June 2.– This week, politics in the UK and EU highlight one of history’s most ironic moments. In the UK, faced with Baroness Heather Hallett’s requests for access to Covid exchanges among senior government figures, the champions of ‘take back control’ squirm around. In the EU, those they accused of being anti-democratic are intensifying action to invigorate democracy against dark forces and to sustain participatory democracy.
All this is happening because both the UK and the EU face elections. In the EU, in June 2024 there will be elections to the European Parliament. It was first directly elected by voters from all nine members of the states comprising the then European Community (forerunner of the EU) in 1979. In those days, it was little more than a talking shop. But gradually it and the states’ governments made a reality of the principle of democratic accountability. As a result, the European Parliament has real power to legislate and hold member governments and the EU Commission to account over decisions taken together. Now it is acting to protect democracy.
Why the obsession with democracy?
The war in Ukraine and countless claims across Europe over suspected foreign interference in elections in Western democracies have alerted politicians to the fact that democracy, as we know it, is a minority form of government across the world. Russia and China are often readily identified as the sources of non-state and state-sponsored foreign interference, but over 80 states are believed to weaponize disinformation through social media and exploit or abuse ignorance, gullibility, and greed to undermine democracy. It is not just the political landscape and changing geopolitical realities that spurred the EU into action. Rather, reflection and self-criticism have reminded the EU that democracy has to be nourished to survive.
Combating foreign interference and sustaining political and election integrity are being debated this week in the European parliament. Its members recognise how fragile democracy has become and how transient it may be unless it is protected ...
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