– The EU is teetering as more Europeans Reject Brussels’ Rule (The Real Agenda News, June 8, 2015):
The erosion of European unity is not new and is not only coming from the possibility that the UK exits or that Greece collapses, but of a generalized societal rejection from the average European who feels increasingly detached from the EU failed project.
The so-called Grexit and its companion Brexit will undoubtedly result in the weakening of the Union, which not too long ago only sought to expand. The recent economic crisis and Europe’s involvement in a crazy feud against Russia has left the EU in an unbalanced position.
The European Union needs both the UK and Greece if it wants to survive. The EU needs the taxes generated from the economic activity and the labor or the populations, but more specifically, it needs the artificial mone generated in the City of London, much like the United States would need the wealth generated in New York City. Additionally, the UE cannot let go of the valuable vote in the hands of the UK as a permanent member of the Security Council of United Nations.
Right now, not straight thiking mind would risk to think what would happen with the EU should the UK or Greece -or both- left the EU.
If Athens abandons the European currency and, therefore, the EU, and London did the same, the technocratic body would not only be reduced in the number of members, but would also invite more partners to seek the back door given the imminent collapse of the Union.
Accordingto analysts, the EU would have a wide open door to the exit of more member states as it had a couple of years ago when Croatia joined.
If the UK or Greece leave the Eurozone, it would mean that for the foreseeable future, the EU would be heavily invested in dealing with the exits themselves, which would absorb efforts and resources only to bring order, not to get ahead.
Turkey offers a good demonstration that the European model has been weakened and is no longer as attractive as before. As a potential candidate to make part of the EU, Turkey experienced very favorable conditions under a Islamic regime and acted openly while it saw the chance to become part of the EU.
However, once the EU closed the doors to Turkey’s initiative to join, the country went in the opposite direction, where a presidential system of ultraconservative and authoritarian forces edges the nation much closer to a Saudi style of governance than any other European State.
As a member who belongs to the Atlantic Alliance and the Council of Europe, the fate of Europe is also played to some extent in Turkey, and particularly today in an election in which Erdogan seeks a supermajority of 330 deputies of 550 to reform the constitution and in doing so become the head of a new unitary regime.
The mutation towards authoritarian regimes already occurred in a country that is a full partner of the EU. In Hungary, another hardline nationalist -Viktor Orban- won the election in 2010 and secured a parliamentary supermajority that allowed him to carry out an anti-liberal constitutional reform.
The potential exit of the UK and Greece from Europe would also affect the Council of Europe, which monitors human rights with the Strasbourg court, the supreme authority in all that relates to fundamental rights.
Cameron also wants those powers to be returned to the UK so the British courts are not obliged to submit to the jurisdiction of the European Court, which is seen very favorably by partners who are usually less respectful of the Convention on Human Rights, such as Hungary and Azerbaijan.
This is the most visible erosion in the eyes of the Europeans, but not the only one. Two virulent war crisis, on the eastern border with Russia and another in another one in the southern flank are also exercising pressure against the EU.
The EU and the United States got involved in a conflict in Eastern Ukraine and sought to punish Russia after Crimeans voted to join the Federation. Both the Ukrainian government and the European allies demand that Russia returns Crimea to Ukraine as a condition to lift the sanctions.
They also accuse Russia of having invaded Donetsk and Lugansk. IN this last case, NATO has gotten involved and while it accuses Russia of waging aggression on Ukraine, it hides the fact that NATO itself has expanded over Europe to the point it has surrounded Russia almost completely.
Added to the involvement of the EU in unnecessary wars, there is also growing doubts about both the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whose members include Ukraine and the Russian Federation. These two organizations have become weak levers in securing the freedoms and peace on the continent.
Next to the removal of the external structure, internal corrosion is also at play, affecting the defining values ??of Europe, as enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, and touch two points of maximum erosion: security and immigration.
The actions and recruitment of terrorists of the Islamic State -supported in secret by the United States and some European countries- in the very heart of Europe weakens xenophobic and hostile reactions towards European Muslims and activates the authoritarian reflexes of the governments that compose the EU.
The result of the policies supposedy directed at reducing terrorism and islamophobia have resulted in the curtailing of freedom of expression in the name of respect for diversity and the limit to individual liberties in the name of security.
Something similar happens with the waves of refugees who continue to arrive at Europe’s shores. The mass illegal immigration has given the governments an opportunity to look for militarized formulas, in a supposed attempt to prevent the actions of mafia networks who profit from human trafficking.
In the issue of imigration, many national states and their citizens openly reject a new quota system that Brussels has sought to impose on countries that are not traditionally open to receiving thousands of immigrants a month. This will prove to be the next battle that the EU project will have to fight, except that this time, it will be a battle against its own members.