Our masters in the EU have just two tactics to ensure that they get their way.

a. Stuff your mouth with gold

b. Isolate the EU state and make it feel that it is holding Europe back until it complies.

 

 

We, in the UK, are used to the latter tactic, especially Margaret Thatcher, who was made to feel very isolated whenever she tried to get the colleagues,as they like to be called, to see reason. With our fully subservient Westminster provincial government, the colleagues get the UK to do anything they want at the moment. Remember the so called 'red lines'? They are just quietly washing away in the summer rain. In the rest of the EU, we are seeing both the above tactics in play, this week.

Tactic a. Poland. Because Ireland had turned down a treaty that must be ratified by all 27 EU members, Poland had said that there was no point in continuing to ratify it and refused to do so. President Lech Kaczynski of Poland visited Paris this week, and surrendered to EU President Sarkozy. And the cost? Of course it had nothing to do with a Commission decision. EURef puts it this way

On the stocks was an EU commission decision, due today [July 16th 2008], on whether six years of "illegal" state aid paid to the historic shipyards of Gdansk, Gdynia and Szczecin will have to be repaid. Amounting to €2.1 billion, this could bankrupt the yards whose workers helped toppled the communist regime in 1989.

Tactic b. Belgium. For several months, there has been no Belgium government, so there was no one to sign the Lisbon Treaty, which, of course, is unacceptable to the colleagues. No one else seemed to notice as Belgium continued to function perfectly well as the EU capitol. As Daniel Hannan put it:

After a while, though, the absence of a settlement started seriously to alarm the EU. For, if there were no Belgian government, who would sign the European Constitution Lisbon Treaty? And so a ministry was cobbled together under Yves Leterme. It had no programme, and failed to reach agreement on the vital issue of relations between the French- and Dutch-speaking populations, but never mind: it had the authority to sign treaties. Job done, the Belgian government has now dissolved again. As the Brussels Journal puts it: "A government was needed to have the Treaty ratified in Belgium. Last week, Belgium ratified the Treaty. Its government is now no longer needed."

Tactic b. Ireland. Now for the naughty boy of Europe that must be disciplined. It said NO but is standing in the way of 'progress' so must change its mind and say YES. President Sarkozy visits Ireland on Monday (14th July). It will be interesting to read of his tactics, but, if true to form, Ireland will be made to feel completely isolated and out of touch. The Times, reporting on a meeting between Sarkozy and The Colleagues yesterday, says this:

A second vote would have to take place in an attempt to reverse Ireland's rejection of the treaty last month ..., the French President told MPs from his party at a private meeting. ...and

His trip is billed as a listening exercise, but Irish voters may now wonder whether Mr Sarkozy and other EU leaders have already made up their minds. Details emerged in Paris of a plan to stage a rerun of the vote backed by guarantees that Ireland will keep its EU commissioner as well as its military neutrality, its veto over tax policy and its right to set its abortion laws.

International laws about treaties mean nothing to an EU President who is not getting his way. And he hasn't had time yet to focus on our budget rebate or on our pathetic request to have the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) reformed. remember who benefits most from the CAP. The French, of course.

And so the Euro Express steams on seemingly unstoppable. When will the people's revolt begin? It is only a matter of time, but as with all authoritarian forms of government, it might take a long time for people to really wake up and revolt.

From the Times again:

William Hague, the British Shadow Foreign Secretary, said: "It would be extraordinary if Irish voters were made to vote twice on this EU treaty before British voters got to vote once. The EU needs to remember that asking people to vote again and again until you get the answer you want doesn't look very democratic."

(Cartoon from The Saxon Times)