Inkwell Institute
Europe Desk
First of all, let me say, that if I am mistaken I hope that Quin of Quintessential Havoc (go to my blogroll and visit a great site) will set us straight……
One of the good items in the EU is the open borders concept and that has been crapped on by France when it stopped an Italian train (I believe) with Tunisian refugees from entering the country…..and that is just one crack….oh there are more and they seem to be escalating….
There has been lots of rumblings within the members of the EU about the bailouts of the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain)……none of them are that stable at this time and all have some form of massive austerity programs to implement…all of which has cause a severe backlash in the said countries….protests, violence and an assortment of marches and protests…..
Not every member is happy with the outcomes of the decisions of the EU parliament….some of the more stable countries do not feel that they should have to help prop up the more unstable ones….Finland come to mind…..from an article in the UPI….
A nationalist party strongly opposed to helping debt-laden EU members made big gains in Finland’s parliamentary elections, a development that sowed fresh insecurity across Europe’s financial markets.Led by populist leader Timo Soini, the True Finns have in the past rallied against too much immigration, abortion and same-sex marriage. Their biggest opponent, however, seems to be Brussels.
Soini doesn’t want to hand Finnish money to debt-laden member states such as Portugal, Ireland and Greece. He’s also opposed to the European Stability Mechanism, a wide-ranging eurozone bailout fund, agreed to by EU leaders at a recent summit in Brussels.
This comes as Finland is enjoying relatively stable economic growth and sound finances. The Finnish budget deficit will shrink to 1.6 percent of gross domestic product this year, the European Commission has predicted — a comfortable debt rate compared to the body’s average of 5.1 percent.
Finland’s previous government backed the stability package but postponed its ratification until after Sunday’s election. As the EU decision requires unanimity, the True Finns could try to win support for blocking the package when Finland’s Parliament votes on it.
If the True Finns get there way….will this crack in the EU structure expand to other countries? And if does, will this lead to a larger problem for the EU? With this success in Finland, will it lead to successes by other populist parties in the other member nations?
The EU is a “federation” (in all but name) of 26 (at the last count, I think) disparate autonomous states with several currencies, some 20 or so different languages, wildly varying cultures and most of whom don’t much like each other… Why WOULD it work? It is ONLY about power (and the money that makes for the individuals involved) – it has almost NOTHING to do with the will of the people – most of whom simply don’t want it!
And THAT is the real source of the cracks – the PEOPLE don’t want it – particularly the people who are paying for it!
As to this bail-out thing – Spain has NOT been bailed out yet in the same way as the others you list – so it’s PIG, not PIGS!
However, the countries in that list are all solidly socialist, relatively poor and pretty backward and THAT DOES include Spain.
Unfortunately, it is one of the serious problems with socialist states – their peoples seem unable to accept that, though it may not be their fault, they CANNOT keep on relying on other people to pick up the tab. They are used to having the state wipe their backsides for them and they haven’t yet understood that the only person you can truly rely on in this world is yourself and the same applies to countries too. Make your OWN economy work and screw the rest – let them do the same.
When you add to that the fact that most Brits (for instance) don’t want the EU, don’t want the reviled and ridiculous European Convention on Human Rights, HATE eveything to do with Brussels and the bunch of bureacrats (some of whom are also Brits) who cost us an absolute FORTUNE and are the initial source of all the totally inappropriate politically correct crap that blights our lives – well, what chance does the EU have? (I’m pleased to say, because it is, in my opinion, just about the most potentially dangerous dictatorship on the planet right now with only the possible exception of China!)
Were the people consulted when the forming of the EU was in its infancy? How popular was it in the beginning? Sorry, but I am not as knowledgeable on the EU as I would like to be……
NO, no and a thousand times no! It wasn’t popular, in the UK at least, even when it was being touted as no more than a trading organisation – but we joined anyway, even though a large majority in our country almost certainly didn’t want it. We’ll never know that for absolute sure ‘cos no one f*cking well asked us – the people!
Sorry to say this, but……..it is good to know that we Americans are not the only ones that the government does not care about….sorry…..