Current Political Issues

Three Frequently Asked Questions

Why are the EU’s annual accounts not approved by the auditors ?

Each year the EU's auditors give a clean bill of health to the half of the EU budget which is spent by Brussels .

But the other half of the EU's budget is spent by the 27 national governments on Agriculture and infrastructure projects. And all the 27 national governments, including Westminster , refuse to open their books to the EU auditors.

Naturally the EU auditors are unable to say that they have seen all the accounts - and therefore cannot give their approval.  The blame rests on the national governments and not with Brussels . But Brussels gets the blame.

We British must be careful about being over-critical. The accounts of the UK 's Department of Pensions have not been approved by our own British auditors for more than fourteen years in a row !

Why do MEPs work in two parliament buildings in Brussels and in Strasbourg ?

Because the EU treaties say that the decision about where MEPs work is made unanimously by the 27 national governments, and MEPs have no say. France has a veto. That was decided by leaders under the chairmanship of a British Tory Prime Minister, John Major.

Didn't we only join a Free Trade Area ?

Every EU treaty - all of which the UK has signed - say that the goal is "ever closer union." In 1973 we British abandoned EFTA, the European Free Trade Area, in order to join the EU. In the referendum in 1975, a government booklet was delivered to every UK household which explained that joining was about more than only free trade. See the link to it  http://www.harvard-digital.co.uk/euro/pamphlet_valid.html

Four Huge Problems

But Weak decision-making by governments

There are now world-scale problems, but there is no mechanism for taking binding world decisions. And in the EU, the Council of Ministers, now with 27 around its table, is increasingly incapable of taking decisions because ministers avoid taking votes and seek to be unanimous, which with 27 members, is increasingly difficult. The result is that important decisions are delayed or not taken at all - to the detriment of the public. 

Global Warming 

A huge long-term problem for the whole world. Read the debate in the European Parliament in March http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/064-51467-068-03-11-911-20090311IPR51466-09-03-2009-2009-false/default_en.htm 

Financial recession 

The financial crisis is still getting worse. World trade is plunging. There are no signs of a recovery. The business world is still in a downward spiral, with one cutback leading to another. At present, the world's and the EU's financial agenda is short-term fire-fighting. Trying to stop the slow down. Trying to encourage a recovery. Across Europe, excessive liquidity is being pumped into the system by governments and by the EU. Interest rates are at record low levels. There is creeping nationalisation of banks and of some manufacturing companies such as motor-cars. The next danger will be that we find we have overshot in trying to stop the plunge. As soon as green shoots appear - as they will eventually - the excessive liquidity will have to be reined in. Otherwise we shall suffer from debauching of the currency and hyper-inflation. So, suddenly credit will be restricted and interest-rates will climb. Pain is going to be with us for some time to come. The EU is moving fast to provide tighter regulation of the national financial supervisors who failed us so badly in recent years - and did nothing to restrain the wildness and greed of western banks - and of off-shore tax.havens. Funding from the EU for east European countries is being speeded up because of their extreme difficulties. Fast decisions on enforcing Fair Competition laws across the EU Single Market are being made to stop individual national governments from unfairly subsidising some of their industries. And we are working hard to avoid Protectionism, which closes markets and reduces trade still further. Read the debate in the European Parliament in Marchhttp://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/expert/infopress_page/004-51421-068-03-11-901-20090310IPR51420-09-03-2009-2009-false/default_en.htm The un-noticed rapid growth of Organised Criminal gangs Inside the EU, there are open internal borders - which is beneficial for trade and for freedom of citizens. But organised gangs exploit the openness to expand their activities across several countries and they are growing and expanding. All police forces in Europe must stay inside their own national or state borders : none has power to pursue investigations or criminals across borders. There is no telephone directory for policemen to quickly discover a contact in another EU country. There is no budget for joint-teams from different states. InterPol in Lyons and EuroPol in The Hague are both information-exchange centres but neither has any operational power on the streets. The criminal gangs are winning handsomely. The gangs import heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, illegal immigrants, weapons, and counterfeit goods of every imaginable kind. The gangs eat away at our society and destroy lives and legitimate jobs. The solution ? Create a cross-border European force to match the criminal gangs. Call it a European FBI if you like. Why does that not happen ? Because, the same problem as always, national governments are unwilling to share sovereignty. A European FBI will be created one day - but only after a huge criminal outrage which forces national politicians to take belated action.

Terrorism 

After the Madrid bombing in 2004, the shocked national governments in the EU created an EU "counter-terrorism coordinator". But he found the job so frustrating - because the governments failed to do what they had promised which was to share intelligence - that he resigned. However, the Council of Ministers still has his name up on their website - which demonstrates how seriously they are taking the challenge of working more closely together. See this page for more.

Terrorism is not weakening. But Europe's problem remains - that national governments in European countries fail to work together for the greater European good.