baudouin, brussels, belgium

In Brussels, Geraud de Ville met Baudouin, a dynamic graphic designer and a part time teacher. Passionate by culture and arts he works a lot with cultural associations on the promotion of various events. 

Question: What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you think about the EU?
Baudouin: A guarantee for peace. The EU has preserved the European citizens from war since its creation.

Question: Would you say that you are satisfied with the direction in which the EU is going? In term of economical opportunities for instance.
Baudouin: Yes, they try to promote de basic freedoms of circulation and it creates opportunities. The same with education, they try to promote cooperation between universities and that allows students and professionals to work in other countries and to have a recognition of their diploma. This would have been inimaginable 20 years ago.

Question: Thanks to the EU or thanks to the Common Market?
Baudouin: I don't really know. But the EU is also an ideal, the possibility for the EU Member States to promote their ideas. Allow the smaller States to emerge, to have more influence. The EU as it is now is ruled by bigger States. The New Member States don't seem to have very much to say.

Question: And you would like the smaller States to have more power
Baudouin: Of course because this is a way to enrich ourselves culturally and economically. Moreover if these States manage to fill the gap that separate them from Western Europe, it might affect positively our economy with less outsourcings towards the Eastern European countries.

Question: Yes but the risk remains that the entreprises will outsource in China or India.
Baudouin: Yes but that is out of our control.

Question: What opinion do you think the Belgian people have on the EU?
Baudouin: Fifty fifty. I don't think people perceive the advantages or the disadvantages of the EU. I think their opinion is harder on the functionning of the institutions.

Question: And what would be the critics people have on its functionning?
Baudouin: Bad handeling of the budget, the civil servant myth who makes too much money and doesn't do much, a heavy bureaucratic and hierarchised administration and people do not really see the services comming out of it.

Question: And you, personally.
Baudouin: I see that something comes out of it. The big companies, for instance, are controlled by the EU antitrust regulation and no other institution, besides the EU is able to exerce that control. Especially against huge companies like Microsoft, the EU exerces a lot of pressure because of its important market. So I see it more in a strategic way but I don't really see what the EU changes in our everyday life.

Question: Do you know how the EU works?
Baudouin: Not at all! I mix it all.

Question: If I told you that about 70% of the laws applicable in Belgium come from Brussels, would that be ok for you?
Baudouin: As long as they respect the particularities of each country.

Question: So you believe that some matters should stay at the National level?Baudouin: Definitely, because if all the decision power is to be centralized it will bring chaos!

Question: But at the moment, most of the laws are decided at the EU level
Baudouin: I didn't know it was so much... But if it really is the case right now, it doesn't seem to be problematic.

Question: Yes but it also means that most of the laws are made by unelected people. Baudouin: In this case, it is a problem for me, unless we create a big European parliament with a real legislative power in which I would be represented.

Question: Would you like the EU to become a federal State?
Baudouin: I don't know if it would be a good thing. Maybe there is too much diversity in the EU...

Question: This is what is planned in the EU Constitution, it would make of Europe a quasi federal State adding to the current acquis communautaire a President, an army,...
Baudouin: I would agree if it would make it easier to manage

Question: Would you mind to loose your language (french) as an official language? In case the EU decides to simplify the translations problem for instance...
Baudouin: I wouldn't mind. I'm already always working in english. I wouldn't mind to have official papers in english. I am not fetichist with my language!

Question: And what about your culture?
Baudouin: It wouldn't disappear, I cannot imagine that a federal government based in Brussels would impose harmonization in the culture. There will always be writers in Belgium, movie directors in France and singers in the UK.

Question: But the language is part of the culture!
Baudouin: You're right. But I don't really have a strong link to my region. I have lived outside of my native region for most of my life.

Question: What about a European army?
Baudouin: I think there would be some advantages like the rapidity of reaction during war mission as well as peace keeping mission. I don't think in what it would be a problem.

Question: Do you think there should be more information about the EU institutional system?
Baudouin: Yes, particularly in the schools: A formation on the European citizenship that would take place at the end of elementary school or in the beginning of high school.

Question: What should be the next task of the EU?
Baudouin: The EU should work on strenghtening our continent against the growing economic and cultural invasions comming from abroad. We need to have a strong unity otherwise we will be sweeped away.

Question: Some people believe that this could be better achieved with a Europe of strong States than with a federal Europe. What do you think?
Baudouin: In the actual framework, bigger nations like France, Spain and others sometimes decide to play alone. They chose to be on the EU side when it is an advantage but in other circumstances they only defend their interests to the detriment of other nations (e.g. The position of France with the CAP). This is what happen when you have a Europe of strong states: they tend to impose their interest and forget about the general interest. In this case I think a more centralized Europe could help.