EU a threat to European Nation-States

Fire of Liberty

I just want to add a few more thoughts about the recent statements by Margot Wallstrom on the EU. For one thing, she notes that the continued insistence of one's pride for their nation and the devotion to national sovereignty is one of the chief causes of WWII, thus the need for a United States of Europe. The only problem with this is that the supranational body that Wallstrom is promoting is actually modeled around the grandiose ideas of Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin. All of these individuals wanted and darn well tried to gather all of the nations of Europe into one super-state under their domain and wipe away the identity and cultures of these nations. Though these three leaders used force and their militaries to expand their sphere of power, they still attempted to make a super-state out of these individual nation, like the people at the EU high command are promoting.

I can assure you if you asked a person in France, Germany, Spain or even Sweden if they identified themselves as a native of their individual nations or a European, they would identify themselves as being either French, German, Spanish or Swedish. They would also argue with you until they turn blue in their native tongues that they also had a different heritage, culture and history than the other nations in Europe. No matter how you cut it, people throughout the world have a great pride in their nation and generally don't like to cede their nation's power or sovereignty to another nation or an entity like the EU.

I think that Wallstrom would be really upset if someone from Romania imposed a 15% Flat tax , slashed the enormous welfare state and changed the various socially liberal laws of Sweden, she would be jumping up and down yelling that isn't fair. Well, the same applies to the people of France, the Netherlands and the UK who seem to be adamantly opposed to joining a super-state, which over-rules all decisions that their national assemblies or parliaments have made for the voting public. Even in the United States under the concept of federalism, the federal government is restrained to certain powers via the US Constitution with the states retaining the powers that are not enumerated in the Constitution. (Though some would beg to differ). Unlike the US, the nation-states in Europe don't have a constitution which is based on the people's rights but the government's rights. You can truly see why the people of Europe are leery of entering a union that takes all of the power from their hands and places it in the hands of the bureaucrats who spend half the year in France and the other half in Brussels giving out commands from on high without the worry of facing a defeat in an upcoming election.

Even if the EU survives in the upcoming referendums, the strong Atlanticist relationship (Aside from the spat over Iraq) between the various countries in Europe and the United States will be forever darkened if not destroyed by this huge EU construct. I'd say that David Frum had a good way of noting the dissolution of the European/US relationship in today's Frum Diary over at National Review Online:

For half a century, the Western world has found freedom, security and prosperity in an alliance between the United States and a Europe of sovereign states. Today that Europe is dissolving itself into a new kind of union - and as a result, the American-European partnership is daily becoming weaker, more difficult, more embittered. It's not too late for Americans to recall to mind their national stake in European national independence, including German independence - and to recall too that national independence is sustained by national pride, including German national pride.

So, I'd say to all of the people of Europe to be prideful of their nation's culture, heritage and history and recognize that Wallstrom represents the general consensus of the leadership in Brussels. She can forewarn of the return to the turmoil of the 1930's and 1940's but I think the people of Europe are well aware of the of the horrors of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Fascist Spain, the Balkans as well as the Soviet Union to know when their pride has stretched into extremism. Maybe the knowledge of what an institution or leader with absolute power can do to the people is the reason why the people of France, the Netherlands, and the UK are leaning towards "non," "neen," and "no," in the EU Constitutional referendum.