A two-tier model to revive Europe
如何振兴欧盟？
广州翻译公司：拉赫曼：欧盟应以英国退欧为契机创建双层架构，第一层级国家继续推进一体化，第二层级国家只参与单一市场。
Later this week, EU leaders will meet in Bratislava — minus one country. The Slovakia summit will be the first to take place without the UK. But Britain will loom large in discussions, as Europe grapples with Brexit.
欧盟领导人本周晚些时候将在斯洛伐克的布拉迪斯拉发(Bratislava)会晤——这次少一个国家。此次峰会将是首个没有英国参加的欧盟峰会。但英国将是一个突出话题，因为欧洲正在努力解决英国退欧的相关问题。广州翻译公司。
The mood of EU leaders is understandably sombre. Sigmar Gabriel, the deputy chancellor of Germany, spoke for many when he warned that Britain must be shown that it cannot keep “the nice things” about the EU without paying a price. Any other approach, he said, would leave the bloc “in big trouble”.
可以理解的是，欧盟领导人情绪不佳。德国副总理西格马尔•加布里尔(Sigmar Gabriel)警告称，必须向英国表明，它不可能不付出代价就保留欧盟带来的“好事情”——这说出了许多人的心声。他说，不这样处理的话，欧盟将有“大麻烦”。
Emotionally and politically, Mr Gabriel’s approach is understandable. Nonetheless, it is a mistake. Rather than treating Brexit as a threat, the EU should treat it as an opportunity. The process of negotiating a new relationship with Britain should be used to address the many other problems afflicting the union.
无论从情感上还是从政治上来说，加布里尔的处理方法都是可以理解的。然而，这种方法是错误的。欧盟应该将英国退欧视为一种机遇，而非威胁。谈判欧洲与英国新关系的过程应该被用来解决困扰欧盟的其他许多问题。广州翻译公司。
More specifically, it is now clear that Britain is not the only current member of the club that is unhappy with the high level of political integration involved in belonging to the EU. Just last week, the Visegrad Four — Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic — issued a demand for a looser bloc with some powers returned to nation states.
具体来说，如今显而易见的是，英国并不是唯一对欧盟内部较高的政治一体化水平感到不满的成员。就在上周，维谢格拉德四国集团（Visegrad Four，指匈牙利、波兰、斯洛伐克和捷克，简称V4）呼吁欧盟采用更松散的体制，将部分权力还给各成员国政府。
The negotiations around Brexit should be used as an opportunity to create a two-tier EU that meets these concerns. The first tier could press ahead with much closer political integration, pursuing the longstanding goal of “ever closer union” in Europe. The countries on the second tier would restrict themselves to participation in the single market and co-operation on foreign and security policy.
应该以英国退欧谈判为契机，创建一个双层级(two-tier)的欧盟，以解决这些担忧。第一层级的国家可以推进更为紧密的政治一体化，寻求实现在欧洲打造“日益紧密的联盟”这个长期以来的目标。第二层级的国家将只限于参与单一市场，以及外交和安全政策上的合作。广州翻译公司。
This two-tier approach could ­potentially meet the needs of both federalists and Eurosceptics. The federalists have long complained that Britain has acted as a drag on deeper integration. But ­suspicion of the idea of “political union” is now widespread across the bloc.
采用这种双层架构有可能同时满足联邦主义者和欧洲怀疑论者的需求。联邦主义者早就抱怨称，英国拖了一体化的后腿。但现在欧盟内部普遍对“政治联盟”构想抱有疑虑。
The antifederalists include not just the Visegrad Four, but also probably the Irish, the Dutch, the Swedes and the Danes. If those countries were to opt for the outer tier, the remaining federalists — such as Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain and (probably) France — could press ahead with deeper integration.
反对联邦制的不仅仅是V4，可能还有爱尔兰、荷兰、瑞典和丹麦。如果那些国家选择了外层的成员身份，剩余的联邦主义者，比如德国、比利时、意大利、西班牙，（可能还有）法国，则可以推进更深层次的一体化。广州翻译公司。
Creating two tiers of membership would allow the union as a whole to continue to fulfil its two most important missions: preservation of the single market and the projection of European interests on the world stage. A two-level structure could also solve the Brexit problem, since the UK could probably slot quite easily into the second tier rather than leave the bloc outright. In time, even non-EU members such as Switzerland, Norway, Turkey and Ukraine might join the second tier.
双层的成员国身份将有利于欧盟作为一个整体继续履行其最重要的两个使命：维护单一市场以及在世界舞台上投射欧洲的利益。双层架构也会解决英国退欧问题，因为英国可以很容易地加入第二层级，而不是完全离开欧盟。随着时间的推移，甚至瑞士、挪威、土耳其和乌克兰等非欧盟成员国也可能加入第二层级。
Of course, there is plenty of “devil” in the detail. Countries and legal powers would not be placed neatly and obviously into the first or second tier. Would France go with the federalists or the antifederalists? The answer might depend on the outcome of the French presidential election next year.
当然，细节方面存在许多困难。各个国家和法律权力将不会被干脆利落地归入第一或第二层级。法国将会支持联邦主义者还是反联邦主义者？答案可能取决于明年法国总统大选的结果。广州翻译公司。
Could a country that has adopted the European single currency really opt for second-tier membership? That might be difficult given the degree of fiscal integration that the euro might ultimately demand.
一个已经采用欧洲单一货币的国家真的可能会选择做二级成员国？鉴于欧元最终可能要求的财政一体化程度，这可能有些困难。
The question of free movement of people would also be very sensitive. It is already clear that post-referendum Britain is highly unlikely to accept full-scale free movement of people from the rest of the EU. And there are also other union members that want to see some restrictions on free movement. The Dutch would like to see an “emergency brake” procedure, in which an individual country could restrict inflows of people from the rest of the EU if they exceeded a certain preset level. France is threatening to stop applying the EU law on “posted workers”, which allows bosses to pay lower wages to employees seconded from other EU countries.
人员自由流动的问题也将非常敏感。显然，脱欧公投后的英国不太可能接受来自欧盟其他国家的人员在英国境内完全自由流动。还有其他一些欧盟成员国希望对人员自由流动实施一些限制。荷兰希望设置一个“紧急制动”程序，如果来自欧盟其他地区的人员流入一个国家的规模超过某个预设的水平，这个国家可以限制这些地区人员的流入。法国威胁要停止实行与劳务派遣工相关的欧盟法律，该法律使雇主能够向其他欧盟国家派遣的员工支付较低薪资。广州翻译公司。
The difficulty is that while restrictions on free movement of people would be an important demand for the antifederalist countries in western Europe, the antifederalists in eastern Europe regard the maintenance of free movement as a vital national interest.
问题是，尽管对人员自由流动设限是西欧反联邦主义国家的一项重要要求，但东欧的反联邦主义国家却将维持人员自由流动视为一项重要的国家利益。
Yet there is still plenty of room for creative negotiation in dealing with this issue. One possibility would be to adopt the Dutch idea of the emergency brake, preserving the substance of free movement while providing reassurance that immigration will not be unlimited. Another idea would be to make a much clearer distinction between free movement of labour and free movement of people, allowing full labour mobility within the EU, but restricting migration rights to those who have a job.
然而，在解决这个问题方面展开创造性谈判仍有巨大空间。一种可能是采用荷兰提出的“紧急制动”措施，既保留了人员自由流动的实质，同时保证移民不会没有限制。另一种想法是对劳动力自由流动和人员自由流动做出更明确的区分，允许在欧盟内部进行全面的劳动力流动，但限制那些已有工作的人员的移民权利。广州翻译公司。
Many of the political class in Brussels would regard all these proposals as dangerous heresy. They want the union to hang on to all its current powers (the “acquis”), and to prove the folly of “leaving Europe” by making Britain’s divorce as painful and as difficult as possible. But the idea that the EU is best preserved by treating it like Alcatraz — and demonstrating that anybody who attempts to escape will inevitably suffer a terrible fate — is not ultimately a good way of keeping the bloc together.
布鲁塞尔许多政治人士会将所有这些提议视为危险的异端邪说。他们希望欧盟保持既有的权力（“acquis”），并通过让英国脱欧变得尽可能痛苦和艰难来证明“脱离欧盟”是愚蠢之举。但把欧盟视为一个恶魔岛并向外界展示任何一个企图逃离恶魔岛的人都将不可避免地遭受可怕的命运，认为这样最有利于维护欧盟的想法终究不是一个团结欧盟的好方法。
It would be far better for European leaders to acknowledge that some of Britain’s complaints about the EU are quite widely shared. Rather than trying to preserve the current structures at all costs, they should design a new two-tier union that could, potentially, keep every­body happy.
对欧盟领导人来说，更好的做法是承认英国关于欧盟的一些抱怨是相当普遍地存在的。他们不应不惜一切代价地保护当前的结构，而是应设计一个新的、或许能够让所有人满意的双层联盟。
