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While we liberate Iraq, Europe is busy planning to enslave us
The Daily Telegraph ^ | April 3, 2003 | Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Posted on 04/02/2003 3:13:48 PM PST by MadIvan

By the time the Iraqi crisis is over, it may already be too late for the Government to stop a political disaster in Europe. The European Union's first constitution will be a done deal, and, from what we have seen of the text so far, it will usher in a new order that overturns the governing basis of British parliamentary democracy for ever.

The EU will no longer be a treaty organisation in which member states agree to lend power to Brussels for certain purposes, on the understanding that they can take it back again. The EU itself will become the fount of power, with its own legal personality, delegating functions back to Britain. Draft Article 9 puts Brussels at the top of the pyramid. "The Constitution will have primacy over the law of Member States," it says.

The new order may also be irreversible. Article 46 stipulates that the terms of secession from the EU must be agreed by two thirds of the member states. In other words, one third can impose intolerable conditions [report, 3 April].

A number of fresh articles trickled out two weeks ago, just as the Iraq conflict was erupting, to create what amounts to an EU interior and justice ministry, known as Eurojust, in charge of a proto-FBI - Europol - with the power to launch raids across the EU [report, 19 March]. An EU attorney-general will be able to prosecute "cross-border crime" in British courts, a catch-all term that gives Brussels wider jurisdiction than the US Justice Department currently enjoys after 200 years of encroachment on state power.

Under a new notion called "shared competence", Brussels takes charge of virtually all areas of national life. Unless the EU chooses to waive its primacy, Westminster will be prohibited from legislating in public health, social policy, transport, justice, agriculture, energy, economic and social cohesion, the environment, internal and external trade, and consumer protection.

The EU will have the power to "co-ordinate the economic policies of the member states" and - showing some chutzpah given what happened over Iraq - "define and implement a common foreign and security policy, including the progressive framing of a common defence policy".

This is not exactly what protesters had in mind when they voted no to the euro in Denmark, and no to Nice in Ireland, or when they tore up Gothenburg in the anti-EU riots in 2001. But it was precisely these outbursts of popular dissent that prompted EU leaders, in December 2001, to launch a convention on the future of Europe.

Vowing to end secrecy in EU treaty talks and throw the process open to the "people", they summoned 105 "Founding Fathers" for a year-long brain-storming session in Brussels to redesign Europe's governing machinery. Instead of diplomats, the members were MEPs, as well as MPs and ministers from the EU's 28 current and future states.

The man chosen to shepherd the "people" and enthuse Europe's disenchanted youth was the lordly Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who incarnates the elitism of the 1970s French establishment. It went downhill from there.

The two European Commissioners on his 13-member praesidium, France's Michel Barnier and Portugal's Antonio Vitorino, have used their inside position to hijack the drafting process and push through articles that go far beyond the proposals of the working groups that toiled through the autumn. Much of the constitution is being written by lawyers on loan from the commission. The "people" have become a sick joke.

Tony Blair was slow to see the threat. Downing Street at first dismissed the convention as a talking shop, but woke up when the French, Spanish, German and Italian governments gave it irresistible authority by appointing to it their foreign or deputy prime ministers.

The Government then fell back to a second self-deception, imagining that France and Spain would join Britain in blocking any major assault on national prerogatives. Peter Hain, Downing Street's man on the forum, confidently told reporters that the East Europeans would not give away freedoms so recently wrested from the Soviet Union.

None of this has happened. France has abandoned Britain, and her own historical attachment to a Europe where national capitals always have the whip hand over Brussels. They seem to be accepting federalism as the price of relaunching the broken Franco-German axis. As for the Spanish, they are silent.

So are the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and others, who still have a gun pointed to their head. They know that Jacques Chirac could still try to sabotage their admission next year by calling a referendum in France. Those on the convention will soon become MEPs or Eurocrats themselves, and their salaries will jump by as much as 12 times, which concentrates the mind.

It is almost pitiful to read through the long list of amendments put up by Mr Hain. Britain is alone, supported by just a handful of lonely Euro-sceptics.

The Government still insists that this draft text is nothing more than a wish list. Once the convention wraps up its work in June, EU governments will have their say. They alone will decide what is in the second Treaty of Rome this December. Of course, Britain can veto any text it does not like. But equally, we all know that Labour is not going to destroy a six-year effort to place the Government at the heart of Europe. And there is always the implicit threat that 24 other states could create a new union, leaving Britain in an empty shell.

Mr Blair will win a few face-saving concessions. The meaningless term "federal" will be taken out of Article 1. A watchdog may be created to safeguard "subsidiarity". But in the end he will try to pretend that this monster is more or less what Downing Street wanted all along, even with its legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Only a referendum can stop it now - if the Tories have got the guts to fight for one.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: brussels; eu; eutopia; fourthreich; uk
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This issue is not at the forefront of everyone's mind at the moment, Ambrose does us a service by trying to make people think about it.

What Blair and the East Europeans need is an "out", a better deal from the United States than the garbage being offered up in Brussels. I suspect President Bush is wise enough not to want this constitution to happen, and will offer such an alternative.

If we are dragged into this, I won't sit still - I will leave.

Regards, Ivan


1 posted on 04/02/2003 3:13:48 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: patricia; annyokie; Citizen of the Savage Nation; cgk; proust; swheats; starfish; maui_hawaii; ...
Bump!
2 posted on 04/02/2003 3:14:02 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
If we are dragged into this, I won't sit still - I will leave.

I got an old couch in the basement.

3 posted on 04/02/2003 3:15:43 PM PST by dead
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To: MadIvan
Perhaps Bush should pick up Robert Conquest's idea of a loose association of English-speaking nations--one that derives its stature from the long history of shared language and culture.
4 posted on 04/02/2003 3:16:52 PM PST by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!)
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To: MadIvan
It's hard for me to think of a reason why this would be good for the UK.

I'd opt out, if it were me.

5 posted on 04/02/2003 3:16:56 PM PST by jimt (Support our troops !)
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To: jimt; MadIvan
If I were leading a British government that opted to secede, I'd simply make "an offer that can't be refused" to the other EU states.

"Vote against our leaving on our terms, and we will use our Trident submarine force against your nations."

NOBODY would want a piece of that.

The only problem is that the French would insist on seceding with you as your vassal state.
6 posted on 04/02/2003 3:19:53 PM PST by Poohbah (Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women!)
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To: MadIvan
What kind of an out would you suggest? Me, I have no clue.
7 posted on 04/02/2003 3:20:01 PM PST by Green Knight (Eomer is a Unilateralist!)
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To: MadIvan
This is terrible news for the true founders of modern representative government---Britain. It means the end of same.

Some of us Biblical End-Timers see the EU as the recreation of the Holy Roman Empire and a fulfillment of prophecy leading to the rise of the Anti-Christ. This is chilling news, indeed!

8 posted on 04/02/2003 3:20:59 PM PST by TenthAmendmentChampion (The Coalition is on the outskirts of BadGhag!!)
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To: Green Knight
Make NAFTA into the "North Atlantic Free Trade Association".

Regards, Ivan

9 posted on 04/02/2003 3:21:02 PM PST by MadIvan
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To: MadIvan
Good point.
10 posted on 04/02/2003 3:23:28 PM PST by Green Knight (Eomer is a Unilateralist!)
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To: MadIvan
Scary Stuff!
11 posted on 04/02/2003 3:23:43 PM PST by vpintheak
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To: MadIvan
I sincerely hope that many countries will not go along with losing their soveignity, especially Britain, Spain, Netherlands, Italy and the new EU states. It would be like Hitler taking over Europe without firing a shot. This may explain, as I have said all along, the Franco/German collaboration. "Old Europe" needs the new States more than they need them. All the business investment will go there, because of lower labor costs. "Old Europe" just wants to milk them through Social Taxation, since their economies are bankrupt and won't recover.
Enter the U.S. with a new NATO plan excluding "old Europe" and inclusion in NAFTA. At least they would not be slaves to the Aristocracy.
12 posted on 04/02/2003 3:24:32 PM PST by americanbychoice
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To: MadIvan
Oh my...

thank you for posting. I will send this along to two cyber-friends in the UK.
13 posted on 04/02/2003 3:25:31 PM PST by proud American in Canada ("We are a peaceful people. Yet we are not a fragile people.")
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To: MadIvan
I guess the U.S. will be the only one not IN globalization.
14 posted on 04/02/2003 3:27:06 PM PST by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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To: MadIvan
This is scary stuff.
15 posted on 04/02/2003 3:27:18 PM PST by Reb Raider
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To: MadIvan
Next thing you know, Britain will be attacked by Europe for trying to secede, their cities will be burnt, carpet baggers will arrive and strip Britons of all their wealth, and make it a hate crime to fly their flag.

Glad this kind of thing can never happen in the good ol' USA.
16 posted on 04/02/2003 3:28:00 PM PST by Born to Conserve
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To: MadIvan
Better buy those plane tickets, pal.

Geography and history dictate that the Brits will go with Europe rather than the U.S. I mean, are they going to be the 51st state? Besides, in spite of the current love fest that we seem to be having with Tony Blair, he is still a far-left liberal and a globalist, or am I wrong?

A federal Europe is pretty much a done deal, AFAIK, and Britain either goes along or will be left out in the cold.

17 posted on 04/02/2003 3:28:03 PM PST by Batrachian
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To: MadIvan
The new order may also be irreversible. Article 46 stipulates that the terms of secession from the EU must be agreed by two thirds of the member states.

Will Britain be "whistlin' Dixie" ten years from now?

18 posted on 04/02/2003 3:28:16 PM PST by Polybius
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To: MadIvan
Bump for Ivan bump.
19 posted on 04/02/2003 3:29:44 PM PST by bribriagain
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To: MadIvan
Like many in my family, I believe in a new "Anglosphere" (UK, USA, Australia, EnZed,, Ireland, and other English speaking nations). Canada would be welcomed so long as they expel Quebec to sink on its own.

Why is this such an impossible dream? It makes more sense than the UK giving up its identity to Brussels.

20 posted on 04/02/2003 3:32:48 PM PST by Maeve (Siobhan's daughter and sometime banshee.)
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