Daniel Hanan on Croatia's EU accession (ILS – Opatija, June 16-18, 2011)

At the International Leaders Summit - Regional Conference, June 16-18, 2011 in Opatija, Croatia, Daniel Hannan, MEP, UK and Secretary General, Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) took time and visited with RI-TV's Anchor Barbara Konestabo. In this interview, Mr. Hannan focuses on Croatia's EU accession, the Eurozone crisis, EU budget, corruption in Europe, Croatia's sovereignty, reforms, EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and pertinent issues.

(video at the bottom of the article

Transcript:

Reporter:
In 2013 Croatia will probably become a member of European Union, what does that change for our country?

Daniel Hannan:
The first thing is it has to be your decision. Croatia is a sovereign country, an independent democracy, and in the past like all of us you have had experience of being brought into political unions by a small number of people in the elite. Union with Hungary, union with Habsburgs, union with the Kingdom of Slovenes and Serbs, Yugoslav federation, so this has to be on terms that are acceptable to the whole people of Croatia, not just politicians who will have great benefits from the European Union, believe me.

If you decide that you want to join, then we European Conservatives and reformists will be your strongest supporters, your loudest advocates, your best allies. We have always been in favor of a wider instead of a deeper Europe, we want a Europe of nations, free peoples, free markets, free sovereign parliaments, and we think that it is wrong to put extra conditions in the way of Croatia which were not required of other countries. You should be treated fairly in the same way that every other member state is.

Reporter:
Are there any conditions extra for Croatia?

Daniel Hannan:
Well, I think there have been some conditions relating to the war, relating to the status of minorities, and I think that you have to be satisfied that eventual membership package is acceptable. I'm very pleased that Croatia is having a referendum. Whichever way you vote, we will then try and get you the best possible relationships. If you are full member, we'll try to get you the best terms, if you vote against, we will try and get you the best deal as a trading partner and as an associate.

Reporter:
There were many unions in our history and in whole World's history that fell apart. What is the, can you predict the future of the European Union?

Daniel Hannan:
Supranational unions only work when there is no democracy. As soon as people are given the vote, they vote for peaceable separation. We saw it with the Ottoman Empire, we saw it with the Habsburg Empire, we saw it with the Yugoslav Federation. You can have a supranational state held together by an autocratic government, but as soon as you have a free democracy people vote for separation. That's why we believe that it should be a Europe of nations, a Europe based on parliamentary democracy and on the particular legitimacy that people feel for their own national institutions.

There is nothing wrong with patriotism. Patriotism doesn't mean you look down on somebody else's country. On the contrary, patriotism is what makes us behave unselfishly, it's what makes us recognize an obligation to our neighbors. And Europe will be stronger precisely because it has a strong and proud Croatia, a strong and proud Britain, a strong and proud Portugal, and so on.

Reporter:
What do you think about a strong and proud Croatian government?

Daniel Hannan:
You are a sovereign country, you will have to decide what kind of government you want. One thing I would say is that you should not expect the European Union to solve the problem of political corruption. On the contrary, Brussels gives enormous new opportunities for fraud and for bad behavior. For 16 years in a row now, the European Court of Auditors has refused to endorse the EU budget. Because such a high percentage of the budget is lost or unaccounted for. So I can understand why some people in every country see the opportunities in the Brussels' system, but the way you tackle corruption is not by making government more remote from the people. The way you tackle corruption is by making government smaller, so that you have fewer opportunities for nepotism, for promoting your family, giving deals to your friends, the less the government can do, the cleaner it becomes, and this is something you have to sort out for yourselves, and separately from the EU process. I'm confident you will do that. But I'm afraid the experience of some of the countries which have recently joined is that the EU gives them whole new revenue streams to abuse and to use improperly.

Reporter:
So is corruption a common problem in Europe, or is it just new members, Croatia and...?

Daniel Hannan:
No, it's common to all countries, including mine. Because if you have budgets that are unaccountable, determined by people who are not elected, you create the opportunity for the misallocation of spending. If I look at my own constituency in the southeast of England, if I look at the people who live most directly under EU rules, my farmers, my fishermen, people whose professional lives are completely under Bruselles' jurisdiction, I have seen in those professions good men, honest men, turned inch by inch protesting every step of the way into liars and cheats and falsifiers of documents, because that is how they have to operate within the Bruselles' rules. They are not happy about this. I have seen fishermen, skippers, who are forced to keep two logs, two records, one the real one and then the one they have to show authorities, because this is the requirement in practical terms of the Common Fisheries Policy. So the surest way to have efficient government is to bring it as close as possible to people, to make it as small as possible.

Reporter:
What about the people? Part of Croatians are scared of European Union and the Euro.

Daniel Hannan:
Well, I can understand that. The single currency is looking like a very unattractive proposition. No one in Britain now is even thinking of that possibility, that people who were arguing that we should join the Euro 10 years ago had suddenly gone very quiet. Because, if we had joined the single currency, if we had given up our Pound, we would now be in the same situation that Ireland is in. Ireland has seen its GDP declined by 20%. It could be looking at a generation of poverty and immigration. All because it is not able to run its own monetary policy, in its own interest. Our countries are not all identical, and you have to have the economic flexibility to do what is right for your own country.

Reporter:
So we should keep Kuna for a while?

Daniel Hannan:
Like I say, it's your decision. It's your decision. All I would say is I am very glad that we kept the Pound.

Reporter:
Oh, OK.
So, about UK, what is the most attractive thing about your country?

Daniel Hannan:
Well, I am never happier then when tramping around in the countryside, especially this time of year. When it doesn't rain, it is the most wonderful place for me. But the one thing that I think Britain has contributed, if I am proud of one thing that we've given, it's that developed and exported the idea that laws should not be passed nor taxes raised except by our own elected representatives. And we exported that idea to North America and to other continents, now, partly because of the European Union, it is looking a little bit more fragile at home. And that is the problem we have to tackle.

Reporter:
Are there any similarities between my country and your country, or there are just differences?

Daniel Hannan:
Of course there are similarities. I mean, we are Western liberal democracies with parliamentary system, with property rights, we have long history together, there are many people of Croatian origin in the United Kingdom. Those similarities do not mean that we should have the same system of government. I believe in a Europe of nations, where decisions are taken as closely as possible to the people that they affect. And that's why I'm not a believer in European superstate, not because I'm anti-Europe, I speak French, I speak Spanish, I've lived and worked all over the continent. My problem with the system is that the Brussels' bureaucracy has become remote and self serving, and cut off from the people it's supposed to represent.

Reporter:
Thank you very much.

original video at: http://www.youtube.com/user/Hrvatskaufokusu YouTube channel

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