McCreevy calls for a Thatcherite European Union

The EU's Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has described the former British prime minister Margaret …

The EU's Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy has described the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher as an 'icon' whose reform of the British economy should be emulated EU-wide.

Speaking to the Association of European Journalists in Dublin today, Mr McCreevy said: "Distasteful and divisive as it may have seemed at the time, it heralded a new beginning in her country's economic fortunes - faster growth, more jobs, higher living standards, and fewer citizens dependant on state support.

He said: "It has been said that great leaders reflect their time. But few leaders transform their time. She did. She opposed the tyranny of over-regulation. She showed how free enterprise could stimulate initiative and promote independence..

"Many member states in Europe today need leaders like her and I hope that before long they will get them," Mr McCreevy said.

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He said the defeat of referendums on the European Constitution in Holland and France were a major setback.

"A more jaundiced and sceptical tone has gained ground with people unpersuaded that Europe delivers for them," Mr McCreevy said. He noted that the latest Eurobaramoter poll published tomorrow, shows the EU is seen in a positive by only 44 per cent of its population - down 6 points on last year.

He said communicating the benefits of the EU had improved "but there is much more to do".

Clarity and consistency in the message would be achieved by developing a clear vision for the future of the EU, Mr McCreevy said.

He noted that Austrians were now the most Eurosceptic having once been positive about the EU. This, he said, was caused by the EU's reaction in 2000 to the election of the far-right Freedom Party. Its leader Jorg Haider, was forced to stand down as vice-chancellor-elect after the EU imposed sanctions bceause fo the party and its leader's strong neo-nazi associations.

"Hardly surprisingly, Europe's popularity in that country has proceeded along a steadily downward path ever since," the former minster for finance said.

"Member States expect to be able to decide their own political destiny. They value their national sovereignty and resent unjustified and unwarranted intrusions upon it from Brussels."

He said that there was justifiable perception among many EU citizens that their views are not listened to in the centre of EU power.

"If we fail to tackle this problem which has led to alienation, we will find it much more difficult to make worthwhile progress in areas that are important to our future."

In his own area, trade and competition, he said the various EU initiatives such as convergence on accounting standards between the EU and US and stock market reforms, should be explained to the public as measure to bring down consumer costs.

This make EU business "more useful, less remote and more relevant," he said.

"Scale economies and open seamless markets - in a world where other powerful economic blocs and rivals are becoming ever stronger and ever more powerful - are not an option, they are an imperative.

Yet the voices and actions of projectionists are getting louder. Protectionism takes many forms: Inflexible labour laws, outright trade barriers, and restrictive practices. Sometimes some of these things are dressed up in the language of the social model.

There are many different versions of the social model in Europe, but many of the more constraining social models are ones that serve an elite, not a society. They don't create a level playing field. They sustain a protected one," he said.