It is almost natural that, for reasons of our historical and contemporary connections, Guyana and the other Caricom countries would have been closely following the latest stages, and now the recent agreement, on negotiations between the European Union authorities and Britain. This is marked by that country’s attempt to renegotiate its relationship as part of EU which is not a state, but certainly a geopolitical and economic entity imbued with certain decision-making powers on behalf of its whole membership.
Now, the next stage of this drama will be a referendum, promised to the British people, by Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative government, on whether Britain should stay in, or leave, the Union, a possible departure currently being referred to as ‘Brexit’ (British exit).
It is now a little over thirty years ago that the British electorate went through a somewhat similar process, when the then British Labour Party government, led by Harold Wilson sought the advice of the country in a referendum in 1975, on whether the United Kingdom should remain in the then European Economic Community (EEC). At that time, resistance to membership of the EEC came substantially from within the Labour Party itself, but Wilson succeeded in receiving a positive response from the electorate, and the matter seemed to be closed.
As the issue has recently again become an apparently publicly contentious one, the pressure emanating this time particularly from within the Conservative Party, Prime Minister Cameron conceded, in 2013, the holding of a referendum on it. This defused pressure on him as an election was due and the result, immediately following the recent general elections, allowed him to essentially concede to demands for a referendum to be held on the matter.
Following his success, as a follow-up to that referendum and following internal discussions on proposals to be made, and then negotiations with the EU, the Prime Minister has now indicated his satisfaction with the EU’s response, and the country is to proceed as he promised.
It is early yet, to determine the response in a referendum, particularly from within the Conservative Party itself. The debate prior to the negotiations has been intense, not simply among the political parties, but among the country’s academics, the variety of think-tanks existing, and public opinion generally, through the media. And now, a widespread debate on the EU’s response is taking place and will, no doubt, take its place formally in the British parliament.
The government would appear, at least initially, to be satisfied with the EU’s response, and this satisfaction would seem to be reflected in leading press statements. And the fact of the matter would appear to be that, in Britain itself, there is a general perception that the EU is experiencing a number of challenges which, to some extent take priority over specifically British concerns.
There has, of course, always been a view in Europe, that there is a need for the United Kingdom to make up its mind on its location within the North Atlantic sphere, an important element of which is obviously the EU. This is opposed to a situation of the UK rather persistently inducing a certain level of uncertainty on the future of the EU itself in terms of whether the integrity of Europe is one based on geopolitical homogeneity and solidarity including Britain; or whether Britain still wishes to insist on an autonomous stance vis-à-vis the EU on global decision-making.
It is, however, fair to say that in the course of the period of negotiations on the status of Britain’s membership, certain issues placed by Britain on the agenda, have been felt more deeply and persistently given the nature of developments in the EU itself. In particular, a critical aspect of Britain’s concern has been movement of people into the UK through the European sphere, given the EU’s geographical expansion into what had tended to be known as Eastern Europe; as well as from countries – the Middle East now featuring prominently – using access to the continent as a newly-found conduit to a better life.
Now, as is well known, this has become a pressing issue for the EU itself, with the major country of that political system, Germany, feeling pressure to the extent that it has affected the political standing of Chancellor Merkel herself. So there would appear to have been a certain anxiety to reassure Britain on the migration issue – meaning the matter of free movement to, and settlement of persons within, the continent, and involving further movement through the continent into Britain.
At the more political, or some might say, philosophical level, there appears to be some positive movement from the EU side on the British concern that the EU claims not to be a fixed political system with certainty of constitutional arrangements, but that at least the continental members of the EU would seem to be committed, by the institution’s own original declaratory statement to what is referred to as “ever closer union”. From the British perspective, this phrase implies a progressive diminution of the sovereignty, and therefore the autonomous decision-making flexibility, of the member-states, a view to which the UK has not subscribed.
For protesting elements in the Conservative Party, though not only there, this boils down to an eventual loss of British sovereignty and autonomy of decision-making, which is hard to swallow. Prime Minister Cameron has probably been on good grounds on this issue in Britain, as his party is not the only one infused with notions of the United Kingdom retaining is constitutional integrity and autonomy of decision-making.
But it is probably the case, if Cameron should succeed in his referendum, that as the history of the EU suggests, the issue of the extent of concession of sovereignty, or put better, the extent of de facto autonomy in response to external pressures, including pressures emanating from the nature of the EU’s internal relations on specific issues, will be a matter of continuing negotiation and pragmatism between Britain and the continentals.
On this basis, he will probably claim a victory in his negotiations. And the British Labour party, as it proceeds to the promised referendum will, even with its fair share of ‘Little Englanders’ probably concur.
