The debate on which way to vote
in the EU referendum is building in momentum in the run-up to June 23rd,
with both camps advancing their messages through flyers and articles
documenting what might happen should we stay or go. However, due to the complex
nature of the European Union and a lack of easy access to information on how
and why it does what it does, it is incredibly difficult to establish which
arguments are based on fact and which are an example of political rhetoric.
Here, I attempt to address some of the myths that are clouding our ability to
make an informed decision in the EU referendum.
Myth 1: The EU is undemocratic
and curtails British democracy
Much of the Leave campaign’s
argument revolves around a future where Britain can regain control of its own
democracy. According to Vote Leave
Referendum Communication posted through letter boxes across the country a
leave vote will result in the UK taking back control and once again making its
own laws. It is argued that the EU is run by unelected elites that can overrule
the UK government on policy decisions. However, this is untrue. Aside from the
fact that in 2012 the EU won a Nobel Peace Prize for its contribution to “over six decades... of the
advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe”,
the EU is in itself a largely democratic institution. The European Commission is
comprised of bureaucrats appointed by leaders of the member states and has only
the power to propose and dispose of new laws and to oversee their
implementation. It cannot create new laws. The European Council and Parliament
are comprised of elected officials of the member states and vote on the creation
of new laws. In that sense it works similarly to the UK Parliament where the
House of Lords is made up of individuals appointed by the Queen on advice from
the Prime Minister, and the House of Commons is comprised of elected MPs. British
MEP’s represent British interests in Europe and our elected Prime Minister sits
on the European Council with other elected heads of state. The EU, therefore,
works as a pseudo-confederacy, a union of states that maintain sovereignty over
their own laws, providing those laws fit within a framework decided by the
states themselves. Rather than telling individual countries what they can and
can’t do, the EU attempts to represent the interests of all of its member states
in a fair and representative way. The EU Parliament is in fact considered by
many to be more representative than the House of Commons, utilising
proportional representation over the UK’s much-criticised first-past-the-post
system. Far from being an impotent force in the EU, as Nigel Farage suggests,
the UK is an active member of a democratic institution that seeks to increase
international cooperation and solve issues through political means rather than
military.
Myth 2: Membership of the EU increases Britain’s security
risk
Sir Richard Dearlove, former Chief of MI6, suggests that “the
ability to dump the European Convention on Human Rights” would be an important
security gain for the UK. It is argued that the European Convention on Human
Rights harms the UK’s ability to protect itself from a terror attack by
reducing our capacity to use certain forms of security measures. The measures
the Act prohibits include mass surveillance, torture and detention without
trial. The argument regarding the necessities of these particular measures is a
different one altogether but for myself and many others, the thought of a UK
government with the capacity to engage in any of these activities without recourse
or oversight is a scary one, and even outside of the EU it is likely that
national legislation would regulate this sort of action.
The unification of Europe has allowed individual member
states to spend less annually on their own military forces whilst maintaining a
secure border around “Fortress Europe”. The thought of two European countries
going to war against each other today is laughable, which is quite a statement
for a continent that only 70 years ago nearly tore itself apart in the biggest war
in recorded history. Today we solve our differences in boardrooms in Brussels
rather than on battlefields, and the EU has a large part to play in that. The
last two wars that claimed significant numbers of British lives and arguably
made our homeland less secure were not led by our EU neighbours, but by the
United States.
Myth 3: EU membership has led to unsustainable levels of
immigration
Although the EU open-border policy has encouraged greater
levels of immigration within the EU, the “uncontrollable” level of migration
Boris Johnson fears will destroy our economy is simply not borne out by the evidence.
Although 184,000 EU citizens arrived in the UK last year with the intention of
staying for over one year, it should be noted that 188,000 arrived from non-EU
nations. This suggests that simply leaving the EU will not curb the current
rate of immigration to the UK as citizens of EU member states would still be
able to move to the UK through our domestic immigration system. More
importantly, though, fear over the number of immigrants arriving in the UK may
be misguided. Far from being a ‘strain on public services’, as Nigel Farage
claimed in a speech on the 3rd of June, a recent report from HMRC
stated that recently arrived EEA (European Economic Area) nationals paid £3.1
billion in income tax and national insurance in 2014, and took only £0.56
billion in HMRC benefits. With the aging UK population, immigration may be one
of the only ways to ensure enough money is entering the state economy to keep national
services afloat.
According to the Financial Times, approximately 1.8 million
Britons live outside of the UK in the EU, compared to 2.34 million EU migrants
in the UK, meaning that the number of EU nationals arriving is almost
completely offset by the number of Britons leaving, again disputing the idea
that immigration is out-of-control and our public services are unable to cope. Britons
living outside the UK are also often conveniently forgotten in immigration
debates, and in the event of a Leave vote their future in Europe could be in
question.
The debate over Europe has been
unfortunately light on facts, and whilst this is far from exhaustive it has
hopefully challenged some of the prevailing notions that are dictating people’s
choices in the current referendum. The fact of the matter is that the United
Kingdom is a forgotten power, and outside of Europe we run the risk of fading
into insignificance on the world stage. In Europe, we are a leading contributor
to the greatest political and economic power in the world (with a larger GDP
than the US and China), a champion of freedom of movement and the sharing of
cultures, and a testament to the power that a multicultural society can bring.
The European Union has many
flaws, but it is the first political experiment of its kind. Around the world
other attempts at regional integration have followed in the footsteps of the
EU, ranging from the African Union, Eurasian Economic Community and the Union of South
American Nations, as well as many others. In a globalized world,
integration is preferable to isolationism. None of these organisations are
perfect, and in fact many require huge reform if they are to continue to work
and do the best for the most people (the EU included) but we stand a better
chance of having our say and making a difference within these communities
rather than outside of them. The big world is getting smaller and we as a
country need to learn to adapt.
I’m voting Remain in the EU referendum.
Register to vote by the end of today and make your voice heard on the 23rd
of June.
