A Free Single Market Instead of National Protectionism
Although long proven wrong by history, the ideological ghosts of the past, such as national protectionism, keep reappearing – hidden under new masks. A commentary by Karl von Habsburg.
In a recent position paper of the Paneuropa Movement Austria on the 2019 European elections, one of the demands is for ‘a free single market instead of new national protectionisms’. From a Paneuropean perspective, this demand is not new. It was already present in the first programmes of this oldest European unification movement almost 100 years ago. At that time, after the end of the First World War, politicians in the newly emerged small countries of Central Europe, as well as those in the somewhat larger countries of Western Europe, believed they could solve their own economic problems through the national isolation of their internal markets. In Central Europe in 1918, a free single market that stretched from today’s Ukraine to the Adriatic had been carved up by national customs barriers.
National protectionism, however, only made the situation worse. Once again, proof was provided that the laws of economics stand above political declarations of intent. This is also logical, because the laws of economics correspond to the way people act.
After the Second World War, this lesson was learned, and with the aim of enabling a free exchange of goods within the EEC, then the EC, and now the EU countries, the Single Market was made a core element of European integration. Of course, the economy is not everything, but without a functioning economy, there is no prosperity that benefits us all. Overcoming the Iron Curtain 30 years ago enlarged the Single Market and did Europe good economically. All countries.
It is all the more astonishing that today, time and again, under various guises such as the protection of the labour market, under the pretext of social rights, etc. etc., the ghosts of old ideologies that were thought to have long since disappeared are returning. One need only think of the protectionist inventions designed to obstruct the freedom to provide services or the Posting of Workers Directive, which is used to negate comparative cost advantages. The politics of nation-states is attempting to place itself above the actual idea of a free Europe. The consequences of such a policy are well known.
Europe, the EU, does not therefore need a return to the old nation-state with its isolated markets, but rather a rediscovery of free trade. Only free trade can secure and increase prosperity. Protectionism has always destroyed it.
Until the European elections on 26 May, in my capacity as President of the Paneuropa Movement Austria, I will be commenting on individual points from the Paneuropa Movement’s position paper.
The article originally appeared on the website of Karl von Habsburg.
copyright featured image European Union 2015
