Former Maoist revolutionary and current European Commission President José Manuel Barroso (shown) declared this week that a federal Europe ruled by the European Union from Brussels would be a “reality within a few years,” sparking furious criticism from Europeans and renewed calls in Britain and other countries to withdraw from the increasingly power-hungry EU. Whether the formerly sovereign member states use the controversial single euro currency or not, Barroso announced, all of the 27 EU governments will be ensnared in the dubious project.
While acknowledging that today the idea of a federal regime ruling over Europe may seem like “political science fiction” to many, the commission chief echoed previous statements claiming that a “federation” was all but inevitable — and coming soon. It was not immediately clear whether Barroso believed the peoples of the bloc would be consulted about the radical change. In the announcement, the former communist said plans for the federalization of the continent would be unveiled by next spring, prior to the 2014 elections for the so-called European Parliament.
The process is already well underway, Barroso suggested, pointing to the emerging eurozone “fiscal union” that he claimed would lead to a “intensified political union” between all of the 27 formerly independent nations. “This is about the economic and monetary union but for the EU as a whole,” the EC chief said in a speech, with the U.K. Telegraph reporting that the radical statements had “fanned the flames” in the raging British debate over continued membership in the controversial bloc.
“The commission will, therefore, set out its views and explicit ideas for treaty change in order for them to be debated before the European elections,” Barroso continued. “We want to put all the elements on the table, in a clear and consistent way, even if some of them may sound like political science fiction today. They will be reality in a few years’ time.”
According to Barroso and other anti-sovereignty extremists plotting to foist an all-powerful regime on Europe, the eurozone’s adoption of a federalist system in fiscal and economic matters will eventually require complimentary political structures. The “political union,” the argument goes, would ultimately ensnare every member state, regardless of whether or not it uses the euro.
“Further economic integration would transcend the limits of the intergovernmental method of running the EU and the eurozone in particular,” Barroso alleged. “We must remember that the present configuration of the euro area is only temporary, since all member states but two [the UK and Denmark, which have opt-outs] are destined to become full members of the Economic and Monetary Union under the Treaties.”
Speaking during the opening speech at the “Conference on the Blueprint for a deep and genuine EMU,” Barroso spent some time with the obligatory nod to “democracy” and “accountability.” However, despite claiming to care about what people think and harping on the need to have a “debate,” the commission chief all but demanded that European nations give up all power and authority to Brussels as soon as possible. It “will” be a “reality” within a few years, he claimed.
“Fiscal union, banking union and political union; all three need to move forward together,” Barroso demanded, adding that the people essentially would have to be brought along as well. “Europe’s economic interdependence — so strikingly highlighted by the financial crisis — calls for increased political integration. We will not get away with half-hearted solutions any more, and half-integrated institutions will no longer do.”
Unsurprisingly, Barroso called on attendees — “distinguished members of the European Parliament, of national parliaments, ambassadors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen” — to “seize” the opportunity. Blasting critics of the EU and ever closer so-called “integration,” the EC boss claimed that with enough convincing, the peoples of Europe would soon be ready to live under a supreme Brussels-based regime.
“This is why I believe the mainstream forces in European politics must seize the initiative, should leave their comfort zone to welcome and embrace this debate, rather than relinquish the momentum to euroskeptic or europhobic forces,” Barroso said, referring to EU critics and even hesitant skeptics while suggesting that they were not part of the mainstream. “If you believe in the democratic resilience of Europe, if you take Europe’s citizens seriously, you have to fight with rational arguments and unwavering convictions — and be convinced, as I am personally, that these will win the debate for us in the end.”
For decades, the European “project” was sold as just a common market aimed at increasing trade and prosperity. Everyone who suggested that something bigger might be in the pipeline was immediately attacked as a “conspiracy theorist,” fear monger, or worse. In recent years, however, perhaps convinced that there is no turning back at this point, EU officials and even national leaders have been far more brazen about the agenda to smash national sovereignty.
In October of last year, for example, German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a push to give Brussels veto power over national governments’ budgets. “We have made good progress on strengthening fiscal discipline with the fiscal pact but we are of the opinion, and I speak for the whole German government on this, that we could go a step further by giving Europe real rights of intervention in national budgets,” she told the Bundestag lower house, drawing swift criticism.
Merkel’s plan, supported by more than a few European leaders, would give the EU more power than even the out-of-control U.S. federal government. Her announcement came shortly after Barroso declared that Europe needed to move toward a full-blown “federation” during his “state of the union” speech, adding that changes to the treaties that form the basis of the EU’s purported legitimacy were “unavoidable.” Socialist French President Francois Hollande also claimed there was “no choice” but to “march toward a unified Europe.”
Despite support from top political leaders, EU-funded organizations, and media elites, the push to openly abolish national sovereignty and self-government has also sparked an increasingly fierce backlash. Then-Czech President Vaclav Klaus, for example, said last year that the EU’s bid to destroy democracy throughout Europe might be in its final phases. He also blasted the fact that the Czech Republic joined a union, not a federation, when it agreed to participate in the EU almost a decade ago.
“We need to think about how to restore our statehood and our sovereignty. That is impossible in a federation,” Klaus explained in an interview with the U.K. Sunday Telegraph, adding that the EU should be moving in the “opposite” direction. “Especially after our Communist experience, we know, very strongly and possibly more than people in Western Europe, that the process of democracy is more important than the outcome. It is an irony of history — I would never have assumed in 1989 that I would be doing this now: that it would be my role to preach the value of democracy.”
In the United Kingdom, where polls show most people want to leave the EU and the vast majority of Britons are deeply unhappy about the scheme, the outrage has been particularly fierce. After Barroso’s latest speech, leading Conservative Party Parliamentarian Douglas Carswell said the EC president was “delusional,” adding that the mainstream sentiment in Britain was to leave the EU. “Only career politicians and other weirdos believe we should be run by Brussels,” MP Carswell added.
Increasingly harsh anti-EU sentiment has also sent the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which advocates a British withdrawal, soaring in the polls. UKIP leader and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) Nigel Farage recently said that Britain leaving the EU “now appears to be pretty much inevitable, it’s just a question of when.” If a referendum were held today — one has been promised by 2017 — he believes Britons would vote to secede by a 10 to 15 percent margin.
“I think in the end, what is going to break up the eurozone is going to be violence on a very large scale in those Mediterranean countries,” Farage told an Australian television program before Barroso’s controversial speech. “The European Union has now become the new communism,” he continued, adding that some 75 percent of the laws governing Britain come from Brussels. Speaking to the European “Parliament,” Farage compared EU leaders, many of whom he previously identified as “former” communists, to “common criminals” for looting people’s bank accounts in Cyprus.
The New American magazine and its predecessor publications have been warning for decades that the so-called “European project” was eventually aimed at abolishing national sovereignty on the continent — ideas that were long blasted as mere “conspiracy theories” by the very same forces that were quietly working to build a federal Europe all along. Now that even top EU bosses are openly talking about it and claiming that the scheme is inevitable, it remains to be seen whether the peoples of Europe will finally rise up and put a stop to it. Meanwhile, Obama and the EU are working to bring “North America” into the bloc too.
Alex Newman, a foreign correspondent for The New American, is currently based in Europe. He can be reached at [email protected].
Photo of European Commission President José Manuel Barroso: AP Images
Related articles:
EU in Final Phase of Destroying Democracy, Czech President Warns
Germany’s Merkel Calls for EU Veto Power Over National Budgets
EU Targets Seeds and Gardeners; Critics Lash Out
U.K. May Soon Vote to Leave EU Despite Massive Pressure
Secretly Trading Away Our Independence
EU Funding of Homosexual Lobby with Pedophile Links Questioned
UK Leader in European Parliament Says EU on the Verge of Cataclysm
Lisbon Treaty Builds EU Super-state
German High Court Approves Step Toward European Dictatorship
Swiss Military Preparing for EU Meltdown Scenario
One Euro, One Europe, One Mounting Mess
Nobel Peace Prize for the EU: Far-Left Politics Behind the Scenes
Obama Pushing Trans-Atlantic Union with EU
EU Plans to Impose National Internet IDs
CFR Applauds European Union’s “Real Subversion of Sovereignty”
EU Threatens Tiny Switzerland Over Low Taxes
Europe Must Further Centralize Fiscal Power, Claims Fed Boss Bernanke
EU Creates “Dictatorship” Under Guise of Financial Stability
