In all the discussions about localism and all the separate national publicity about the new EU constitution and the (non-) election of a new ‘president' and ‘high representative' we often forget there is actually a connection between the two.
Local government wants more powers. The EU, in turn, supports subsidiarity, the idea that government should occur where it can at the lowest possible level and created a Committee of the Regions, made up of councillors, to act as an advisory body for the legislature. Yet in the current debate over the future relationship between Whitehall and town hall, the role of the EU, with its new constitution and its new focus, has been curiously absent.
Did, for example, anyone bother to ask the LGA about its view on the role of the new EU president? Should the LGA have expressed a view that the new president must be the equivalent of the chair of the council or, alternatively, must be able to ‘stop traffic lights'?
This is a not a fatuous observation. I was struck this week, when addressing a seminar of council leaders and chief executives, about the response to a question I posed: ‘What makes this recession in public finances different from the last one?' The answer, from one councillor, was: ‘Globalism.' His argument was that during the last decade, while public spending has been riding high, the UK's manufacturing capability has disappeared abroad. Result – when public sector jobs dry up, there's nothing to fall back on. Where does the EU stand on this?
What is clear is that (a) global events impact on local doorsteps, and (b) so do EU Directives. The looming hike in landfill taxes to encourage EU-wide recycling has made itself felt on the doorsteps of Britain as councils push householders into more recycling to reduce landfill. The EU also intends bringing in new rights for agency workers and rules about paying bills on time (see page one).
As we square up for the central v local debate let's not forget that Brussels must also figure in the equation.
