The Europe agenda: Our values

The European project has always had two layers, and has been spoken about in two registers. 

The first of Europe’s two layers is the power of the European Commission, the ‘four freedoms’ of trade and movement, and the real-world impacts of economic integration. This is spoken about in the language of economic efficiency, and made real through regulation. 

The second layer is that of values. Its vocabulary is not economistic, but that of principle and commitment. This is what is invoked at moments of genuine crisis – the notion that the European project is an expression of what the continent’s societies prize about human dignity, democratic governance and the rule of law. 

It is this second layer that has driven change at crucial moments in European history. It was the possibility of peace and reconciliation that first built the economic community in the 1950s. And, again, after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, enlargement eastwards was understood as an effort to consolidate and nurture democracy in states emerging from the Soviet bloc. 

The UK, in its relationship with the continent, has always been more comfortable with the first layer than it has been with the second. This reticence may have had solid political roots, but it has come at a cost. It has meant the relationship was defined as purely transactional, weakening Britain’s importance to its partners on the continent. In its own internal politics, it meant the case for integration could come across as less compelling than the long tradition of Euroscepticism in national politics, which made a more direct appeal to political values and emotions. 

This paper argues that the moment has arrived for a different approach – and that the case for it is stronger than at any point in the last half-century. 

Today, we can no longer take principles for granted, whether in our international relationships or at home. This is precisely why it is necessary to create a firmer foundation for our partnerships, one that builds in British values. These values – dignity, perhaps, or democracy, perhaps fair play – are contested and evolving. Yet, at this particular moment of global crisis, it seems clear that there is indeed a set of values that most people in this country identify with, and seek to defend.