A member of the European Parliament, German politician Silvana Koch-Mehrin would like to see a decentralized Europe that puts its citizens first, she writes in an exclusive essay for DW-WORLD.DE. Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a member of the European Parliament, belongs to Germany's free market liberal party, the FDP, and heads up its European Parliament group. My vision of Europe includes lasting diversity. Herein lies its potential. Diversity has characterized Europe for centuries, and diversity feeds the common European identity. It is absurd to think that Europe will ever flourish if its roots are enforced equality and shared values dictated from above. A liberal Europe of the future is based on recognition of diversity, and it will continue to promote this principle. Business long ago realized that competition is healthier than monopolies, and the same principle applies to politics. Decentralization encourages this competition, which needs to permeate every level of politics. Take competition among business locations. Competition allows citizens and companies to identify where to base the services their taxes help provide. If these are to be tied to a region or a country in the long-run, their hosts need to budget well and meet their responsibilities. Decentralization is a way to prevent governments from collecting extortionate taxes only in order to dole out subsidies and create mountains of debt.
Silvana Koch-Mehrin, a member of the European Parliament, belongs to Germany's free market liberal party, the FDP, and heads up its European Parliament group.
My vision of Europe includes lasting diversity. Herein lies its potential. Diversity has characterized Europe for centuries, and diversity feeds the common European identity. It is absurd to think that Europe will ever flourish if its roots are enforced equality and shared values dictated from above. A liberal Europe of the future is based on recognition of diversity, and it will continue to promote this principle. Business long ago realized that competition is healthier than monopolies, and the same principle applies to politics.
Decentralization encourages this competition, which needs to permeate every level of politics. Take competition among business locations. Competition allows citizens and companies to identify where to base the services their taxes help provide. If these are to be tied to a region or a country in the long-run, their hosts need to budget well and meet their responsibilities. Decentralization is a way to prevent governments from collecting extortionate taxes only in order to dole out subsidies and create mountains of debt.
Diversity has characterized Europe for centuries
War too.
Business long ago realized that competition is healthier than monopolies, and the same principle applies to politics. Decentralization encourages this competition, which needs to permeate every level of politics.
Decentralization encourages this competition, which needs to permeate every level of politics.
For that matter, many of the subsidies doled out by local and regional governments come in the form of packages to attract firms to shift to their city or region.
This prescription is precisely wrong. High mobility of businesses has a destructive effect on local economies. Governments need to focus on fostering local businesses and value chains from the bottom up, not on attracting and keeping big firms.
I think we can call what Koch-Mehrin proposes the broader neoliberal vision for Europe. Destructive jurisdictional competition to disempower government, destroy small business and local economies, and shift wealth upwards.
But it's cleverly framed to read as if it's bottom-up populism.
When we're having a debate about presentation, it's worth remembering that this is how the Right lies - by making comments which seem inclusive and reasonable if you skim over them, but which hide the real agenda.
A member of the European Parliament, German politician Silvana Koch-Mehrin would like to see a decentralized Europe that puts its citizens first
Only if by "citizens" you understand "big business" and by "decentralised" you hear "powerless" In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
