Martin Jay
October 29, 2021 © Picture: REUTERS/POOL New The hypocrisy is outstanding. Particularly from MEPs who have a voice and can talk about the issues in countries which are more or less ruled by the mob.
When the EU begins to worry, it reaches out in a feral way for bigger concepts. The EU army, although a concept which has actually been flogged to death, is still buzzing around like a fly trying to find a turd to arrive on. However another concept which eurocrats hold on to when a genuine political disaster starts to cast a shadow over Brussels is expansion. During October there was much discuss ushering in a new age of candidate nations from the Balkans, as the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, personally promises to help these countries get in the EU club.
Yet there can never ever be anything in Brussels more idiotic and disingenuous than this idea that the more members that the EU has, the taller it loafs the world. In 2004, the EU expanded from 15 member states to 25 as Eastern European nations, as well as Cyprus and Malta, joined– a relocation which Romano Prodi, the EU Commission president personally took the credit for as the crowning moment of his five-year term in workplace. He explained to me in an interview then how essential it was, but in truth what I noticed was that EU expansion was all about keeping senior EU officials delighted, as it relaxed there tormented eyebrows and gave them new tasks, goals and a whole new ‘raison d’être’.
Yet growth is truly simply self-indulgent rubbish. In 2004, when a wave of Eastern European, former Soviet bloc countries joined, some EU mandarins confided to reporters like me that it was likewise a great way to rebalancing the EU, so that the old ‘Franco-German axis’ might be dissolved. In reality, absolutely nothing of the sort ever happened as the power battle in between these two EU giants and founding members of the EU has actually been dealt with by Germany merely taking all the power and letting France think that it is a much respected deputy in the decision making process and big thinking.
Macron himself invites the concept of Balkan nations joining as it will swell the ranks and make him look bigger as he plays the role of unpaid EU President.
However the reality of poorer, backwards eastern countries joining the EU is that a darker ‘edge of Europe’ syndrome really threatens the EU project with corruption, organised criminal offense and the Muslim contingent all contributing in offering far right groups a larger piece of the electoral cake.
The hypocrisy is outstanding. Particularly from MEPs who have a voice and can discuss the issues in nations which are basically ruled by the mob.
Romania and Bulgaria are both countries which have broken the mould on corruption, especially in their judiciary systems. In Romania’s case, its elite promised to do something about graft to appease some EU officials’ worries. The result was just the farcical production of waves of anti-corruption firms leading one leading journalist in Bucharest to inform me that “we have a lot anti-corruption activities now that we can basically bottle this shit and offer it to the remainder of the world, thanks to the EU”.
Balkan countries joining the EU will be the last blow for the EU, in truth. What we have learnt about Romania and Bulgaria signing up with is that the old concept banded about in Brussels that “we need to get them here in Brussels as members, then we can deal with their governance deficit” which was a narrative I heard over and over again when I was based in the Belgian capital, is recklessness.
The concept that Albania is going to welcome the EU’s design of democracy and adopt literally thousands of EU directives on whatever from employees’ rights to the length of cars and truck windscreen wipers is of course far-fetched. Or ecological legislation. Or females’s rights. The list is limitless. Or that North Macedonia is going to end up being an EU utopia and tell those naughty mafia gangs to stop raking in billions from nice EU taxpayers who want to save cash and purchase phony cigarettes from a service which eclipses the nationwide financial obligation.
Like so a number of the European Commission president’s concepts, this one is actually crackers however it’s one which MEPs and member states will allow her to cradle. In the meantime, just as Turkey’s subscription bid to join the EU was shot down by France and Germany, whose political elites didn’t like the immigration ramifications, the EU commission itself will work its dark magic internally to remind the German EU employer that if these Balkan nations are let in, then for the very first time ever in the history of the EU, the institutions in Brussels would have to invite and incorporate thousands of Muslims in the EU bodies themselves and start to take a look at the Muslim component in practically everything the EU does. The grey-haired, odd, middle-aged Masons who really run the EU, will put their foot down eventually and no doubt utilize the criminal argument and the need for the “accession process” to be taken on board initially. But this idea by VDL herself gives an indicator about just how much of a crisis the EU remains in, if it can stoop this low just for a few news release and video handout video footage to the call centre reporters in Brussels. With Poland getting the headings in recent weeks about the extremely genuine possibility of following Britain in leaving the EU, it’s hardly surprising that this sort of PR stunts are presented to the media. In Brussels, they are, after all, almost on the payroll.