By: Keith Miles
A good question to ask whenever one looks at an EU decision or action is whether the EU acts morally.
The EU claims to be an organisation based on rules. It also claims that it is the peace bringer to Europe. It makes claims about a level playing field for business.
Any close examination will soon realise that this may be what they want us to think but the reality is quite different.
Let me quote a few examples of lack of morality. These are split into two categories; what the EU has done; and what it has not done.
What it has done:
- It has created an undemocratic Brussels bureaucratic elite that is vastly overpaid and with huge expense accounts and benefits
- It bullied both Italy and Greece to change their democratically elected governments at the time of the last Euro crisis and at the time when unemployment in those countries was very high
- It supported the re-allocation of migrants that Germany invited into the country
- It has a protectionist agricultural regime which operates against poor African farmers
- It has started to undermine NATO by creating a weak rival organisation
- It has been weak in dealing with the Ukraine crisis and seems to have forgotten the shooting down of the airliner that had many Dutch EU citizens on board
- It has been slow to prepare Covid 19 support measures
- It was very slow to approve the new vaccine against Covid 19 (Approved quickly by the UK, US, Canada, Singapore, Bahrain, Switzerland, Mexico) and only when Germany complained and forced an earlier date did the EU act quicker
- It has encouraged people smugglers by its actions in the Aegean Sea and Mediterranean
- Introduced a migrant action plan that envisages millions of new immigrants even though there is huge unemployment in some countries and no popular support for this.
What it has not done:
- It has not supported Poland in its fight for fair gas prices from Russia. The discrimination with lower prices for Germany is against the level playing field policy that the EU parades so often, most recently in discussion with the UK which is a non-member
- It has not helped Slovenia over it border dispute with Croatia despite pushing for the arbitration that Slovenia and Croatia accepted
- It did not protect the external borders when invaded by illegal migrants
- It has not negotiated in good faith with the UK for a Free Trade Agreement as agreed in the Withdrawal Agreement, negotiated in an adversarial way, and made politics behind the back of the UK government
- It has done very little to act over the human rights abuses of China with its Uighur population. In particular ensuring that Chinese goods are not from companies involved in exploitation of Uighurs. (The US and UK have legislation regarding this through modern slavery acts of parliament and regulation for companies to report).
- It has not stood up for the democratic rights of Hong Kong Chinese
- It has not supported the proper defence of Europe by pushing for proper contributions to NATO
- It has not supported Poland and Hungary by investigating old remnants of totalitarianism in the media and judiciary
- It has not investigated the interference in politics by overseas organisations such as Soros affiliates
- It has nor ensured proper education in schools about totalitarian regimes
- It has not come out against the Nordsteam 2 pipeline which again breaks the level playing field policy
- It has not helped the unemployment situation in many countries resulting in many young people leaving the EU
- It did not prevent unfair practise over protective equipment when the pandemic took hold and had no good plans
- It has not supported Poland with aid for Ukrainians who have moved there because of the military situation in The Ukraine (There are 1 million Ukrainians in Poland)
- It has not ensured full and proper education about the Christian origins of European society
- It has not properly supported full and proper restoration of property confiscated, stolen or extorted by Nazis or Communists
- It has never corrected the German trade advantage for exports. The Euro is undervalued for Germany and overvalued for Italy, France and Spain with the obvious negative consequences for those countries.
No doubt readers can quote more examples and there are a few examples of positive moral actions but the big question is will anything be done about the actions above which in my view lack morality.
Sadly my view is that the answer is NO.
The EU leaders are more interested in Empire building so that both negative situations are a reason for more power in Brussels and positive situations are also a reason for more power in Brussels. The big losers are nations.
Keith Miles is an academic, retired financier and publicist. He is the honorary president of the British-Slovene Society. He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance and a master’s degree in philosophy (MA) and has worked as a financier and auditor in both the public and private sectors for more than 40 years, mainly in the UK.