The
Collapse of the European Union
Return to
National Sovereignty and to Happy Europeans
By Peter Koenig
May 12, 2016 "Information
Clearing House"
- Imagine – the
European Union were to collapse tomorrow – or any
day soon for that matter. Europeans would dance in
the streets. The EU has become a sheer pothole of
fear and terror: Economic sanctions – punishment,
mounting militarization, the abolition of civil
rights for most Europeans. A group of unelected
technocrats, representing 28 countries, many of them
unfit to serve in their own countries’ political
system, but connected well enough to get a plum job
in Brussels – are deciding the future of Europe. In
small groups and often in secret chambers they
decide the future of Europe.
Take the
TTIP – under pressure from their
masters in Washington, behind closed doors under
utmost secrecy – and most likely against their own
personal good – a small group of European Commission
(EC) delegates without scruples, without any respect
for their co-citizens, without consideration for
their children, grand-children and their children,
only interested in the instant laurels and pay-back
– to be sure – from the colonialist, usurper and
warrior number One, the United States of Chaos and
Killing, they are ready to put 500 million Europeans
and their descendants at peril.
It cannot
be said enough what horrors the TTIP
(Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership) would do to the people of Europe; and
that is based on the little we know from the 248
pages ‘leaked’ by Greenpeace Netherlands of the
ultra-clandestine negotiations taking place.
‘Negotiations’ is the most unfair term imaginable,
since all the rules are imposed by Washington, the
same as with the TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership,
involving 11 Pacific countries and the US – but not
China and Russia).
Though TPP
negotiations are finished, none of the 11 Pacific
partners, nor the US Congress have approved the
treaty. There is hope that even if ‘negotiations’ by
the secret EC traitors and Washington should come to
conclusion, at least some of the 28 EU countries may
not approve. To be valid, the treaty needs to be
approved in unanimity. The new rightwing Austrian
frontrunner for Austrian’s Presidency, Norbert
Hofer, has already said he would not sign the TTIP
agreement. Similar remarks have been made by the
French Minister for Foreign Trade, Matthias Fekl,
who said, “There cannot be an agreement without
France and much less against France.”
Under the
TTIP, the citizens of Europe would lose out on all
fronts. Europeans would become literally subjects of
a corporate empire, led by the United States of
America. EU countries would stop being sovereign
nations, even more so than is already the case under
the current Brussels dictate. As the secret TTIP
documents reveal, the agreement would be the death
knell for Europe. Here is what Susan George,
philosopher and political analyst and President of
the Planning Committee of the Transnational
Institute in Amsterdam has to say:
-
The food we import would be chemically treated,
would be genetically modified, would have no
labels. You wouldn’t know exactly what is in
your food. You could buy chicken that has been
rinsed in chlorine, you could have beef that was
raised with hormones, you could have
biosynthetic food made out of one gene of a
plant another of an animal, and this would not
be labeled.
- In
the area of agriculture again, it is very likely
that we would lose a great many farmers, because
if we lower the tariffs of agriculture we will
have a flood of American [highly subsidized,
GMO]-corn and basic grains flooding into Spain
and that will ruin a lot of farmers, exactly the
way the ”campesinos” in Mexico were ruined by
the North American Free Trade Agreement, the
NAFTA.
- ln
the area of health, the pharmaceutical companies
[want] to get rid of generic drugs. They have
already succeeded in forcing the generic drug
companies to repeat all of the clinical trials
that they have already had to do with the same
identical medicine but which has a brand name.
To make it a generic drug you have to start all
over again: clinical trials, blind tests, and so
forth. So medicine would become much more
expensive.
But most
important:
-
[The TTIP] is about giving corporations the
freedom to sue governments if they don’t like a
law that the government has passed.
We have a lot of examples now, because in
hundreds of bilateral treaties this private
judiciary system exists, and for example, the
government of Egypt raised the minimum wage and
a company, an important company, Veolia, from
France, sued them because they would have to pay
their workers more. This case has not been
decided yet, but one case that has been decided
is for example, Ecuador, which refused that an
American petroleum company could drill in a
particular region. Well, they said this is a
protected area and you cannot drill here. And
the company said, ah, we will sue you; and they
won. And they have a fine on Ecuador of 1.8
billion dollars which is a lot of money for a
small and fairly weak country.
This simply
means that private corporate courts would be above
the laws and courts of sovereign nations. There
would be no sovereignty left; not even the little
idependence Brussels has not yet destroyed. EU
nations would all be under the rules of an
Anglo-American led corporate empire.
You may
read Susan George’s full article here
http://www.defenddemocracy.press/suzan-george-%CE%BFn-ttip-new-european-movements/,
as well as my recently re-published one
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-transatlantic-trade-and-investment-partnership-ttip-would-abolish-europes-sovereignty-the-eu-would-become-a-us-colony/5417382.
And then
there is TiSA, the ‘Trade in
Services Agreement’, of which even fewer people
are aware. It is also being ‘negotiated’ in secrecy,
involving 23 WTO members (Australia, Canada, Chile,
Chinese Taipei, Colombia, Costa Rica, the EU (28
countries), Hong Kong China, Iceland, Israel, Japan,
Korea, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Mexico, New
Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru,
Switzerland, Turkey and the United States).
Altogether, we are talking about 50 countries; 49 of
them bent to submit to one, the Unites States of
Wars, Crimes and Domination. It doesn’t take a lot
of imagination to realize that, again, Washington is
calling the shots. Actually, the TiSA talks, similar
to those of the TTIP, are infiltrated by US
corporate trolls and lobbyists, making Washington
the representative for the US corporate empire and,
of course, for Wall Street.
According
to WTO, TiSA would be opening up the market for ‘trade
in services’, meaning – expect privatization of
all public and social services, like health care,
education, social security systems, pensions,
transportation, postal services, telecommunication,
water supply and sanitation, solid waste disposal –
and more would all be subject to buy-outs by
transnational corporations. Just look at Greece,
trying hard to pay back their ill-begotten debt,
selling off her national social capital, or life
capital, to the detriment of the poor – by now the
majority of Greek – who depend on it. Once a country
has signed the trade agreements, there is no way
back. It has opened its social and public sectors to
rent seeking private corporations.
Like with
the TTIP, should a government at a later stage
realize that privatization of, say water services,
did not bring the promised benefits for the people,
it cannot go back and re-nationalize, or
municipalize this service. Remunicipalization of
water services is currently happening in France, of
all places, the country with the most privatized
public water supply systems. In 2012 the government
and municipalities of large cities decided to
re-take these vital public services. This is
currently ongoing. Under TiSA rules it would not be
possible. Worse – once TiSA is signed, a country
cannot decide to exempt a particular sector included
in the list for potential ‘liberalization’, for
example, health, education and other vital social
services. Corporate arbitration courts, similar to
those of the TTIP, would be set up for TiSA. – These
‘negotiations’ are taking place in Geneva, under the
auspices of WTO – in secret – and driven by
rules, sticks and carrots, imposed by – you guessed
it – Washington.
If the EU
were to collapse today, both the TTIP and the TiSA
talks would come to a standstill. Anyone of the 28
EU countries, or better even of the 19 Eurozone
countries, could bring the EU down. A Grexit, a
Brexit, a fiasco emerging from the forthcoming
rehash of the Spanish elections – or a firm decision
by a government to default on its (mostly) troika
imposed debt, could bring the house of cards of the
dollar pyramid scheme to fall – and erase once and
for all the enslaving dollar-euro hegemony. Debt
could be renegotiated in newly restored national
currencies. Remember, the euro is barely 15 years
old. So – returning to national currencies should
not be dramatic, but rather a sigh of relief –
relief from a debt trap, and relief from
Washington’s and Brussels’ boots of oppression.
Imagine
what a collapse of the EU and the euro-zone would
mean for the Greek people. Though, rumors have it
that more than half the Greek are still adamant in
hanging on to the destructive euro, I bet, its
collapse would have hundreds of thousands dancing in
the streets. Syriza could forget the currently
negotiated additional €3 billion austerity budget
cuts – even less pension and higher taxes for the
poor.
To be sure,
Greek debt relief will not come from the current
EU/EC-troika constellation. To the contrary, the
German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, has
ever harsher words for Greece, as if he was
threatening pushing Greece out of the EU. An empty
threat, as everybody should know by now. Washington,
also the masters of Germany, will not allow a
Grexit, or a Brexit or an exit by any EU member.
Washington needs the EU ‘intact’ to eventually serve
as a slave partner in TTIP and TiSA.
What
happened and continues to happen to Greece may serve
as a (learning) example for other ‘weak’ southern EU
countries to follow – unless, yes, unless, Greece or
another country under EC-troika imposed economic and
financial stress and strangulation takes the bull by
the horns – taking a drastic decision: Exit the EU
and the euro-zone, jump-start the local economy with
a local currency, and negotiate the illegal and
fraudulently imposed debt at their terms. That may
bring about the end of the nefarious euro-zone – and
the US-created European Union.
Be aware,
the EU as it exists today, is not the invention of
Europeans; it is a construct thought out immediately
after WWII by the US, so as to keep Europe under her
control – and to create a buffer zone vis-à-vis
communism, the Soviet Union. It worked so far. This
idea still prevails, as we see every day how Russia
and her leader is being demonized and slandered by
the western media. Let us be frank, if it weren’t
for the strategic clear-headedness and foresight of
President Putin, we – Europe – would be for the
third time in 100 years enmeshed in a world war. And
if we let this Washington imposed trend continue,
Europe will become an Anglo-American slaveland.
Just look at TTIP and TiSA.
A true
federation of sovereign European countries down the
road, perhaps even with a common currency and a real
central bank, may be a viable long-term solution for
Europe. But – and this is the most important BUT,
such a Europe will have to be designed by true and
honest Europeans – am I dreaming? – and absolutely
without any influence of the United States of
America. None.
Anyone of
the 28 EU countries could return happiness to the
people of Europe; could take the pain, frustration,
fear and anxiety away; could reinstate national
sovereignty, could bring national pride and local –
instead of global – economy to the fore – by exiting
the EU, by forfeiting the euro, by taking the reign
of their people into the hands of a sovereign,
democratic government.
A simple
exit by one country – Greece, Portugal, Spain,
Ireland, the UK, France… you name it, could bring
the ferocious debt machine to a grinding halt,
opening the opportunity of joining a new, more just
and more equal monetary scheme – the nascent
combined eastern economic space of China, Russia,
BRICS, SCO (Shanghai Cooperation Organization) and
the EEU (Eurasian Economic Union).
To be sure,
time is important. Not for nothing Obama is pushing
for speedy conclusions and signing of the
disgraceful TTIP. The signing of these predatory
agreements, TTIP, TiSA, TPP, is a key agenda item of
Obama’s Presidency; his corporate and military
legacy – NATO expansion is part of it – may depend
on it. Once these treaties are signed, there is no
way back. If the TTIP is ratified despite all logic,
and if subsequently the EU fell apart – each country
would still be held accountable to the terms of the
agreement. Hence, time for an EU collapse before
signing of the TTIP and TiSA is of the essence.
This
radical solution may be too much even for staunch EU
/ Euro opponents. Many of them still seek, hope and
dream of a reformed EU. They still live under the
illusion that ‘things’ could be worked out. Believe
me – they cannot. The Machiavellian US-invented
venture, called European Union with the equally
US-invented common currency – the Eurozone – has run
its course. It is about to ram the proverbial
iceberg. The EU-Euro vessel is too heavy to veer
away from disaster. Europe is better off taking time
to regroup; each nation with the objective of
regaining political and economic sovereignty – and
perhaps with an eye a couple of generations down the
road envisaging a new United Europe of sovereign
federal states, independent, totally delinked from
the diabolical games of the western Anglo-American
empire.
Peter Koenig
is an economist and geopolitical analyst. He is also
a former World Bank staff and worked extensively
around the world in the fields of environment and
water resources. He is the author of
Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War,
Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed
– fiction based on facts and on 30 years of
World Bank experience around the globe. He is also a
co-author of
The World Order and Revolution! – Essays from
the Resistance.
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