A United States of Europe? Margaret Thatcher Lecture to Assess the Future of National Sovereignty in Europe
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Twenty-five years ago, in her groundbreaking 1988 Bruges speech, Margaret Thatcher spoke against the rise of a supranational federal Europe, warning that
to try to suppress nationhood and concentrate power at the center of a European conglomerate would be highly damaging and would jeopardize the objectives we seek to achieve.… We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain, only to see them re-imposed at a European level with a European super-state exercising a new dominance from Brussels.
In light of the current economic and political crises in Europe, have the words of Thatcher been proven prescient? Can national sovereignty in Europe survive? To assess these critical questions, The Heritage Foundation this week will be holding its 2013 Margaret Thatcher Lecture about the future of the European Union.
The keynote speaker is Charles Moore, one of the United Kingdom’s leading political commentators and the authorized biographer of Margaret Thatcher.
Over the last few decades, power has been incrementally shifted to undemocratic decision-making bodies within the European Union and away from national capitals. Many in Europe, including the governments of France and Germany, are calling for more and deeper integration of Europe. However, other European countries, such as the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, are arguing that the Brussels power grab has gone too far.
Complicating the fundamental questions of nationhood and sovereignty in Europe is the continued fallout from the Eurozone crisis and the political uncertainty it has spawned.
With the European Union at a crossroads, what direction will it take? Will the whole European project unravel under the weight of the Eurozone crisis, or is this the beginning of the end for true national sovereignty on the continent? Is it time for the U.S. to end its never-ending support for “ever-closer union” in Europe?
Please join Charles Moore as he discusses the future of Europe and U.S. policy toward the European project. The event will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, March 6, at The Heritage Foundation. Click here to RSVP for the event or to watch it live online.