(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
The recent power study presented as one of its main conclusions that Norwegian democracy is weathering. It is not better in other countries. The causes of the weathering are many, and most of them have nothing to do with the EU.
Equally clear is that the EU is by no means the solution to the problem of weathering democracies. On the contrary: From a historical perspective, the EU appears to be a dramatic democratization of European societies.
Centralized power
First, the free movement of goods, services and capital across such a large geographical area as the EU creates large-scale centralization. The huge EU market promotes all forms of large-scale operations. But when competition is as fierce as in the borderless EU market, large banks and companies live as dangerously as small ones. That's why they merge, that's why they buy each other up – preferably across borders. It outmaneuvers national authorities most effectively.
In this way, the EU market is doomed to promote the centralization of business activity in ever larger units. In practice, this also means geographical centralization. Larger banks and companies do not place headquarters on the outskirts of the large market. They gather systematically in what is becoming increasingly stronger European centers of power.
Remote controlled democratization
Secondly, the EU is increasing the gap between those in power and those in power. It cannot be otherwise when so much of what was domestic policy becomes EU policy. Fish deliveries and business support, postal services and municipal procurement, asbestos bans and bottle sizes, public alcohol monopolies and food additives – everything has become foreign policy. For us in Norway through the EEA agreement, for the EU states through the rules for the internal market.
The EEA agreement sweeps aside licensing rules for the benefit of locally owned businesses, municipalities' right to place purchases with local companies, the laws that ensure Norwegian fishermen's influence over their own industry. EU membership will remove the right of negotiation to the Norwegian agricultural organizations. At the same time, important sources of a vibrant Norwegian democracy are affected.
Moving power in Norway
Third: The EU does not move power only from Stockholm and Lisbon to Brussels, and the EEA does not move power only from Oslo to Brussels. The EU also moves power within Norwegian, Swedish and Portuguese society. Power is shifted from outskirts to the center, from grass roots to elite, from those most used to being overheard to those who can overhear others increasingly free of charge.
In every organization, in every party, in every public agency, in every municipal administration, in every local community, the "Brussels specialists" with language skills and international networks have a monopoly on a scarce resource: strategic information about the conditions and decisions that the EU imposes on Swedish society , the Portuguese society and – through the EEA agreement – the Norwegian society.
Everywhere, power is shifting in the same direction: from the many to the very few. They are so few – and become so well known to each other – that they gradually become more and more different from the many they once belonged to. And they are becoming more and more like each other, yes, confusingly similar to each other.
Reduced freedom of action
Fourth: EU market freedoms, the free flow of goods, services, capital and labor, require the prohibition of national, regional and local societies from interfering with market solutions for human or social reasons. The markets should only be regulated at EU level, and in addition, there is an overarching goal that competition in the markets should have as much free flow as possible.
The EU has not at any point increased the freedom of action of governments and local authorities to intervene in the adverse effects of market competition. The counterpart to market freedoms is therefore reduced freedom of action for governments and parliaments, for local government and local elected bodies, for trade unions and fisheries organizations.
The real challenges
This is the fundamental democratic weakness of the entire EU structure. Nowhere in Western Europe is the lack of free flow of goods, services, capital any important societal problem. On the contrary: The important and difficult societal problems are quite different.
Our society faces challenges that are difficult to find: Unemployment, disability insurance, welfare schemes such as rape, health queues, social disintegration, substance abuse, rising violence and crime. The challenges are in line, and many of them are engaging in many ways.
Such problems can only be solved by active local involvement being triggered by credible community projects on the part of the larger community, a project that can involve as many people as possible to take responsibility where they live and where they work. Then it can be fatal if most people turn away from active political involvement. At that point, the power study is crystal clear.
Hits to its core
At all crossroads in EU development, more and more power and more decisions have been transferred to the EU institutions. The proposal for a European Constitution points in the same direction. This can strike democracy at its core. Freedom of action for democratically elected bodies to safeguard important human and social considerations is necessary for democratic schemes to make sense and for people to engage in political work.
Important conditions for democracy are that the population is informed, engaged and that it can be mobilized when important values or interests are at stake.
Citizens must know what is going on, they must know how decisions can be influenced, and they must have confidence that it is useful to get involved.
White spots on the Europe map
Knowing what's going on: The European Commission and the Council of Ministers Brussels, the European Parliament's Strasbourg and the ECB's Frankfurt are not only far away from most EU citizens purely geographically. Politically, these cities are far and away white spots on the Europe map.
In all EU countries, there is minimal media coverage of what is happening in the European Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament – frighteningly much less than the coverage of national politics when one knows what is being decided where.
Few EU citizens have any idea what issue is being dealt with in this EU system. And if a journalist knew it, she would need half a day's paper to explain to readers what she knew. So the white spots are no coincidence.
Who should we call?
About knowing how decisions can be influenced: Around Norwegian organizations and institutions, tens of thousands know which telephone numbers they can call if they – through a few paragraphs – will influence those who make the decisions in the Storting and ministry.
In Danish and Spanish organizations and institutions, there are probably only a few dozen with particular EU competence who know how they are. telephone can now come close to the final decision makers in the EU. Most people who find a phone number in Brussels only hit the surface of the EU system.
Will Brussels listen to me?
About having confidence that it pays to get involved: The ban on the use of asbestos in building materials came into Norwegian law after a long and persistent struggle by trade unions, doctors and lawyers – and by individuals with health problems. The connection between long-term use of chemical solvents and brain damage also took far too long to gain a hearing for.
Today, only the EU can tighten such health requirements for products – both in EU countries and in the EEA. But the EU system is much harder to win because it is not just a Norwegian ministry or a Norwegian parliament that must be convinced. In foreign languages, you must first reach the bureaucratic wanderings around the European Commission – and then have powerful enough allies for a large enough majority of EU ministers to vote for stricter rules.
How many people believe that it is useful to start such a project? And the more they know about the EU, the less faith they will have!
