Nation State in EU Liberal Vision

Luca Bellizzi

Sujets

• Convergence démocratique de Catalogne
• Catalogne
• Autonomisme
• Convergence et Union
• Internationale libérale
• Catalanisme
• Centrism
• Libéralisme
• Jordi Pujol
• Artur Mas

Informations

• Publié par: Voxpopuli
• Nombre de lectures: 36
• Langue: Catalan

Extrait

Nation State in EU - Liberal Vision

Luca Bellizzi

Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya

Iberian Liberal Forum

10-11 June 2011

Lisbon, Portugal

2

The nation state is a form of government born, and

basically succeeded, in Europe during an historical period

which began about three hundred years ago and that can

be defined by three main characteristics:

-

Fixed territory and formal borders

. The establishment

and recognition of clear borders are conceived as a

protection from foreign attacks, invasions, immigrants and

imports.

-

Sovereignty

. The state has supreme authority over a

territory and population. It recognizes no other source of

jurisdiction but itself.

-

Monopoly and homogenization

. The state has exclusive

jurisdiction within its territory and establishes a uniform

administration over it with an internal hierarchy of powers. It

tends

to

promote

the homogenization

of

important

social and cultural characteristics of its citizens.

Although the classical nation state remains the main actor

on the international stage and in the provision of public

goods and services, it is no less true that it's experiencing a

gradual loss of its centrality.

The states are being eroded from three different sides.

From above, the emergence of transnational regimes - such

as

the

European

Union,

the

North

Atlantic

Treaty

3

Organization - undermine sovereignty in matters as

important as monetary policy, environmental policy and

military security, just to name a few; sideways, by the loss

of monopolies as a consequence of privatization and

liberalization of economic sectors traditionally under their

supervision and control; and, from below, by the increasing

territorial

claims

of

regions

and

stateless

nations

demanding more autonomy and decision-making capacity

in matters they consider of their own interest.

The globalisation of the economy, the global economic

crisis, changes in the global labour market, massive

migratory

flows,

international

terrorism,

environmental

degradation

are

highly

complex

and

interconnected

problems that no actor, not even the national state with all

its administrative machinery and financial resources, can

face and solve alone.

States have been overwhelmed and have been forced to

look for forms of economic, monetary, commercial, political

and military cooperation ever more large and deep but

where the states can no longer take decision unilaterally.

By definition, a sovereign state does not accept any

external authority and establishes itself as the supreme

source of authority within a defined territory.

4

But with the development of new military and security

alliances, free trade agreements, single currency and

transnational communications networks, the states have

transferred to new supranational institutions powers that

had been always under its sovereign jurisdiction. And,

accordingly, for many states sovereignty, respect to real

decisions, has ceased to exist.

Recently, the economic rescue packages granted to some

states of the Eurozone to keep their governments solvent

and the financial measures forced by the troika (European

Commission, European Central Bank and International

Monetary Fund) represent an unquestionable example of

the reduced sovereignty of the states.

At the same time, under the pressure of increasing

demands of nationalist and autonomist parties larger

European states have tended to decentralize authority over

important

economic,

social,

educational

and

cultural

policies in favour of sub-national governments.

Regions and communities have based their devolutionary

claims on a sub-national legitimacy. In most cases, this

legitimacy has ethnic, historic, linguistic, religious, and/or

cultural roots. That has been the case for Catalonia and the

Basque Country in Spain and for Scotland in the United

Kingdom. More recently economic arguments became

5

another

important

source

of

sub-national

legitimacy.

Common supporting arguments for devolutionary policies

are: the benefits of greater economic efficiency that lower

level governance can engender, the closer match between

who obtains benefits and who bears the cost and the

rebalance of uneven regional economic development.

As a consequence, in the eighties and nineties, many

European countries have opted, in application of the

subsidiary principle, to decentralize territorially its power

and transfer political and financial responsibilities to non-

central governments.

In France, a general plan of regional assemblies was

introduced in 1982 with a special status for Corsica. In

Belgium, a series of successive constitutional reforms

between 1970 and 1993, delegated powers to the regions

and to the linguistic communities. In the United Kingdom

took place a process of devolution of powers to the

traditional kingdoms. In 1999, the new assembly and the

new

government

of

Northern

Ireland,

the

Scottish

parliament and the Welsh assembly and government were

established.

The Italian state has delegated, between 1997 and 2001,

different powers to the regions and every region (special

and ordinary) could draw up its own statute. In 2005 a

project of constitutional reform was introduced providing,

6

among other things, a devolution of exclusive powers to the

regions, the fiscal federalism and the creation of a Senate

with strong legislative powers.

In Spain, the

Pactos Autonómicos

of 1981 reformed the

centralized territorial model giving way to the decentralized

model of

Estado de las Autonomías

.Among the eighties

and nineties, as a result of the demands of territorial

governments, successive agreements have been reached

increasing fiscal resources of the autonomous communities.

The original request in 1993 to manage 15% of the income

tax became in 1996 the assignment of 30%. In 1992 the

second

Pactos

Autonómicos

transferred

32

new

competences to the communities, including education.

Catalonia has been one of the first and most active

communities to claim higher levels of self-government.

Through different agreements, the Government of Catalonia,

has obtained jurisdiction in various matters of culture,

education, health, justice, environment, communications,

transports, commerce, public safety, local governments and

more fiscal resources.

In 2004, following the initiative of Catalonia, most of the

autonomous

communities

of

Spain

have

begun

the

elaboration of new Statutes of Autonomy (the autonomous

basic law) with the aim of expanding their self-government

and get ever-broader competencies.

7

Summing up, the great national states have not only lost its

capacity to guarantee the defence of the territory and to

provide a protected currency and markets on behalf of the

European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and

other supranational organizations and networks, but have

also been losing large part of their capacity to collect taxes,

maintain order and public safety, organize basic services

such as education and health, as well as the monopoly of

television and the management of cultural and linguistic

diversity, on behalf of local autonomous governments.

In other words: the traditional national states lose power of

decision on issues that were the basis of its external

sovereignty and its domestic monopoly.

However, it would be a great mistake to believe that these

processes are unstoppable and that the national states

accept passively the gradual loss of their sovereignty.

The failure of the European Constitutional Treaty, following

the rejection in the French and Dutch referendums in spring

2005; the complicated entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty

in December 2009, whose ratification was only possible

through the grant of opt-out clauses to Ireland, the Czech

Republic and Poland; and the recent decision by some

states to suspend the Schengen Treaty and reintroduce

border controls, are clear examples of how national states

8

are trying to restore and maintain their own centrality and

sovereignty.

In the same way, nation states try to counter the increasing

autonomist demands and intent to reaffirm their sovereignty

and their exclusive jurisdiction within their territory. In Italy a

constitutional referendum in 2006 rejected the federalist

reform and has stopped the devolution process.

In June 2010, the Constitutional Court of Spain, called to

assess

the

constitutionality

of

the

Catalan

Statute

(approved by the Spanish Parliament and ratified in

referendum by the Catalan citizens in June 2006), rewrote

14 articles and dictated the interpretation for 27 more,

mainly relating to language, justice and fiscal policy. The

judgment also ruled that the term “nation” used in the

preamble has no legal standing.

Moreover, the recent economic crisis is coinciding in Spain

with the recovery of old centralist theses that challenge the

autonomic state, blamed to be the cause of an excessive

public spending .

From Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya we reject

this neo-centralist drift and we reclaim the inalienable right

of every people to define itself as a nation and decide freely

its own form of government.

9

We consider the right to free-determination as the highest

expression of freedom and we believe that in democracy

there can be no people deprived of the right to decide freely

what is best for its community.

The current situation does not meet our aspirations: the

Constitutional Court has frustrated our expectations for

greater self-government while the high fiscal deficit slows

our economic growth and reduces our welfare state.

We assert the right to decide our future, to decide our own

level of self-government, to pursue our cultural and social

development and the right to manage our own economic

resources. And we will use all the available legal tools and

all our democratic political force to reach these targets.

One of our top priorities is the full management of our

economic resources through a own funding model, such as

the fiscal pact. We aim for financial sovereignty to achieve

greater well-being for the Catalan people, a better

economic progress, more political sovereignty, greater

capacity for self-government and to move towards a truly

bilateral relationship between Catalonia and Spain.

In conclusion, new and more complex challenges await for

the traditional nation state, blurring existing jurisdictional

boundaries

and

spreading

powers

and

prerogatives

traditionally reserved to the states.

10

Everything indicates that tomorrow's world will be more

multipolar and polycentric. In this scenario, the nation state

must share its power and different levels of government

(local,

sub-state,

national

and

supranational)

must

recognize each other and cooperate.

Our aim and our obligation will be to design new forms of

multilevel governance to facilitate the interaction between

stakeholders and to improve the quality and the results of

policies and rules.