EU Veto: The Hypocrisy of Those Who Oppose The UK Veto Is Astounding
Published Sunday, December 11, 2011 - 13:35
Since the veto, the pundits and politicians that have argued against austerity in Britain now want us to support measures that impose massive austerity across Europe without democratic accountability.
And democracy is supposed to be a pillar of the European Union.
The proposed inter-governmental agreement imposed by Germany is not going to resolve the EU debt crisis. There is no indication that Germany would put its economic might to guarantee the debts of Southern Europe. Merkel has opposed the intervention by European Central Bank as a lender of last resort and she has also ruled out Eurobonds at least for now.
Yes there were some measures announced about bringing the European Stability Mechanism and pumping money through the IMF but that simply would not be enough if Spain and Italy default on their loans. So the EU summit in Brussels last week was nothing but typical European navel gazing and trying to punish “Anglo-Saxon” model of capitalism and, by default, the United Kingdom.
What did the heads of governments of 26 countries sign up to? The inter-governmental agreement would see member states adopt the “golden rule” to limit their structural deficits to 0.5% of GDP. Those who break the 3% of GDP deficit rule would face automatic sanctions and most controversially, national parliaments and democratically elected governments would be told how much money they can spend by the unaccountable and the unelected European Commission.
Britain’s position, which was agreed by the Liberal Democrats in the cabinet prior to the summit, was to seek very modest guarantees in lieu of our signature on the dotted line. The argument by the government was if the eurozone believes this is the way to go forward then the UK would not stand in its way but we need to protect our financial centre – the City of London.
But Germany did not want to do any favours to the City and so Angela Merkel used her sidekick Sarkozy to oppose vehemently. And Britain cast its veto.
As soon as the news leaked out, the political and pundit elites in Westminster started attacking the Prime Minister for standing up for Britain and against a treaty which is in effect going to impose severe austerity on Southern Europe and ensure the EU is in a economic recession for a long time to come without any guarantees that Germany stands behind the debts of Italy, Spain, Greece and others.
The Southern European countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal cannot devalue their currencies and attempt to become competitive again, instead they would remain locked in a cycle of massive austerity and no growth despite the bitter pills that Merkozy would force them to swallow.
Let's put the austerity measures in context. Despite the coalition government's austerity plans, the structural deficit of the UK would reduce to over 2% from 4% and now imagine how much austerity would be needed for Italy, Spain and other indebted countries to meet the 0.5% rule.
Ed Miliband and it seems even Nick Clegg is okay with it and they are joined by pundits writing in the Guardian and the Independent and some others as well. These are two leaders who openly wanted AV in our electoral system to bring in more democracy but when it comes to Europe they do not see any problems with the European Commission having the power to tell national parliaments what they can spend or not and how to set their economic policies.
Both Labour and many of the Liberal Democrats who have been making rounds of the television stations have gone on record many times in the past 18 months the need to take the “foot off the austerity” pedal. But again when it comes to Europe, they are fine with an unaccountable and undemocratic body enforcing austerity measures that would make Osborne’s plans look extravagant. And these politicians and pundits do not have a problem with that. If that is not hypocrisy then nothing is.
They argue they are defending the national interest because we need to be in the top table in Europe. That is a scaremongering tactic – according to European Court of Justices case law, a group of member states can create a sub-group such as the Schengen Agreement but for European Institutions to be involved in those agreements unanimity is required.
The case law is in favour of Britain and therefore it is not isolated because if Germany and France wants to impose this through the European Commission or the ECJ they would need to get the UK on board. Unless they do so, despite Barroso and Von Rompuy’s claim, even EU lawyers believe the agreement cannot use the European Institutions without unanimity and this has been widely reported across European papers including Der Spiegel and Le Monde.
Not only that. We are second highest contributors to the EU aside from Germany. You take our money and we will make you play by the rules of the club which we agreed to. But somehow this escapes leading politicians and pundits.
Well done Prime Minister for stopping a undemocratic regime which brings memories of Moscow telling Tblisi what it can do or not. Does Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary really want to go back there so Germany can enjoy a devalued currency while everyone else faces austerity?
The political elite of Europe and many in the Westminster village think that’s the best way to go even though the majority of the British opinion is against it and poor Europeans might not even get a choice about this tyranny from Brussels. However, it reeks of political opportunism and “self-loathing”. According to them, when Merkel defends Germany’s interest and not let the ECB step in its okay but somehow its wrong for our elected Prime Minister to protect British interests.
It seems politicians are taking advice from newspaper columnists. Don’t forget these columnists also predicted a massive surge in seats for Liberal Democrats in the 2010 general election and they also told us there is a progressive majority that wants A/V. And we all know what happened in reality.
This is a time when all political parties and the House of Commons and the country should back the Prime Minister in his upcoming legal battles with our European partners to ensure democracy prevails in Europe. In addition Britain should call for immediate steps to restore confidence in the eurozone by making the ECB – the lender of last resort. And it is also time to plan a well organised demise of the Euro because it would happen sooner or later. Finally, the European Union must retain its single market of all 27 members and others joining in.
These are in our national interest and if the Europeans do not wish to agree then they simply should not be allowed to use the European Institutions in any shape way or form to move this inter-governmental agreement forward.
