MAASTRICHT BLUES .sx As the Euro state leader's summit concludes CHRIS MYANT looks at the issues surrounding the deliberations .sx The European Community faces a particular and peculiar problem :sx it is dominated by politics .sx Its whole future is wrapped up with the development of this political character , an inescapable fate which is the direct consequence of the way it was created .sx But it is a problem because the general world trend is to depoliticise social life .sx This contradiction in the momentum of the European Community has tripped up the right and left in British politics .sx The contest over the issues at the Maastricht summit is just a foretaste , not a conclusion .sx At the time of writing , we do not know the final outlines of the agenda , let alone the results of the arguments .sx But we know the context within which it is all being fought out .sx And at the heart of it all are the twin issues of democracy and the social responsibility of government .sx Stripping politics ( and consequently whatever structures of democratic accountability may exist ) from social existence is a deeply retrograde process , one that is in the interest of few outside the upper echelons of private business power .sx Coping with this process is complicated by the way in which key elements of capital , the economy and society are now operating at a global and European level .sx The further development of democracy cannot mean simply restoring those elements of accountability or involvement shed by Thatcherism in the 1980s .sx New structures must be built and many of them need to operate at a European level .sx But who will provide the popular motive force and vision that must lie behind any movement to achieve this ?sx The left has so far been divided or downright ignorant on Europe .sx Even though a majority on the left no longer condemns European democratic developments as a betrayal of the British people , it still needs to make a meaningful examination of what must be done .sx Meanwhile the flip media terminology that characterises the Euro debate does not help .sx They talk about 'deepening' or 'widening' the Community :sx 'pro-' or 'anti' Europe , but this does not get to the heart of the political problem .sx For what is happening in Europe is very different from that taking place elsewhere in the world .sx Attempts to develop supranational structures have either failed ( as in Africa and the Middle East ) and left such a bad taste behind them that a retry is not likely for a long while .sx In the case of the two huge multinational state inheritors of empire , India and the Soviet Union , disintegration , rather than re-integration on a new basis , appears to be the rule .sx The contrast with Europe is most stark compared to the tensions between Mexico , Canada and the US as they move toward their free market .sx While European governments are worrying about what to build across the Atlantic the question is how much to tear down .sx Washington has no intention of allowing Mexico's people ( nearing half the size of the US population , but growing at a much faster rate ) to acquire any potential levers over US policy whether it might involve measures to significantly redirect wealth south of the Rio Grande , or over foreign and military policy .sx Such a possibility is unimaginable .sx Europe of the EC will be an embarrassing example to such trading alliances for this is just the direction it is following , and this is why there is such a struggle over it .sx And why the right in Britain seeks to play on the history of popular anti-European prejudice and left anti-EC attitudes to prevent any serious public debate around the issues involved .sx And there are plenty of parallels between the situation of the EC in regard to , say , Turkey and the former colonies in Africa , and Washington's attitude to Mexico .sx The EC also recently extended its customs union to include EFTA states into a European Economic Area .sx However everyone understands that for all the EFTA states this is only a way-station toward full Community membership .sx In addition , the development of Community-wide structures on the environment or foreign policy does not necessarily mean those arguing for them accept the need for proper popularly accountable control .sx They do , however , entail the further development of new structures of public authority which must inevitably engender questions of public accountability and democracy .sx Part of this contradiction shows in the British government's continuing attitude of opposition to the development of EC structures on anything that smacks of more politics or more social provision in contrast to its eagerness for any of the apolitical measures of deregulation involved in the post-1992 single market .sx As this new Community is being built from nation states , support continues in most EC capitals for the further elaboration of this Community structure .sx It may be that Germany , the most sensitive European society to the lessons of World War 2 , does not want to see wage costs in its industrial base undercut ; it may be that Ireland , Portugal and Greece are determined to see a redistribution of EC wealth in their direction ; or that others see the urgency of an EC-wide coordination of transport .sx The reason is less important than the result .sx For it is this which impels further development along the path chosen by the founders of the EC .sx It leads not just to a trading bloc but to a new community , not to the end of control over the economy and society by existing political structures , but to their merging , reformulation , and even replacement .sx There are some jokers in this pack and growing racism is one .sx It may erect some massive barriers in the way of democratic , unifying political action .sx The grip the Common Agricultural Policy has is another .sx It promises to mire whole populations in the trap of backward farming policies , draining ever larger sums from Brussels' public purse .sx Another joker will be the growing number of member states .sx This will butt up against the burden of complexity caused by so many official languages and different social structures unless there is a radical shift in the methods of exercising and distributing EC power .sx For such a shift there are essentially three choices .sx Europe could try to reverse its post-1945 history and follow the road Washington is mapping out for North America , which is preferred choice sic !sx of the present Tory leadership .sx Because of the especial needs of merging the economies of these highly developed societies , and because of the initial political impulsion given to the Community in the cold war context of the Treaty of Rome , it is a choice only the most committed Thatcherites are prepared to entertain .sx For the Community's other 11 governments this means being prepared to muddle their way through keeping some politics , but keeping them to a minimum .sx New EC power structures are going to develop whatever London does .sx There will be a public structure of decision taking supervising the evolution of a new European society out of the existing national structures .sx And this raises the third choice , the spectre that is haunting the Thatcherite vision of the European future .sx For the left it is the crucial question .sx Can there be a decisive leap into democracy , finding open accountable , political structures at EC , national , regional and local levels ; or appropriate to different EC-wide sectors such as transport , energy , and the environment ?sx Have we the political capacity to elaborate structures which avoid complexity and achieve efficiency but are also genuinely democratic ?sx Given who is attending , Maastricht will once again , thankfully , register plenty of opposition to the first choice , but it will prefer to perpetuate the present muddle rather than take the third .sx The EC will continue to grow and it will continue to deepen .sx And the tension will continue to increase between the reality of a growing Community and the way this politicises every action it takes on the one hand , and the lack of democracy on the other .sx If the British left finally sheds all its anti-European and anti-EC prejudices this tension could offer a fruitful source of ideas , allies and mobilisation .sx Judging by the very limited ideas for democratising Europe offered this autumn by Labour and other we still have an awful long way to go .sx TRADES UNIONS AND THE EUROPEAN CHALLENGE .sx After Maastricht Cyril Claydon takes a long look at the issues involved in European legislation for working people .sx By the end of 1992 the 12 countries of the European Community are due to become a single economic unit .sx Nearly all artificial barriers to the 'free movement' of capital , labour , goods and services between the 12 will have been abolished , although passport controls on individuals may take longer to go .sx A major reason for the Single European Act which initiated the legal process of economic unification and which was agreed by the 12 governments in 1986 was to enable European industry to compete successfully with the two most powerful economies , the United States and Japan .sx With larger markets , greater economies of scale , tougher competition and bigger incentives to innovate and modernise , it is hoped to stimulate economic growth , and reduce production costs and prices .sx The Cecchini report 'The Economics of 1992' , named after the chair of an EC working party , claims that the single market may result in about six years in a 7% growth in community output , a 45% cut in prices and the creation of 5 million jobs , cutting unemployment in the community by about one third .sx But the report admits that in the first two years there is likely to be an increase in unemployment , which means 525,000 job losses in the first year .sx But there are big problems connected with the Europeanisation of industry a process which started before 1986 but is being speeded up by the implementation of the Single European Act .sx The massive restructuring of industry required to meet the needs of the larger , more competitive market is likely to result in many closures and job losses .sx For example , in reference to the pharmaceutical industry , the Cecchini report says the effect will be " to make the strong stronger and the weak weaker .sx " It speaks of the " elimination of marginal companies .sx " .sx Will 'making the strong stronger , and weak weaker' apply to many other sectors of industry ?sx It remains to be seen .sx The giant firms , already with well-established branches in several countries , with the biggest capacity for new investment and Euro-wide marketing and the ability to benefit from economies of scale are well placed to gain from the single market .sx Yet of the top 25 manufacturing companies operating in Europe only two are British ; and one , Unilever , part-British .sx Many smaller and less efficient firms may go to the wall .sx Sir John Harvey-Jones , former chair of ICI , forecast that within 10 years half of Europe's factories would close and half its companies would disappear or be taken over .sx On the other hand , the EC's competition and anti - monopoly policy may be used to prevent mergers and takeovers , and to diminish the concentration of economic power in the hands of giant firms like Philips and GCE , which have done very well on government contracts .sx Public awareness of the problem and pressure on EC institutions may have some effect on the way the anti-monopoly policy is used .sx The TUC warns that there will be a tendency for industrial development to be concentrated in the central area , around major continental cities , while peripheral areas such as Northern England , Scotland and Southern Italy will lose out .sx But alongside this , labour-intensive industries not requiring high technology could move to cheap labour areas such as Portugal and Spain .sx Both these tendencies would be bad for Britain .sx Taking a wider view , the concentration on economic growth , unless carefully controlled and accompanied by a responsible attitude to world problems , can only heighten economic rivalry , add to the pollution of the planet and worsen the disparity between the advanced countries and the Third World .sx It is widely recognised in the European community , though not by the British Government that the single market on its own , unaccompanied by social measures , will benefit capital much more than working people , who may suffer unemployment and insecurity , and that the effect of the single market may well increase inequality between countries and regions .sx