European electorates, driven by a revolt against elites and globalisation, may be on the brink of following the US and making another leap into the unknown by destroying the EU, one of the bloc’s most senior and respected commissioners has said.



Pierre Moscovici, the commissioner for economic affairs, said there was a crisis of the establishment in Europe, just as there has been in America, and asked: “How can Europeans have concluded that because Europe is not working, it might be better to destroy it?”

He suggested the EU could only be saved by focusing on its “beating heart”, the 19 countries inside the eurozone.

In the first speech made by a senior EU politician in the US since Donald Trump’s election, Muscovici said no one should underestimate the significance of the populists’ victory or the warning it represents for the EU.

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“The fact is that a growing part of our populations can no longer relate to the existing systems, and are seeking new ways of expression, and new representatives to deal with their concerns,” he said. “These voters consider themselves the losers of globalisation.”

With the loss of a trustworthy and reassuring establishment, he said, “we risk seeing more damaging protest votes, leading to more leaps into the unknown”. Speaking at Harvard University, he added: “Even if driven by anger, it is completely rational. They do not feel they have any objective interest in globalisation. They feel they have been abandoned to their fate by an establishment that no longer cares to protect them.



“We, the establishment, have become a category as identifiable as the losers of globalisation. We are homogeneous, educated at the same schools, often from similar social and ethnic background. This clearly raises questions about the model of our educational systems and the functioning of our political parties.”

Referring indirectly to Trump’s slogan of “America first”, he said: “Nation states appear to be the only political vehicle able to provide efficient action, democratic acceptability and control of one’s own destiny.

“This is a mirage, but it is a politically bankable one. As a result, our societies, our economies, our borders are at risk of closing themselves off, if we do not manage to strengthen the political contract between Europe and its citizens.”

He condemned referendums as “instruments of distortion and massive disinformation”, adding that “each time a referendum on Europe is called, the answer is no”. He argued: “Everyone knows that in a referendum on Europe, there is no symmetry. The supporters of the ‘no’ side seize every opportunity to whip up emotions and stoke fears, while the ‘yes’ side is condemned to trying to explain a somewhat boring, very complex rationality.”

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The public no longer wants to be treated as “an uneducated child”, he said, as the US media had treated that country’s electorate during the presidential campaign .

Muscovici also urged his European colleagues not to be naive or think the EU was ready for a federalist leap forward, saying such a move would not be tolerated in eastern European countries intent on rediscovering their national sovereignty outside the former Soviet Union.

Apart from making the euro the centre of a revamped EU, he called for an end to further enlargement, a more interventionist industrial policy, and tougher anti-dumping trade rules. He said a stronger eurozone required “a real budget and creating a euro area minister of finance, accountable to the European parliament”.

He also called for greater cooperation against terrorism. “It is not acceptable that two neighbouring countries, France and Belgium, which speak the same language, are not able to cooperate as they should – with all the deadly consequences we know,” he said.