Britannia Radio

3 August 2010

More Arrogant Impertinence from Brussels So the EU bureaucrats want a full seat at the United Nations…and they demand £150 million from us for not flying what they choose to call their ‘flag’ over supposedly part-EU funded projects in the UK .. Not that we needed any reminding, but these two recent news items demonstrate – yet again - the arrogant impertinence of the mafia in Brussels . Their grandiose notions of self-worth know no bounds. They have no shame. Neither do they care much for the legal facts of life. They obviously think they are above the niceties of international law – but we have also known that for a long time. They share with all dictators a dangerous contempt for the rule of law. We had a clear warning signal when Edward Heath signed the Treaty of Rome and then lied about no loss of sovereignty during the referendum which followed. It was not the first time a clear warning signal had been ignored. Sadly, all too often they have been shrugged away until it’s too late – Germany in the 1930s and Russia 20 years earlier are nasty reminders. So lets look briefly at the facts behind these two latest exercises of EU power. First, the so-called EU ‘flag’ – which it is not. A true flag is a symbol of a nation. The EU is not a nation. Some of its ruling elite might have such aspirations, but that is – currently – all they are. In fact, the EU banner (the correct term for this piece of coloured cloth) is nothing more than an advertisement. To his great embarrassment, John (now Lord) Prescott was obliged to accept that legal point during his days as Blair’s deputy, when EU ‘flags’ were removed from public buildings after they were ruled to be mere advertisements. Even the claim that the UK is obliged to fly the EU advertisement over projects part-funded by Brussels is wrong. Indeed, it is demonstrable nonsense. With minor exceptions, the EU does not have any money of its own. It does not generate wealth. It is leech on the wealth generated by member states. Any of the few projects part-funded by Brussels in the UK are using money provided by British taxpayers in the first place. What’s more, it comes back to us with strings attached. The EU presumes to tell us what we can do with our own money, and will hand over the funds only after the project is completed to the satisfaction of some anonymous bureaucrat in Brussels . And as an afterthought on this ‘flag’ nonsense…why don’t we do what the French always do in these circumstances? Ignore the fine. Simply don’t pay it. The Commission had terrible problems trying to avoid admitting that unpalatable fact when I asked about the non-payment of EU fines by the French. Never, ever, would they give me the answer to the simple question : how much do they still owe? But, moving on, lets look at the EU’s claim for a full seat in the UN General Assembly. No doubt the next step is a permanent seat on the Security Council – and idea which was first mooted some time ago. However, during the last round of negotiations in New York , Italy did not renew its earlier proposal for an EU seat. Maybe the Italian delegation had finally acquainted itself with the law. To be a member of the Security Council of the United Nations an applicant must first be a member of the UN. But, according to Article 4 of the UN’s own Charter, membership is open only to Nation States. The fact that the EU has now formalised its own ‘legal personality’ in the Lisbon Treaty does not turn it into a Nation State. Many other international organisations have ‘legal personality’, but that does not entitle them to a seat at the UN. EFTA and the Arab League spring immediately to mind. According to a number of constitutional lawyers, at best the EU is a federation in fieri (in the making). Plainly that is not enough to comply with the statehood criterion required by Article 4 of the Charter. Perhaps there is a need to remind Brussels that both France and the UK have permanent seats on the Security Council. And neither is likely to give them up easily. Any attempt to upset that particular apple-cart would merely reinforce the concerns expressed so eloquently in a recent issue of Time magazine. An editorial observed that Europe had vanished from the world scene and our governments with it. Individual countries were no longer in control because they had ceded management to the EU. But in the EU no one was in control either. Twenty-seven otherwise sovereign nations had suffered a collective insanity. The EU’s power-hungry bureaucrats should go back and play with their own toys. And stay there. Meanwhile, the repatriation of sovereignty to the UK was never more urgent.

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