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The EU members have not all signed up to the same agreements; for example, membership of the Schengen accord on border controls and membership of the Eurozone are both optional.[1]
Not all Eurozone members will want to pass more powers to Brussels, but they are all affected by the European Central Bank’s decisions. There will be difficulties in agreeing different budgets for the Eurozone, if it takes on more responsibilities, and correspondingly lower contributions for those countries which are not in it.
It is possible to envisage MEPs for Eurozone countries being asked to vote on Eurozone matters whilst other MEPs would be asked to abstain. A more radical solution would be for membership of the European Parliament to be restricted to Eurozone countries:
· It would form a major part of political accountability for deeper political integration within the Eurozone – where political decisions on austerity, for example, would directly affect the lives of people living in those countries.
· It would allow the EU to be politically repositioned as an inter-governmental organisation rather than having authority over member States – which is a much more accurate representation of what it is, for non-Eurozone countries.
· It would save money for those outside the Eurozone.
The question of political integration has to be resolved for Eurozone members, but seems threatening to those outside it – for whom the EU is an inter-governmental organisation for co-operation and not a superstate.
© PatternsofPower.org, 2014
[1] The Economist article referred to above, entitled Four Ds for Europe at http://www.economist.com/node/8808208, published a list of European countries and the agreements they had signed up to.