WASHINGTON, May 28 (RIA Novosti) - Although the European Parliament elections brought in a significant faction of eurosceptics, Geoffrey Harris, deputy head of the European Parliament Liaison office to the US Congress told RIA Novosti that the majority will likely remain opposed to abandoning the European project altogether.
“Reports of the death of the European Union are somewhat exaggerated,” said Harris in an interview with RIA Novosti, “but there are many, many problems.” The main problems facing the new parliament are economic, and coming to an agreement on who will hold key government positions, he explained.
Analysts believe the influx of a 31% eurosceptic minority will further complicate these issues.
“Some people think the crisis of the Eurozone has been resolved, others are less optimistic about that,” said Harris. “In some countries, particularly in the south of Europe, the economic social problems are still pretty severe. So there’s going to be a lot of pressure to change the so-called austerity policy, but then there will be a lot of resistance from Germany and other northern European countries.”
Harris continued, “The events of the last few years have revealed problems of how to govern the euro, having a single currency without having a real political authority at the European level.”
Planned actions for a more integrated banking union are set to begin in November with the creation of a Single Resolution Mechanism and Single Supervisory Mechanism, which ECB officials hope will more easily resolve financial crises like the 2008 crisis. However, many of the EU’s institutions could face challenges or delays from parties who are opposed to further centralization.
While the sitting majority is certainly “not in favor of abandoning the project,” there are “one or two” who would back this move, Harris noted. “The UK Independence Party, the French National Front. For example, in Greece, the Syriza Party. In Spain there is no anti-European party, though Spain had very, very heavy social costs as a result of the austerity policy,” he said.
Harris concluded, “The fact is people are saying we don’t like this Europe. We want to change the orientation. Of course, that’s what politics in a democracy is all about.”
Sunday was the fourth and last day of elections to the European Parliament that came as a wake-up call for the EU and signaled an increased frustration with its general course of action.
Far-right, far-left and nationalist forces gained in the parliamentary elections, with Eurosceptics sweeping to a clear victory across the union. Marine Le Pen’s Front National party won 24 of 74 seats allotted to France, while Eurosceptic UK Independence Party (UKIP) garnered 24 of Britain’s 73 seats.
The European Parliament’s largest parties managed to stay afloat after the anti-EU storm in the election, but lost many of their representatives in the 751-seat parliament, with the right-center European People’s Party coming 61 seats short, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats losing six seats and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe losing 19 seats.
