Guy Verhofstadt

Guy Verhofstadt (MEP) is a proponent of a bygone ideal of European integration, or so it seems. However, with the EU in crisis, his criticism and his ideas are more needed than ever. This is why he is E&M's Top European in Summer 2011.

Verhofstadt's background – before he went European…

Verhofstadt is a Belgian. He was the prime minister of his home county from 1999 to 2007. Apart from his work in this office at home he is remembered as a reformer and liberal visionary. He produced manifestos and pamphlets on a nearly regular basis. In the "Radical Manifesto" (1979) he called for liberal change in Belgium and thereby earned the nickname "Baby Thatcher" referring to the British PM Margaret Thatcher's views on privatisation and market-liberalism but also to his boyish appearance. Afterwards he wrote "Citizens' manifestos" in which he sought to change his party. It subsequently changed its name in the beginning of the 1990s. However, this did not make the party more successful. After a defeat in the elections in 1995 Verhofstadt bought an olive field in Tuscany and retreated from public and political life.

A Prime Minister going for Europe

He returned to politics with yet another "citizens' manifesto" as the head of the liberal party again in 1997. Two years later, in 1999, he became the first liberal prime minister in Belgium. This was when he also became a European visionary.

Verhofstadt entered the European stage when Belgium presided over the EU's central decision-making body, the Council at the end of 2001, inviting the states to the meetings, setting the agenda and preparing the discussions. Verhofstadt's Council presidency came at a historic moment after the 9/11 attacks. More importantly for European Integration, however, 2001 was the beginning of the 'future of Europe' debate. The treaty of Nice had been signed in 2001 and the question arose as to what the next steps and goals of the integration should be. The Euro coins were about to be rolled out, but where should Europe go from there?

Starting a process of integration that would fail

Verhofstadt had a vision for Europe. After winning the support of Jacques Delors and others he initiated the Laeken-process in the Council, which was supposed to lead to a European Constitution. But Verhofstadt wanted even more than a Constitution.

He demanded an EU tax, he argued that a European army should be set up, and that the president of the Commission should be elected directly by the people. He voiced proposals asking that the Council's meetings, which are held behind closed doors, should be streamed live over the internet. Again in 2001, almost prophetically, he said the Euro's weakness would be "the absence of a common socio-economic policy and the absence also of a genuine political union." Of course, he later supplemented these proposals with a manifesto entitled "The United States of Europe."

In this way Verhofstadt became the figurehead of a new generation of European federalists, unlike Kohl, Mitterrand, or even Hans-Gert Pöttering. He did not grow up under the impression of the Second World War: the new federalists believed in integration not only as a means to secure peace but as a genuine way to secure partnership and cooperation. Verhofstadt is "Mr. Europe" for these later generations of European federalists.

However, this federalism failed politically, when the European Constitution was shattered in national referenda and the pieces were put back together in the symbolically more parsimonious Lisbon Treaty.

A new federalism today

Since 2009 Verhofstadt has been a member of the European Parliament. The hopeful discussion of the 'future of Europe' in 2001 has melted away. The questions about its future which Europe now has to face are even more pressing.

In a letter to The Economist, Verhofstadt wrote, "there are two ways of reacting to the situation we are in. One is to become cynical and prepare the funeral pyre for Europe's economy. The other is to try and change the hearts and minds of both the politicians and the people."

Today, Verhofstadt is one of the most adept critics of the Union as well as one of its most important visionaries. Instead of permanently ventilating good news he points to problems, for example that citizens' confidence and support for the EU is dwindling. He strongly opposes the way the Council arrives at decisions and the way the Commission sells its policies, for example he was one of the fiercest critics of the EU's inept handling of the Arab Spring.

In 2010 he initiated the Spinelli Group (which has, of course, a manifesto communicating its core values). The group today transcends national and party boundaries and includes not only politicians but also academics such as Nobel laureate Armartya Sen. The group's aim is to speak up against politicians who block European politics by elevating their national interests to the European level, and thereby ignoring the common benefits that can be reaped from cooperation.

Federalism might not be the solution for the problems Europe is facing now: the problem of the Euro-crisis, the problems of legitimacy, of nationalism, or even of climate-change. So you may not agree with the views of Guy Verhofstadt. However, retreating back to just protecting national interests is not going to be the solution to Europe's problems at all. It is a core feature of Verhofstadt's view of Europe that he persists in leading Europe-wide debates on the future of the continent. In this way, his ideas and his approach to Europe are more valuable today than ever before.

Cover illustration: Laura Hempel