Yesterday Jean-Claude Juncker, permanent president of the eurogroup as well as prime minister and treasury minister of that banking boutique known as Luxembourg, was at a meeting organised by the European Movement. (The eurogroup is the technically-informal group of finance ministers of eurozone countries.) If you are not sure who Juncker is, this will give you his drift: he brags he was one of the principle architects of the Maastricht Treaty. This was the treaty that turned the European Community from a group of countries into a political union heading for a single currency and a eurocracy with its hands on justice and home affairs in member countries. In short, Juncker's treaty was evil. And it was everything you would expect the European Movement to support. I've covered the European Movement before in this blog, but it is worth recalled what it is, since it is exactly the sort of place in which one would expect to see Juncker performing. The European Movement calls itself an an international organisation created in 1948 to 'contribute to the establishment of a united, federal Europe.' In fact, as Christopher Booker and Richard North disclose in 'The Great Deception,' research at Georgetown University has turned up US government documents showing that until 1960 the CIA poured Cold War millions of dollars into the organisation. Washington imagined a 'united Europe' could be a bulwark against the Soviet Union, so the Americans pumped dosh to the European federalists through fronts such as the Rockefeller Foundation. Anyway, what Juncker was up to yesterday was talking about 'economic governance' -- the euro-elite use 'governance' as a eurphemism now, though they mean 'government' -- as he put it, 'in the euroarea and the EU.' The EU. That includes the United Kingdom. So Juncker was not afraid to admit he has economic government of the UK in his euro-sights. 'There are no such things as domestic affairs in a monetary union, the affairs of one are the affairs of all.' But here's the thing: members of the euro-elite such as Juncker do not intend that this 'economic government' should be democratic. No, as he and his fellow euro-bosses are steering the EU towards centralised economic and fiscal policy, he admits: 'Monetary policy is a serious issue, this should be discussed in secret.' He said that by discussing each and every monetary-policy issue in public 'you are inspring those who are players in the financial markets.' Yes, like the people who have to invest our pension funds, for a start. Juncker doesn't like giving the markets information: 'I am for secret, dark debates between a few responsible people.' I just bet you are, Jean-Claude. Because here is the thing. A national government can and should be able to discuss monetary, economic and fiscal policy in secret. Certainly there are some ideas that could rock markets if they became known too soon. But when it is a national government acting in private, and they come to the wrong decisions, the national lectorate can then throw them and their bad decisions out of office. How do we get rid of Jean-Claude Juncker and his bad decisions? We can't. And you can bet we would not be able to get rid of any of the 'few responsible people' -- what, responsible Bulgarians, Germans, Spaniards, Greeks? -- Juncker thinks should join him in the 'secret dark debates' that would control our economic government. He added: 'I'm ready to be insulted as being insufficiently democatic.' The arrogance of the man. He finds the destruction of democracy amusing.
Eurozone chief Juncker admits he wants all negotiations held in 'secret dark debates'
Sunday, 1 May 2011
The thing about some of these euro-ideologues is that they are arrogant enough to admit out loud exactly what they are doing. And what they are doing is poisonous: manoeuvring the EU towards an economic government that is outside democratic control.
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