Politics in Brussels centre on two things - obscuring the real purpose of the EU to create a unitary federal superstate run by bureaucrats, and those same officials retaining power. In turn, that enables them to retain control.
Nothing matters more to the political elite.
Whatever happens to the Lisbon Treaty now that one country has rejected it, there is little doubt it was written so that it could be interpreted to suit the needs, attitudes, priorities, cultures and objectives of the 27 different nations and their respective governments.
Politicians and bureaucrats will argue about the exact meanings of words, always to suit themselves.
It�s all pure Humpty Dumpty - words mean what I want them to mean.
Professor Tarschys of Stockholm University made this same point (in more polite terms) at a
meeting of the European Parliament’s Budget Control Committee recently. He pointed out that it often suits politicians to couch the law in vague terms for two reasons - it makes agreement easier, and the application of that law can be made to fit the circumstances later.
By then it will be pointless, if not impossible, for the politicians to argue amongst themselves about what the law was supposed to mean.
We may not like that idea, but Professor Tarschys is at least right in terms of the political reality he expressed, and he put his finger precisely on the core problem we face when tackling anything the EU decides to do. It reacts like a sponge � squeeze here and it pops out there. Squeeze there, and it pops out somewhere else again.
The Professor also pointed out that the EU�s so-called Cohesion Policy had 32 identifiable policy goals, some even apparently contradictory. He thought they were deliberately vague to ensure that effectiveness was hard to measure, and the bureaucrats had maximized the prospects of ?success stories� emerging somewhere or other, given enough time.
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