VOX POPULI....The Voice of the People

BRAVO, IRELAND! A short primer on the EU, if you're interested.........and an explanation for the applause to Ireland:

What is today the EUROPEAN UNION started out in the 1950’s as an economic association of six initial countries (France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemburg) which then became the European Economic Community (EEC). The objective was to foster economic cooperation between the partner countries by omitting import and export taxes. New countries joined the EEC and financial support for “poorer countries” by the “richer countries” was added to make this community a very beneficial association in that the domestic market became substantially larger than just that of each individual country. So far so good. It should have stopped there. But then, the EEC started to establish its own regulations and laws with the intent to grow into a full blown political union.

Two things started to happen: (1) The administrative apparatus grew completely out of proportion, and (2) an understanding by the bureaucrats in Brussels and the European parliament in Strasburg cemented into the working documents for the EU the fact that European laws and regulations trump national laws and regulations. The results have been (almost) unavoidable: The huge cost of this apparatus, huge inefficiencies (the jobs are staffed pro rata and not according to qualification, and in addition, it is a charity with veteran politicians who are “promoted” out of their own country), and almost complete loss of sovereignty for the individual countries.

The mountain of regulations from Brussels in all detailed aspects of life has become overwhelming in the EU. It cannot be that the bureaucrats in Brussels have the right to tell Bavarian beer brewers that they have no right to respect the “Reinheitsgebot”, a hundreds of years old Bavarian regulation forbidding other than natural substances in beer. It can also not be that a party losing a caseint the German Supreme Court then goes to a European court and they overrule the German court. It should also not happen that bureaucrats tell the German politicians how to handle the immigrant question. These are only three small examples of how the EU has invaded every little detail of the life of the people in the European Nations. And many of these things cannot be explained away anymore under the headline “For the common good”.
Several attempts have been made to establish a constitution for the community which, in the meantime, is called the European Union (EU). Attempts were made to hide the constitution from the individual inhabitants of the countries and to execute the approval process without asking the people. However, several countries put the constitution up for public vote. Three years ago, the people of France and the Netherlands voted against the constitution mainly for the reasons cited above; too much bureaucracy, too much influence on the daily life of individuals, and inefficiency against illegal immigration and the terror threat. The politicians of the EU member countries came up with a modified version (the “Lisbon” version), which got mostly ratified by the parliaments of the member countries as the people were not asked. However, Ireland’s constitution requires a public referendum. This referendum took place on 6/12/08, and the Irish people voted against it.

The official reaction ran the gamut from consternation to notions that the Irish “could leave the EU, at least temporarily”, and “the Irish are unthankful, because they benefited largely from the EU”. That is true, Ireland was a poor country when it joined the EEC, when the latter was still an Economic Community. What these people don’t say, however, is that the real success for the Irish came when they abandoned socialism and restructured their country to become conservative, with lower taxes and more economic freedom to the people and companies. The EU had nothing to do with that success. Today, Ireland is the second wealthiest country in the EU after Luxemburg.

The vote in Ireland was not against the economic part of the EU, it was against the follow-up process of bureaucratization and top-down regulations by unelected bureaucrats, together with an unsatisfactory security situation in Europe with a flow of illegal immigrants (EU country inhabitants don’t need passports when crossing from one country to another) and criminals into the EU which is completely neglected at the EU level, and which is basically taken out of the hands of the partner countries without replacing it by anything effective.
I am personally glad that the Irish refused the EU constitution. I was strongly for the EEC because of its substantial economic impact through the creation of a large domestic market, but I was critical about further steps because I know how organizations take on lives of their own. When I recognized what the impact of overarching regulations and laws combined with incompetence and inefficiency would be, resulting de facto in the loss of sovereignty, I became vehemently against the EU as a political union. It should have remained what it was: an economic union.

I know I am not alone in my opinion. I read an article in Die WELT very recently speculating about the result; I had never seen so many readers’ comments to any article in a German newspaper and, from the sample reading I took, 95%+ of the comments were against the constitution. It turned out that asking the people directly was a very valid reality check and, while I am not of the opinion that every political issue should be held up for a public vote, an issue of such importance as the constitution of the EU should absolutely run through a referendum.

There is hope. Sometimes, democracy still works. A big applause for the Irish, because they gave the European politicians what they deserve: A big slap into the face.

Mr.Z (more details, if desired) UPDATE (thanks for it,Mustang!) THIS is a must read...it'll scare you silly.