Where the Hell is the EU Going?

Ronnie Smith

Here is a quote from a CBS news report of 17 January 2012. The EU's executive Commission said the new constitution that came into force Jan. 1 undermines the independence of the national central bank and the judiciary and does not respect data privacy principles. While many commentators in Europe agreed that the constitutional reforms enacted by Hungarys current centre right government appeared to be a clear threat to democracy in that country, the scary thing is that it is the EUs Executive Commission who decided to criticise the political actions of a government of a member state and take legal action against it. The members of the Executive Commission are unelected, they are EU civil servants appointed to their lucrative positions by the governments of their countries. If any EU institution should be dealing with disturbing political and constitutional trends in a member state then the Council of Ministers ought to be the one, using existing intergovernmental and diplomatic channels within the EU structure. I will not waste my time mentioning the European Parliament but it is surely not for bureaucrats in Brussels to challenge the public policy direction of an elected government in the courts. Rather it is for the people of that country to campaign against and reject their government in timehonoured fashion, through public discourse and the ballot box. Recently the people of Italy joined the Greeks in having a new Prime Minister and technocratic government appointed for them without any reference to the requirement of a democratic mandate. Instead a conspiracy comprising the EU Commission, the EU Central Bank and the bond markets provided them with new leaderships and the economic policies that they should pursue on the basis that, in todays political reality, financial necessity overrides every other criterion once thought vital for the stable retention of liberal democracy. At the beginning of February this year during a carefully choreographed process, the following events took place in quick succession in Bucharest. First, Mr Jeffrey Franks, Romanias IMF Chef de Mission and the worlds best impersonator of an American Certified Public Accountant, arrived for a scheduled inspection visit and declared his complete satisfaction with everything related to the two-year loan period that has come to an end. All targets achieved, all conditions met.

Two days after Mr Franks left, the government of the deeply unpopular Prime Minister, Mr Emile Boc, resigned en masse and was swiftly replaced by a completely new government of what appear to be young technocrats. In Romania, the Prime Minister is appointed by the elected President. Finally, two days later, the Governor of the Romanian Central Bank, the only man with any clue about fiscal and economic policy in the entire country, announced that responsibility for the nation's fiscal policy should no longer rest with the IMF but should be transferred to those nice German regulators at the EU, through the new fiscal treaty. Romanias president was one of the first nonEurozone government heads to sign the treaty. Romania is confirmed as the next country, after Greece and Italy, to be governed by Merkozy's EU fiscal and political regime. In light of these events now may be a good time to review what is going on in the European Union and consider where the once great project is leading us. That review should include an understanding of what has actually happened since the Lisbon treaty was signed. This cleaning-up exercise seems to have allowed very major political power to be assumed by the EU Commission. Did any of us, governments, parliaments or citizens get the opportunity to discuss such a massive constitutional change? It is clear that Germany is now running the Eurozone and that this is accepted by most governments within the EU, even more so since Frances arbitrary credit downgrade by another unaccountable organization in the United States. Obviously Germany possesses the highest levels of economic and financial competence on the continent. In the absence of any other source of financial, or even political leadership during the current severe crisis we can probably all say, 'thank God for Germany'. Indeed, despite losing two world wars Germany has arrived at the point envisaged by Otto von Bismarck in 1871. Germany is the dominant power in Europe and, without recourse to military force, now has the complex financial and economic mechanisms within the Eurozone and beyond at its fingertips. Two of the oldest democracies on the continent have had their elected but incompetent governments replaced by appointment in the face of political and economic events that neither of them could control. And a third has now happily fallen into line and given up its right to decide its own fiscal policy. There were no new elections in either Greece or Italy and scheduled parliamentary elections in Romania, due this year, have not yet been put on the calendar. Restricted bargaining took place among the members of both Parliaments in Greece and Italy but in Romania the process was a closed done deal. Not even the very rich men who own Greeces politicians could save their man and Berlusconi could not save himself (from himself). The Romanians simply surrendered, like men who love prison and cant wait to be arrested.

Certainly the Greek and Italian governments were failures and deserved to be thrown out of office. Perhaps their economies will indeed be saved from destruction by the Eurocrats who now occupy the Prime Ministers' chairs in these countries, we'll see. But is it now the case in the European Union that democracy within member countries is suspended whenever the European Central Bank or the European Commission or the IMF or the bond markets or the G20 group of states decide? Do we now have Eurocracy replacing democracy. There are many within this Eurocracy telling us that only fiscal union in the EU can save us from the current crises and set a new course for economic growth in the future. Many oppose the very idea of fiscal union but what opportunity will they be given to voice their concerns in the current environment of German hegemony? Remember that in the recent past both Denmark and Ireland were forced to re-run referenda that had originally produced results counter to the position of the EU Commission. Now we have Eurocrats appointed to Prime Ministerships with apparent ease and the sight of Angela Merkel openly supporting Sarkozys candidacy for re-lection in the coming French Presidential election, on French and German television. These are clear signs that the EU and Europe in general is heading in the wrong political direction. There is much talk of an independent Scotland being a member of both the EU and the Eurozone as a matter of priority. I suggest that the people pushing this line of argument, supposedly to create a sense of stability and continuity for our new country, take a step back and have a look at what the EU Commission is actually thinking and doing. There has always been a democratic deficit at the heart of the EU. Right now it is getting much, much greater.