered by
1789 and as sustained by 1871.<br />
<br />
Although the tragic ending of that novel reiterates Hugo’s uncertainty towards
whether his own generation could ever realize the potential of a united Europe,
he continued to stress the futility of conflict between shared interests. </span><a href="http://www.ebritic.com/?p=234273"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 1876</span></a><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt;">, for example, when Serbia declared
war on the Ottoman Empire in support of Bosnia and Herzegovina, he used the
resulting military atrocities to argue once again for ‘the necessity of the
United States of Europe’. ‘Let us replace political questions with human ones,’
he pleaded, ‘for our entire future depends on it.’ At a time when the political
rhetoric around the EU Referendum is often striking a divisive, even
confrontational, tone, Hugo’s voice arguably remains resonant in its call to
look beyond nationalistic oppositions and economic self-interest towards ideals
of collective prosperity. Them and us, me and you, are ultimately one and the
same, so breaking up the Union rather than continuing to work together to
improve it would be short-sighted rather than visionary – a step back away from
the democratic dreams of the late eighteenth century, rather than forward into
the future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Dr Bradley Stephens, Senior Lecturer in French</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">@StephensBradley<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Photo
credit: Wikimedia Commons (</span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hugo-Europe.jpg"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hugo-Europe.jpg</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;">)<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-1712282193933685282016-04-26T06:06:00.000-07:002016-04-26T07:53:53.786-07:00<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;">
The EU, Brexit and nature conservation law</h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span style="line-height: 17.12px;"><i>In the lead up to the sold out <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/events/2016/west-decides.html" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Brexit debate at the University of Bristol</a> on Friday 29 April 2016, we are posting some blogs from our <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cabot/" target="_blank">Cabot Institute </a>members outlining their thoughts on Brexit and potential implications for environmental research, environmental law and the environment. </i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Flag_of_Europe.svg/800px-Flag_of_Europe.svg.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #b45f06; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b7/Flag_of_Europe.svg/800px-Flag_of_Europe.svg.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(255, 255, 255); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;">The EU plays a fundamental role in shaping the environmental law regimes of its Member States and that of the UK is no exception. A significant proportion of current domestic environmental law derives from EU Regulations (that automatically become part of English law) and EU Directives (that are implemented through national legislation).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">Nature conservation law, i.e. the legal regime used to protect environmentally significant habitats and species, is a case in point and the focus of this blog. Conserving nature is key not only from a purely biodiversity standpoint but also from an ‘ecosystem services’ perspective. <a href="http://www.millenniumassessment.org/en/index.html" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Ecosystem services</a> are the benefits nature brings to the environment and to people, including supporting services (e.g. nutrient cycling), provisioning services (e.g. food), regulating services (e.g. carbon capture) and cultural services (e.g. recreation)</span><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;">Site designation and management is a favoured technique of nature conservation law. The well-known Natura 2000 network, would not be there if it were not for EU Directives, namely the Habitats (92/43/EEC) and Wild Birds Directives (2009/147/EC), implemented in the UK by the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2010. Under Article 3 of the Habitats Directive, Member States are indeed required to set up the Natura network composed of Special Areas of Conservation (sites hosting the natural habitat types listed in Annex I and habitats of the species listed in Annex II of the Habitats Directive) and Special Protection Areas (sites for the protection of rare and vulnerable birds as listed in Annex I of the Wild Birds Directive and for regularly occurring migratory species). </span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Greenfinch_-_Chloris_chloris.jpg/1280px-Greenfinch_-_Chloris_chloris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #b45f06; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d2/Greenfinch_-_Chloris_chloris.jpg/1280px-Greenfinch_-_Chloris_chloris.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;">Greenfinch by <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47316595" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Mschulenburg - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.124px;">In the UK, there are a substantial number of European protected sites: 652 Special Areas of Conservations (including candidate Special Areas of Conservation<a href="file://ads.bris.ac.uk/filestore/Cabot_Institute/Communications/Social%20Media/Blog/To%20add%20to%20blog/brexit%20nature%20conservation%20blog%20for%20Cabot%20-%20Margherita%20Pieraccini.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">[1]</span></span></span></a> and Sites of Community Importance<a href="file://ads.bris.ac.uk/filestore/Cabot_Institute/Communications/Social%20Media/Blog/To%20add%20to%20blog/brexit%20nature%20conservation%20blog%20for%20Cabot%20-%20Margherita%20Pieraccini.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">[2]</span></span></span></a>) and 270 Special Protection Areas, covering a total of 10,8128,04 ha (<a href="http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/page-23" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">JNCC statistics as of 28 January 2016</a></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.124px;">).</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.5251px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">Has the establishment of Natura 2000 made a difference to biodiversity protection? </span></span></h3>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 14.124px;">As part of its Smart Regulation Policy, the Commission has initiated a fitness check of the Habitats and Wild Birds Directives to evaluate their effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, relevance and added value. Though the final Commission report on the results of the fitness check will be available only later this year, the draft emerging findings prepared by a consortium of experts do suggest that the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/legislation/fitness_check/docs/consultation/Fitness%20Check%20final%20draft%20emerging%20findings%20report.pdf" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Habitats and Wild Birds Directives</a> have substantially contributed to the conservation of nature and to meeting the EU’s biodiversity target</span>.<span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It is fair to note that, prior to the EU Directives on nature conservation, the UK did have its own system for habitat protection, most notably based on the designation of Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). Introduced in the post-war period by the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949, the law governing SSSIs has been strengthened over the decades by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981, amended by Schedule 9 of the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000. However, the management measures in place for SSSIs are not as stringent as those for the protection of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas. <span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/SSSI.jpg?uselang=en-gb" imageanchor="1" style="color: #b45f06; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/SSSI.jpg?uselang=en-gb" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SSSI.jpg?uselang=en-gb" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Sites of Special Scientific Interest</a> (SSSI) were introduced in the post-war period in the UK to help manage habitat protection.</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 14.124px;">It is also fair to note that in the marine environment, the UK has taken important steps domestically: the passing of the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009 in England and Wales (and similar Acts in the devolved administrations) has brought in new domestic marine conservation zones that contribute to the establishment of an ecologically coherent network in UK waters. But the building of such a network is not so disentangled from EU law, considering Art 13(4) of the EU Marine Strategic Framework Directive (2008/56/EC) requires the formation of marine protected areas’ networks in the marine environments of Member States.</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;">Clearly therefore, EU law has contributed much to the development of nature conservation in the UK. Moreover, being part of the EU means that the Commission can exercise its power to bring infringement proceedings against Member States for incomplete or ineffective implementation of EU law, thereby exercising an external check on implementation (for nature conservation, see Commission v UK, Case C-06/04 [2005] ECR I-9017).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 16.5251px;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: x-small;">What would Brexit mean for the future of nature conservation law?</span></span></h3>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;">What is unknown however is what would Brexit mean for the future of nature conservation law in the UK because much depends on the type of post-Brexit EU-UK relationship and the agreement that will be negotiated. However, it could be argued that compared to other environmental sectors (such as waste and water) nature conservation may be more at risk. </span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 14.124px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Indeed, even in the not-too-radical scenario in which the UK chooses to stay within the EEA, the future of nature conservation law will depend on whether there is political willingness to continue to abide by existing commitments, rather than legal obligations stemming from the EEA agreement. This is because, though the EEA agreement does contains many environmental provisions, nature conservation is excluded (Annex XX of the EEA agreement excludes the Habitats and Wild Birds Directive). Consequently, the future of nature conservation law is very uncertain in a post-Brexit world, even in the event of EEA membership.<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="file://ads.bris.ac.uk/filestore/Cabot_Institute/Communications/Social%20Media/Blog/To%20add%20to%20blog/brexit%20nature%20conservation%20blog%20for%20Cabot%20-%20Margherita%20Pieraccini.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">[1]</span></span></span></a> Candidate Special Areas of Conservation are sites that have been submitted to the European Commission, but not yet formally adopted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="file://ads.bris.ac.uk/filestore/Cabot_Institute/Communications/Social%20Media/Blog/To%20add%20to%20blog/brexit%20nature%20conservation%20blog%20for%20Cabot%20-%20Margherita%20Pieraccini.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.2667px;">[2]</span></span></span></a> Sites of Community Importance are sites that have been adopted by the European Commission but not yet formally designated by the government of each country.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">This blog has been written by Cabot Institute member Dr <a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/law/people/margherita-pieraccini/index.html" style="color: #b45f06; text-decoration: none;">Margherita Pieraccini</a>, a Lecturer in Law at the University of Bristol. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://dbms.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/media/user/242155/Margherita.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #b45f06; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-decoration: none;"><img border="0" src="http://dbms.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/media/user/242155/Margherita.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: none; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.0980392) 0px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 10.56px; text-align: center;">Margherita Pieraccini</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">This blog has been reposted with permission from the Cabot Institute. </span><a href="http://cabot-institute.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/the-eu-brexit-and-nature-conservation.html" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;" target="_blank">View the original blog post</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; line-height: normal;">.</span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-20595280477321636822016-04-04T01:39:00.001-07:002016-04-12T05:33:43.089-07:00Ahead of the West decides debate on 29 April, Daniel Hannan argues the case for leaving the EU<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Daniel Hannan, Conservative MEP, offers his assessment of why UK citizens should vote to leave the EU on the 23rd June. Contributions from the other speakers at The West Decides (29th April) will be posted as they are received. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OSOGZfQ5Rzo/VwIndr7dQEI/AAAAAAAAADc/mzkJNxZ1AlMw386VKt7TSP_p_Vu4AkN1A/s1600/Daniel_Hannan_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OSOGZfQ5Rzo/VwIndr7dQEI/AAAAAAAAADc/mzkJNxZ1AlMw386VKt7TSP_p_Vu4AkN1A/s200/Daniel_Hannan_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" width="162" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;">Daniel Hannan, MEP. Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Undecided on whether to remain in the EU? Here are seven things to bear in mind. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">1. Our money, our priorities. Our annual tribute to Brussels now stands at £19 billion a year gross, 11 billion net. If we kept that money at home, we could give the entire country a two thirds cut in council tax. Or we could build and equip a state-of-the-art hospital every week. To put it another way, during the last Parliament, we saved £36 billion through the entire domestic cuts programme; yet, over the same period, we gave Brussels £85 billion. The EU, in other words, wiped out our austerity savings twice over. Even if we use the net figure, it’s still enough to have cancelled all the cuts and have had enough left over to take a penny off income tax. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">2. The EU is out of date. In the digital age, we are no longer defined by our geography. We have links to other English-speaking and common law nations around the world – nations that, unlike the EU, are growing economically. In 1980, the 28 EU states accounted for 30 per cent of the world’s economy; today, it’s 17 per cent and falling. The real growth is happening across the oceans, not least in Commonwealth countries to which we are linked by language and law, habit and history. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">3. Keeping Britain secure. Outside the EU, we can control our immigration policy. More passports are checked at Britain’s borders than at those of the other 27 EU states put together. The former Secretary General of Interpol, Ronald Noble, describes the Schengen Zone as ‘an international passport-free zone for terrorists to execute attacks on the Continent and make their escape’. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">4. Recovering our democracy. If the EU were just about international co-operation and trade, no one would have a problem with it. The trouble is that it regulates things that have no conceivable cross-border dimension: the power of our electrical appliances, the frequency of our bin collections, the way we open a bank account, the tax on sanitary products. Our laws should have precedence on our own territory, and we should be able to hire and fire the people who pass them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">5. The EU can’t be reformed. At least, not from within. The utter refusal to grant David Cameron better terms puts that beyond doubt. If this is how Britain, the second-largest financial contributor, is treated now, before the referendum, imagine how we’d be treated if we voted to remain. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">6. The safer choice. Voting to stay in means remaining on a conveyor-belt whose far end we can’t see. The Schengen and euro crises are deteriorating – which is one reason that the government was in a rush to hold the referendum at the earliest possible date. Staying in means more risk and more cost. It’s safer to take back control.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">7. Great Britain. We are the fifth-largest economy in the world, with the fourth largest military budget. We are leading members of NATO, the Council of Europe, the Commonwealth and the G7 and G20. We are one of five permanent seat-holders at the UN Security Council. How much bigger do we have to be before we can live under our own laws?
</span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-60095709702138783862016-03-16T06:19:00.000-07:002016-03-21T03:51:04.339-07:00'Brexit', September 1938<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/sml/people/rajendra-a-chitnis/index.html">Rajendra Chitnis</a>, <i><a href="http://www.bristol.ac.uk/">University of Bristol</a></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The EU referendum campaign reminds me how much we
remain influenced by our national mythologies. The Brexit campaign often
implicitly evokes the memory of the Second World War as a time when Britain
stood alone in Europe against Hitler, then came together with our Allies to
defeat him. By contrast, the Czechs remember only that in September 1938, at
Munich, </span><a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/archives/after-munich-czechoslovakia-left-to-her-fate-1" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">France
and Britain sided with Hitler against Czechoslovakia to avoid war</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">, in
effect allowing the Czechs and Slovaks to fall under first Fascist and later
Communist dictatorship. Some even speak of a psychological ‘Munich complex’
that limited popular Czechoslovak resistance to both dictatorships and even
hampers efforts to build genuine civil society after Communism; this notion is
boisterously satirised in Petr Zelenka’s 2015 film, </span><a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/lost-munich-ztraceni-v-mnichove-835843" style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Lost
in Munich</a><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On his return from Munich, the British Prime Minister,
Neville Chamberlain infamously declared: <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/ir1/chamberlainandappeasementrev8.shtml">‘<span lang="EN-US">How horrible, fantastic, incredible
it is, that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here, because
of a quarrel in a faraway country between people of whom we know nothing...’</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">These words must have been especially painful for the
Czechoslovak leadership, which had spent the twenty years since the
establishment of independent Czechoslovakia in 1918 trying to ensure that the
world knew exactly what Czechoslovakia was and what it stood for. In the 1920s
and 1930s, Czechoslovakia worked to acquire and exercise what we now call ‘soft
power’, vigorously supporting the League of Nations project, building alliances
and promoting cultural exchange. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I am currently writing about how, in this period, Czechoslovakia
tried to raise its profile in Britain through literary translation. The Czechoslovak
elite felt close to the British, not only because some British intellectuals,
cultivated by Czech and Slovak counterparts, had lobbied hard for the creation
of independent Czechoslovakia, but also because they identified more with
imagined ‘gentlemanly’ British values - civility, tolerance, good humour,
pragmatism - than what they saw as German cultural aggression. The embodiment
of Czech Anglophilia was <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/czechs/karel-capek">Karel Čapek</a>, the
first Czech writer to win an international reputation, thanks to his 1921 play <i>R.U.R.</i>, which gave the world the word
‘robot’. His tour of the British Isles in 1924 resulted in the travelogue <i><a href="http://thecaptivereader.com/2013/12/01/letters-from-england-karel-capek/">Letters
from England<span style="font-style: normal;"> (1927)</span></a></i>. It says
something about the self-centredness of the British reader that, though <a href="http://www.radio.cz/en/section/archives/karel-capeks-enduring-message-1">many
of Čapek’s plays and novels about the politics and landscape of Central Europe</a>
were also published in this period, these quaint impressions of Britain – and <i><a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-gardeners-year-by-karel-capek-trans-geoffrey-newsome-88481.html">The
Gardener’s Year<span style="font-style: normal;"> (1931)</span></a></i>, about
that most British of hobbies, gardening – were by far his best-selling.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In October 1938, in the aftermath of Munich, Čapek
drafted <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5caIsvVgEhcC&pg=PA126&dq=Capek+to+my+unknown+British+readers&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjTyK-DosXLAhUDVxQKHSK8AlEQ6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Capek%20to%20my%20unknown%20British%20readers&f=false">a
letter to his ‘unknown British readers’</a>. He notes that ‘what has happened
on Czechoslovak soil is in great measure a piece of Britain’s, France’s and
Europe’s fate’, and asks: ‘was it really ever in the interest of your country
and of France to ensure that the very worst happened to Czechoslovakia, and if
so, since when, why, and in what British or French interest was it concluded
that this small and relatively happy country should be existentially broken?’ Čapek
writes as someone inexplicably betrayed by a friend; his perspective reflects
how much Czechoslovakia overestimated the extent of its ‘soft power’ in
Britain. His main British publisher, Stanley Unwin, a long-standing supporter
of Czechoslovakia, wrote to Prague publisher friends expressing his regret and
shame. He notes that ‘most intelligent people and practically the whole of the
British left realised that Czechoslovakia occupied a key position’, but ‘two of
the most popular newspapers in circulation, the <i>Daily Mail</i> and the <i>Daily
Express</i>, are emphasizing the undesirability of our meddling in Central
European affairs’ (George Allen & Unwin Collection, University of Reading).
He graciously does not mention the Royal Family’s position at the time.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> I
spoke on this material last week at <a href="http://smallisgreat.elte.hu/">a conference
in Budapest on cultural transfer</a>, where colleagues from Turkey, Ukraine and
the former Yugoslavia spoke passionately about international exchange,
dialogue, empathy and cooperation, and the wretched consequences of
fragmentation and atomisation. Whatever is said about Britain becoming a better
partner outside the EU, ‘Brexit’ will only be understood internationally as a
self-centred, but self-defeating act of distancing, a decision to stand aloof,
to give up on notions of shared fates and collaborative efforts to find
solutions to common problems. The Czechoslovak story reflects how Britain
simultaneously takes for granted and fails to understand the esteem and
affinity felt for it especially by smaller European countries; perhaps therefore
it misses the opportunity to build the lasting relationships in Europe through
which it might secure genuine reform. In the face of climate change,
international terrorism, massive displacement of people and permanent economic
uncertainty, all Britain really has left – like Czechoslovakia in 1938 – is its
‘soft power’. To recognise that, however, we need to see behind the glories of
Churchill, the Blitz and D-Day to the ghost of Munich.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com90tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-91988945458748736042016-03-16T01:14:00.001-07:002016-03-21T03:50:54.960-07:00<h1>
Tongue-tied: Britain has forgotten how to speak to its European neighbours</h1>
<a href="http://theconversation.com/profiles/martin-hurcombe-230066">Martin Hurcombe</a>, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol">University of Bristol</a></em>
<br />
The decline in the number of students of modern languages from GCSE to degree level is an <a href="https://theconversation.com/only-one-in-65-new-students-chooses-a-modern-language-degree-we-need-a-rethink-37768">annual lament</a>. Only <a href="http://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels/2015/a-as-and-aea-results-summer-2015">10,328 pupils in the UK took</a> French at A Level in 2015 and although Spanish enjoyed a rise in entries at A Level of 14%, German continued its steady decline.<br />
As <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/secondaryeducation/11799730/A-level-Results-Day-2015-live-Record-number-of-university-acceptances-on-Results-Day.htm">Vicky Gough</a>, schools adviser at the British Council, noted last year, the study of French and German at A Level has declined by more than 50% since 1999.<br />
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/114995/area14mp/image-20160314-11267-scngd6.png"><img alt="" src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/114995/width754/image-20160314-11267-scngd6.png" /></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Level language entries, 2006-2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.jcq.org.uk/examination-results/a-levels/2015/a-as-and-aea-results-summer-2015">JCQ</a></span>
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Similar patterns can be observed at GCSE where entries for French, for example, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/20/gcse-results-fall-numbers-foreign-languages">declined by 40% between 2005 and 2015</a>. The rise in interest in Arabic and Portuguese has not offset the overall trend towards the marginalisation of language learning in Britain’s secondary schools, and most notably those in the <a href="https://www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/a-quarter-pupils-taking-a-level-languages-are-privately-educated-isc">state sector</a>.<br />
It’s hard for language learners and teachers to remain optimistic in this climate, and harder still with <a href="https://theconversation.com/voters-are-sceptical-about-europe-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyll-vote-for-brexit-55255">widespread Euroscepticism</a> and the possibility of the UK voting to leave the European Union in <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/eu-referendum">a referendum on June 23</a>.<br />
<h2>
Policy ping pong</h2>
For teachers like me, entering the profession in the late 1980s and early 1990s amid a brief bout of Europhilia, language education was still a priority. When the <a href="http://www.educationengland.org.uk/documents/pdfs/2009-CSFC-national-curriculum.pdf">National Curriculum was introduced in 1988</a> all secondary schools had to make provision for students of all abilities to learn at least one modern foreign language.<br />
Paradoxically, this enthusiasm for language learning in the years preceding the 1992 Maastricht Treaty and the foundation of the European Union emanated from a series of Conservative governments that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/major-says-three-in-cabinet-are-bastards-1486997.html">were tearing themselves apart</a> over the question of European integration.<br />
Nevertheless, it was made compulsory for children to learn one modern foreign language. This was because of a belief by those in government and business that not only was it desirable to speak more than one language, but that a meaningful relationship with European partners was best served by the cultural familiarity that language learning fosters.<br />
Ironically, it was perhaps Britain’s most pro-European government, under Tony Blair, which removed the requirement for all children to take a language at GCSE in 2004. Only now are we seeing this decision reversed with the current government’s <a href="https://theconversation.com/now-students-are-expected-to-study-a-language-until-age-16-the-work-to-rebuild-begins-43808">inclusion of a language at GCSE</a> as one of the performance measures schools are judged on.<br />
Since the late 1990s there has also been <a href="https://www.tes.com/article.aspx?storycode=6451342">a decline</a> in school exchanges in state schools – a tradition in many schools that had become firmly established with the UK’s membership of the common market. According to the <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org/organisation/press/british-council-says-%E2%80%98bring-back-school-exchanges%E2%80%99">British Council</a> only 39% of state schools currently offer an exchange where students stay with a host family in another country – compared to 77% of independent schools.<br />
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<h2>
Identikit travel</h2>
The decline in the study of languages has also coincided with a decline in the chance for young people to have genuine cultural encounters with Europeans on the continent.<br />
Week-long holidays to the Algarve or southern Spain often bring little in the way of cultural exchange. Experience of travel to Europe can sometimes be restricted and characterised by a sense of familiarity: airports that resemble each other, the ubiquitous Starbucks, the identikit sites of global tourism observed by <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jul/31/featuresreviews.guardianreview10">Paul Fussell</a> in the 1980s and dubbed non-places by French philosopher <a href="http://www.worldhum.com/features/travel-books/non-places-and-the-end-of-travel.-20090211/">Marc Augé</a>.<br />
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<img alt="" src="https://62e528761d0685343e1c-f3d1b99a743ffa4142d9d7f1978d9686.ssl.cf2.rackcdn.com/files/115013/width754/image-20160314-11274-1uabj4p.jpg" />
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<span class="caption">Limited cultural encounters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/elwillo/9173624740/in/photolist-eYDe2N-e9hu3g-6SrKP8-acoPbi-gjWwWj-5ovHn1-nwRzCD-bCC4sL-agcKY1-6gWiVa-dtPhwA-fBLdV3-9ALDhr-B53w7-CqTKNM-9QwroC-dtP2EQ-fAVpD8-eYCXEm-935vrt-83T7y2-8R3oqn-gwUVHv-CX5L6f-eeocLj-FX5P9-gwUJjF-ggUNFV-nuP18h-nv7D8s-hVmtww-83jY7p-ndA3W2-fLFDSe-gwatZc-fZZLwa-bCC3sQ-8D6y15-ag9VYX-8R6CTb-amyYKV-sxHpy-fLGuKt-3Kq3Q9-shMzX-9drE5q-4xD67M-ag9YCV-fL7gcx-cCRef5">Keith Williamson/www.flickr.com</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/">CC BY-NC-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><br />
Yet travel and the encounter with other cultures and peoples can challenge our fundamental beliefs. It shakes us from our complacency and forces us to rethink who we are in the light of other customs and habits. We return home to ask new questions of our lives, but also of our surroundings. While this can be a destabilising experience, it is also a highly productive one with benefits for both our sense of self and the home to which we return, which is now viewed through fresh eyes.<br />
Learning a new language has a similar effect on one’s sense of self: it enhances such cultural exchanges and enriches travel. The study of languages is not the study of linguistic abstractions – it’s the study of cultures.<br />
The paradox of current government policy is that it talks about the importance of global trade and competitiveness while doing little to prepare the next generation of UK citizens for the future it envisages. If Britain votes to leave the EU, it will merely confirm a policy of cultural retrenchment initiated by the Labour governments of 1997-2010. If the country votes to remain, it must be accompanied by a commitment to the European project as a cultural and not merely an economic enterprise.<br />
And we must also recognise that learning the languages of our EU partners is often the gateway to speaking to the world at large.<br />
<img alt="The Conversation" height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/55087/count.gif" width="1" />
<br />
<a href="http://theconversation.com/profiles/martin-hurcombe-230066">Martin Hurcombe</a>, Reader in French Studies, School of Modern Languages, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/university-of-bristol">University of Bristol</a></em><br />
This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com/">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/tongue-tied-britain-has-forgotten-how-to-speak-to-its-european-neighbours-55087">original article</a>.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-88799933474540889392016-03-07T06:17:00.000-08:002016-03-11T05:30:51.984-08:00<h2 style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<b style="line-height: 18.4px;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Antiquity and Europe</span></b></h2>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">Studying classical antiquity and its continuing
afterlife, I find that the theme of Europe constantly recurs in different
forms. The dominant conception of a common European culture and heritage looks
back to classical Greece; not just as the birthplace of ideas and institutions
like democracy, science and critical thought that are still vital to us today,
and the starting-point of a literary and artistic tradition that continues to
inspire, but even as the likely origin of the word itself, and certainly the
earliest conceptions of Europe as a distinct region. It was scarcely
coincidental that the draft of the ill-fated </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/272078/5872.pdf"><span style="background: white;">European Constitution</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> began with a quotation from the ancient
Greek historian Thucydides, presenting the statement of the Athenian politician
Pericles that “our constitution is called a democracy” – and it was also not an
accident that this quotation, as well as the constitution in general, was </span><a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118980194.ch28/summary"><span style="background: white;">greeted with hilarity</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> by British parliamentarians.</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Of course this idea of ‘common European culture
founded in antiquity’ is a myth – it was never continuous or uncontested, it is
largely a modern invention – and it has often been a dangerous myth, supporting
an idea of European superiority and exceptionalism that was then imposed
violently on much of the rest of the world. But the same can be said of petty
nationalism, and claims that Britain is separate from and superior to ‘Europe’.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The fact that such stories are partly fictional
and often ahistorical doesn’t lessen their power or importance as a source of
identity, and the idea of Europe as a trans-national culture, founded on a
continuing engagement and negotiation with the classical past, is a myth with
tremendous creative potential. The study of the reception of antiquity is not
just a historical exercise; it’s also a basis for thinking about who we are,
how we think of ourselves, and how such ideas can continue to inspire.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Even if we as scholars didn’t engage with such
themes and issues, they would be unavoidable in debates about and around
Europe. Rome is the go-to analogy for a united Europe, for better or worse: a single
political structure, unified legal and coinage systems, the assimilation of
different peoples into a common culture. This can equally well be presented in
positive terms as the establishment of peace, prosperity and civilisation
across the region – hence the claims of later regimes to be the legitimate
continuation of the Roman Empire – or negative, as the violent conquest and
colonial exploitation of native peoples by a rapacious elite – “they made a
desert and called it the single European market”, </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://timesonline.typepad.com/dons_life/2006/07/they_make_a_des.html"><span style="background: white;">to paraphrase Tacitus</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial";"></span><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The historical reality is of course complex and
ambivalent, but that doesn’t hinder simplistic evocations of Roman analogies in
public discourse. The implied threat of ‘decline and fall’ if we fail to learn
the lessons of Rome – currently, the threat of migration looms large, and
provokes comparison with the <i>Völkerwanderungen</i>
that supposedly overwhelmed the frontiers of the Roman Empire – pervades our
view of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">We see classical antiquity through the
distorting lens of different European traditions of interpretation, and we
understand Europe, past and present, through templates and analogies drawn from
Greece and Rome. Finally, the tradition of scholarship on classical antiquity
is thoroughly European (albeit </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://thesphinxblog.com/2016/02/25/eine-frage-der-erziehung/"><span style="background: white;">increasingly conducted in English</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">, whatever the nationality of the
researcher). My work is inconceivable in isolation from that of French, German,
Dutch, Italian, Danish, Greek and Spanish scholars. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">A British decision to cut us off from such
traditions would directly affect my current collaboration with colleagues in
Berlin, where I’m currently an </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.einsteinfoundation.de/en/funding/einstein-visiting-fellow.html"><span style="background: white;">Einstein Visiting Fellow</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;">, and would undermine the possibility of
applying to </span><a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/brexit-would-be-catastrophe-he-europe-warn-germans"><span style="background: white;">European funding schemes</span></a><span style="background: white; color: #222222;"> for collaborative projects, but my
networks are sufficiently well established to weather such a change; however, I
would fear for younger scholars, coming to maturity in an intellectual context
that is suddenly more insular, introverted and impoverished.</span><span style="color: #222222;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;">
<span style="background: white; color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Neville Morley is Professor of Ancient History
at the University of Bristol and </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Einstein Visiting Fellow with the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.topoi.org/"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext;">TOPOI Exzellenz-Cluster</span></a><span style="background: white;"> in Berlin. E-mail neville.morley</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #777777; font-family: 'normal arial', sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"></wbr>@bristol.ac.uk.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-55864287427360136972016-03-02T09:59:00.002-08:002016-03-03T07:09:34.388-08:005 ways in which we are being misled by the Out campaign<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The EU referendum will </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/sunder-katwala/cleggfarage-debate"><span lang="EN-GB">not</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> be decided by
facts. Information on the benefits of the UK’s EU membership is widely
available, and the facts speak for themselves. In plain English they say: both
the UK and its European neighbours are better off with the United Kingdom being
a member. The Out campaign is one of resentment and spectacularly </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.spectator.co.uk/2016/02/brexit-campaigners-remind-me-horribly-of-ian-smiths-rhodesian-front/"><span lang="EN-GB">bad humour</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, and the way
to counter it is through stories and images that convey the joy and beauty of being
able to study in France, work in Germany and retire in Spain even if you don’t
belong to an elite for whom these things have long been natural. The EU has
made it possible for more British people than ever before to find </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/working-abroad/overview"><span lang="EN-GB">opportunities</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> in other
countries, to contribute to lively public debates there and to make new
friends. British people use these opportunities to a much greater extent than
citizens of most other EU countries. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">That said, there are five things the Out campaign keeps saying that are
simply not true, and need to be countered with reference to simple facts:#<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">1. Outers give us the impression that the UK has somehow been forced
into something they never signed up for, or is being colonised by bureaucrats
in Brussels. This is not true. The UK government has actively signed up to
every treaty and every bit of regulation that is currently in place, and it has
decided to opt out of some which, as a result, have not come into force here.
It was the UK government that, on many occasions, insisted that all EU members
agree on a policy before it can take effect. British administrators in Brussels
and British members of the European parliament have long played </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="https://www.euractiv.com/section/uk-europe/opinion/the-eu-was-made-in-britain/"><span lang="EN-GB">a major role</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> in shaping
the European Union. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">2. Outers tell us that the European project was initially just a
free-trade idea which then mushroomed into a political structure. This is not
true. The reasons for European leaders and citizens to kick off the process
were always political. Free trade has always been seen as a tool to secure and
safeguard </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/symbols/europe-day/schuman-declaration/index_en.htm"><span lang="EN-GB">peace in Europe</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> – and it is
only one tool from a much bigger toolbox. Stability, prosperity and democracy
are the ideals of this European Union, and everybody knows that it needs much more
than free trade to achieve them. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">3. Outers tell us that the UK is a sovereign nation that should make its
own decisions. This makes me wonder where they have been for the last forty
years. The people of EU members countries, through their elected governments,
including the UK government, have decided to exercise some of their sovereignty
</span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://www.ia-forum.org/Files/MXEDMK.pdf"><span lang="EN-GB">together</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> – more so,
but not unlike, the people of Bristol and London have decided that the UK
government should speak for them both and make decisions that affect the lives
of both cities. Yes, the EU is a supranational organisation: this is not some
scary spectre but has long been the reality of how we are governed. Let us not
choose to ignore the political system we live in. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"></span><a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">4. Outers say the EU is dysfunctional. It is true: Europe is facing big
problems. Many EU institutions are struggling to cope. But the way to address
these issues is to work on solutions and strengthen the institutional
framework, rather than turning away from them. The European project has always
been one of </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/33/1/Kardasheva_Package_Deals_In_EU_Decision_Making.pdf"><span lang="EN-GB">incremental progress</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> – the way the
EU parliament has acquired more and more powers over time is one case in point.
Let’s keep working on it! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">5. Outers say it is a sign of the EU’s inefficiency and lack of
democratic legitimacy that David Cameron was not given a legally binding
document at the end of his recent negotiations. While many high-ranking British
officials have called this view into doubt, it is worth noting that in many
countries, wide-ranging decisions need parliamentary approval. 27 EU leaders
need to go to their national parliaments and call </span><span lang="DE" style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";"><a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=URISERV%3Aai0013"><span lang="EN-GB">a vote</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> when the
treaties are changed. It is an odd view held by some Outers that politics is
done by leaders sitting together in back rooms. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In short, many of the problems the EU faces could be solved if the UK
decided to play ball and make a case for the policies and values it supports.
David Cameron has done so: he has found allies in his quest for more ‘subsidiarity’
and for his fight against the abuse of welfare services. In the future, with
the UK continuing to be a strong EU member, let’s dedicate as much energy towards
Britain’s other goals. In the meantime, a happy compromise between Cameron’s
initial demands and a renewed commitment to the founding principles of the
European project are enough reason to vote for the UK to stay in the EU. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">Christophe Fricker is
</span><span lang="DE" style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 107%;">a
Marie Curie Research Fellow atthe University of Bristol, Speaker of the Stefan
George Study Group at the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, and Managing
Director of Leipzig-based Knowledge Assurance provider NIMIRUM. </span><br />
<span lang="DE" style="line-height: 17.12px;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Christophe.Fricker@bristol.ac.uk </span></span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com41tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-14225238366814199092016-02-29T04:30:00.001-08:002016-03-01T05:48:32.623-08:00The Legal Status of the UK’s Agreement: Counting the Change<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: center;">
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.3333px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<b><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-UhozRC-B5bg/VtQ5f2Fb8rI/AAAAAAAAACA/aJe4b1mI92k/s200/dreamstimefree_100320.jpg" width="200" /></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">On 19 February 2016, sometime well after breakfast, the members of the
European Council reached an agreement concerning </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-1-2016-INIT/en/pdf">a
new settlement for the United Kingdom</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> within the EU. The Government was
quick to proclaim that the UK’s ‘special status’ in ‘a reformed European Union’
amounts to ‘</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/502291/54284_EU_Series_No1_Web_Accessible.pdf">the
best of both worlds’</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">. David Cameron’s ‘hard-headed assessment’ is that
the UK will be stronger, safer and better off by remaining inside this reformed
European Union, and so he is recommending that the British people vote to
remain in the EU in the in-out referendum on 23 June. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The substance of the reforms, which focus on economic governance,
competitiveness, sovereignty, and welfare and free movement, is and will continue to be </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://ukandeu.ac.uk/">much debated</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">. This contribution
instead focuses on a more technical question - the legal status of the deal – a
subject which is now said to be creating </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/feb/24/tories-legal-status-david-cameron-eu-deal-conservatives-michael-gove-european-court">‘open
warfare’ in the Tory party</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Let me attempt to distil the question. To do so I focus on one key
aspect of the European Council Decision; the agreement to restrict the social
benefits payable to migrants. In this area, there is pre-existing Court of
Justice case law interpreting the provisions of the Treaties expansively, so as
to afford EU law rights to economically inactive migrants. Many governments
have argued that this case law goes too far, and that it creates threats to the
sustainability of social security systems. The Agreement reached in February
amounts to a further attempt to limit the rights which will be available for
migrants in the UK. The question I am addressing is whether it will be
successful in influencing the Court's interpretation of the Treaties.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The Heads of State certainly appear to have intended to attach the
greatest possible legal significance to their Agreement. They assert that ‘the
content of the Decision is fully compatible with the Treaties’. Its intent is
to clarify ‘certain questions of particular importance to the Member States so
that such clarification <i>will have to be
taken into consideration</i> as being an instrument for the interpretation of
the Treaties’ (emphasis added). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">The UK Government is at pains to make the same point. In its White Paper,
it includes a section assuring us that the agreement is ‘legally-binding’ (see
paras 2.128-2.145). It makes the points that the Decision is legally binding
under international law; and that it will be registered as a Treaty with the
United Nations if the British people vote to remain in the EU. Most
pertinently, it argues that agreements between Member States on the meaning of
the EU Treaties are required to be taken into account by the Court of Justice
when interpreting the Treaties in the future (here it refers to the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:62008CJ0135&from=EN">Court’s
judgment in <i>Rottman</i></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">)</span></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">. It also refers to
a note by </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://www.hendersonchambers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Sir-Alan-Dashood-QC1.pdf">Professor
Sir Alan Dashwood</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"> which suggests that there is nothing in the
Decision ‘likely to encounter the disapproval of the CJEU’, and no proposed amendments
to EU legislation which would ‘run a serious risk of being struck down by the
CJEU’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">I have written (in the </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk/files/34888537/CMLRev_2015_Syrpis.pdf">2015
Common Market Law Review</a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">) on the relationship between the EU primary
and secondary law (ie between the Treaties and legislation adopted thereunder),
essentially asking a question which resonates with public lawyers: whether the adoption
of secondary legislation is able to influence the Court's interpretation of the
Treaties. I framed the discussion in the following way: ‘</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Most lawyers would,
at first blush, assume that there is a simple hierarchical relationship between
primary and secondary law, that primary law does and should take priority over
secondary law, and that the adoption of secondary legislation should not affect
the way in which primary law is interpreted. Political scientists on the other
hand, might expect the passage of legislation to have a greater impact on the
case law of the Court. The somewhat confused reality which this article
exposes, illuminates the tensions between the judiciary and the legislature in
the EU, and between what may be termed the “legal” or “political” nature of the
EU’s constitutional settlement.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">My main conclusion was that ‘it is
almost impossible to predict with any certainty what effect the passage of secondary
legislation will have on the pre-existing case law of the Court on the
interpretation of primary law’. It is this uncertainty which Michael Gove and
others have seized upon. The issues raised by the Agreement are, notwithstanding
the claims made for its status, similar to those raised by the passage of
secondary legislation. The extent to which the political institutions are, and
ought to be, able, to tie the hands of the Court remains a matter of acute academic
controversy. My argument is that the Court ‘should strive to maintain clearer
standards as regards not only the intensity of judicial review, but also the
way in which its arsenal of interpretative strategies are deployed and
combined’. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Any uncertainty of course plays into
the hands of the ‘leave’ campaign. It is an unavoidable feature of all
constitutional systems that it falls to courts to assess the legality of, and
to interpret, the interventions of the political institutions with reference to
constitutional texts; and so certainty is, for better or worse, unattainable.
But, like Sir Alan Dashwood, I am confident that the Court will not attempt to
unpick the Agreement of the Heads of State. The Agreement represents an
unambiguous attempt by the political institutions at the highest level to
influence the Court’s interpretation of the Treaties. It is unusually clear and
forthright. And while the legal obligation on the Court is indeed no stronger
than an obligation to take the political signal ‘into account’, the mind of the
Court should be concentrated. In its future case law, it will be faced with a
stark choice – either choose an interpretation of the Treaties which is in
conformity with the Agreement and endorse the new restrictions; or precipitate
huge constitutional conflict within the EU by insisting on interpreting the
Treaties in a manner antithetical to the Agreement. It only has one realistic
choice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;">Phil Syrpis is Reader in Law at the University of Bristol Law School.
Contact: </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><a href="mailto:Phil.Syrpis@bristol.ac.uk"><span style="color: #0f7ca4; text-decoration: none;">Phil.Syrpis@bristol.ac.uk</span></a></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-70560146154654596562016-02-22T06:28:00.001-08:002016-02-22T16:25:36.851-08:00Lessons from Latin America<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wuMAwRHNTxkgKZ3Z6MS34KMsP4yYdWabLXtn7N3H32ULIfXQlD6zw3FpVf60RSMBuFiUBEuOc3fewPJV2ym0lxEP3iACwqYUMWTaxAzx1dRuJGZwg0myrHqvAcNeP06hJailgIQiSTc/s1600/Simon_Bolivar+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8wuMAwRHNTxkgKZ3Z6MS34KMsP4yYdWabLXtn7N3H32ULIfXQlD6zw3FpVf60RSMBuFiUBEuOc3fewPJV2ym0lxEP3iACwqYUMWTaxAzx1dRuJGZwg0myrHqvAcNeP06hJailgIQiSTc/s1600/Simon_Bolivar+2.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Sim%C3%B3n_Bol%C3%ADvar#/media/File:Simon_Bolivar.jpg">Simón Bolívar</a></span></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Simon Bolivar
pledged to dedicate his life to establishing freedom in Spain’s American
colonies, whilst standing on a hill outside Rome in 1805. His formative years
were spent in Spain and France, where he developed the ideas that would sustain
his rise to political prominence in South America. After independence from
Spain had been secured on the battlefield, by 1821, Bolivar’s efforts were
devoted to constructing a political union across South America, known as
Greater Colombia, which he hoped would encompass the territories we now know as
Colombia, Venezuela, Panama, Ecuador, and Peru, and possibly, with a tailwind
and some luck, even Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. But communication
was difficult in the 1820s, and national and regional identities surged in the
wake of warfare against the colonial power and political struggles amongst
landowning elites. Bolivar himself had come to represent the ills of
centralized government, and his last years were overshadowed by numerous
regional revolts against his rule. Bolivar died in 1830 declaring that ‘if my
death contributes anything to preserving the Union, it will not have been in
vain’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Bolivar’s
principal ally in his attempts to construct and consolidate a super-republic in
South America was Great Britain. British diplomats and investors thought (and
with hindsight, they were right) that one big state would be more likely to
repay its loans to British banks than many small and impoverished states. George
Canning and his Foreign Office team through the 1820s also thought that a
strong united Hispanic South America would be able to more effectively defend
itself against imperial incursions from France, Spain or the United States. In
Brazil, the territorial unity of Portugal’s imperial possessions was retained
through maintenance of a monarchical regime. In Hispanic South America,
occupying a smaller landmass than Brazil, by 1830 there were nine independent
republics - Argentina, Bolivia, Chile,
Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela. The last two
centuries have seen many leaders and institutions try to build continental
unions across political, economic and legal spheres. These efforts have been
revitalised in the last two decades, sometimes inspired by the history of the
European Union, sometimes wary of its mistakes. More often they have been
inspired by South America’s own history, and have attempted to use recent
revolutions in communications technology in order to achieve the union that was
impossible for Bolivar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">In 2016 the
citizens of the European Union can learn from South America’s regional unions,
as well as from their own histories of integration. Recent years have seen
great constitutional revolutions from Colombia to Ecuador, as nation-states
have been reinvented as multicultural and even, in the case of Bolivia under
the presidency of Evo Morales, as ‘plurinational’. The Bolivian recognition
that nations and communities with differing historical trajectories – from the
descendents of nineteenth-century European migrants to the majority indigenous
groups of the highlands - can coexist and complement each other within one
overarching state apparatus can act as a corrective to those Europeans who see
the dissolution of historical unions as the solution to the difficulties caused
by neoliberalism and globalization.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">My own
research as a historian of South America has been shaped and supported by
global and European institutions. Although my PhD on the European mercenaries
who served under Bolivar was funded by a Carnegie scholarship, whose origins
lie in the financial speculations of the Scotsman Andrew Carnegie in industry
and transport infrastructure in the Americas and his subsequent philanthropy, I
was also fortunate to receive an EU-funded Marie-Curie fellowship. This supported
a stay at the Universidad Pablo de Olavide in Spain, as well as attendance at
workshops in Groningen and Bratislava which resulted in my coming to know young
European historians, being taught by professors whose horizons were different
from those at home, and also being awarded a ‘Eurodoctorate’. My postdoctoral
research was carried out at the European University Institute in Florence as a
Jean Monnet Fellow, a uniquely European institution, whose pace, culture and
research ethos have remained inspirations throughout my travels and research
over the last decade.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">The European
Union is an imperfect community. Its democratic engine needs a lot of work to
make it fit for purpose, and its lack of transparency about its operations
prevent it from being accountable to the citizens whose wellbeing it exists to
protect and promote. But as Bolivar recognised, cutting yourself off from
neighbours with whom you share a culture and history is seldom a good idea. Within
the Union we are better able to meet and learn from people who are not like us.
We can talk with each other more, share experiences and help to create a
political environment that enables more democracy and solidarity, not less. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">@mateobrown<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Matthew Brown.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: xx-small;"><span style="line-height: 150%;">Matthew is </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">a historian of Latin America who works </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">on the history of sport in South America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. You can find his Latin America blog </span><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">at </span><a href="http://bolivariantimes.blogspot.co.uk/" style="color: #0f7ca4; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;">http://bolivariantimes.blogspot.co.uk/</a><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 24px;">.</span></span></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com90tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-20650091176254087122016-02-18T06:46:00.001-08:002016-02-25T03:00:58.088-08:00No Way Out? Why Brexit Means No Exit <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7bDjsVAxDGfnv_fpjEMfsk8CtxmyVtUTooEPUPVycFndcF7ZGZPdHosmhOw3DORTlkoBbRxv5Uta23MQgMQzLi9b2nTafIAcYLD_whZzOwWyo0zpm1ZppbW_ZVcu-EEJGPMCHviOFzWM/s1600/Ukeu.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7bDjsVAxDGfnv_fpjEMfsk8CtxmyVtUTooEPUPVycFndcF7ZGZPdHosmhOw3DORTlkoBbRxv5Uta23MQgMQzLi9b2nTafIAcYLD_whZzOwWyo0zpm1ZppbW_ZVcu-EEJGPMCHviOFzWM/s320/Ukeu.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">By Lightup4u (Own work) [</span><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0"><span style="font-size: x-small;">CC BY-SA 3.0</span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;">], </span><a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AUkeu.jpg"><span style="font-size: x-small;">via Wikimedia Commons</span></a>
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Two key arguments continue to be advanced by those who
favour a British exit from the European Union. It is firstly, they claim, a way
of managing immigration. Secondly, it is a crucial step towards restoring
national sovereignty. The two ideas meet in the battle cry ‘Securing Britain’s
borders’. </div>
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The modern understanding of national sovereignty – the
principle that the authority to govern emanates from a nation that exists as a single
body able to express its will – is, well, a very European one. It is found in
Article 3 of the French Revolution’s Declaration of the Rights of Man and of
the Citizen of 1789. Note the absence of any mention of nationality here.
Indeed, it’s that very universalism – the idea that the Revolution was
producing a blueprint for the governance of all national societies – that drove
many French citizens to believe that their nation above all others was invested
with a mission: to lead the peoples of Europe from tyranny to liberty. And it
was against this national, revolutionary zeal that many European nations reacted.
But, in order to mobilise against the armies of the First Republic and then of
Napoleon Bonaparte, the governments of Britain, Prussia and Russia, for
example, had to resort increasingly to the sort of popular nationalism that
gripped France from the Battle of Valmy to the Battle of Waterloo. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Nationalisms, like nations, do not exist in a vacuum; they
react and bump against each other and are informed by intense rivalries. In the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries France was to Germany what Arsenal
are to Spurs. But nationalists even at this high point of nationalistic rivalry
were never isolationist. Even the most virulent French nationalists travelled
extensively in the interwar years, sharing ideas, but also expressing
differences, with like-minded movements and individuals across Europe. The
Action Française, a far-right monarchist movement that hankered for a return to pre-Revolutionary absolutism
under a king who ruled by divine right, admired Mussolini’s smartly-clad Black
Shirts, raved about the economic miracle that was Salazar’s New State in
Portugal, and then cheered on Franco’s National Revolution and its eradication
of the Spanish Republic during that country’s civil war. Underpinning this
enthusiasm for authoritarianism was a commitment to the principle of Latinity –
a belief that the Mediterranean nations share the cultural and political
heritage of Ancient Rome and that the region, and the French nation, would rise
again to international prominence by rejecting democracy. <o:p></o:p></div>
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As extreme as the case of Action Française may seem, the
movement reflects a fundamental reality of all national movements. Far from
operating in a vacuum neatly delineated by impenetrable national borders, they
in fact openly engage in a dialogue with other, carefully selected partners.
More than this, they have a long history of conceiving of themselves as members
of a transnational family. Sometimes crude racial politics are invoked to
suggest these family ties, but these family resemblances and connections are
always a matter of geography and culture. <o:p></o:p></div>
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What, then, could we expect of a European Union without
Britain and of a Britain outside the EU? Could Britain enjoy the form of
self-sufficiency that some Eurosceptics invoke in the memory of a pre-EU world
where things could be bought and consumed in what is, for most of us, the
incomprehensible lingo of imperial measurements? Most Eurosceptics are far less
nostalgic and admit that Britain would in fact be forced to seek new partners
in the world. A post-Brexit British government would have to quickly seek these
out in those parts of the world with which Britain enjoys already strong
cultural ties. But where would these be? The United States, either under a
Democrat regime which has already hinted that Britain’s place in the world
would be diminished by Brexit, or perhaps a Republican one led by Donald Trump
who swings from advocate of US isolationism to expansionism on a daily basis?
Or elsewhere in the English-speaking world in Britain’s former colonies, many
of which still carry the scars and memories of imperialism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Brexit would have wider ramifications still for Europe as a
whole, of course. According to <a href="http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2016/02/12/une-europe-sans-britanniques-deviendrait-plus-allemande_4864461_3210.html">Robert
Niblett</a>, Director of Chatham House Royal Institute of International
Affairs, it would give added strength and momentum to other Eurosceptic and
nationalist movements across Europe. Ultimately,
it could lead to the fragmentation of the remainder of the EU and a return to
the Europe of nations so desired by all Eurosceptics. Britain would then be
free to seek out new partners amongst the shards of the Union. Indeed, it could
be at the forefront of a new alliance of likeminded European states battling
the remnants of the old Union. What voters have to decide ahead of the
forthcoming EU referendum, then, is whether it is easier to reconfigure
Britain’s relationship with its fellow European nations from a self-imposed
position on the margins of Europe or, as it currently does, from a position of
influence within the EU. Either way, Britain cannot escape the necessity of
engaging with a Europe to which it is tied geographically and culturally.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2312074365274575355.post-43995729222243163462016-02-18T04:51:00.002-08:002016-02-18T04:51:38.091-08:00Welcome to Europe and Me, a blog for University of Bristol staff (researchers and teachers) in which they are invited to explore the relationship between their work and Europe.<br />
<br />
This is, of course, a crucial moment in the history of Europe and contributors are encouraged to submit posts to the editor, Martin Hurcombe, that reflect on issues relating directly or indirectly to current debates surrounding the European Union.<br />
<br />
The issue of the forthcoming EU referendum is obviously of primary importance to many of us. In particular, the blog seeks to offer a forum in which contributors and readers can contribute to an informed debate concerning the future of the UK’s
relationship with Europe. This is, then a forum through which we seek to understand the nature and extent of the UK's, but also the University's and the city's relationship with the EU and how this might change
following either a renegotiation of the UK's membership or its outright exit. Contributors are encouraged therefore to consider the intersection of their research with key debates and ideas circulating around the subject of the referendum as well as to address broader subjects, such as current strategies for dealing with migration, the prospect of a common defence policy, and others beside.<br />
<br />
Submissions should be approximately 800 words in total and e-mailed to m.j.hurcombe@bristol.ac.uk.<br />
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Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1