TACKLING THE EU EMPIRE Basic critical facts on the EU/Eurozone A handbook for Europe’s democrats, whether on the political Right, Left or Centre TACKLING THE EU EMPIRE Basic critical facts on the EU/Eurozone A handbook for Europe’s democrats, whether on the political Right, Left or Centre “Sometimes I like to compare the EU as a creation to the organization of empire. We have the dimension of empire.” EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, 2007 Published in December 2015 by The Bruges Group, 214 Linen Hall, 162-168 Regent Street, London W1B 5TB www.brugesgroup.com Follow us on twitter @brugesgroup Find our facebook group: The Bruges Group Bruges Group publications are not intended to represent a corporate view of European and international developments. Contributions are chosen on the basis of their intellectual rigour and their ability to open up new avenues for debate. About the Author Professor Anthony Coughlan is Associate Professor Emeritus in Social Policy at Trinity College Dublin. He is one of the Republic of Ireland’s leading EU-critics and is Director of The National Platform EU Research and Information Centre. This is a think-tank which produces documentation critical of closer European integration on democratic grounds for use by ‘No’ campaigners in the Republic’s periodic European referendums. Anthony Coughlan was also chairman/coordinator of the TEAM international network of EU critical bodies. 3 Table of Contents The EU’s myth of origin ..............................................................................................................................5 EU ideology: supranationalism versus internationalism ............................................................................6 A spin-off of the Cold War .........................................................................................................................8 The euro as a response to German reunification .....................................................................................10 The intoxication of Big Powerdom ...........................................................................................................11 Britain and the EU: “Brexit” .....................................................................................................................12 The economic basis of the EU .................................................................................................................14 The succession of EU treaties .................................................................................................................15 The 1957 Treaty of Rome ....................................................................................................................15 The 1987 Single European Act (SEA) ..................................................................................................17 The 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union .................................................................................18 The 1998 Amsterdam Treaty ...............................................................................................................19 The 2001 Nice Treaty ...........................................................................................................................19 The 2009 Lisbon Treaty: the EU’s Constitution ...................................................................................20 EU Powers and National Powers .............................................................................................................21 The “doctrine of the occupied field”; Subsidiarity ...................................................................................22 More voting power for the Big States under the Lisbon Treaty ...............................................................23 How the EU is run The Brussels Commission ...................................................................................................................22 The Council of Ministers ......................................................................................................................26 The European Council .........................................................................................................................26 The European Parliament ....................................................................................................................26 The Court of Justice (ECJ) as a Constitution-maker ...............................................................................27 The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights ...................................................................................................29 The extent of EU laws ..............................................................................................................................31 How the EU is financed ...........................................................................................................................32 Why national politicians surrender powers to the EU ..............................................................................32 The EU’s assault on national democracy .................................................................................................33 EU Justice, “Home Affairs” and Crime; Migration, Schengen .................................................................34 The Common Foreign and Security policy: EU militarization ..................................................................36 The euro: from EU to Eurozone federalism ..............................................................................................39 Two treaties for the Eurozone: The Fiscal Compact and the ESM Treaty ...............................................41 No European people or demos to provide a basis for an EU democracy ..............................................44 How the Eurozone prevents the “PIIGS” countries overcoming the economic crisis .............................46 The benefits of restoring national currencies ...........................................................................................48 Contrast Iceland .......................................................................................................................................49 Opposing the EU Leviathan .....................................................................................................................50 Democrats on Centre, Left and Right for national independence and democracy .................................52 Conclusion: Europe’s Future ....................................................................................................................54 Sources of information on the EU ............................................................................................................56 An invitation ..............................................................................................................................................57 4 THE EU’S MYTH OF ORIGIN All States and aspiring States have their “myth of origin” – that is, a story, true or false, of how they came into being. The myth of origin of the European Union is that it is essentially a peace project to prevent wars between Germany and France, as if a collective tendency to go to war were somehow genetically inherited. In reality the EU’s origins lie in war preparations – at the start of the Cold War which followed the end of World War 2 and the possibility of that developing into a “hot war”, a real military conflict between the two victorious post-war superpowers, the USA and USSR. These two had been allies in defeating German Nazism and Italian Fascism but became bitter rivals after the World War ended in 1945. Europe was then divided between East and West. As fear of communism internally and externally stalked war-ravaged Europe, American policy was to push the continent’s former imperial powers towards closer economic and political integration with one another, pressurising them at the same time to abandon their colonies. US interests could then move in on these. In 1947 the two Houses of the US Congress passed a resolution that “Congress favours the creation of a United States of Europe”. That same year US economic aid to revive Western Europe under the Marshall Plan was premised on the recipients supporting economic and political integration. In 1948 the American Committee on United Europe was established. For years this body channelled CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) money to the European Movement. That Movement’s national sections in each country became the main non-governmental propagandists for ever further EU integration and have remained so to this day. In 1949 the USA wanted a rearmed West Germany inside NATO on that military alliance’s foundation. This greatly alarmed France, which had been occupied by the Germans just five years before. Jean Mon- net, who was America’s man in the affair, came up with the solution. He and other technocrats had been pushing schemes of federal-style supranationalism for Europe since the end of World War 1. These had had no effect in preventing World War 2, but in the new situation post-1945, with the USA now support- ing Euro-federalism as a bulwark against communism in Europe, Monnet and his colleagues saw their opportunity. To assuage France’s fears of German rearmament Monnet drafted the Schuman Declaration, called after France’s Foreign Minister, proposing to put the coal and steel industries of France, Germany and the Benelux under a supranational High