European values are more important than economics

From FT/ WOLFGANG MÜNCHAU — If you live in Italy or Spain, it is easy to defend the EU. The EU has become part of their political DNA.

It is harder to make the pro-European case for the UK. The case is hard because Britain has opted out of almost all the important EU policy areas: the euro; the Schengen zone of passport-free travel; justice and home affairs; and the charter of fundamental rights. Earlier this year, David Cameron managed to add a few more when he got his special deal in the European Council. His government will be able to dock in-work benefits to EU citizens. And the prime minister managed to absolve the UK from the goal of political integration and “ever closer union”.

So what is the British electorate being asked to vote on this Thursday? From a British perspective, the EU consists of a single customs area and a single market. They are important to the City of London and large industrial companies. But they are just not important to everybody. If Remain wins, the UK would remain on the outer sphere of the inner circle. If Leave wins, the country will join the inner sphere of the outer circle.

There is a positive case to be made for the inner circle. Not only do the various countries of the EU have common interests, they also have shared values. Even in its current desolate state, the EU is a more powerful vehicle to protect and to project those values globally than national governments.

What are those values? I find it hard to beat the motto of the French Revolution: liberté, égalité, fraternité. You might prefer different terms and list them in a different order.

I would transcribe them as follows: freedom paired with openness and tolerance; equal opportunity; and a strong defence of the public good. The latter could encompass more far-reaching notions of income distribution and social protection. Different countries have different preferences. But all EU countries have in common a strong idea of a public sphere.

So if you, like me, distrust the vastly exaggerated and implausible economic claims made by the Remain campaign, then consider an alternative line of reasoning: our values are under threat from people like Russian president Vladimir Putin, from Donald Trump if he were elected US president, and from bigots everywhere. They are under threat from global corporations that avoid paying taxes, and from countries that fail to respect climate agreements.

It is a shame that the Remain campaign has wasted so much time focusing on economic benefits of EU membership. The EU is, of course, an economic construction. But EU membership is not fundamentally about economics. It is about our way of life.