Which is also true for the whole empowerment thing: The Danish left very much does individual empowerment, within a framework of collective empowerment. There usually isn't any contradiction at the level of policy, even if some might argue that there is at the level of principle (I happen to disagree, but the case can be made).
- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
There are nuances of course, and there's still a decidedly Euroskeptic wing. But first, the EU has evolved so that it is more and more a genuine federal construct rather than a GATT-lite free fraud zone. Second, the Scandinavian red-green left has realised this fact (although they were a bit slow on the uptake). And third, these days the EU sometimes, and on some issues, has a more progressive policy than Denmark.
The importance of this last point should not be underestimated: There used to be an entirely valid critique of the EU on the grounds that it insisted on dragging environmental standards, workplace regulation, labour market policy and provision of government services down to German levels in the name of standardisation and free trade. These days, it's dragging our environmental standards, at least, up to German levels in the name of standardisation and free trade, and pulling more or less even on the general provision of government services (although the EU's Conventional Wisdom on labour market regulation continues to abhor me).
Partly, this is about the EU getting better, but frankly a lot of it is about Denmark regressing. You might call it a pretty standard case of rediscovery of the value of checks and balances that every political faction makes when they're out of power for an extended period of time :-P
One of the big debates during this fall has been the debate over the swedish implementation of IPRED, in particular clauses on giving the copyright industries legislative support for running blackmail scams. The standard argument as to why this was proposed was for a long time the governments cry: EU makes us do it!
The case of Promusicae vs Telefónica has gained quite some reputation and that argument was smashed, though I suspect it will linger. In particular as everything points to the bill being passed before christmas despite pretty overwhelming negative public opinions. The Greens and the Left party (think Linke) are on the side of information freedom here, though the issues are mainly pushed by the Pirate party. The Soc Dems tend to land on that side to, but that is mainly because they are in opposition, they supported the directive when they were in power.
In general, EUs public image is taking a beating here, and the green-red are those that stand mainly to gain in polls from it. To counter this and increasing support for the ugly party (mainly protestvotes agianst the establishment) the largest ruling party - Moderaterna - is going to run on a nationalistic platform in the EP elections.
So I expect the Greens and left to continue on a EU sceptic course, as the votes are there. Though the Greens do - after internal referendum - no longer propose Sweden leaving the EU. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
JakeS:
That doesn't apply any more, and hasn't for some years.
That may be true in Denmark, and is probably, as you later imply, because of the rightward progress of the Danes' recent descent through Night and Fogh.
But my client informs me in no uncertain terms that Norwegians are in fact becoming increasingly pissed off with:
(a) EU financial demands in respect of EEA fees payable - the Lion's share being Norway's.
(b) perceived EU intrusions into areas Norwegians hold sacrosanct, in particular, property rights and the relationship between public and private sectors.
Only today we see Norway's (very left wing and feisty, but constrained by her office) finance minister in Brussels telling the Commission where to get off in relation to Norway's superior (more than double, at current exchange rates) level of guarantees for bank deposits. "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
