The EU, the European Union founded by six catholic states because of their combined interest in coal and steel is fast becoming an anachronism. They should’ve learnt from the most powerful union in history, the USSR, which proved over a 50-year period that big unions are unsustainable and therefore a thing of the past.
I was always under the impression that the invention of the EU, was to develop, consolidate and streamline European economies, but I bet the bosses in Brussels never imagined a day that they would be responsible for the collapse of the Greek economy, or that the notoriously tribalistic British would do a “Brexit,” an on-going sorry saga of national chauvinism vs. collective thinking vs. farcical incompetence. This is quite aside from the annoying fact that the bosses or more appropriately, the European parliament in Brussels is the only government in the Western world not elected by anyone for the past 250-years. So much for the Europeans sermonizing about the “lily-white,” incomparable virtues of democracy every time they take a breath in front of an African, an Arab or a Russian for that matter.
There are only a few economically sustainable countries in a now bloated EU, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Norway with its massive oil reserves which Europe needs. The so-called, PIGS countries, Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain are virtually hangers-on. All the other outlying states are actually provided with annual donations by the EU, Poland got $13 billion in aid packages. So what value does Latvia, Estonia and Montenegro play? Uhm, Germany incentivized Poland with cash payments to join the EU, at the expense of the German people mind you.
Arguably, the EU ruined the economies of Greece, Bulgaria, the Baltic States and the Ukraine which was an integral part of the CIS, a Russian formed economic block. And what about poor Rumania, the Europeans in Brussels and elsewhere complain about the gypsies, apparently their lifestyles clashes with European values? Also, one can argue that like in the case of Germany at the break-up of the old “Soviet Union” in 1989, the only thing Eastern Europe has to offer Western Europe is “white labour” in all its iterations, use your own imagination here? Of course the biggest challenges facing the European Union are the “Brexit” issue with the fickle British population and an even more unstable English government under the adolescent leadership of one, Boris Johnson and the embarrassment that is Poland? So let’s explore that a bit more folks.
The key issue with “Brexit” is that there isn’t an EU precedent, so they’re navigating new territory here. Neither side knows what it wants and is expected. Neither side have done this before. Neither side have an historical framework to use as a measuring stick. Boris Johnson surely doesn’t have enough time to craft a deal that is sweet for both the British electorate and that will be acceptable to the EU, and it doesn’t help that he enjoys little popular support, but is in fact the poor man’s substitute for Theresa May?
The biggest headache for the EU is that the darling of the ex-communist states, Poland, has just been taken over by a right-wing, anti-democratic party, PiS, a portend of things to come in the Union and an indication of the growth of right-wing parties across the continent. PiS has rolled back many of the democratic gains the Poles have made, altered the constitution, appointed right-wingers to the judiciary and started jailing journalists, whilst putting the media houses under more and more pressure. The problem here is that in order to jettison Poland from the Union, it requires a unanimous vote from all its member states, but Rumania and Poland are “joined at the hip” politically, so there’s no chance Rumania will vote against its ally.
What complicates the issue even further is that Poland still receives the annual financial package from the EU in spite of the fact that it is a borderline or de facto dictatorship. This means that the EU is seen to be flouting its very own principles of democracy, openness and good governance all for the sake of maintaining the illusion of European unanimity, a myth the early catholic founder states of the EU knew was at best mythologist and even downright delusional. So, an impasse has been in place for months now, with the unelected mandarins in Brussels twiddling their collective thumbs and staring at their navel fluff..
