European Union Elects The President for first time....

[Lighthouse Profile]

Last week Mr Van Rompuy was at the Bilderburger meeting,
getting a final screening, with a couple of questions like;

are you sure you will above all serve the ruling elite,
bow to Kissinger and the Queen,
and continue to be a softy, with no personal opinion whatsoever

of course he passed the test brilliantly because this guy has a lot of degrees and was given the absolution as we say in Belgium

[Cornbread714 Profile]

But, my beef is with the political harmony, the loss of romance, some may say even the loss of mystery.
It seems we're all being homogonized(?) into one entity. Cultures run strong and they run deep.

That's true. There's always a tradeoff, but cultures have been mixing and influencing each other all throughout history.

We would have no steak tartare if those cunning little Mongols hadn't overrun the West. (Do you know the story behind steak tartare? The Mongols would put a piece of raw meat under their saddles and then eat it after riding all day)

[Ogmios Profile]

I've never been too keen on the EU. When I was at school it was called the EEC (European Economic Community) and was portrayed not as a governmental organisation but a trade body - a classic wolf in sheep's clothing if you ask me.

Both main political parties promised a referendum on the Lisbon treaty before the last election and now we have what is ostensibly an unelected president. There was no vote because there was no way it would happen had it been left to the proletariat to decide. Look what happened to Ireland; they voted against it and then had another vote. The tories are now saying there's no point in having a vote after the next election, should they win, because the treaty has been ratified and it is, in effect, a done deal - the implication being that somehow, were we to vote ouselves out of the treaty, we couldn't. Why not?

I see the new Europe as a growing political authoritatian state who will eventually no doubt become a military superpower and will be a threat to America, Russia and China - and to world peace. You can't help but see this whole movement as a threat to democracy and I fear that this will be imposed on the peoples of America too.

[Electrobadgr Profile]

There are some definte advantages to being part of the EU, namely the social chapter which takes power from the boardrooms to the unions. Something the conservatives have been strongly opposed to. There is also the european charter on human rights which can only be a good thing, however i am pro democracy and being forced into this through the lisbon treaty is a bitter pill for me to swallow. Unfortunately, the benefits for the common man will provide a suitable distraction for the stripping away of other liberties.

[Ogmios Profile]

I agree completely. It feels like Europe is tip-toeing towards a corporate state.

[Marduk2012 Profile]

Ashton and van Rompuy- The unknown faces of the new EU


Who are these people? The new EU leadership duo: Herman Van Rompuy and Catherine Ashton.

The two people selected to head the EU are both political nobodies! Puppets!

Europe is seeking to build a reputation and increase its standing and voice on the world stage, yet it has disgraced itself by putting a pair of political no-names in charge. Of the EU’s 500 million inhabitants, more than 490m – with the exception of ten million Belgians, of course - probably do not know who their new EU President is. Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompuy is essentially a political unknown. And the only people who would have ever taken any note of EU Commissioner Catherine Ashton until now would have either belonged to the British House of Lords or worked at EU headquarters.

Unfortunately this isn’t a bad joke. It is a methodology.

The worst thing is that the selection of the two was no accident, quite the opposite - they were conscious appointments. After an unimaginably tough eight year struggle, the 27 EU member states and their government leaders have put the ball on the penalty spot and then fired it straight into Row Z. The continent's big bosses - Angela Merkel (Germany), Nicolas Sarkozy (France), Gordon Brown (United Kingdom) - did not want a strong, shining duo of leaders at the top of newly formed EU. They did not want rivals, but rather their silence. They will get dead silence. A blackout in Brussels. It is disastrously short-sighted. Almost everything which the EU has to be proud of - the engine of prosperity of the single European market; the Euro, an anchor of stability - it owes to strong leadership guiding from the top in Brussels. Nothing against Belgian PM Herman van Rompuy or EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton personally, but they have developed their strengths within their home countries by quite skilfully balancing political party problems. There are already enough of these types of people at EU Headquarters.

The truth is that the controversial Lisbon Treaty was most convincingly defended with the argument that two characters –who are internationally known and respected – would be put alongside the inevitable multi-voiced state chorus in order to finally throw the sort of political weight around in the world arena which Europe has already enjoyed economically for so long. Such names were, however, controversial. Politicians with an international reputation also have critics. No-names, however, do not.

Tony Blair fell into that category, but the former British Prime Minister fell through. He did not fit the big/small, North/South, left/right, woman/man proportions well enough.

Even Jean-Claude Juncker - the most experienced of all the Euro navigators – did make the cut. To some he was too politically independent, and he perhaps got into too many fights with others.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier could have ended up as the EU Foreign Affairs chief, but from the German Chancellor’s point of view he is from the wrong political party, the Social Democrats (SPD).

The obligatory congratulations to the chosen duo of van Rompuy and Ashton speak volumes. "You'll grow into your job," they seem to say. Good for them, bad for the EU. After this evening it is clear what the unifying factors in Europe are - timidness and paralysis.