NationalPlatform.Org

TACKLING THE EU EMPIRE    

Basic critical facts on the EU/Eurozone

A handbook for Europe’s democrats, whether politically Left, Right 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

Readers are invited to use or adapt this document in whole or in part for their own purposes, including changing its title if desired, and to circulate it to others without any need of reference to or acknowledgement of its source.

Contents

• The EU’s myth of origin
• EU ideology: supranationalism v. internationalism
• A spin-off of the Cold War
• The euro as a response to German reunification
• The intoxication of Big Powerdom
• EU expansion from six to 28; “Brexit”
• The economic basis of the EU
• The succession of EU treaties: the 1957 Treaty ofRome
• The 1987 Single European Act (SEA)
• The 1992 Maastricht Treaty on European Union
• The 1998 Amsterdam Treaty
• The 2001 Nice Treaty
• The 2009 Lisbon Treaty: the EU’s Constitution
• EU Powers and National Powers
• The “doctrine of the occupied field”; Subsidiarity
• More voting power for the Big States under the Lisbon Treaty
• How the EU is run: the Brussels Commission
• The Council of Ministers
• The European Council
• The European Parliament
• The Court of Justice (ECJ) as a Constitution-maker
• The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
• The extent of EU laws
• Is Another Europe, a Social Europe, possible?
• How the EU is financed
• Why national politicians surrender powers to the EU
• The EU’s assault on national democracy
• EU Justice, “Home Affairs” and Crime; Migration, Schengen
• The Common Foreign and Security policy: EU militarization
• The euro: from EU to Eurozone federalism
• The euro, the bank crisis and the sovereign debt crisis
• Two treaties for the Eurozone: The Fiscal Compact and the ESM Treaty
• No European people or demos to provide a basis for an EU democracy
• How the Eurozone prevents the “PIIGS” countries overcoming the economic crisis
• The benefits of restoring national currencies
• Contrast Iceland
• Tackling the EU Leviathan
• Democrats on Centre, Left and Right for national independence and democracy
• Conclusion: Europe’s Future
• Ireland’s EU membership
• Abolishing the punt and adopting the euro
• Ireland’s experience of an independent currency 1993-1999
• The 2008 bank guarantee and the 2010 Eurozone bailout
• Reestablishing an independent Irish currency
• Some political consequences of Ireland’s EU membership
• An independent democratic future
• Useful sources of information on the EU
• Reference Notes
• An invitation

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.

Tuilleadh →

Filed under: A detailed guide, EU & Democracy, EU Army, EU Economy, EU Enlargement & Integration, EU Foreign Policy, EU Police Powers, EU Superstate, EU Taxes, Euro / Monetary Union, Migration, Myths & Misrepresentations, Referendum | Tagged: basic facts, Brexit, eu empire, uk referendum | Leave a comment »