SPECIAL REPORT EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW
be very influential in setting a new political agenda in national politics but it is the old parties that still represent their countries in Brussels. This lag has a positive side. It ensures greater stability during times of turmoil at the national level and it protects EU policies and law from extremism. But it makes Brussels look like a defender of the old establishment. The second challenge is to the functioning of the EU. Rapid change makes the EU harder to govern because its political system depends on transnational cooperation and a minimum level of political stability. The EU works through negotiations that lead to different views and trust among the participants. Disruption of national politics can cause paralysis. Populists often have few detailed policy goals, as there is an identity orientation, so they are not motivated to use the EU system. In that sense, populists are unlike other fringe movements that have promoted new causes through the EU, such as animal rights, data protection and digital freedoms. So, if populism is shadow casted by democracy, to catch British political theorist Margaret Canovan, it is the dark side of the EU. Xenophobic populists oppose both the EU’s goals and its working methods. The claim that interdependence is dangerous and the national sovereignty should be absolute, supporting majority 40
rule and rejecting pluralism. So, we face a new landscape and at this level the task of politicians, of progressive politicians, of all sides are further challenged as we are entering a new era in democracy’s function. A function shaped by new stakes, different dividing lines and new narratives against background of globalisation, multiculturalism, security fears and emerging 21st technological advances. Democratic forces will be judged by the ability to set a new agenda and by the power to protect democracy’s core principles and values against the rise of populism. An absolutely vital task as populism has always been more than a threat, it has been an executioner of democracy, societal development, and of peace. Within this context, an EU that helps to restore democracy and prosperity to its members may also be able to rekindle its citizens’ enthusiasm for itself. The vital choice is between reform and revival or decline and decay.
*Athanase Papadropoulos is Honorary President of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ) and Chairman of the European Business Review