Brexit: EU needs a return to European values and treaties!
Make Europe strong again! Reflection on the fundamental values of the European Union / Britannia does not rule the waves anymore
Karl von Habsburg: “EU needs a return to European values and treaties!” Brexit is more of a death blow for the United Kingdom than for Europe
Following the British Brexit vote, the Paneuropa Movement Austria—founded in 1922 and thus the oldest pro-European unification movement—rejects both the hysteria and fear on one side and the euphoria over national solutions on the other.
For the President of the Paneuropa Movement Austria, Karl von Habsburg, the result of the British referendum is a drastic event: “However, it is less a death blow for European unification than it is a death blow for the United Kingdom: Britannia does not rule the waves anymore.” Nor can Brexit be interpreted as a turn towards the Commonwealth. “The large states in the Commonwealth have no interest in historical reminiscences; the small Commonwealth countries in Europe have no desire whatsoever to leave European unification.” In countries within the United Kingdom such as Scotland, renewed referendums for independence from London and membership in the EU are to be expected.
Karl von Habsburg makes it clear: “We do not need a return to nation-statehood, nor do we want an omnipotent Brussels – Europe must return to the foundation upon which it was successfully built!”
This foundation consists of the four fundamental freedoms, which for Paneuropa are non-negotiable, a commitment to the market economy and the rule of law, as well as subsidiarity.
Treaties were worth next to nothing, Habsburg notes, elaborating: stability criteria were and are constantly broken by states, no-bail-out clauses have been suspended, the Dublin Agreement sank into chaos, and whether Schengen applies or not depends on the daily whim of the respective government. While states were unable to protect external borders—as clearly agreed in the Schengen Agreement on freedom of movement since 1986 (!)—Europe and the states were busy regulating menus in taverns.
Paneuropa calls upon all political levels to return to the European foundations: the rule of law, market economy, freedom, subsidiarity, and a common foreign and security policy.