Interview with Markus Ferber

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The Interwiew was made with Markus Ferber, German member of the European Parliament at the 13th of May 2016.

When and why has your country entered the European Union ?

When ?
Like Italy and the Netherlands from the early beginning. So, next year we are celebrating oursixtieth birthday. The starting point was the Treaty of Rome which was signed at the end ofMarch 1957, when Italy, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg and Germany joined the European Economic Community (EEC). So, we are frontrunners from the early beginning.

Why?
This is very easy to understand, if you look at the German history. 1957 - that was twelve years after World War II. Germany was destroyed. Germany was on the way to establish itself politically, economically and with the experience after World War I, when Germany had been isolated, no chance to have good relations with the neighbor. (I think this was one of the starting points of the problems of World War II as well, that after World War I Germany was an isolated country in the centre of the European continent)…
Only a few years before, on the 9th of May 1950, the French minister of foreign affairs, Robert Schuman, made his famous declaration, which is the founding day of the idea that states should cooperate on a European level, or as he said “international level”, but he always had Europe in mind, and they should be together, everyone with the same rights. That was revolutionary in comparison with how Germany had to live after World War I. It was the chance, after joining NATO in 1955, to be integrated into the Western World and into a frame of peace, freedom, security. And, of course, what followed after that was the famous German “Wirtschaftswunder” (= economic miracle). So, it was in the German interest not to be isolated, it was in the German interest to be integrated into the Western World. Especially our Hungarian friends can imagine the difficulties of this time: we call this time the Cold War period, where we had the opposition between Nato and the Warsaw Treaty and Germany was the frontline, the divided Germany was the frontline. So for us, the Western Part, it was very important to be fully integrated with equal rights in this area. It was a natural interest to be part from the early beginning, from the foundation of this community, to be a member of this community. This was the German interest.

What are the values of the European Union ?
Which are the most important ones for you ?
Values” - you mean, what brings us together, what is our common heritage. First it’s very important to say that the European continent has a very similar history, a similar approach. So, for example, the idea of the French Revolution in 1789 was not only influencing France, but was influencing the whole continent and the development of the Enlightenment is something we have in common as well. These are influences till the North of Finland down to the South of Greece, or Cyprus or Malta. This is our common heritage. So, firstly, we are together because we share the traditions or common heritage. Secondly, we share the fact that we are democratic states. That's very important. If any state wants to join the European Union, it has to be a democratic state, where all the laws have to be integrated, giving security to minorities, giving security to the press. Freedom of press, freedom of speech – these are fundamental rights we share which, of course, have developed out of the Enlightenment. And thirdly, I think we share the same economic system, which is the Social Market Economy. So, I think these are the three main sources, which are the common values of the European Union. We share the same heritage, we have the same experiences, we share the same process of dealing domestic democratic procedures and, of course, we share the same economic system. I think all three of them are very important. But if you ask, which is the most important, I would say, stable democracy is a fundamental starting point for being member of the European Union. I would concentrate on that as the most important issue and you can imagine that in our days where we have some concerns about democratic development inside the European Union that's one of the main concerns or threads we have to deal with, and we have to control that.

Why have they stopped the European Constitution?
There were referenda about the European Constitution and there were two founding member states that voted against the Constitutional Treaty. That was France and that were the Netherlands. After that we stopped the procedure. So, we don't know who else would have voted against. In Germany, there was no referendum about it. The German Constitution does not foresee referenda on international treaties. That's our Constitution in Germany. This procedure was stopped, but to be honest, what we have now, the so-called Treaty of Lisbon, is 99% the Constitutional Treaty, except those signatures we blamed mostly. In the European Constitution it was written that the European Union has a flag, has a hymn and even has a theme. We are united in diversity. These three things, for example, passed but we do have a flag, we do have a hymn, we do use this theme, although it's not part of the Lisbon Treaty. And the other thing which has been changed is: In the Constitutional Treaty it was foreseen to have a Commissionar of Foreign Affairs. But 25 member states said: “We have national ministers of foreign affairs, we don't need a European Minister of Foreign Affairs.” So this job was renamed and now called High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. In Brussels’ terms the “High Re” - those are the main changes. All the other things of the Constitutional Treaty have survived, the procedures, the rise of the European Parliament to enforce law, the enforcement of the European Parliament for international treaties and all the stuff that was foreseen in the Constitutional Treaty is in the Lisbon Treaty as well. But to be honest, it was not Europe who stopped the process. It was the member states who stopped the process and that's why we don't have a constitution. But, on the other hand, to be honest, we are not a state. The European Union is not a state. Europe is an international structure or international organization of sovereign states and that was the last point: A sovereign state needs a constitution, according to our system, according to the developments of the Enlightenment and therefore if Europe constitutes itself, it's in a state-building process. And that was the main reason of objection, especially in those two member states that voted against the Constitution. They said: “We don't want the State of Europe. We want to continue in this structure of organization of sovereign states inside the European Union.” This was the main problem I think. This would even have caused problems here in Germany.

This is more or less what de Gaulle wanted in former times as well, isn’t it?

Yes, de Gaulle spoke about a state of different nations, but these are concepts of the fifties and now we are in the 21st century and we are used to international organizations and if you look at other parts of the world, to South America, for example: MercoSur is becoming more and more something that we are, and on the Asian side we have ASEAN as a structure that wants to become something like the European Union. So, I think this is a model that fits with challenges on the one hand and, on the other hand, it keeps people close to their homeland, to their language, country, behaviour which is a little bit different, and to be honest: In a few days we will open the European Championship - and we don't want to get lost of that, because if there was a State of Europe there would be no European Championship anymore, only Champions Leagues. So, I think it makes sense that especially as far as football is concerned, we have not unified everything.

What are the advantages of being part of the European Union for your region/country?
I hope that there are advantages, because we have one member state who is thinking for the moment that leaving the European Union would be better: The United Kingdom is going to hold a referendum at the end of June to decide whether it is better to stay or to leave the European Union. So, we have this kind of discussion directly in front of us, for the moment. So, what are the huge advantages? If you take a look at the map and see the European Union, what is in the centre? Bavaria. A place not here in Swabia, but in the Eastern part of Bavaria. There is a point in the “Oberpfalz” that says, here is the centre of Europe, geographically. So, we are really in the centre of the European Union and whoever is in the centre, normally has all the advantages and the main advantage is: Europe is a single market. All the goods we produce in Wertingen, cannot only be sold to Dillingen or to Augsburg (sometimes Dillingen is a greater challenge, but that's an insider joke), cannot only be sold to Hamburg or somewhere else in Germany; they can be sold all over the European Union. And you know some famous products of our region: We have car manufacturers, BMW, Audi are very famous. A lot of small companies here in our region are suppliers for these car manufacturers, for example. Maybe you have seen that agriculture is a very important area in Bavaria. But not only agriculture, the food sector as a whole is very important as well. So, our farmers do not only produce food, we work as well in the whole product chain of the food sector and we sell this all over the European Union. For example, close from here we have a dairy company and you can see their products in all supermarkets in the European Union, with milk produced by farmers here in our region, close to Wertingen, just to give you one example. So, economically we are one of the main profiteers as we are in the centre. The centre always has all the advantages.
The other thing I want to emphasize as well: I have just spoken about German history and I remember my school classes. In history we learned about wars, peace, broken peace, new wars. And that is the European history in simple terms. And to overcome that, especially as I said in the fifties, sixties, seventies, even eighties, when we had the challenge of the Cold War, to be integrated in a peaceful structure like the European Union and to have the chance that all these developments we take for granted in our days can take place – this is something unique. I think it's one of the huge advantages that Bavaria has a lot of borderlines: to Czech Republic, to Austria and a little bit to Switzerland via the Lake Constance. These borderlines are no borders anymore. I hope we can continue with these borderlines being no borders anymore. You know we have some challenges on that area for the moment. But till 1995 before Austria joined the European Union, we were not the centre of Europe, we were the corner, the edge and at the edge you don't have all these advantages, so for us, really, the opening to Eastern Europe and to South-East Europe was a unique effort that brought us to the centre with all the advantages a country in the centre has.

Do you think that there are advantages in the educational area?

That's a difficult problem. A little lesson about Germany. In Germany we don't have one, we have sixteen systems, as in Germany the „Länder“ are responsible for the Educational Services, not only for the infrastructure but for the contents as well, which creates huge problems within Germany. So, you can imagine that even in Germany we have some challenges coming out of this Educational System. As the Federal Republic of Germany is not responsible for educational policy, they don't have the right to pass anything to the European Union. But we said, sorry, we are a single market. After finishing school (here: Gymnasium Wertingen) you will have access to the whole European labour market, you will have access to all the European universities or to other possibilities of learning a job and getting additional skills. And you can do that all over Europe. So, we have to take care that we know what you learn, that the others in other member states know what you can. So, through the backdoor we introduced a kind of educational policy speaking about the results. But with the results, of course, we had an influence on the 16 „Länder“ in Germany, who had to adapt their teaching plans, the structure, the contents of what is taught in the schools.
And the other thing is: At the universities, when I studied it was nice to have a semester abroad, but no one took care. It was a lost semester or a lost year. In our days with the credit point system, it’s different. We have introduced this system: all the qualifications you get abroad at other universities are accepted at home, in your home university. I think that is a huge advantage in the educational system, but for that we had to organize as well that the universities cooporate and accept each other, accept what is taught, what the skills students can learn are and how they can be integrated into other studies at other universities. It was a huge challenge as well. So, directly we are not responsible for educational policy but indirectly we do a lot.
And the most successful thing we do, is what you are doing now: Exchanges. In Germany we only had exchanges organized and financed between two member states of the European Union: the exchange with France, the Franco-German Youth Office (“Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk”) that creates exchanges for young people (we have the same for Germany and the Czech-Republic). But a meeting at a European level as you are performing this week, is financed by the European Union. So, the other pillar we are dealing with in the educational policy are these exchange programs, like Erasmus. And if you go to university there is Erasmus+, so you can continue this exchange and you will get these credit points, for example, as I said. So, it's not only for schools, it’s for universities as well and other sorts of qualifications.

What do you think are the biggest problems concerning the EU?
I think there are – unfortunately - a few, not only one, there is more than one problem. I start with our inside problems. Inside problem number one has been, till today, the stability of our currency and we still have problems, especially with one member state, who is the last one under the surveillance of the Eurozone states: Greece. And if you followed the news of the last days or the last week-end, you know that huge efforts have been taken by the Greece Parliament for the next steps to get three billions again from the Euro states. The stability of our currency has been a challenge since 2010 and has not yet been finalized.
Number two - and I think, for the moment this is the largest among all those other problems -is what is summarized by “refugee crisis”. I don't speak about a crisis, but I think it's a challenge coming out of the Civil War in Syria, in North Iraq, instabilities in the North of Africa and military systems at the Cape of South Africa. We have a lot of challenges and insecurities in our neighbourhood. Don't forget the “frozen war” in Ukraine, everything around the European Union. People are fleeing to escape from the civil war areas to get shelter somewhere and I think there we have a common obligation to provide shelter and we should do it in common. That is one of the main problems for the moment. There are a few member states who do a lot. We have other member states who are very ready to build fences and to bring those ideas together to a European system is one of the main challenges for the moment. We are working on that on a daily basis in the European Parliament with the Council, as we have to adapt legislation. But for the moment the member states are not willing to adapt their legislation. So, what I'm missing for the moment is solidarity inside the European Union to give shelter to all those people, who need it, because they do not have the circumstances to live as we do and they come from areas, where a war is taking place. It's not a classical war, state against state, it's a civil war, people against the government and the additional threat of the IS, the Islamic State, which is a problem in Northern Iraq and in Syria.
That brings me to the third issue, I want to emphasize, since I very often stay in Brussels. I’m sure you've heard about the horrible terrorist attacks in Paris November last year, at the beginning of last year and now in March in Brussels, in Belgium. So, fighting against international terrorism (as this is not national terrorism, this is international terrorism) is one of the main threats: We want to give security to our people.
And I think that is number one in importance.
Number four is, of course, to take care that around the European Union we can organize more stability: Stable states, which are able to fulfill the needs of their own people not being in civil war, to reduce the problems or to stop the need to leave the country and to make state building processes like in Libya.
So, there are a lot of threats around us. I think those are the main threats we have to deal with …
And now we have got an additional one, as we do not have enough so it seems, and that is the problem with the United Kingdom. One member state now wants to ask or will be asking its people, if they want to stay or leave the EU and it takes a lot of time to decide how we will deal with the results, especially if the people in the UK vote “no”. We will need a lot of time, a lot of service to work only on this process, which I think, we should use for better things. Dealing with the problems we really have and not with the problems we have created ourselves.

What do you think is important to develop a European national identity?
Do we need that? This is my first question. Identity, why do we need a European identity? So, first of all we are Hungarian, Dutch, Italian, German people, aren't we ? Inside Germany we are Bavarians, inside Bavaria we are Swabians against the Upper Bavarians and Franconians, inside Swabia we are from Wertingen against Dillingen and against Augsburg or against the Allgäu, inside Wertingen we are from the upper village or from the down village and inside of the down village we are from the right side of the river or from the left side of the river. Is that our right identity? Yes, to be honest. And that makes sense, because that is the area where we grew up, where we have your friends, where we speak the same language, where we have the same experiences, dealing with the same problems. Of course Europe is granting additional things for us and if you have already asked for a passport, the real passport, not the „Personalausweis“ (= identity card), the „Reisepass“ (= passport), you will have seen this is a European passport, because it grants you rights, which as a German or as a Dutch or as a Hungarian or as an Italian citizen you wouldn't have. You have access to all the embassies, wherever you are in the world, whether it's the one from your state or not. You have special ways of protection and all this stuff, beyond that. So, we should learn that we are really Europeans and I think especially your generation should learn. And I hope this week has helped you a little bit, although we speak different languages. Now we try our Bavarian, Italian, Dutch and Hungarian English to make ourselves understood as well as possible. We have a lot in common, you have a lot in common and if that was the lesson you learned during this week it would be great; that beyond all these things, especially language, football teams, you're listening to the same music, you wear the same clothes. So, we have a lot in common and that means we have a kind of European identity, whether we are aware of that or not and that gives me the hope that we are on the right track, because I think no one would accept to give all these things up, neither in my nor in your generation.