Tuesday 26 June 2012

The end of the European nation state has arrived.

With each passing day, the crisis becomes more insane. The leadership at the centre of this catastrophe have finally come up with an idea so shocking that I struggle to recount its key points.

There is a detailed plan in preparation where member states effectively hand over budgetary control to Brussels. If a country fails to meet budgetary targets, the EC will be able to propose detailed adjustments, which will then be put to a vote of of all other EU countries.

This isn't some mad ravings of an obscure think tank or an EC bureaucrat that has left the reservation. This proposal has four authors; Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president; José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president; Mario Draghi, European Central Bank chief; and Jean-Claude Juncker, chair of the eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers. A draft is ready and will be shortly sent to EU capitals for "consideration".

The centralization of budgetary authority doesn't stop there. The EU will collectively decide debt limits. Any country wishing to borrow more will have to get the approval of all other member states. Euro-bonds are also on the way.

Taken together these proposals would mean that the EC would become a European Ministry of Finance, deciding the expenditure and revenue decisions for the member states If this proposal is adopted, then EU member states will no longer be sovereign states. They will be, in effect, provinces of a European Federation.

I am going to ask two questions. These questions are so obvious that I really shouldn't be asking them. First, what gives these four individuals the right to produce a blueprint to end the sovereignty of 27 independent nations? Second, what gives any politician in any European capital the right to agree to such a reprehensible and disgraceful proposal.

There was a time when the people of Europe believed that sovereignty came from the people. Has that become an unfashionable idea? Is it too oldy-worldy and 20th century to believe that the people of Europe have a right to be consulted on their political future?

Something tells me that I am out of sync with the times. There is no room for nation-states in Europe. The European super-state is here and there is nothing we can do about it.

4 comments:

davidb said...

On the first hand I am fundamentally a democrat. I value the right to elect, however useless, ones leaders above all else. Even in a flawed system like ours, I refuse to accept the authority of people who are not elected.

On the other hand, divorcing economic levers from the grip of politicians ( oh for a truely independent central bank ), does have the advantage of decoupling the elected politicians from their habit of buying votes with other peoples money.

But would rule from Brussels lead to free market wealth creation policies or condemn Europe to having the last flicker of private enterprise snuffed out?

Oh, and yesterday the roads were quiet, the phones were quiet, and everyone I spoke to had a tale of woe. It feels like the end game might be starting after the 5 years of phony war.

Rich Tee said...

I agree that just thinking about it makes you feel you are going mad. It seems like it's from the realms of science fiction.

A conspiracy in plain sight.

ernie said...

Just ask yourself whether it's in any way likely that governments (let alone their people of course) would be willing to give up their powers to this extent. The (probably unelected) person making the decisions about who could spend/borrow what would instantly become the most powerful person in the world bar none. Hitler would have been proud of the idea.
For this reason, even allowing for our general mood of pessismism at this dark time, this proposal will never see the light of day.
And by the way, are any of your four names elected officials? I think you may safely assume that bureaucrats under threat of not having a job will keep coming up with more and more crack-brained ideas until they are shuffled off into the pages of history.

Robin Smith said...

Agreed. Welcome to the World Nation State.

The 2 world wars were a European civil war rooted in banks new state granted privilege to collect the land rents. Defaults basically

The next war or default will be truly a world war. A world civil war.

I'm looking forward to a peaceful campaign.