Hamburg - German philosopher Juergen Habermas Tuesday called
for a EU-wide referendum in which citizens across the bloc should
decide whether the EU should have a directly elected president, as
well as a foreign minister and an independent financial basis.
In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa ahead of the 50th
anniversary of the Rome treaties which marked the foundation of the
EU, he said Europe's governments should 'dare democracy' and hold a
referendum on the future of the bloc, to be scheduled together with
the 2008 European parliamentary elections.
Previous attempts to consolidate the European institutions had not
failed due to the opposition of the people in Europe, said the
philosopher and sociologist, who has received worldwide acclaim for
his critical theory of rationality.
'In most countries of the continent there are sleeping majorities
in favour of further consolidation of the EU,' said Habermas.
'The deeper reason for the paralysis in the dynamics of
integration is that different governments are governed by different
targets in regards to the EU,' he said.
Rather than putting the real question of what the bloc ultimately
should be to the test, the national governments were avoiding the
conflict that is to be expected in this crucial issue, he said.
'The agreement on principal climate protection targets in
Brussels, which also remain to be made operational, has been
celebrated as a success by (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel. But was
that really more than a manoeuvre to avoid the real conflict?'
Habermas, whose understanding of democracy as a process based on
communication influenced Germany's 1968 student revolt, also
criticized the EU had not yet delivered what was expected of it as a
possible mediating force on the international diplomatic stage.
The war between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon in summer 2006
was an example of this failure so far, he said.
At the time, 'the United States had already become a party within
the Mideast Conflict due to the one-sided policies of the Bush
administration, therefore, many expectations were levelled at Europe
which was regarded as more neutral,' Habermas said.
'Although the EU sent its foreign policy chief (Javier) Solana to
Beirut and Jerusalem, it overall presented a ridiculous picture as a
chorus of dissonant voices,' he said, adding that individual nations
such as France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain tried to trump each
other with individual initiatives.
However, Habermas said, although the EU member countries needed to
agree on the meaning of the European project, nation states as such
were not obsolete. On the international stage of supranational bodies
and global players they still remained the 'most important players'.
'What has to change - and what has already changed much - is the
self-image of the nation states,' he said.
'They have to learn to see themselves less as independent actors
than as members, who feel committed to following community norms,' he
said.
'They have to learn to pursue their interests within international
networks via prudent diplomacy rather than by threatening military
force unilaterally,' he continued.
Habermas, who has been a vocal critic of US President George W
Bush in the past, also insisted that the international community
could not do without the US.
Even if the EU learned to speak with one voice, the US was
required to head the reform movement of the United Nations, he said,
adding that his criticism of Bush did not carry any general anti-
American sentiment whatsoever.
For Europe, however, the 'only chance' was a referendum in which
the citizens of Europe could decide on the further consolidation of
the union.
The three questions - whether the bloc should have a directly
elected president, an independent foreign minister, and an
independent financial basis - were following the ideas of Belgian
Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt and should be decided via a double
majority of member states and citizens' votes, he said.
The referendum should only be binding for those member states in
which it had been accepted by a majority of citizens.
'Of course, even in a Europe of core and periphery, the nations
who initially prefer to remain at the periphery have the option to
join the centre at any time,' he said.
Juergen Habermas was born in Duesseldorf, Germany, on June 18,
1929 and studied philosophy, psychology, German literature and
economics in Goettingen, Zurich and Bonn.
In 1956 he joined Theodor W. Adorno's renowned Institute for
Social Research in Frankfurt and later taught at the universities of
Marburg, Frankfurt and at the Max-Planck Institute in Starnberg,
before returning to Frankfurt as professor of philosophy.
In 2004 he was awarded Japan's Kyoto Prize, one of the top world
prizes for the arts and sciences, for his life's work.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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