Europe, Headlines

EUROPEAN SOCIAL FORUM: NGOs Face a Constitutional Test

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Oct 19 2004 (IPS) - The European constitution emerged as a less emotive but more immediate issue than Iraq during the three-day European Social Forum that concluded in London last weekend.

A new constitution prepared by a team headed by former French president Valery Giscard d’Estaing was adopted by European Union (EU) heads of state or government after it was put up for consultation on July 10 last year. It now awaits ratification by national governments through parliaments or referendums.

The constitution will be signed by the heads of state or government at the end of this month. Governments then have two years to ratify the constitution. It would have to be ratified in every one of the 25 EU member states to come into force.

For the European Social Forum (ESF), a gathering of European organisations that lean mostly to the left, some quite far, the constitution will be a key test of the strength of their campaign.

The EU constitution was discussed at length through the ESF, and it came up at the end with a strongly critical view. But that position has inevitably found its critics who see it as an unrealistic position too far to the left.

Within the ESF most groups were agreed against the draft constitution. ”It will have a liberalising effect on services,” Graham Coop from the London-based Centre for a Social Europe told IPS. ”It would therefore be easy in international agreements for the trade commissioner to negotiate on health and education services.” If those negotiations are adopted into the World Trade organisation they can have a ”long-term privatising effect,” he said.

The draft constitution also encourages the setting up of out of area camps for asylum-seekers, he said, in its reference to cooperation with third countries to manage migration flows. A consequence of this would be limitations on the charter of fundamental rights, Coop said.

The ”call of the assembly of social movements” produced by the ESF says the draft constitution does not meet ESF aspirations.

It ”consecrates neo-liberalism” and ”makes competition the basis of European community law,” it said. The ESF said the draft ignores the objective of an ecologically sustainable society, does not give equal rights, free movement of people and citizenship for everyone in the country they live in, and gives the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) a role in European policy and defence.

The ESF said it is fighting for a Europe ”where job insecurity and unemployment are not part of the agenda” and for a ”viable agriculture controlled by the farmers themselves.” It supports ”real social equality between men and women, and equal pay.” It said ”our Europe will respect and promote cultural and linguistic diversity and respect the right of peoples to self-determination and allow all the different peoples of Europe to decide upon their futures democratically.”

The statement said ”we are struggling for another Europe which is respectful of workers’ rights and guarantees a decent salary and a high level of social protection” and that it is fighting for a Europe that refuses war and supports ”all those who refuse to serve in the military.”

What effect this kind of call can have varies from country to country, says Brendan Donnelly, director of the Federal Trust for Education and Research in London. The trust seeks ”to examine theories of federalism and constitutionalism, and to contribute to analysis of their political and legal implications for the European Union.”

The ESF does reflect ”a current of opinion which may lead to the constitution being rejected in France,” Donnelly told IPS. The socialist parties in France are taking a vote on this among their members, and if they vote against the constitution it may not pass a referendum, he said. Even though the ESF is further left than the socialists in France, the ESF position is not unimportant, he said.

The ESF stand is unlikely to have much influence in countries such as Italy, Belgium, Portugal and Finland, Donnelly said. In Britain people on the left within the Labour Party have a similar critique of the constitution but they are a small minority.

But the draft EU constitution is ”essentially a photograph of where the EU is at the moment,” Donnelly said. To reject the constitution would be ”to throw the baby out with the bathwater because you’re unlikely to get anything better.”

Donnelly acknowledged that the EU constitution ”tends towards an ideology of trade liberalisation” and that ”if you take the view that trade liberalisation is dangerous and undesirable, then you will be disappointed in the EU constitution.” Also, the constitution is a step towards a defence identity for the EU ”and if you oppose that you will be worried about the constitution.”

But everything is always in a flux in the EU, and the constitution provides ”a framework in which decisions are taken.” Different political views could be put forward within the framework, Donnelly said, because ”any constitution has to be a compromise between various views.”