Brussels Powergrab

Brussel endangering public broadcasters

2009-03-09T07:00:00.000-07:00

According to EUObserver the parliament is now discussing the demands of commercial broadcasters for restrictions to public broadcasters. In essence this is a discussion about the right of commercial companies to demand that governments give up parts of their territory - without compensation. With this concession to pure commercial greed the EU parliament once more shows itself a lobbyist paradise.

The powergrab from the ECJ

2008-09-15T05:18:00.000-07:00

EUobserver has an article with the title "Stop the European Court of Justice". It relates how the European Court of Justice is steadily expanding its competencies - often explicitly against European law. The article gives many examples but focuses on the Mangold Judgement where the court threw out a German law that temporarily made it easier to take older employees on temporary contracts. As a consequence many German employers got stuck with older employees whose temporary contract had automatically been converted into a permanent one. However, there are many reasons to argue that the ECJ had no competency in this case. Now the case is going to the German constitutional court that is asked to rule that ECJ exceeded its competencies.

In this context it is also interesting that according to Articles 1 and 5 of the EU Treaty, the ECJ is obliged to participate in the "process of creating an ever closer union".. A rather strange thing to ask from a court.

In my opinion all references in all European Treaties about an "ever closer union" should be scratched. Just like any federation the EU needs a balance between local autonomy and centralization. Treaties that promise us ever stronger centralization are undemocratic.

Business in the parliament

2008-04-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

Euobserver has an article about the close connection between business and the Europarliament. Companies even have an office in the parliament and they are paid for it by parliamentarians.

Democracy and egoism

2007-01-17T06:24:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago I encountered an article about "new national egoism" by Rob den Bos in a Dutch newspaper. He is a former Euro-parlementarian. As his arguments are common for many for his collegues I will discuss them here.

The first thing that strikes me is that he is yet another Euro-parlementarian who is defending Europe. I have the impression that most Euro-parlementarians spend more time defending Europe in their homeland than defending the interests of their country in Europe - what they are chosen and paid to do.

The second thing that strikes is the cosmopolitan outlook. The basic argument is standard: we have a world economy and Europe's nationstates are much too small to deal with that. That is combined with some oblique references to Europes bloody past. The problem with these arguments is that they could just as well be used to defend a world government - they have nothing in them that is specific for Europe.

If you look a little further you see that these people actually hate the nation-states. They look down on them and see them as a source of conflicts and "national egoism". Cosmopolitan people like Rob den Bos have outgrown their homeland and now look down upon those people who are still focussed on their national affairs.

anti-democratic
The problem with their loathing of "national egoism" is that it is in essence anti-democratic. Democracy is about giving all the interests of a country a say: it is institutionalized egoism. But the beauty is that it gives all those egoims an equal say.

And that is the problem with those cosmopolitan globalists: they don't want to give everyone an equal say. They believe that the elite knows better. They feel perfectly at home in Brussel with all those smart people who have passed those difficult exams. In other times they might plea against universal suffrage or for a "benevolent dictatorship". In our time they have takes refuge in the international organisations.

Democratic credentials
If you look closer smaller countries are not so egoistic at all:

- Smaller democracies tend to spend more on development aid than larger countries. This is because they are better capable of building a national consensus about such non-egoistic issues.

- Smaller democracies are less likely to start wars. And that is not just because they might loose. They don't get obsessed about appearing strong like the large countries do. Look at the US where every president has at least one war to "defend the national interests".

Economically small countries tend to do well. This despite the fact that their diplomats have less possibilities to pressure other countries to buy their products and to accept unfavorable treaties.

Nation-states
People are more generous when they deal with people with whom they feel related. This is the basis of the nation state. Except for a part of the elite the minorities are usually the biggest enemies of the nation state.

The formation of nation states can be painful. But the biggest problem are usually those international politicians who with empty talk about "historical", "natural" and "unchangeable" borders create borders that are not supported by the local population. In the Balkan this has already created a lot of trouble.

The banana republic problem
The biggest problem for smaller countries is interference from other countries. In that case their elite may connect with the interferer and ignore the local population. This is the banana republic problem in Latin America. Another possibility is that the interferer connects with a separatist province. Recently we have seen that happen in Yugoslavia.

Brussel is is the newest threat to the national democracies. It is a paradise for elites who want to rule without popular interference.

Brussel and the electricity blackout

2006-11-13T01:08:00.000-08:00

Brussel has for all problems the same solution: more power to Europe. If you are a right wing they offer you European regulations for a common market - sold a liberalisation. If you are left wing they offer a "social charter" and labor regulations. If things are going well, it has been the work of the EU. If things are going bad - like the economic figures of the last decenium - it is a sign that we need more EU.

Take the electricity blackout at the beginning of november. For the lay it would mean that we get stronger checks at the borders so that such a blackout cannot cascade from one country to another. But for Brussel it means that they get more powers to regulate how each company should manage its affairs.

Brussels shows its iron fist

2006-10-30T03:17:00.000-08:00

People who still believed that the EU is about freedom lost one more illusion when EU commissioner Joaquin Almunia declared that Brussel has the right to force Sweden to adopt the Euro coin despite the negative referendum a few years ago.

It seems that Brussel is getting a bit nervous now that the new members seem to become less unenthousiastic about adopting the Euro. Poland and Hungary have already anounced referenda.

Software Patent wars to resume?

2006-08-25T04:03:00.000-07:00

Slashdot has an discussion about the discussion about software patents. Allthough it appeared that the battle against software patents had been won, it seems that a new attack is being prepared. This time the European Courts of law should be the vehicle that shoves us those unwanted patents down the throat.

Brussel is really out of control when even such on a much discussed subject the eurocrats can impose their will against the rest of us.

Drivers in the EU may have to use daytime lights

2006-08-14T01:45:00.000-07:00

EUobserver reports that the EU Commission is considering rules to "harmonize" the daytime use of car lights. As usual the proposal threatens to become the most extreme possible: lights on everywhere and at all times. I seems that no subject is unimportant enough that it doesn't arouse Brussels appetite for more power.

Denmark seeks EU help on Swedish student influx

2006-07-31T03:53:00.000-07:00

EU Observer has an article about how Denmark seeks EU help after it appeared that a third of the medicine students for the coming year will be from Sweden. According to EU rules, EU citizens have equal access to universities across the bloc. Similar problems play also in Belgium and Austria.

This is a general problem with many EU regulations. They force countries to give each others citizens equal treatment as their own citizens. Nice in theory, but this ignores that they didn't pay taxes for it. The effect of this policy is that any country that has more liberal grants than other countries is punished. This way we are all slowly pushed to "free-market heaven", where the role of government has been minimised.

Yet another case of Europe seeking to destroy the national states as working institutions.

Transport sector the next rollover for lobbyists

2006-06-26T01:52:00.000-07:00

EU Observer has an article about the EU transport policy. The Greens and environmental groups criticize a the new transport policy of the European Commission because it abandons the political aim of shifting long-distance transport to the rails.

The shift seems to be a result of lobbying by truck companies. And this is exactly why I am against further European centralisation. Europe is too far from the voter to have much influence. As a result rich lobbyists become too dominant.

National parliaments get a little say on EU laws

2006-06-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

EUobserver notes that national parliaments will get insight in new EU proposals. When parliaments make comments the commission will "duly consider" them. Given that this was watered down from "take into account" one shouldn't expect a revolution. But it is a start.

The creep towards an EU health policy

2006-06-12T04:55:00.000-07:00

EU Observer has an article how even healthcare is slowly Europeanized.

Some of the handles that Brussel is using according to the article are:
- Crisis management (HIV/AIDS, SARS and bird flu)
- tobacco advertising (EU wants to forbid it; Germany believes it doeesn't have the authority; the case is now at the Luxemburg court)
- European Court of Justice in Luxembourg: has ruled that health insurers have to pay in some cases for treatment in other countries
- European "reference centres" for (the treatment of) rare diseases.

Welcome on this new blog

2006-06-12T04:35:00.000-07:00

This blog is meant to keep track of how Brussel is taking over more and more power from the member states.

It happens stealthy: one by one the memberstates are giving up their competencies to Brussel. There is no open discussion and newspapers usually only report it after it has happened.

This blog is mainly meant to be record what is happening. Unlike at my Balkan Outlooks blog this blog will mainly consist of links and short summaries.

I am an Euro sceptic. I believe that the arguments for Europe are very similar to those for communism: bigger is better and more efficient. Yet in practice it didn't work that way for Russia and instead we saw lots of inefficiencies and corruption. I see similar tendencies in Europe.

Also I am a believer in nation states. I believe that if the main level of government comes on the European level the influence of the citizens on the government will inevitably decline. This is partly a matter of scale (you can see similat tendencies in the US), partly a matter of the language barriers.