Donald Hank
How the EU strangles its core
By Donald Hank
Today, more than ever since the fall of the USSR, East and West have squared off one against the other and the cold war is returning. This time, however, the "other" side is in many ways the entire BRICS block plus whatever ex-Soviet bloc nations have remained loyal to Russia. They are rich, are actively seeking to dethrone the dollar, and most of them come equipped with a formidable military and a nuclear arsenal. These are the countries politicians and the msm ignore when they say "the world condemns.bla bla bla."
Who is the villain this time around? And who has the moral authority to emerge as the winner?
If we consider that the US and the EU, along with NATO, invariably act in concert, as a virtual monolith as it were, then the portrayal of the EU below, by the leaders of Dutch anti-EU party PVV (Partij Voor de Vrijhijd, Freedom Party), along with this exposé of the undemocratic functions of the EU should provide some insight for evaluating our so-called "Western values."
The Dutch text would apply mutatis mutandis to the UK, if written by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, or to France, if written by Front National leader Marine LePen. And in fact, these leaders have all publicly said similar things. All three parties, in Holland, the UK and France, respectively, are trending to dominate their nations' political scenes within the foreseeable future. This bodes ill for the sclerotic EU, which despite this historic and near-catastrophic loss of support and hence legitimacy, refuses to budge an inch on its rigid policies of industry-killing regulations, fishery-killing communalization of all coastal waters, burdensome taxation and refusal to allow member states to conclude bilateral free trade agreements with any nation outside the EU. (In reality, it can't. It has painted itself into a corner).
Once all three of these countries have seceded from the EU, Germany alone will not be able to take up the financial slack. Worse, though Germany lacks a strong anti-EU political presence, the political trends in that country – led by the Greens – militate against all conventional fuel use. A Germany powered by heavily subsidized 'alternative' energy sources will be but a shell of its present self. The EU will have lost its economic engine. Needless to say, the perennial bailouts of peripheral members like Greece and Ukraine (should the latter join) will end.
Below is my translation from the Dutch of the PVV newsletter I received yesterday.
All footnotes are mine.
Don Hank
BEGIN NEWSLETTER TEXT:
Today the Volkskrant [1] published an opinion article by Geert Wilders and the PVV leader for the European parliamentary election committee Marcel de Graaff in. The text of this article is shown below.
Netherlands is too big for Europe
The Netherlands is a small country – without the EU, we're nothing, say the Europhiles. But our position is that the Netherlands is too large for Europe and therefore must free itself from the EU.
The EU brought us prosperity and jobs, claim the Europhiles. If we want to preserve that wealth and to create new jobs, we must stay in the EU, they say. But the Europhiles are wrong on both counts.
It is simply not true that selling out national sovereignty to Brussels has brought us prosperity and jobs. The less any country was tempted in the past by the Brussels siren song, the better it performed economically. "Better off out" is not a myth. Switzerland, the most prosperous country in Europe, has high economic growth and low unemployment, but it is not in the EU.
The politics that Brussels represents can be briefly summarized as follows: Western Europe is obliged to burden its economy to the breaking point so that billions can be sent to southern Europe as fast as possible, while borders must be kept wide open to Eastern Europe. [2] None of this brings us wealth and jobs, but in fact it costs us wealth and jobs.
If the Netherlands opts to exit the EU, then it will no longer have to give billions to Brussels and Southern Europe. It will save billions by freeing itself from Brussels regulatory pressure, and will limit costly mass immigration. We will regain our sovereignty and recover control of our own money and our own borders, protect our identity and traditions, and save on taxes [3], VAT [4] and excise/import duties [5] so that our economy can get some oxygen. But above all – and here is the second error of the Europhiles – without the Brussels straitjacket we can take full advantage of the opportunities that the future holds for us.
That is the focus of the European elections on 22 May: They are our promise for the future.
Growth in Europe has stagnated. The rest of the world's economy is growing much faster. Of Dutch exports today, 72.5 % go to EU countries and only 13.6% to Asia and Africa. But the EU represents a shrinking share of only 13.7% of the global economy.
While a country like Switzerland in recent years diligently and swiftly concluded free trade agreements with countries such as Japan and China, we did nothing. 12 % of Swiss exports are already going to the so-called BRIC [6] countries – the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In the Netherlands this is only 5 %. We are letting them steal our sustenance.
A trading nation like the Netherlands must respond to the new economic reality. Netherlands should focus less on the EU and more on the world. Unfortunately, Netherlands has transferred the [exclusive] right to conclude free trade agreements with other countries to the cumbersome and sluggish EU bureaucracy in Brussels.
Instead of concluding trade agreements, the EU wages trade wars. The interests of the Netherlands do not come first, but rather the common denominator of the interests of all EU countries. However, the interests of the Netherlands are not consistent with the common denominator of the EU. We have the potential to become the Singapore of Europe: the hub between Europe and the world. But Brussels stands in our way
If we do not seize the unique opportunity to again take care of ourselves, then we'll never get out of the quagmire in which we find ourselves today, with our 700,000 unemployed. That is precisely the choice we face today: Either focus on the future and on the world, or stay shackled to Brussels and perish.
NEXIT – the exit of Netherlands from the EU – will not harm our trade relations with the rest of Europe. Like Switzerland, we can indeed conclude bilateral agreements with the EU that guarantee us access to the EU market. The EU will not reject us, because Europe needs our ports. The Rhine flows to Rotterdam. Of all European ports, only Rotterdam has the depth to receive the largest tankers and container ships in the world
We must not let ourselves be frightened by the Europhiles. We must dare to seize opportunities. NEXIT is the future because growth in the world is the future. Netherlands may be a small country, but it is too big for Europe. The EU keeps us stuck and trapped. We are a nation on the sea. This means that we must dare to fix our gaze beyond the horizon
We are rooted in that tradition. Brussels robs us of our wealth, our money, our traditions, our identity, and hence our future. But on May 22, we can take our destiny into our own hands again.
Geert Wilders is president of the PVV party in the House, Marcel de Graaff is chairman of the PVV party in the Senate and PVV party leader in the European elections on May 22.
END NEWSLETTER TEXT
[1] Volkskrant is the most influential newspaper in the Netherlands and normally has a strong pro-EU bias. The publication of this letter should not be underestimated. The fact that the editors decided to print it in the first place signals that they are forced to accept PVV as a mainstream party, although in the past they had marginalized it as "extreme right."
[2] To put it bluntly, Eastern Europe is to the EU core countries as Mexico is to the US. A disproportionately large number of citizens of those countries immediately go on welfare when they emigrate to the core (especially UK and Holland) of the EU and/or add to the crime statistics of their hosts. Perhpas for political reasons, the authors have omitted any mention of the enormous Moroccan immigration problem, which Geert Wilders has complained of recently, mentioning the considerable increase in violent crime due to this population, and asking for a halt to immigration from Morocco. He was castigated in the msm for this.
[3] The EU skims 0.73% of the entire GDP of each member state plus VAT and other contributions including fines on industry http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/money/revenue-income/index_en.htm
[4] The EU sets a lower limit of 15% for value added tax but allows member states to add more. Netherlands has a VAT of 21% for luxuries and 6% for necessities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax .
[5] In 2012, the average EU import duty rate for goods from outside the EU was 4%, with, for example, 13% for foods, 9.4% for textiles and .72% for mineral fuels http://tariff.findthebest.com/l/46/European-Union )
[6] The author may have written this part of the text before South Africa was added in 2010 and the acronym changed to BRICS-Don Hank
© Donald Hank
May 12, 2014
Today, more than ever since the fall of the USSR, East and West have squared off one against the other and the cold war is returning. This time, however, the "other" side is in many ways the entire BRICS block plus whatever ex-Soviet bloc nations have remained loyal to Russia. They are rich, are actively seeking to dethrone the dollar, and most of them come equipped with a formidable military and a nuclear arsenal. These are the countries politicians and the msm ignore when they say "the world condemns.bla bla bla."
Who is the villain this time around? And who has the moral authority to emerge as the winner?
If we consider that the US and the EU, along with NATO, invariably act in concert, as a virtual monolith as it were, then the portrayal of the EU below, by the leaders of Dutch anti-EU party PVV (Partij Voor de Vrijhijd, Freedom Party), along with this exposé of the undemocratic functions of the EU should provide some insight for evaluating our so-called "Western values."
The Dutch text would apply mutatis mutandis to the UK, if written by UKIP leader Nigel Farage, or to France, if written by Front National leader Marine LePen. And in fact, these leaders have all publicly said similar things. All three parties, in Holland, the UK and France, respectively, are trending to dominate their nations' political scenes within the foreseeable future. This bodes ill for the sclerotic EU, which despite this historic and near-catastrophic loss of support and hence legitimacy, refuses to budge an inch on its rigid policies of industry-killing regulations, fishery-killing communalization of all coastal waters, burdensome taxation and refusal to allow member states to conclude bilateral free trade agreements with any nation outside the EU. (In reality, it can't. It has painted itself into a corner).
Once all three of these countries have seceded from the EU, Germany alone will not be able to take up the financial slack. Worse, though Germany lacks a strong anti-EU political presence, the political trends in that country – led by the Greens – militate against all conventional fuel use. A Germany powered by heavily subsidized 'alternative' energy sources will be but a shell of its present self. The EU will have lost its economic engine. Needless to say, the perennial bailouts of peripheral members like Greece and Ukraine (should the latter join) will end.
Below is my translation from the Dutch of the PVV newsletter I received yesterday.
All footnotes are mine.
Don Hank
BEGIN NEWSLETTER TEXT:
Today the Volkskrant [1] published an opinion article by Geert Wilders and the PVV leader for the European parliamentary election committee Marcel de Graaff in. The text of this article is shown below.
Netherlands is too big for Europe
The Netherlands is a small country – without the EU, we're nothing, say the Europhiles. But our position is that the Netherlands is too large for Europe and therefore must free itself from the EU.
The EU brought us prosperity and jobs, claim the Europhiles. If we want to preserve that wealth and to create new jobs, we must stay in the EU, they say. But the Europhiles are wrong on both counts.
It is simply not true that selling out national sovereignty to Brussels has brought us prosperity and jobs. The less any country was tempted in the past by the Brussels siren song, the better it performed economically. "Better off out" is not a myth. Switzerland, the most prosperous country in Europe, has high economic growth and low unemployment, but it is not in the EU.
The politics that Brussels represents can be briefly summarized as follows: Western Europe is obliged to burden its economy to the breaking point so that billions can be sent to southern Europe as fast as possible, while borders must be kept wide open to Eastern Europe. [2] None of this brings us wealth and jobs, but in fact it costs us wealth and jobs.
If the Netherlands opts to exit the EU, then it will no longer have to give billions to Brussels and Southern Europe. It will save billions by freeing itself from Brussels regulatory pressure, and will limit costly mass immigration. We will regain our sovereignty and recover control of our own money and our own borders, protect our identity and traditions, and save on taxes [3], VAT [4] and excise/import duties [5] so that our economy can get some oxygen. But above all – and here is the second error of the Europhiles – without the Brussels straitjacket we can take full advantage of the opportunities that the future holds for us.
That is the focus of the European elections on 22 May: They are our promise for the future.
Growth in Europe has stagnated. The rest of the world's economy is growing much faster. Of Dutch exports today, 72.5 % go to EU countries and only 13.6% to Asia and Africa. But the EU represents a shrinking share of only 13.7% of the global economy.
While a country like Switzerland in recent years diligently and swiftly concluded free trade agreements with countries such as Japan and China, we did nothing. 12 % of Swiss exports are already going to the so-called BRIC [6] countries – the emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. In the Netherlands this is only 5 %. We are letting them steal our sustenance.
A trading nation like the Netherlands must respond to the new economic reality. Netherlands should focus less on the EU and more on the world. Unfortunately, Netherlands has transferred the [exclusive] right to conclude free trade agreements with other countries to the cumbersome and sluggish EU bureaucracy in Brussels.
Instead of concluding trade agreements, the EU wages trade wars. The interests of the Netherlands do not come first, but rather the common denominator of the interests of all EU countries. However, the interests of the Netherlands are not consistent with the common denominator of the EU. We have the potential to become the Singapore of Europe: the hub between Europe and the world. But Brussels stands in our way
If we do not seize the unique opportunity to again take care of ourselves, then we'll never get out of the quagmire in which we find ourselves today, with our 700,000 unemployed. That is precisely the choice we face today: Either focus on the future and on the world, or stay shackled to Brussels and perish.
NEXIT – the exit of Netherlands from the EU – will not harm our trade relations with the rest of Europe. Like Switzerland, we can indeed conclude bilateral agreements with the EU that guarantee us access to the EU market. The EU will not reject us, because Europe needs our ports. The Rhine flows to Rotterdam. Of all European ports, only Rotterdam has the depth to receive the largest tankers and container ships in the world
We must not let ourselves be frightened by the Europhiles. We must dare to seize opportunities. NEXIT is the future because growth in the world is the future. Netherlands may be a small country, but it is too big for Europe. The EU keeps us stuck and trapped. We are a nation on the sea. This means that we must dare to fix our gaze beyond the horizon
We are rooted in that tradition. Brussels robs us of our wealth, our money, our traditions, our identity, and hence our future. But on May 22, we can take our destiny into our own hands again.
Geert Wilders is president of the PVV party in the House, Marcel de Graaff is chairman of the PVV party in the Senate and PVV party leader in the European elections on May 22.
END NEWSLETTER TEXT
[1] Volkskrant is the most influential newspaper in the Netherlands and normally has a strong pro-EU bias. The publication of this letter should not be underestimated. The fact that the editors decided to print it in the first place signals that they are forced to accept PVV as a mainstream party, although in the past they had marginalized it as "extreme right."
[2] To put it bluntly, Eastern Europe is to the EU core countries as Mexico is to the US. A disproportionately large number of citizens of those countries immediately go on welfare when they emigrate to the core (especially UK and Holland) of the EU and/or add to the crime statistics of their hosts. Perhpas for political reasons, the authors have omitted any mention of the enormous Moroccan immigration problem, which Geert Wilders has complained of recently, mentioning the considerable increase in violent crime due to this population, and asking for a halt to immigration from Morocco. He was castigated in the msm for this.
[3] The EU skims 0.73% of the entire GDP of each member state plus VAT and other contributions including fines on industry http://europa.eu/about-eu/basic-information/money/revenue-income/index_en.htm
[4] The EU sets a lower limit of 15% for value added tax but allows member states to add more. Netherlands has a VAT of 21% for luxuries and 6% for necessities http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Value-added_tax .
[5] In 2012, the average EU import duty rate for goods from outside the EU was 4%, with, for example, 13% for foods, 9.4% for textiles and .72% for mineral fuels http://tariff.findthebest.com/l/46/European-Union )
[6] The author may have written this part of the text before South Africa was added in 2010 and the acronym changed to BRICS-Don Hank
© Donald Hank
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