OPINION:
Chancellor Angela Merkel has often been the adult in the European Union, but her early open arms for the waves of migrants seems now be a welcome mat too far. The Hungarians and the Poles, for two important member states, have different ideas, preferring not to take the share of migrants that Frau Merkel thinks they should.
The disagreement could be the death of “Schengen,” which provided free passage of residents of member countries within the EU. Schengen is named for the town in Luxembourg where the agreement was signed in 1985. Frau Merkel talks now of creating a “mini-Schengen,” in effect two levels of EU membership to preserve the free passage for some if not others.
The cloud on the European horizon is the possibility — not a probability — that Britain will withdraw from its limited membership in the EU. That stretch of treacherous water between the United Kingdom and the continent, only 20 miles wide at Dover, is getting wider, figuratively speaking. The growing encampment of migrants, including legitimate refugees on the French side of the Channel at Calais, illustrates the dilemma.
Britain, earlier than her neighbors, was getting acute indigestion from absorbing unlimited numbers of Asian and African newcomers from her former empire, drawn by the bounties of the original welfare state. The sentiment in Britain now, that enough is enough, is nearly universal.
Prime Minister David Cameron won an unexpected majority in May’s parliamentary elections on the strength of his promise to enable the British public to vote on further ties to the EU. Britain has kept its pound sterling, for example, with no Euro as the official currency. Without further concessions the British might leave the union altogether, and Mr. Cameron has returned to Brussels to dicker with the Brussels bureaucrats (some say autocrats).
The Eurocrats have climbed down from their high horse and are willing at last to talk about further concessions. Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, said last week that “leaders voiced their concerns but also demonstrated willingness to look for compromise.” He told reporters that he is “much more optimistic” than he was before the talks began.
In all the welter of political shoving back and forth at the present moment, this negotiation could be very important. This is good news for the United States. Despite President Obama’s pique with our British cousins, demonstrated by his removing the bust of Winston Churchill from the Oval Office and returning it to England, the special relationship born and strengthened during World War II continues to be the cornerstone of American foreign policy.
Britain has lately taken up the fight against ISIS far more forcefully than Mr. Obama’s government. The arms across the Atlantic, born of blood, Roberts’ Rules of Order and Shakespeare, count for a lot, and endure.
Britain’s presence inside the European Union, with whatever limitations, is the best assurance that the tyranny of the ribbon clerks in Brussels can be held in check. More than its Continental neighbors, British democracy is solid and well grounded, and has a stabilizing effect in Brussels. “The Anglo-Saxons,” as the Europeans continue to call them, who now include a lot of solid citizens who are descended from neither the Angles nor the Saxons, are needed to protect the many from themselves. Compromise, for which we can all say thanks, is in the air.
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