What is Wrong with the EU



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26 January 2017

The article below is an excerpt from a posting on a European company's website. It reveals a lot more in-depth issues than it intended, I think. See the elaboration of my thoughts in that regard following the article.

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EU Policy and Government Relations Newsletter December 2016 - January 2017

2017-01-24 - This newsletter highlights recent developments in EU policy and regulation (emphasis added) that are of particular importance to our company's business interests, and for which our company has carried out public affairs activities.

EU Policy Outlook 2017

Despite last year's political upheavals, the EU's political and regulatory agenda will continue in 2017, set to further strengthen the single market with common rules and projects. Three strands of activities will be particularly relevant for our company:

* the set of legislative proposals referred to as "Clean Energy for all Europeans" (or "Winter Package") which aims at readying the European power markets for around 45% of electricity from renewable sources in 2030, and at further advancing energy efficiency, market liberalisation and empowerment of prosumers

* the European Commission strategy "Building the European Data Economy" which will consider whether the internet economy will need new or different rules in areas such as free movement of data, or ownership and liability of machine-generated data

* the support to electrifying transport through the EU Strategy for Low-Emission Mobility, with a number of upcoming initiatives

On the higher political level, however, EU politicians risk being confronted with further upheavals in 2017. New governments or heads of state will be elected in the Netherlands (15 March), France (23 April / 7 May), Norway (11 September), Germany (24 September) and the Czech Republic (October). New elections in Italy are also possible. In addition, the "hard" Brexit (i.e. Britain leaving the single market and negotiating a Free Trade Agreement with the EU) announced by UK Prime Minister May on 17 January, could lead to intergovernmental frictions especially once negotiations will formally start in Spring.

2017 does also not bode well for free trade. The US-EU negotiations for a "Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership" were put in the deep freezer just before US President Trump took office. In December the world's major trading blocs failed to agree on slashing tariffs for a list of environmental goods, allegedly because of China's foot-dragging. Arguments around local job creation or destruction seem to become even more crucial in any future trade and investment negotiation.

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Specifically, focus on comments like "the EU's political and regulatory agenda will continue in 2017, set to further strengthen the single market with common rules and projects."

Their "political and regulatory agenda"? Does anybody seriously believe a government which makes this kind of statement will work to increase the freedom of the individual? That is clearly not the EU's goal nor purpose; it is not even on their minds. Their plan is to impose an agenda. There is clearly no room for freedom in Europe presently, and the climate forecast can only be for it to worsen.

Each of the links in the newsletter above explains further the EU's restrictive, ever-more oppressive projects which will be further attacks on freedoms from virtually every angle. Check them out, and be glad that we will not be seeing anything like these regulations here in the U.S.

No wonder Brexit, no wonder France's Le Pen, no wonder Italy's just-past election, and no wonder the threats to the EU implicit and explicit in the upcoming elections mentioned in the article. Freedom is not on the table except through rebellion. That rebellion is currently at the ballot box; but how soon before it would turn violent? The EU is the wrong approach to a united Europe, and the dissolution of the EU is the best thing that could happen to Europeans.

The EU's self-sustaining vision and drive for self-preservation are the source and reason for it to raise a concern for "intergovernmental frictions", and to label the oppositional movements as "nationalism", "isolationism", "opposing free trade", and even "fascism" - not to mention blaming others: "China's foot-dragging" - attempting to denigrate any who disagree.

While I do not think the people in Europe always understand what freedom is and what it requires as a prerequisite - a constitution created by the people, based upon the rights of the individual, that authorizes and institutes a government which is limited to a set of constitutionally-constrained specifics, solely to protect those rights - they do get that something is wrong. The predominant mood which is so often displayed by Europeans - the resigned cynicism / skepticism / pessimism - is directly due to this issue. So is the under-performance of European companies.

It is almost like the EU is saying, "We want you to be successful - we need you to pay taxes, after all - but not too successful, and not too quickly." In other words, "Know your place. You serve the interests of the State; not the other way around." Individual rights - and so that lighthouse of freedom, the U.S. - are anathema to the EU, and so must be subverted and undermined - to be eradicated as undesireable, if possible. Economics is an extension of freedom, and any measure of success in one necessarily reflects on the level of the other. Imposing a regulatory agenda will result in a regression and decline of civilization (i.e., the quality of each individual's life) in Europe. The EU is a step backward in the progress of civilization in Europe.

Don't look for the kind of freedom we have in the U.S.- and take as our right - to spread to Europe anytime soon.

Europe is the same as ever. Whether it was kings and aristocracy, or fascist dictators, or socialist commissars, or an EU Commission, the impact and end result are the same: the unnecessary suffering of those who must endure it. Government imposed from above - an ultimately authoritarian, despotic autocracy of any kind - is wrong and inevitably destructive to the lives of its subject population.

Dissolve the EU. Initiate local, regional, and country-wide elections for people - non-government people - to be elected to conventions, and ultimately to a Europe-wide Convention, to define a Constituion that specifically defines and limits the power of a European government; a Constitution above that government and beyond its reach to modify. Transform subjects into freemen.

-- Scott

PS - See here and here to learn just how meaningless and silly the EU flag is.

The meaninglessness of the EU flag ties in with the above comment, "strengthen the single market with common rules and projects" - coerced unity never works. There is no personal incentive to strengthen when being forced to do anything. When people are not free to act, there is no strength; just imposed force.

And just for the record, an imposed market is precisely what fascism is all about. The EU is fascistic at its core.

Nobody wlll ever (willingly) fight for that flag, nor die for it. Nobody will ever hold it up as a banner of patriotism, and of freedom. The EU obviously has no desire to foster such a meaning nor such symbolism - such a thought is completely foreign - and there is no path for any individual to reach such a sentiment. The EU flag is only a symbol of domination - and submission.

See this EU President letter to member-nations creates false threats to hold on to the union.

See the EU's official website here.

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