Ulrich Beck calls for less German nationalism in saving the euro

The euro crisis offers Europe the chance to become a democracy among neighbouring states rather than being a Europe of bureaucrats, writes sociologist Ulrich Beck in the left-liberal daily The Guardian: "We should have no fear of direct democracy. Without transnational opportunities for interventions from below, without European referendums on European themes that send a shudder through the ocean liner Europe, the whole enterprise will fail. Why not have the president of the European commission directly elected by all European citizens on the same day, which would thus for the first time be European in the strict sense? ... How is a European democracy possible without disenfranchising the national parliaments? Assuming one recognises that implementing democratic rights involves and requires many paths, can the democratic empowerment of a cosmopolitan Europe be accompanied by a strengthening of its national democracies in the member states? The answer has to be that new Europe would not follow the model of German euro-nationalism but would be an emerging European Community of Democracies. And sharing sovereignty becomes a multiplier of power and democracy."

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