Why Germany won’t support Cameron’s election wish

While preparing my new website (coming soon), I stumbled upon this political column that I had written for one of my Journalism classes last semester and wanted to share it with you. It was written in November, so there are a few references to Christmas and other past dates. However, it's still up to date in most aspects and will probably be so until the general election in May.

Courtesy of Wikimedia

 

 Freedom of movement has been a basic principle of European co-operation since the Treaty of Rome in 1957, which founded the European Economic Community - the forerunner of the European Union. But now this principle is under threat as Britain calls for restrictions on freedom of movement inside the EU. One of the biggest and most verbal opponents is Germany.

 

This weekend, as thousands of white balloons were released to symbolise the fall of the Berlin wall on the 9^th November 1989, it becomes apparent why Germany won’t back down on this issue. The wall divided Berlin for 37 years, separating families, friends and neighbours. Its fall became a powerful symbol of the end of the Cold War, and is still deeply embedded in the memory of most Germans.

  

Courtesy of Wikimedia

As long as there are still parts of the Berlin wall standing, Germany won’t budge. For Germany, as for many other EU countries, freedom of movement is a sacrosanct right. According to Der Spiegel magazine, Angela Merkel recently told David Camerion that the British insistence on restricting freedom of movement would be a “point of no return” and could sharply increase the risk of Britain leaving the EU.

 

Courtesy of Wikimedia

However, the UK might find common ground with the EU’s biggest country on the issue of curbing benefits abuse and poverty-driven migration. The current debate about possibilities of limiting benefits abuse by European migrants has already happened in Germany.

Just like David Cameron is currently courting the right-leaning Tories and UKIP sympathisers by promising to limit EU migration, Angela Merkel’s Christian Social Union promised get-tough measures as regional elections were held in August this year. "Who lies, flies" was the maxim for the proposed law designed to show Europe that Germany is no longer a soft touch for "benefits tourists." 

Under the new law, those EU citizens who arrive in Germany will have a six month period to try to find work before being asked to leave "if they have no reasonable prospects of finding work." Individuals will not be entitled to benefits if they have not paid into the system. The proposal will go before both houses of parliament before the end of the year and is expected to be ratified into law.

However, there is doubt in both countries about how many EU migrants actually abuse the system. In Germany, labour minister Andrea Nahles told Der Spiegel: „We cannot quantify the amount of abuse correctly. We don’t know exactly what these numbers look like”.

Numbers about EU migration show a different picture than what some conservative politicians like to paint: About as many Britons live in the EU as EU citizens in Britain, so any limitation to freedom of movement would affect them as well. In total, more than 14m EU citizens are resident in another member state, that’s 2.8 percent of the total EU population.

 

Courtesy of Wikimedia

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer who uncovered the figure in a parliamentary question, said the high numbers of Britons abroad proved that freedom of movement was a “genuine two-way street”. “As many Britons work or retire across the Channel or the Irish Sea as other Europeans come here,” the Lib Dem peer told the Financial Times.

With Christmas fast approaching, David Cameron is unlikely to be given his biggest wish of reducing EU immigration, but instead he might get the next best thing, a European willingness to talk about poverty-driven migration and changes of rules about benefits – endorsed by Germany.

The correspondent

A while ago, I wrote an article about three German people living in Scotland for university. It's marked now, so I guess I can publish it here. Say hello to Udo.

Udo is from Europe. He was born in Europe, he lives in Europe, and he plans to die in Europe. He is so European that most British people's hair would stand on end.

For Udo Seiwert-Fauti, it was just by chance that he was born in Germany. But while he could not change anything about his place of birth, it was his decision to spend ten years of his life living in Scotland. Udo is a journalist. And for some time, he was the only German journalist reporting from Scotland.

In 1998, the first members for the newly built Scottish parliament were elected and a whole country was on move towards devolution. There was a lot of coverage in the British media. There was little to none by German broadcasters. Udo Seiwert-Fauti, back then working at a German radio station, saw his chance. He gave in his resignation, packed up everything and moved to Edinburgh. He had the chance to experience history being written and he took it.

As the only German correspondent in Scotland, he had a monopoly on special relationships. He knew the first Scottish First Minister Donald Dewar in person, and once he had entered the parliament building, he was instantly known as the “German correspondent”. When the Pope came to Scotland, Udo-Seiwert-Fauti was invited as a Scottish citizen, not as a German.

For ten years, Udo Seiwert-Fauti lived in a semi-detached townhouse in Edinburgh south. He knows the Scots, and he knows the Germans. He has a unique view on both cultures, and he feels at home both in Edinburgh, in his village near the French border in Germany, and in Strasbourg, from where he currently reports.

In 2008, he had to return to Germany mainly due to his financial situation. But he still returns to Scotland several times each year. “I'm always looking forward to the friendliness of the Scots. It's nice when the lady at the checkout has time to actually talk to you. This never happens to me in Germany.”