Consensus of the Elite
BERLIN/WARSAW/LONDON (Own Report) - Accompanied by protests, Thursday October 18 the European Council passed the "EU Reform Treaty". That document replaces the EU Constitution, that had been democratically rejected in a couple of national referenda. The treaty, that fulfills German demands for uniformity in EU foreign policy and lends this federation of states aspects of a federal state, is, this time, not to be jeopardized by submitting it to the approbation of populations growing more skeptical. But Germany still has to reckon with resistance from Great Britain. When, on Wednesday October 17, Labour MPs heavily protested the EU policies of their own Labour ministers, it created a scandal. Critics noted that the British Foreign Minister allows himself be counseled by a German "senior advisor" on EU policies. In Poland, where German demands have been rejected since some time, the resistance is waning. Parliamentary elections are being held over Sunday, Oct. 21. Berlin is hoping that the Kaczynski government will be defeated. The Polish government recently re-inflamed anger in Germany through the publication of a study of the German media's anti-Polish reporting on Polish positions concerning the EU "Reform Treaty."
Reform Treaty
The so-called EU Reform Treaty, passed in the European Council on Thursday Oct. 18, contains all of the elements demanded by Germany from the defeated EU Constitution. Through the introduction of a 2 1/2 year term for the council president and a partial upgrading of the European Parliament, the position of Brussels has been reinforced vis à vis the member states. At the same time, only two-thirds of the member states will be sending a commissioner to Brussels. Beginning in 2014, entire groups of nations can be compelled to apply political measures through a "double majority." The common foreign and security policy, one of Berlin's very special demands, will be implemented through the EU foreign minister. The federation of states begins to take on characteristics of a federal state, without the populations of EU member states having been democratically consulted on the radical constitutional level changes being imposed. The victor in this process is Germany, whose power of decision, as granted by the terms of the "Reform Treaty," have over-dimensionally grown and dominate all other EU states.[1]
Referendum
The Reform Treaty, imposed by Berlin, still meets resistance, particularly in London. In the British House of Commons, when Foreign Minister David Miliband Wednesday, had to orally answer interpellations from the floor on this question, it created an uproar. The British Lower House has a "European Scrutiny Committee," that carefully monitors all EU regulations for their effect on Great Britain. In a thorough analysis, this committee recently documented the widest possible congruence between the Reform Treaty and the democratically rejected EU Constitution. On October 17, this committee interrogated the foreign minister, who, like Prime Minister Gordon Brown, seeks to have the document ratified without being submitted to a referendum. As the British see it, the constitutional significance of the document makes a democratic referendum indispensable.[2] The British press reported very attentively on the hefty altercation between Committee Chairman Michael Connarty, of the Labour Party, and his party colleague Miliband. Connarty accused Miliband of collaboration with Germany to the detriment of British interests.[3]
Senior Advisor
British critics point also to the fact that Miliband is not only accommodating German demands, through his support for the "Reform Treaty," but also is being counseled by a German citizen to do it. Sarah Schaefer, an ex-journalist, who acknowledges her political roots in the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) [4] originally worked for the British Minister for Europe, Denis MacShane (in office from 2002 - 2005) and then served as the Director of the "Europe Program" of the Foreign Policy Center in London, a foreign policy think-tank founded by Tony Blair in 1998. During Foreign Minister Miliband's incumbency, that is handling the EU "Reform Treaty," she was promoted to "senior advisor." In London, she is considered one of the most influential women in the current government.[5]
Disconcerting Signals
Whereas resistance to the EU "Reform Treaty" persists in London, in Warsaw it has been seriously weakened. Parliamentary elections will be held Oct. 21, and Berlin is hoping that the conservative Platforma Obywatelska (PO) or the social democratic Lewica i Demokraci (LiD) electoral alliance will be victorious. Either would signify a renunciation of the Kaczyński Pravo i Sprawiedliwość (PiS) party's Germany-critical positions. Political leaders of the PiS Party recently rekindled Berlin's anger with a publication of the Polish-German Reconciliation Foundation (Fundacja Polsko-Niemieckie Pojednanie). Just recently the 1947 "Report on Poland's Wartime Losses and Damage in the Years 1939 - 1945" was re-published in Polish, English and German, making it internationally accessible. In the preface, the Polish foreign ministry's envoy on German-Polish relations, Mariusz Muszyński writes: "this publication emerges (...) at a time, where disconcerting and revisionist signals are being registered from within certain German medial and political circles."[6]
Open Support
Muszyński published also a detailed analysis of anti-Polish German media reporting. This research paper dedicated particular attention to the German press' negative representation of Polish resistance to the EU "Reform Treaty." Muszyński drew the résumé: the German medial campaign, that preceded the summit meeting in Brussels, was in open support for German government positions." It insured Berlin, not only "support within the society" at home, but "by undermining their credibility,"[7] weakened also those in opposition in Warsaw. The same holds true for current German reporting on the "Reform Treaty" and its opponents.
Unity
As the Polish foreign ministry's envoy on German-Polish relations observed, this is not exceptional. "The German media, not just the state-controlled, but also the private, very actively support German diplomacy." Muszyński attributes this to a basic "consensus in questions of foreign policy" that is the dominating tendency in Germany. He writes, "the biggest difference," between Germany and Poland, is the fact "that the German political elite, responsible for determining foreign policy is, unlike in Poland, unified on the strategy to be followed in German foreign policy."
[1] see also Konstante der deutschen Außenpolitik, Success Story, Unter der Führung des Reiches, Nicht hinnehmbar, Kriegsverlierer, A Question of Peace or War in Europe and Richtungsentscheidung
[2] Select Committee on European Scrutiny Thirty-Fifth Report: European Union Intergovernmental Conference; www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmselect/cmeuleg/1014/101403.htm
[3] David Miliband angry at 'peace in our time' slur; The Times 17.10.2007
[4] Twice I have backed Schröder: but no more; fpc.org.uk/articles/338
[5] Terror of the Foreign Office high flyer who was carjacked in a trendy London street; Daily Mail 16.09.2007
[6] Bericht über Polens Verluste und Kriegsschäden in den Jahren 1939-1945; www.pol-niem.pl/auths/181/files/46fb6959add8e_straty%20niem.pdf
[7] Die Deutschen über Polen und die Polen; www.fpnp.pl
