An EU dictatorship in the making?

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday July 28, 2002 23:50 by Paul Kinsella - Various paulkinsella53 at yahoo dot com 53 Lorcan Grove, Santry, Dublin 9, Eire 087 - 9748511

More scary stuff from the EU

Here is more scary stuff coming from the EU that I came across on the Internet. This certainly should give us all real case for concern. Coz if they're right about what they're saying, and having carefully read and re-read this article 4 times, I can't dispute what they're saying, then if we don't reject this Nice Treaty again this time around then we're on the slippery slope to a militaristic EU dictatorship. This should galvinise all of us in our various Anti-Nice campaigns to go all out and defeat Nice yet again this time round. Coz our civil liberties and our futures are at stake.

Statement - 21 November 2000
European Army - Parallels with Hitler

The formation of an EU run rapid reaction force is a huge step towards the European Army to fight the resources wars of the 21st century called for by former European Commission President, Jacques Delors. It is a distraction to say this force is for humanitarian and peacekeeping purposes.
The British government is right to be nervous about first agreeing to and then committing 12,000 British forces to this military adventure. The public in Britain is being softened up to accept a European Army.

No humanitarian exercise has ever been given 60,000 troops, 400 combat aircraft and 100 warships to distribute flour and milk powder to starving people. “Peacekeeping” does not require such a large force either - the war against Yugoslavia saw 30,000 troops used in Kosovo.

There are plenty of indications of the real nature and role of this rapid reaction force. The speed at which these armed forces are to be made available to the European Union has parallels with the five year armed build up by Hitler. This was largely done by stealth before military intervention expanded the Third Reich outside the borders of Germany and led to the Second World War. A Euro-corps based in Strasbourg was formed some years ago. An EU military committee was set up in March this year. Former NATO Secretary General, Javier Solana, was made the High Representative for the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Secretary General of the Western European Union earlier this year.

The Euro-rapid reaction force is to act in the EU’s backyard which Defence Minister Hoon says has no defined limits, but, the French Defence Minister stated the EU would develop global security responsibilities. This goes beyond the declared remit of NATO to act only on behalf of NATO members under attack.

Led by Germany with France, the long held stated ambition of Euro-federalists has been for a European Army and end US dominance of the continent via NATO. If this is achieved and the US is tipped out of “Europe” then it means the EU can turn against the USA in the new imperial scramble for resources - both raw material and labour - especially in Africa and Arabia.

There is a simple alternative to more military expenditure in a consolidated Euro-military-industrial- complex, a European Army carrying out a common foreign policy and a resurgence of old fashioned imperialism. For a state like Britain to hand over control of its own armed forces to the European Union spells the beginning of the end of that state. The cold war ended a decade ago, the globe faces certain environmental problems which require a rapid solution, there are plenty of social and health problems which need research and money. Effort and attention must instead be directed at these and many other matters rather than potential armed conflict between superpowers and a further round of exploitation and untold misery for the “Third World”.

John Boyd - Secretary

Threats contained within the Treaty of Nice

The Treaty of Nice is due to be discussed and voted upon by the Council of
Ministers on Thursday 7th and Friday 8th December 2000. If the present
proposals are accepted in their entirety Britain would almost overnight be
subsumed into a federalist Eurostate, run by unelected, unaccountable and
virtually unsakable bureaucrats based in Brussels (European Commission),
Frankfurt (European Central Bank) and Strasbourg (European Court of
Justice). Our Parliament would find itself nothing less than a form of
local council whose laws could be (indeed already are) overruled as the ECJ
would start interpreting and applying the new EU 'constitution' (Charter of
Fundamental Rights).

Whilst the above is worrying enough what appears to be being overlooked is
that the upcoming Nice Treaty contains new proposals which could now lead to
the creation of a superstate with all the characteristic and powers of a
totalitarian state. Consider these three articles which will be placed
before our Prime Minister in December:

Article 7
This proposes new powers which will allow the EU to give an 'early warning'
to possibly remove the voting rights of member countries if they 'threaten'
to breach the Article 6.1 (unspecified general principles which, in effect,
they can interpret as they wish) of the Treaty of Rome, as amended by Treaty
of Amsterdam - such a decision to remove their voting rights would then be
taken by qualified majority voting. This is an extension of the powers
taken at Amsterdam, when an actual breach was required and a majority of
14:1 was needed. After Nice, only a 'threat' will activate the early
warning.
This means that a country could be ganged up upon purely because the
Commission said that they 'threatened' to breach the undefined principles
mentioned in 6.1. With no votes and an occupying para-military armed force
(Europol) such a country would effectively have become a voteless colony of
the EU.

Article 191
This proposes a new statute for 'European political parties' - which will
give the EU power to finance parties of which it approves, and ban those of
which it disapproves. A "requirement of recognition" will be required for
'European' political parties - thus purporting to make all opposition
illegal (see overleaf for the actual wording of this proposal).
What this could mean is that any political party could be 'banned'. Taken
against the background of the recent comments made by Advocate-General of
the ECJ that "any criticism of the European Union is akin to blasphemy" and
perpetrators could be "restricted" without violating freedom of speech (most
states, including Britain, allow abridgement of free speech rights in the
special case of religious blasphemy), one can easily envisage the creation
of a approved party state /dictatorship.

Article 280A
This calls for the creation of the European Public Prosecutor ("EPP") whose
remit would be decided after the Treaty by QMV.
It seems reasonable to assume that Corpus Juris would be forced onto
Britain, leading to the end of Habeas Corpus, the Right to Trial by Jury
(won by the English over 700 years ago through Magna Carta) and Double
Jeopardy. Europol, a para-military police force with full diplomatic
immunity, would no doubt be introduced. It is more than possible that the
60,000-strong Rapid Reaction Force would also gain a remit to operate within
the EU rather than just externally. If these proposal were to be accepted
Britain would find itself with an occupying armed force (Europol), immune to
prosecution and answerable not to our sovereign or parliament but to
Brussels only. To have an occupying army on British soil has not happened
since 1066. Many people believe that to allow this would be nothing short
of Treason.

Many people find it almost impossible to believe that these proposals are on
the table. The EU propaganda machine keeps telling them that there are just
scare stories around which have no substance -
so read below what they ACTUALLY say in their draft proposals (part shown
only as these are long documents):
PROPOSAL FOR AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE 7 (Proposal by the Belgian delegation)
1. In order to prevent a serious and persistent breach by a Member State of
the principles mentioned in Article 6(1), the Council, acting by a qualified
majority on a proposal by one third of the Member States or by the
Commission, may determine the existence of a threatened breach of those
principles in a Member State and
address the appropriate recommendation, if necessary accompanied by
appropriate measures, to the Member
State in question, after inviting the Government of that Member State to
submit its observations on the subject. The President of the Council shall
inform the Parliament of the recommendation and of any measures.
2. The Council, meeting in the composition of the Heads of State or
Government and acting by a qualified majority, on a proposal by …..

NEW ARTICLE 191
Political parties at European level are important as a factor for
integration within the Union. They contribute to forming a European
awareness and to expressing the political will of the citizens of the Union.
[insert new paragraph as follows:] Before [ date to be agreed], the
Council, acting in accordance with the procedure
referred to in Article 251, shall lay down the statute for European
political parties, in particular the conditions governing their recognition
and the rules regarding their funding

NEW ARTICLE 280A
1. To contribute to the attainment of the objectives of Article 280(1), the
Council, acting on a proposal from the Commission by a qualified majority
with the assent of the European Parliament shall appoint a European Public
Prosecutor for a non-renewable term of six years. The European Public
Prosecutor shall be responsible for detecting, prosecuting and bringing to
judgement the perpetrators of offences prejudicial to the Community's
financial interests and their accomplices and for exercising the functions
of prosecutor in the national courts of the Member States in relation to
such offences in accordance with the rules provided for by paragraph 3.
2. The European Public Prosecutor shall be chosen from persons whose
independence is beyond doubt and who possess the qualifications required for
appointment to the highest judicial offices in their respective countries.
In the performance of his duties, he shall neither seek nor take any
instructions. The Court of Justice may, on application by the European
parliament, the Council or the Commission, remove him from office if he no
longer fulfils the conditions required for the performance of his duties or
if he is guilty of serious misconduct. The Council, acting in accordance
with the procedure laid down by Article 251, shall lay down the regulations
applicable to the European Public Prosecutor.
3. The Council, acting in accordance with the procedure laid down by Article
251, shall lay down the general conditions governing the performance of the
functions of the European Public Prosecutor and shall adopt, in particular:
(a) rules defining the facts constituting criminal offences relating to
fraud and any other illegal activity prejudicial to the Community's
financial interests and the penalties incurred for each of them;
(b) rules of procedure applicable to the activities of the European Public
Prosecutor and rules governing the admissibility of evidence;
(c) rules applicable to the judicial review of procedural measures taken by
the European Public Prosecutor in the exercise of his functions.

Christopher Mowbray

Democracy Movement
Richmond & Twickenham Branch