Happy Europe Day – but what does it mean?

Today we celebrate Europe Day – but what exactly are we celebrating?

The European Union is at the same time one of the most democratic international organisations and the organisation most criticised for being undemocratic. The perceived lack of democracy, the much debated ‘Democratic Deficit’ has been for a long time a major source of headache for those working within the EU. Now with the rise of UKIP, it is becoming an increasing headache not just for the Tories but for Labour as well.

Labour need a response to UKIP but a hard line on Europe won’t address the concerns of people who voted for them in recent elections. There is far more to it than that, but that’s a subject for another blog.

But we will never win the debate while we allow the question to be more Europe or less? Fundamentally, people will not trust or vote for something they don’t feel a connection with and you can’t have a connection to something you don’t understand. We saw this perfectly displayed during the AV referendum.

We must do a much better job – as a party and as candidates in the coming European elections – to show what the EU is and what is means for real people.

That is why we need to start talking about a Social Europe. As a trade unionist I’ve seen first-hand the protections people in work enjoy because of the EU – rights for working people is an area where the EU has made a real difference. And let’s not kid ourselves there; the Tories don’t want out of Europe so they can give us more rights at work or more control over corporations, far from it.

But while defending the role of Europe and the good it can do, we must be honest about what needs to change. It’s not perfect. The stubborn pursuit of austerity is crippling economies and creating real hardship. The Laval judgement and service liberalisation have quite rightly raised real concerns. That’s why we need an EU with Labour values at its heart.

Labour must show how Europe matters to people’s everyday lives, it must show how Labour values in Europe will deliver on our shores and get the message out that it already has.