Dalibor Rohac: Libertarians and the European Union

There is much to agree with in Petr
Mach’s response to my
article about the European Union (EU). As he puts it, my
defense of the EU is “utilitarian,” not a principled one, and I
fully accept that it is possible to imagine alternatives to the
current political arrangements in Europe that would be much
friendlier to individual freedom than the status quo.

Unfortunately, Mr. Mach’s text does little to address my main
concern, namely that such alternatives might not be on the menu of
options available to us at the moment, and that the likely
political dynamics of an EU downfall carry a big risk of making the
continent, as a whole, less free.

Libertarian Eurosceptics are correct to argue that, ceteris
paribus, bad policy at the level of the EU is more damaging than at
the level of a handful of nation-states. However, in Europe’s
political reality, the ‘ceteris’ are hardly ‘paribus.’ Victory for
the Eurosceptic forces, which could plausibly bring about an exit
from the EU or its complete demise, would likely be a victory for
protectionism, economic nationalism, immigration barriers, and for
Mr. Putin. We should think twice before becoming cheerleaders for
such outcomes.

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