Ae Marika!
A column published in the Northland Age
By Hone Harawira
MP for Tai Tokerau
20 October 2009

LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Muriwhenua has 5 different iwi, 50,000 people, a land base which you could drop into the Cook Strait and still have plenty of fishing room, and a total budget that I’d like to tell you about but Margaret Mutu would box my ears so I better not. And we’ve been scrapping and squabbling and brawling and bawling about this, that and the other thing for so long that all of the original Waitangi Tribunal claimants are now long dead.

Imagine my surprise then when I get to Brussels and hook up with the European Union that represents 27 separate member states, has a combined population of more than 500 million people, and has its own budget (separate from that of individual countries) of hundreds of billions of dollars. The Union stretches from Ireland all the way across to Cyprus and with new countries breaking down the door to get in, has more than 27 distinct languages and hundreds of different dialects, political diversity ranging from the National Front racists of all persuasions to the hard-line communists from the recently independent Eastern European countries, wealth ranging from countries with money to burn right across to countries with nothing to burn and winter just around the corner – and everyone doing their best to talk politely with one another, and work together !!!

The European Union grew out of a determination from 6 countries to build a union that would stop them from ever sliding back into the conditions which led to the two World Wars, the deaths of millions of people and the destruction of European economies twice in a lifetime. They took on the challenge of trying to accommodate countries with centuries old rivalries and very recent hatreds. They began to peel back prejudices, build common goals and common economic markets and loosen up border controls.

By 1989 when the Berlin Wall had come down the Union had grown to 12 members, but with the flood of newly created Eastern European states searching desperately for a big brother to protect them from the Russian bear snarling on the sidelines following the collapse of the Soviet union, the last 20 years has seen 15 new countries added to the EU membership list.

The European Union now has a convoluted decision-making structure which includes a Council made up of the 27 heads of states who decide what direction Europe should be taking on any issue, a Commission charged with putting together the legislation to make those decisions work, and a Parliament with more than 700 members who debate the rights and wrongs of it all, and vote on or amend the legislation.

As we move into 2010, the Union has nearly sown up a deal (the Lisbon Treaty) to give the Union even more collective bargaining power and enable them to position Europe as the worlds third major economic powerhouse alongside the Chinese and the Americans.

So hangin’ with these folks has been a great learning experience. I have no doubt that they will always put Europe’s best interests above those of New Zealand should a conflict arise in economic or political activity, but they have been excellent hosts, polite and willing to share, and I for one learnt heaps.

More to come …

ENDS

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