The struggling EU’s imperialistic determination to influence and control otherwise (ostensibly) sovereign economies came further into plain view earlier this week.
The threat
On Tuesday, Herman Van Rumpoy’s Council of the European Union agreed “draft regulations on economic governance” as part of the superstate’s strategy of manoeuvring towards further punitive control of its nation member states’ fiscal and monetary policies. Below is a small extract from a news release issued by the CEU. (Emphasis in bold added.)
ITEMS DEBATED
ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE – SECOND PACKAGE
The Council agreed a general approach on two draft regulations on economic governance, namely: • a regulation for enhanced monitoring and assessment of draft budgetary plans of euro area member states, especially those subject to an excessive deficit procedure (6565/12); • a regulation on enhanced surveillance of euro area member states that are experiencing severe financial disturbance or request financial assistance (6566/12).
This will enable the presidency, on behalf of the Council, to start negotiations with the European Parliament, with a view to reaching agreement at first reading before the end of the Danish presidency.
The two regulations would introduce provisions for enhanced monitoring of euro area countries’ budgetary policies. Member states would be required to submit annually to the Council and the Commission their draft budgetary plans for the next year by 15 October. Closer monitoring would apply to member states in excessive deficit procedure in order to enable the Commission to better assess whether a risk of non-compliance with the deadline to correct the excessive deficit exists. Member states experiencing severe difficulties with regard to their financial stability or receiving financial assistance on a precautionary basis would be subject to even tighter monitoring than member states in excessive deficit procedure.
[The full press release contains further such horrors and can be found at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/128102.pdf]
The penalties applied
The price of non-compliance with such centralised EU diktats was highlighted (also earlier this week) when Hungary received a “sanctions” warning for “failing to correct its excessive deficit”. Euractive.com reported the fuller story thus:
Hungary is set to become the first country hit by the EU’s new economic sanctions as the European Commission prepares to announce proposals to suspend part of the country’s regional funding for failing to correct its excessive deficit.
The Commission will propose on Wednesday (22 February) to suspend a share of Hungary’s Cohesion Funds over its failure to take “effective action” to curb its excessive deficit.
[Article continues at http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance/eu-readies-economic-sanctions-hungary-news-510987]
Our underlying decision
In the opinion of Economic Survivor, the regulations and related sanctions seem reasonable prices to pay for membership of the EU club.
But the real question is: Do we really want to continue giving up our sovereign rights by buying into this increasingly fascistic superstate which has already suspended democratically elected governments in Greece and Italy by installing bankster “technocrats” as its dreams of collective monetary union teeter?
