Generally, the EU’s fiftieth birthday celebrations
were a fairly muted affair in the UK. Even the pro-
EU biased BBC put their report of the celebratory
shindigs in Berlin towards the back end of the news
on Sunday 25th March.
The reason is the success of the anti-EU campaign in the UK
which has made the EU very unpopular indeed.
Although the EU is also proving none too popular in the rest of the EU, there were celebrations held in some countries, but the
main focus was on Berlin.
Germany is currently holding the EU Presidency and Angela Merkel, the
German leader, has been pushing for the revival of the EU constitution -although it is no longer supposed
to be called a constitution.
To help her with this project, which was thrown
out by the French and the Dutch, a declaration was signed as part of the birthday party celebration to confirm that the member
states’ have a goal to work to with the prospect of a
new treaty signed before the 2009 European Parliamentary
elections.
It is ironic that the event that the celebrations
were about, the signing of the Treaty of Rome
in 1957, was a sham as it has been revealed that the
then heads of the original six nations signed a
blank document.
The original Treaty of Rome which was signed had a title page and space for signature only. Embarrassingly, the Italian state
printers failed to meet the deadline and the 1,144
page document was not present on the day. According
to Luxembourg lawyer, Pierre Pescator
who helped to write the original treaty, they
signed a bundle of blank pages.
At the time the original Common Market leaders rushed to get the
document finished in nine months, as they wanted
the deal to be done before General de Gaulle returned
to power in France. They knew de Gaulle
would put French interests first.
As Prince Charles was giving his full support for the
traditional British boozer at the beginning of March,
when supporting the ‘Pub is the Hub’ campaign, the
EU was making one of its all too frequent assaults
on a British symbol seen in pubs
the length and breadth of the land.
The EU has got it in for our traditional crown mark which has always
assured drinkers that they have a full measure.
The EU wants the crown to be replaced by
its meaningless CE mark, and despite protests from
the pub trade and brewers, Tony Blair looks set to
comply with the EU to scrap another British symbol.
Since returning to Great Britain Tony
Blair has remained rather quiet on his weekend
away. He did, after all, sign the declaration which
proposes more powers to the EU, such as a permanent
EU President who will speak for the whole of
the EU, full-time foreign and defence ministers, a
reformed European parliament which will have the
power to draw up its own laws and the power for
the EU to set its own budgets, which will allow the
EU to instruct Britain how much it must pay to the
EU.
By signing the pact Tony Blair has tied
the hands of his successor, which may be Gordon
Brown, when he leaves office
in a few months time.
As the new Prime Minister,
Mr Brown may find his
hands so tied by the EU
that as PM of this country
the dour Scotsman could find himself the first PM
in British history to fill a non-job - he will have little
power or influence, as Blair has set in place the
process for what little sovereignty the UK has left
to be given away to the EU.
Despite the celebrations, parties and EU
razzmatazz in Berlin, the EU itself is losing popularity
amongst the people. Only 46 per cent of the
people of Europe have a positive view of the EU,
whilst more than a third of people believe their
country has not seen any benefits of EU membership.
And in Britain, only one person in three have
anything positive to say about the EU.
In fact, as Christopher Booker pointed
out in the Sunday Telegraph on the day of the fiftieth
anniversary, the EU has failed and has nothing
better to show than fifty years of “foul-ups”.
He pointed out that the EU’s ambitious Galileo space
programme is facing a crisis and may fail, and that
the EU is mired in bureaucracy. In reality, the EU
is a project that is fifty years past its date. It is dead
but its body is still twitching.
|