http://www.zerohedge.com/contributed/2012-12-01/relentless-eurocratic-power-grab
Submitted by testosteronepit on 12/01/2012 12:58 -0500
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/11/30/van-rompuy-opposes-direct-election-of-eu-top-leaders/
The Relentless Eurocratic Power Grab
Wolf Richter www.testosteronepit.com www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter
“The euro has profound economic advantages and is the most powerful symbol of European integration,” said not some wild-eyed dude with a joint between his lips, slouching in a café in Amsterdam, but the “Final Report“ issued by the Future of Europe Group, composed of the foreign ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Poland, Belgium, Austria, Denmark, Portugal, and Luxembourg. It remains uncertain what they were smoking.
But they did fret about the future of the euro and the EU, their chef d’œuvre. To keep it glued and duct-taped together, they came up with a laundry list of recommendations concerning its governance. It included the vampire item that simply refuses to die, namely shifting sovereignty over national budgets to the European government.
To their credit—or was it just window dressing, given the uproar on the internet?—they also called for more “democratic legitimacy and accountability,” of which only trace elements are discernible in the EU government. One of the key items: “a directly elected Commission President.”
Then came the eurocrat response.
“If this is not going hand in hand with large powers for the Commission, then forget it,”said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy at a conference centered on that Final Report. It would give that top job “a huge legitimacy,” he said, but it would “organize the disappointment in advance.” Only by handing “large powers” to the Commission could a directly elected Commission President become functional.
Another step in the ongoing and ever so methodical power grab.
Just then, a 52-page draft report by the unelected European Commission President José Manuel Barroso bubbled to the surface—a continuation of his bureaucratic drive to create the United States of Europe come hell or high water.
To overcome “the crisis of confidence,” he called for “fast and deep” integration and envisioned a powerful European government. It would, for example, have the power to coordinate how Member States tax their citizens—with the unspoken goal to alleviate tax competition between countries, a recurrent complaint by high-tax countries against their lower-tax brethren. Even in the USA, the federal government doesn’t attempt to tell the states how to tax their residents. It would cause a revolt.
Barroso, building on his idea of a United States of Europe, also wants to give the Commission, his Commission, the power toveto the budgets of Member States. Imagine the White House vetoing California’s budget—OK, that budget should be vetoed because it's a sham, but it’s our sham, and we will deal with it or sink with it. White House interference would be a reason for secession.
He wants to endow that souped-up government with the ability to levy its own taxes, rather than be dependent on handouts that are determined during bitter budget negotiations by the 27 Member States. It would be a coup. It would give the European government the power to impose taxes on already overtaxed people—with little or no democratic limits.
And all that without a constitution. Because the people had voted it down by referendum [read.... Sacrificing The Will Of The People On The Altar of The Euro].
Meanwhile, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte was giving interviews left and right, to reject exactly what the eurocrats were trying to push through: a federal Europe. He believed in a Europe of national states that worked together closely.
Instead of all that federal razzmatazz, hedemanded that Eurozone countries “stick to the commitments that they made when they introduced the currency.” Hence, deficits not to exceed 3% of GDP. And austerity. That would be “essential for the survival” of the euro, he said. And only that would make the euro “credible.” The goal should be to strengthen the euro “and attack the dollar as world currency.”
He had something for everybody. Including Greece: treaties should be tweaked, he said, to allow a country that doesn’t follow the rules to leave the Eurozone without also having to leave the EU, which is currently not possible. And haircuts for official sector creditors, such as the ECB, that are holding most of the Greek debt? Not a good idea, he said. Not only for legal reasons, but also out of principle. “That would send the wrong signal to other countries that have debts ... like America.”
“I cannot be disillusioned because I no longer have any illusions about Europe,” muttered Euro Group President Jean-Claude Juncker a while ago. He wasn’t the only one. “There are better alternatives to the bailout policies of Chancellor Merkel,” declared the man who’d run against her in 2013; alternatives that “protect taxpayers and don’t only benefit the banks.” Read... “The Euro Will Blow Up Europe Instead Of Bringing It Together”.
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2012/11/30/van-rompuy-opposes-direct-election-of-eu-top-leaders/
;)
Van Rompuy Opposes Direct Election of EU Top Leaders
Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Very Mix
Directly electing the European Commission President at the 2014 EU elections would amount to “organise the disappointment in advance”, said European Council President Herman Van Rompuy. Directly electing his own successor would be “even more absurd”, he added in comments that are likely to irritate proponents of increased democracy in the European institutions.
Van Rompuy’s statement, made at a public conference in Brussels on Wednesday (28 November), runs in direct opposition with the EU’s major political families, who in their majority, would like to “give faces” to the next European elections in May 2014.
But Van Rompuy warned that the “huge legitimacy” stemming from the direct election of “a European top candidate” at the next European elections would could be counterproductive.
HvR: “I said it in New York: you give this man or this woman a huge legitimacy. But if you keep the same competence for the top job, you organise the disappointment in advance.”
The European Council President spoke at a conference on the future of the European Union organised by the Belgian Foreign Ministry, the Bertelsmann Foundation and the King Baudouin Foundation.
HvR: “If this is not going hand in hand with large powers for the Commission, then forget it.”The forum was aimed at discussing the Final Report of the Future of Europe Group in a wider circle, which included EU affairs pundits, MEPs and civil society representatives.HvR: direct election of the President of the European Council“This is even more absurd. Because then you create a figure which is a real rival of the President of the European Commission, also directly elected. He has to create compromises among the leaders. And you give him a legitimacy even higher than of the participants in the Council. So how can he find at the end of the day compromise or consensus?”The self-appointed Future of Europe Group consists of the foreign ministers of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal and Spain.According to the proposal by the 11 ministers, one key step to increasing the democratic legitimacy is that each political party nominates a top candidate for the next European Parliament elections, who would also stand for the post of Commission President. The idea is shared by the three largest political families (Full story EurActiv)PS a solution could be that EU top leaders inherit the thrones by birth and by grace of God, maybe?
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