The blatant absence of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, his Administration and his Socialist Party from the debate about the Institutional Reform in the European Union deserves a serious reprimand from Spanish citizens. First, it was the acceptance of a new voting system in the Council, with which Spain loses half of its relative weight compared to the Treaty of Nice; now we will have to suffer the consequences of his disappearance during the debate on the number of our seats in the European Parliament.

Everyone knows about the passivity with which Zapatero and his people have faced European debates since they got into power in 2004. After proclaiming in their electoral program that the protection and promotion of human rights in the world would be a priority for their Administration, the only battle they have really waged is the one to pact with Fidel Castro and isolate the island’s democratic dissidents, as well as to unsuccessfully try that the European Union would change its policy toward the Caribbean gulag. It is no wonder that Zapatero’s European “partners” do not count on him after the hypo-relativist message that he has sent to the Union. His defense – out of convenience – of the values upon which the EU rests is causing irreparable harm to Spain, and the consequence is our country’s loss of credibility and influence in Europe, something unheard of since 1986.

This attitude is especially worrisome when it concerns the debate on the future of Europe. While all the member states of the Union defend their interests in marathon sessions, Zapatero remains in a despairing autism. During June’s European Council when the future of the Constitutional Treaty was being debated – a measure that so affects all Spaniards – one did not even know the government’s position. During months, they denied that the Union was in crisis. Later, they defended upholding a failed treaty in its entirety, and even declared, with an amazing lack of realism, that, anyhow, it was necessary to include more elements to it. In Forein Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos’s own words, “use the pen, not the scissors.” And all that jazz so ultimately, and in exchange for a photo, he would end up aligned with French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s postulates accepting a trimmed treaty; one agreed to in an opaque manner and by deceiving the citizens.

However, one thing is for sure, the only item kept in the new treaty is the new voting system in the Council that abruptly sacks Spain from the privileged position negotiated a part of the Treaty of Nice by José María Aznar. We will only be able to keep this position thanks to a Polish initiative to avoid the application of the new norm until 2014, and the Poles continue fighting tirelessly to increase their country’s presence in the European Parliament, aware that both issues – the voting system in the Council and the number of seats in the European Parliament – are inseparable.

Unfortunately, it is as if Zapatero would not want to understand that there is an indissoluble bond between both issues, since losing leverage in one of the institutions must be compensated in the other one. If we lose half of our relative weight in the Council compared to other major countries, the logical thing is that we increase the number of our seats in a substantial manner. That would represent the opposite of what happened during the Aznar Administration, when Spain was at the same level in the Council with Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy (real decision-making body in the European Union) and yielded several deputies in the Parliament in return. The problem Spain faces in the Council now – where it will be impossible to get blocking minorities to defend Spain’s interests due to the new voting system – is that we must be compensated with a real and substantial increase of seats in the Parliament.

Nevertheless, things look bad when the proposal presented by European parliamentarians, with the only protest coming from the Popular Party, is to keep Spain with 54 seats while the major countries obtain an increase. Besides, if we consider that the “stubborn” Poland wants to increase its leverage in the Parliament, who do you think will lose seats? Sarkozy’s France? Merkel’s Germany? Well, of course not. Probably, the victim will be Spain. Nevertheless, we will certainly get a smiling photo and a handshake telling us; “You have returned to the heart of Europe.”

©2007 Translated by Miryam Lindberg




Commentary in Libertad Digital Newspaper by Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group.