This will be a short post, because, really, Mogens Camre – Danish MEP from a right-leaning, conservative formation, does not need much comment. Today, he gave an interview to RFI. I would like to start with a quote.

“When I look at the voting rules, I see that countries like Romania and Bulgaria have many more votes than Denmark and Sweden and Finland, and I think – honestly speaking – that we are more clever than they are.”

Apparently, we are also “old-fashioned”, “anti-reformist”, and “reactionary”, and we have “so much influence in Europe”. Yes, Mr. Camre, no doubt the combined total of 50 MPs from Bulgaria and Romania is indeed hugely influential in the 785-member European Parliament – indeed, more than, say the 415 MEPs from the 6 biggest countries (in terms of population, as voting is based on proportional representation) – Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom, Spain and Poland. In terms of seats, Scandinavia (if we are going to group countries together) has a total of 44 seats – they can now legitimately blame Norway for failing to enter the EU. Rough calculations also reveal that the ratio of population-per-seat in the EP is roughly equal in Bulgaria, Denmark and Finland – around 410 000 voters, while it is roughly 650 000 per seat in Romania, and 828 000 per seat in the biggest EU country, Germany.
Moving away from math, he claimed that “Western and northern European countries have societies that are more transparent, democratic and healthy”. I would agree with the assessment of ‘more transparent’, although it is quite an ambiguous word. More democratic? Like, they are get 5 out of 6 points in the ‘democratic’ scale? No offense meant, but (if we are stereotyping about cleverness, why not stereotype about this as well) most computer hackers come from Scandinavia. The last Freedomhouse report declares Sweden, Denmark, Finland, as well as Bulgaria and Romania as being “free”. More healthy? Even if we leave the infamous cartoons aside, we are still faced with declarations, such as, “The Islamic political-religious movement deals with world supremacy, as did other fanatic political ideologies in history. This world supremacy they are not able to achieve by military means, but try to achieve by flooding the world with people. All western countries are infiltrated by the Muslims – and some of them speak to us nicely, while they wait to be many enough to have us removed – like in the Sudan, Indonesia, Nigeria and in the Balkans.” Talk about liberal tolerance. By the way, this is a quote from the same Camre guy.
I would like to get one thing straight – how does votes in EP determine the fate of the EU community? It votes the budget (minus agriculture, which is ‘only’ 45%) and it has the power to veto the appointment of the European Commission. Apart from that, it has some de facto legislative initiative, but is very restricted – as a branch of the legislature, these are all its powers. The dual executive is where real power resides – the European Commission and the European Council. There each country has only one member. In the European Commission, Denmark cannot complain of lack of power, as it holds the Agriculture portfolio, one of the key European portfolios, Sweden – International Relations, and Finland – Enlargement, while Bulgaria has Consumer Protection, and Romania – Multilingualism. If we are to analyze “power” of states, we can clearly see that population has pretty much only nominal meaning. This does not mean that the EP is irrelevant, but simply that it is not the source of power, although it performs important duties. The distinction is similar to that of an executive and legislature within a state – the government has all the power, but the parliament is also a key body in the separation of power.
Maths and institutions, however, are not the only thing, not even the most important thing in what Camre’s statement reveal. “Honestly speaking,” he says, “we are more clever than they are”. This is quite in contrast with all kinds of liberal values, which their “better” democracy should be promoting. Furthermore, it is revealing of how the EU thinks. Camre is in his last term in the EP and will not be running again, so this shows that he honestly believes what he says, he is not burdened by the consequences, and it is not simply a matter of political calculation for the upcoming elections. Elsewhere, I’ve dealt with how Western media sees Bulgaria, but this comment seems to be directly linked to what I’ve discussed in terms of the financial crisis’ impact on divisions within the EU. Economic and social rights restrictions and even “fear” of Eastern Europe has dominated the EU recently. Yes, the EU is becoming larger and larger. However, it managed to deal with numerous issues, related to expansion. After the first three expansions (UK, Ireland, Denmark in 1973, Greece in 1981, Spain and Portugal 1986), it grew from 6 to 12 countries, including some arguably “underdeveloped” countries, which have recently been under dictatorial rule. Now, they are successful members of the EU. It manage to deal with German reunification without collapsing. Apparently, it is managing the 2004 expansion quite well. Is the 2007 expansion the cause for all EU problems? So many do think so – corruption, instability, economic collapse (yes, Eastern Europe is the source of the financial crisis of Europe…or at least they feel like it). It’s always useful to have a scapegoat – and two scapegoats, which everybody thinks go together (Romania and Bulgaria) is better than the 10 countries, who joined in 2004.
In conclusion, I would like to repeat a point I’ve made countless times. First, yes, we do have many serious problems here in Bulgaria – corruption, crime, even some form of political deadlock. However, I am sure countries in Western Europe have some problems of their own – be it corruption, financial crisis, rise in xenophobia, separatism, terrorism, crisis in participation…but having a scapegoat is always a preferred choice of populist politicians. Recently, however, the number of divisions in the EU along “iron curtain” lines, or rather 25-2 lines, become more and more apparent. Second, it makes sense in terms of power politics of other nation-states (are there any nation-states in Western Europe?) to behave like this, but the EU is built on liberal principles, such as justice, toleration, mutual respect. Certainly, Eastern Europe, and Bulgaria and Romania in particular, are not always treated with respect. Apparently, because, “honestly”, we “are not clever”.

P.S.: You can leave your reaction here, on the official RFI page, where even Mr. Camre has “responded” to comments.