OPINION: The EU — from democratic dove to military hawk

A DECEMBER 2023 EU study asked respondents about the state of democracy in each country. It stated: “Democracy, the rule of law and fundamental rights are the foundations on which the EU is based. The purpose of this survey was to collect information on EU citizens’ awareness on the state of democracy in their country and in the EU, as well as EU citizens’ perceptions of the possible threats that democratic institutions in the EU may be facing.”
According to the results, it said “47 percent of EU citizens surveyed reply being ‘very satisfied’ or ‘somewhat satisfied’ with the way democracy works in their country”, while 51 percent were either ‘not very satisfied’ or ‘not at all satisfied’.
From a country level, Denmark topped the satisfaction list at 79 percent, down to Bulgaria on 26 percent. Of 27 countries, Ireland ranked ninth in the satisfaction stakes.
On the question about how freely citizens can express their political opinion without fearing negative consequences, Ireland dropped to 19th place, with 35 percent saying they ‘tend to disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’.
The threat to democracy listed most frequently by EU citizens was ‘false and/or misleading information in general circulating online and offline’ (38 percent). This was followed by ‘growing distrust and scepticism towards democratic institutions’ (32 percent).
Amidst all of this, we have European (and local) elections looming. Despite requests from local bodies in various towns, including Westport, not to erect election posters, both Lisa Chambers’ (FF) and Maria Walsh’s (FG) teams managed to plaster Westport town last week. Not a good sign if communication is broken down at such a basic level. No doubt both sides will eat the required dose of humble pie and remove them.
(Note to all candidates – please do not discard your used posters. Rather gift them to your local beekeepers’ associations as, once cut to size, they make excellent floors for beehives – seriously!)
Back in Europe, Ursula von der Leyen is seeking another term as President of the European Commission. The democratic contradiction about this is that EU citizens will not be able to vote. She is proposed by the European Council (the 27 heads of state/governments) and elected (approved) by the European Parliament. All the EU Commissioners are also ‘appointments’; they are not elected by citizens. How democratic is that?
Following the horrendous Hamas October 7 attack on innocent Israelis, which killed around 1,200 people, von der Leyen made an unapproved trip to Israel to show support for Netanyahu and his war masters. Almost 2,000 Palestinians had been killed when she visited. Since that date Netanyahu and his Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed almost 35,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank. This includes more than 14,500 children. Almost 80,000 are injured and more than 8,000 are missing.
Ms von der Leyen hasn’t visited Gaza. There she’d find, according to Al Jazeera’s live tracker on May 6: 60 percent of Gaza’s homes have been damaged, along with 80 percent of commercial facilities, 73 percent of school buildings and 267 places of worship. Further, 12 out of 35 hospitals are only partially functioning, while 83 percent of groundwater wells are not operational. The figures are based on data from the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organisation and the Palestinian government.
As of April 5, more than 100 journalists, mostly Palestinians, had been killed since October 7. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Federation of Journalists, 96 Palestinian, three Lebanese and four Israeli journalists have been killed.
One could argue that rather than protecting democracy one of the ‘foundations on which the EU is based’, von der Leyen is steering the EU towards autocracy and federalism, creating a caste of unelected but powerful political elite. Could the next step be the creation of a military-centric EU, with foreign policy based on militarisation and defence spending?
Back home, Ireland’s exports of restricted ‘dual-use’ goods to Israel (that have potential military purposes) grew almost sevenfold last year from €11 million to over €70 million. Ireland is now Israel’s fourth-biggest market for all types of goods, with sales mostly of computer circuits growing to €4.8 billion. Goose, gander.
It’s amazing how the war business interferes so much with democracy.