EU renews attack on protectionism

European commission president José Manuel Barroso has repeated his concerns about the rising tide of “economic patriotism” within the EU.

 Barroso said the protectionist rhetoric showed that national governments were “giving in to populist temptations, from the left and from the right”.

He urged member states to comply fully with EU law, which he said was “fundamental to the development of the European project”.

“When people speak of European community law they are speaking about a substantive part of what the EU is all about,” he said, speaking at the European University Institute in Florence.

“In fact, it is the community law, its role and its effect that distinguishes the EU from a mere intergovernmental organisation.”

“This is the reason why in the current debate over so called economic nationalism, my commission’s insistence on the need for the member states to respect both the letter and the spirit of community law is not only fundamentally important from a legal point of view, but also from a political point of view.”

The commission is next week expected to start legal proceedings against France over its plans to protect “sensitive” businesses from foreign takeovers.

The EU executive is also due to take action against protectionist moves in Poland and Spain in the next few weeks.

Barroso’s comments come as UK finance minister Gordon Brown openly criticised countries such as France and Spain that refuse to liberalise their energy markets.

“The failure to complete the single market is not just damaging to industry but is hurting consumers as well,” Brown said on Thursday.

He claimed that artificially high gas prices in other parts of Europe were costing UK consumers £10bn a year.

“The EU must now reject protectionism and move towards a far more open market for energy, for financial services, for telecoms and for utilities.”

• Previous article
• Next article