Subject: HELP SLOVENIA BECOME A PROVINCE OF A FOREIGN POWER !
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:42:50 +0100
From: "Blaz Babic" <blaz.babic@...>
Dear Anthony,
sent forward to all media in Slovenia.
Best regards,
Blaz
---
Three items of possible interest to you, from Anthony Coughlan,
Dublin, Ireland
Anthony Coughlan, member of http://www.teameurope.info/
Senior lecturer in social policy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Involved in pressure group politics all his political life, especially
in opposition to European integration. Currently he is secretary of
The National Platform, a non-party euro-critical umbrella
organisation. He has been a member of TEAM Board since 1998 and was
TEAM's coordinator 1998-2000.
_____________________________________
(ITEM 1: An idea for a leaflet)
____________________________________
VOTE YES TO THE EU AND HELP SLOVENIA BECOME A PROVINCE OF A FOREIGN
POWER
* VOTE YES to adopt the 6000-page EU Treaty - and the 25,000 EU laws
and regulations you must obey when it comes into force, amounting to
110,000 pages of rules you have never seen.
* VOTE YES to surrender control of what happens inside Slovenia's
borders.
* VOTE YES to abolish the Slovenian Tolar for ever, hand over
Slovenia's currency reserves to the EU Central Bank in Frankfurt, and
have the interest rate for borrowing money decided by what suits
Germany and France, not Slovene needs.
* VOTE YES to allow the Slovenia's land to be physically sold to EU
buyers, where land prices are on average several times Slovenian
levels.
* VOTE YES to have your fundamental rights decided by the EU Court
rather than by Slovenia's Constitution, by means of the EU Federal
Constitution now being drawn up, to be imposed on Slovenia AFTER
joining the EU, when it will be too late for us to say No.
* VOTE YES to halving the number of jobs in Slovene industry, as
happened to Ireland in its first 10 years of EU membership in the
1970s.
* VOTE YES to trebling the salaries of Government politicians, who are
longing for big jobs in Brussels, where they will be beyond the
control of Slovene voters.
* VOTE YES to devalue your own vote and that of every Slovene, for
once the EU gets power to make laws for Slovenia, you must obey what
Brussels decides even if Slovenia's vote is cast against by the
Llubjana government you elect.
* VOTE YES to abolish Slovenia's independence and destroy the right of
Slovenes to make their own laws and determine Slovenia's international
relations in accordance with the nation's interests and best
traditions.
(Issued by - name - address - etc.)
******************************************
ITEM 2: An answer to a political puzzle
_________________________________________
WHY DO GOVERNMENTS SEEM TO WANT TO REDUCE THEIR OWN POWER BY JOINING
THE EU?
Ministers in EU Member and Candidate countries tend to welcome the
transfer of state functions from the national to the supranational EU
level because it means considerable increase in their own personal
power.
At national level ministers are part of the executive arm of
government. To get something done they need the approval of their
Prime Minister, their national Finance Minister if it involves the
expenditure of money, and above all they must have the support of a
majority in their national parliament and, implicitly, amongst voters
in their country as a whole.
Remove that power to Brussels, shift the relevant competence to the
supranational level, and the national minister in question becomes a
European legislator, one of 24 or 25 others, making laws for 300/400
Europeans behind closed doors, often on the basis of package deals, on
first-name terms with Gerhard(Scroder), Jacques(Chirac),
Silvio(Berlusconi) and Tony (Blair).
There is an intoxicating accretion of power to the politicians
concerned, even if they wield only a handful of votes on the EU
Council of Ministers, as they are transformed from government
executives at national level into European legislators, responsible
collectively to no one.
Simultaneously there is reduction in the power and competence of their
own parliaments and peoples, who can no longer decide or make laws on
the matter in question.
An EU member state on its own cannot decide a single European law. Its
people, parliament and government may be opposed to an EU law, its
government representative on the Council of Ministers may vote against
it, but they are bound to obey it nonetheless once it is adopted by
qualified majority vote on the EU Council.
This devalues the vote of every individual citizen. Each policy area
transferred from the national level to the supranational EU level
devalues it further. It reduces the political ability of citizens to
decide the common good. It deprives them of the most fundamental right
of membership of a democracy, the right to make their own laws, to
elect their representatives to make them, and to change those
representatives if they dislike the laws they make.
That is why all democrats, whether on the political Centre,Left or
Right of politics, should vote No to the EU for the sake of the common
good.
******************************************
ITEM 3: TOP EU POLITICIANS SAY WHAT THE EU IS ALL ABOUT
******************************************
"We need to develop the instinct of acting together. The first reflex
is still national."
- M.Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the EU Convention, The
Guardian. London, 13 September 2002
_________
"If we were to reach agreement on this point (i.e. a consensus
proposal from the EU Convention), we would thus open the way towards a
constitution for Europe. To avoid any disagreement over semantics, let
us agree now to call it 'a constitutional treaty for Europe.'"
- M.Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the EU Convention, Irish
Times, 1 March 2002
__________
"When we build the euro - and with what a success - when we advance on
the European defence, with difficulties but with considerable
progress, when we build a European arrest-warrant,when we move towards
creating a European prosecutor, we are building something deeply
federal, or a true union of states. . . The Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union must become a charter of rights that is
applicable and effective... I wish this Constitution to be the
Constitution of a rebuilt Union, able to reflect its social cohesion,
deepen its political unity, express its power externally."
-M.Pierre Moscovici, French Minister for Europe, Le Monde,28 February
2002
_________
"European monetary union has to be complemented by a political union -
that was always the presumption of Europeans including those who made
active politics before us. . .What we need to Europeanise is
everything to do with economic and financial policy. In this area we
need much more, let's call it co-ordination and co-operation to suit
British feelings, than we had before. That hangs together with the
success of the euro."
-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, The Times, London, 22 February
2002
__________
"Defence is the hard core of sovereignty. Now we have a single
currency, then why should we not have a common defence one day?"
- Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo,European Parliament
Committee on Foreign Affairs, 19 February 2002
________
"The EU ought to develop into a great power in order that it may
function as a fully fledged actor in the world."
- Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland, London, 14 February 2002
________
"It (the introduction of the euro) is not economic at all.It is a
completely political step . . .The historical significance of the euro
is to constuct a bipolar economy in the world. The two poles are the
dollar and the euro. This is the political meaning of the single
European currency. It is a step beyond which there will be others. The
euro is just an antipasto." (i.e a first course.)
- Commission President Romano Prodi, interview on CNN, 1 January 2002
__________
"The currency union will fall apart if we don't follow through with
the consequences of such a union. I am convinced we will need a common
tax system."
- German Finance Minister Hans Eichel, The Sunday Times, London, 23
December 2001
________
"The European constitution that Germany and France wish for will be an
essential step in the historic process of European integration."
-Joint statement of French President Jacques Chirac and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Nantes, 23-11-2001
________
"Let us act in such a way that it(an EU Constitution) becomes a
reality in 2004.. . Such a text would unite the Europeans by enabling
them, through their solemn approval, to identify with a project. . .
What can we do so that Europe carries greater weight on the
international stage? .. . Now we must define, without timidity, the
areas where we want to go towards more Europe, within the framework
desired by France, of a Federation of Nation States."
- French President Jacques Chirac,address to French Ambassadors, 27
August 2001
_______
"It(i.e.the EU) is one of the few institutions we can develop as a
balance to US world domination."
-Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson in Gothenburg, New York Times,
15 June 2001
________
"We need a European Constitution. The European Constitution is not the
'final touch' of the European structure; it must become its
foundation.
The European Constitution should prescribe that...we are building a
Federation of nation-States...The first part should be based on the
Charter of Fundamental Rights proclaimed at the European summit at
Nice... If we transform the EU into a Federation of Nation-States, we
will enhance the democratic legitimacy...We should not prescribe what
the EU should never be allowed to...I believe that the Parliament and
the Council of Ministers should be developed into a genuine bicameral
parliament."
- Dr Johannes Rau, President of the Federal Republic of Germany,
European Parliament, 4 April 2001
__________
"Are we all clear that we want to build something that can aspire to
be a world power? In other words, not just a trading bloc but a
political entity. Do we realise that our nation states, taken
individually, would find it far more difficult to assert their
existence and their identity on the world stage."
- Commission President Romano Prodi, European Parliament, 13 February
2001
___________
- "Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a
European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more
than a currency and Europe more than a territory . . . In the next six
months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so.
Political union is inseparable from economic union. Stronger growth
and Euorpean integration are related issues. In both areas we will
take concrete steps forward."
- French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius, The Financial Times, London,
24 July 2000
___________
"We already have a federation. The 11,soon to be 12, member States
adopting the euro have already given up part of their sovereignty,
monetary sovereignty,and formed a monetary union, and that is the
first step towards a federation."
- German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Financial Times, 7 July
2000,
___________
"We will have to create an avant-garde. . . We could have a Union for
the enlarged Europe, and a Federation for the avant-garde."
- Former EU Commission President Jacques Delors, Liberation, 17 June
2000
__________
"The last step will then be the completion of integration in a
European Federation. . . such a group of States would conclude a new
European framework treaty, the nucleus of a constitution of the
Federation. On the basis of this treaty, the Federation would develop
its own institutions, establish a government which, within the EU,
should speak with one voice... a strong parliament and a directly
elected president. Such a driving force would have to be the
avant-garde, the driving force for the completion of political
integration. . . This latest stage of European Union . . . will depend
decisively on France and Germany."
- German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, speech at Humboldt
University Berlin, 12 May 2000
___________
"To promote the process of European integration, we must improve an
institutional mechanism already existing in the European Union,
reinforced co-operation, by making it more flexible and effective.
This approach allows a few states to move faster and further . . . We
are all aware that this mechanism is vital."
- French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, to the French National
Asssembly, 9 May 2000
__________
"Common responsibility for the European currency will also engender a
common decision-making instance for the European economy. It is
unthinkable to have a European central bank but not a common
leadership for the European economy. If there is no counterweight to
the ECB in European economy policy, then we will be left with the
incomplete construction which we have today . . . However even if the
building is not finished it is still true that monetary union is part
of a supranational constitution . . It is our task for the future to
work with the appropriate means for the transfer of traditional
elements of national sovereignty to the European level."
- Italian President Carlo Ciampi, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,8
Feb.2000
___________
"If you don't want to call it a European army, don't call it a
European army. You can call it 'Margaret', you can call it
'Mary-Anne', you can find any name, but it is a joint effort for
peace-keeping missions - the first time you have a joint, not
bilateral, effort at European level."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, The Independent, London, 4
Feb.2000
____________
"We must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single
economy, a single political entity . . . For the first time since the
fall of the Roman Empire we have the opportunity to unite Europe."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, European Parliament,13 October
1999
__________
"It is only natural that the eastern part of the continent will become
our preoccupation for years to come, because Germans see this as a
matter of historical destiny. The most fundamental priority we have is
trying to integrate all of Europe. But for France the underlying issue
is all about coming to terms with its loss of influence in the world."
- Herr Immo Stabreit, former German Ambassador to France,
International Herald Tribune, 11-12 September 1999
__________
"The euro was not just a bankers' decison or a technical decision. It
was a decision which completely changed the nature of the nation
states. The pillars of the nation state are the sword and the
currency, and we changed that. The euro decision changed the concept
of the nation state and we have to go beyond that."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, Financial Times interview, 9
April 1999
____________
"The introduction of the euro is probably the most important
integrating step since the beginning of the unification process. It is
certain that the times of individual national efforts regarding
employment policies, social and tax policies are definitely over. This
will require to finally bury some erroneous ideas of national
sovereignty. . . I am convinced our standing in the world regarding
foreign trade and international finance policies will sooner or later
force a Common Foreign and Security Polic worthy of its name. . .
National sovereignty in foreign and security policy will soon prove
itself to be a product of the imagination."
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on 'New Foundations for European
Integration', The Hague, 19 Jan.1999
____________
"Our future begins on January 1 1999. The euro is Europe's key to the
21st century. The era of solo national fiscal and economic policy is
over."
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder,31 December 1998
___________
"The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty
monetary union."
- German Opposition leader Gerhard Schröder, March 1998
___________
"The euro is far more than a medium of exchange. . .It is part of the
identity of a people. It reflects what they have in common now and in
the future."
- European Central Bank Governor Wim Duisenberg, December 31 1998
___________
"Transforming the European Union into a single State with one army,
one constitution and one foreign policy is the critical challenge of
the age, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said yesterday."
- The Guardian, London, 26 November 1998
____________
"The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since
the foundation of the European Community . . . It is a decision of an
essentially political character. . . We need this united Europe...We
must never forget that the euro is an instrument for this project."
- Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, May 1998
__________
"Federalism might make eurosceptics laugh but, with the creation of
the euro,the halfway stage would be reached. Four key organisms would
have a federal or quasi-federal status: the Central Bank, the Court of
Justice, the Commission and the Parliament. Only one institution is
missing: a federal government."
- M.Jacques Lang, Foreign Affairs Spokesman, French National Assembly,
The Guardian, London, 22 July 1997
____________
"As a monetary union represents a lasting commitment to integration
which encroaches on the core area of national sovereignty, the EMU
participants must also be prepared to take further steps towards a
more comprehensive political union."
- Annual Report of the German Bundesbank 1995
_________
"In Maastricht we laid the foundation-stone for the completion of the
European Union. The European Union Treaty introduces a new and
decisive stage in the process of European union, which within a few
years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers dreamed
of after the last war: the United States of Europe."
- German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, April 1992
________
"There is no example in history of a lasting monetary union that was
not linked to one State."
- 0tmar Issing, Chief Economist, German Bundesbank, 1991
__________
"A European currency will lead to member-nations transferring their
sovereignty over financial and wage policies as well as in monetary
affairs. . . It is an illusion to think that States can hold on to
their autonomy over taxation policies."
- Bundesbank President Hans Tietmeyer, 1991
_________
"We argue about fish, about potatoes, about milk, on the periphery.
But what is Europe really for? Because the countries of Europe, none
of them anything but second-rate powers by themselves, can, if they
get together, be a power in the world, an economic power, a power in
foreign policy, a power in defence equal to either of the superpowers.
We are in the position of the Greek city states: they fought one
another and they fell victim to Alexander the Great and then to the
Romans. Europe united could still, by not haggling about the size of
lorries but by having a single foreign policy, a single defence policy
and a single economic policy, be equal to the great superpowers."
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who initiated the UK's application
to join the EEC, The Listener, London, 8 Feb.1979
__________
"On the basis of repeated meetings with him and of an attentive
observation of his actions, I think that if in his own way W.Hallstein
(ed:first President of the European Commission) is a sincere
"European", this is only because he is first of all an ambitious
German. For the Europe that he would like to see would contain a
framework within which his country could find once again and without
cost the respectability and equality of rights that Hitler's frenzy
and defeat caused it to lose; then acquire the overwhelming weight
that will follow from its economic capacity; and, finally, achieve a
situation in which its quarrels concerning its boundaries and its
unification will be assumed by a powerful coalition."
- President Charles de Gaulle, Memoirs of Hope, 1970
__________
"The fusion (of economic functions) would compel nations to fuse their
sovereignty into that of a single European State."
- Jean Monnet, founder of the European Movement, 3 April 1952
_________
"Who controls the currency, controls the country."
- John Maynard Keynes, 1932
_________
"I have always found the word 'Europe' on the lips of those who wanted
something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!"
- German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck,1880
Date: Wed, 5 Mar 2003 17:42:50 +0100
From: "Blaz Babic" <blaz.babic@...>
Dear Anthony,
sent forward to all media in Slovenia.
Best regards,
Blaz
---
Three items of possible interest to you, from Anthony Coughlan,
Dublin, Ireland
Anthony Coughlan, member of http://www.teameurope.info/
Senior lecturer in social policy, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland.
Involved in pressure group politics all his political life, especially
in opposition to European integration. Currently he is secretary of
The National Platform, a non-party euro-critical umbrella
organisation. He has been a member of TEAM Board since 1998 and was
TEAM's coordinator 1998-2000.
_____________________________________
(ITEM 1: An idea for a leaflet)
____________________________________
VOTE YES TO THE EU AND HELP SLOVENIA BECOME A PROVINCE OF A FOREIGN
POWER
* VOTE YES to adopt the 6000-page EU Treaty - and the 25,000 EU laws
and regulations you must obey when it comes into force, amounting to
110,000 pages of rules you have never seen.
* VOTE YES to surrender control of what happens inside Slovenia's
borders.
* VOTE YES to abolish the Slovenian Tolar for ever, hand over
Slovenia's currency reserves to the EU Central Bank in Frankfurt, and
have the interest rate for borrowing money decided by what suits
Germany and France, not Slovene needs.
* VOTE YES to allow the Slovenia's land to be physically sold to EU
buyers, where land prices are on average several times Slovenian
levels.
* VOTE YES to have your fundamental rights decided by the EU Court
rather than by Slovenia's Constitution, by means of the EU Federal
Constitution now being drawn up, to be imposed on Slovenia AFTER
joining the EU, when it will be too late for us to say No.
* VOTE YES to halving the number of jobs in Slovene industry, as
happened to Ireland in its first 10 years of EU membership in the
1970s.
* VOTE YES to trebling the salaries of Government politicians, who are
longing for big jobs in Brussels, where they will be beyond the
control of Slovene voters.
* VOTE YES to devalue your own vote and that of every Slovene, for
once the EU gets power to make laws for Slovenia, you must obey what
Brussels decides even if Slovenia's vote is cast against by the
Llubjana government you elect.
* VOTE YES to abolish Slovenia's independence and destroy the right of
Slovenes to make their own laws and determine Slovenia's international
relations in accordance with the nation's interests and best
traditions.
(Issued by - name - address - etc.)
******************************************
ITEM 2: An answer to a political puzzle
_________________________________________
WHY DO GOVERNMENTS SEEM TO WANT TO REDUCE THEIR OWN POWER BY JOINING
THE EU?
Ministers in EU Member and Candidate countries tend to welcome the
transfer of state functions from the national to the supranational EU
level because it means considerable increase in their own personal
power.
At national level ministers are part of the executive arm of
government. To get something done they need the approval of their
Prime Minister, their national Finance Minister if it involves the
expenditure of money, and above all they must have the support of a
majority in their national parliament and, implicitly, amongst voters
in their country as a whole.
Remove that power to Brussels, shift the relevant competence to the
supranational level, and the national minister in question becomes a
European legislator, one of 24 or 25 others, making laws for 300/400
Europeans behind closed doors, often on the basis of package deals, on
first-name terms with Gerhard(Scroder), Jacques(Chirac),
Silvio(Berlusconi) and Tony (Blair).
There is an intoxicating accretion of power to the politicians
concerned, even if they wield only a handful of votes on the EU
Council of Ministers, as they are transformed from government
executives at national level into European legislators, responsible
collectively to no one.
Simultaneously there is reduction in the power and competence of their
own parliaments and peoples, who can no longer decide or make laws on
the matter in question.
An EU member state on its own cannot decide a single European law. Its
people, parliament and government may be opposed to an EU law, its
government representative on the Council of Ministers may vote against
it, but they are bound to obey it nonetheless once it is adopted by
qualified majority vote on the EU Council.
This devalues the vote of every individual citizen. Each policy area
transferred from the national level to the supranational EU level
devalues it further. It reduces the political ability of citizens to
decide the common good. It deprives them of the most fundamental right
of membership of a democracy, the right to make their own laws, to
elect their representatives to make them, and to change those
representatives if they dislike the laws they make.
That is why all democrats, whether on the political Centre,Left or
Right of politics, should vote No to the EU for the sake of the common
good.
******************************************
ITEM 3: TOP EU POLITICIANS SAY WHAT THE EU IS ALL ABOUT
******************************************
"We need to develop the instinct of acting together. The first reflex
is still national."
- M.Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the EU Convention, The
Guardian. London, 13 September 2002
_________
"If we were to reach agreement on this point (i.e. a consensus
proposal from the EU Convention), we would thus open the way towards a
constitution for Europe. To avoid any disagreement over semantics, let
us agree now to call it 'a constitutional treaty for Europe.'"
- M.Valery Giscard d'Estaing, President of the EU Convention, Irish
Times, 1 March 2002
__________
"When we build the euro - and with what a success - when we advance on
the European defence, with difficulties but with considerable
progress, when we build a European arrest-warrant,when we move towards
creating a European prosecutor, we are building something deeply
federal, or a true union of states. . . The Charter of Fundamental
Rights of the European Union must become a charter of rights that is
applicable and effective... I wish this Constitution to be the
Constitution of a rebuilt Union, able to reflect its social cohesion,
deepen its political unity, express its power externally."
-M.Pierre Moscovici, French Minister for Europe, Le Monde,28 February
2002
_________
"European monetary union has to be complemented by a political union -
that was always the presumption of Europeans including those who made
active politics before us. . .What we need to Europeanise is
everything to do with economic and financial policy. In this area we
need much more, let's call it co-ordination and co-operation to suit
British feelings, than we had before. That hangs together with the
success of the euro."
-German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, The Times, London, 22 February
2002
__________
"Defence is the hard core of sovereignty. Now we have a single
currency, then why should we not have a common defence one day?"
- Spanish Defence Minister Federico Trillo,European Parliament
Committee on Foreign Affairs, 19 February 2002
________
"The EU ought to develop into a great power in order that it may
function as a fully fledged actor in the world."
- Paavo Lipponen, Prime Minister of Finland, London, 14 February 2002
________
"It (the introduction of the euro) is not economic at all.It is a
completely political step . . .The historical significance of the euro
is to constuct a bipolar economy in the world. The two poles are the
dollar and the euro. This is the political meaning of the single
European currency. It is a step beyond which there will be others. The
euro is just an antipasto." (i.e a first course.)
- Commission President Romano Prodi, interview on CNN, 1 January 2002
__________
"The currency union will fall apart if we don't follow through with
the consequences of such a union. I am convinced we will need a common
tax system."
- German Finance Minister Hans Eichel, The Sunday Times, London, 23
December 2001
________
"The European constitution that Germany and France wish for will be an
essential step in the historic process of European integration."
-Joint statement of French President Jacques Chirac and German
Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, Nantes, 23-11-2001
________
"Let us act in such a way that it(an EU Constitution) becomes a
reality in 2004.. . Such a text would unite the Europeans by enabling
them, through their solemn approval, to identify with a project. . .
What can we do so that Europe carries greater weight on the
international stage? .. . Now we must define, without timidity, the
areas where we want to go towards more Europe, within the framework
desired by France, of a Federation of Nation States."
- French President Jacques Chirac,address to French Ambassadors, 27
August 2001
_______
"It(i.e.the EU) is one of the few institutions we can develop as a
balance to US world domination."
-Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson in Gothenburg, New York Times,
15 June 2001
________
"We need a European Constitution. The European Constitution is not the
'final touch' of the European structure; it must become its
foundation.
The European Constitution should prescribe that...we are building a
Federation of nation-States...The first part should be based on the
Charter of Fundamental Rights proclaimed at the European summit at
Nice... If we transform the EU into a Federation of Nation-States, we
will enhance the democratic legitimacy...We should not prescribe what
the EU should never be allowed to...I believe that the Parliament and
the Council of Ministers should be developed into a genuine bicameral
parliament."
- Dr Johannes Rau, President of the Federal Republic of Germany,
European Parliament, 4 April 2001
__________
"Are we all clear that we want to build something that can aspire to
be a world power? In other words, not just a trading bloc but a
political entity. Do we realise that our nation states, taken
individually, would find it far more difficult to assert their
existence and their identity on the world stage."
- Commission President Romano Prodi, European Parliament, 13 February
2001
___________
- "Thanks to the euro, our pockets will soon hold solid evidence of a
European identity. We need to build on this, and make the euro more
than a currency and Europe more than a territory . . . In the next six
months, we will talk a lot about political union, and rightly so.
Political union is inseparable from economic union. Stronger growth
and Euorpean integration are related issues. In both areas we will
take concrete steps forward."
- French Finance Minister Laurent Fabius, The Financial Times, London,
24 July 2000
___________
"We already have a federation. The 11,soon to be 12, member States
adopting the euro have already given up part of their sovereignty,
monetary sovereignty,and formed a monetary union, and that is the
first step towards a federation."
- German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, Financial Times, 7 July
2000,
___________
"We will have to create an avant-garde. . . We could have a Union for
the enlarged Europe, and a Federation for the avant-garde."
- Former EU Commission President Jacques Delors, Liberation, 17 June
2000
__________
"The last step will then be the completion of integration in a
European Federation. . . such a group of States would conclude a new
European framework treaty, the nucleus of a constitution of the
Federation. On the basis of this treaty, the Federation would develop
its own institutions, establish a government which, within the EU,
should speak with one voice... a strong parliament and a directly
elected president. Such a driving force would have to be the
avant-garde, the driving force for the completion of political
integration. . . This latest stage of European Union . . . will depend
decisively on France and Germany."
- German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, speech at Humboldt
University Berlin, 12 May 2000
___________
"To promote the process of European integration, we must improve an
institutional mechanism already existing in the European Union,
reinforced co-operation, by making it more flexible and effective.
This approach allows a few states to move faster and further . . . We
are all aware that this mechanism is vital."
- French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin, to the French National
Asssembly, 9 May 2000
__________
"Common responsibility for the European currency will also engender a
common decision-making instance for the European economy. It is
unthinkable to have a European central bank but not a common
leadership for the European economy. If there is no counterweight to
the ECB in European economy policy, then we will be left with the
incomplete construction which we have today . . . However even if the
building is not finished it is still true that monetary union is part
of a supranational constitution . . It is our task for the future to
work with the appropriate means for the transfer of traditional
elements of national sovereignty to the European level."
- Italian President Carlo Ciampi, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung,8
Feb.2000
___________
"If you don't want to call it a European army, don't call it a
European army. You can call it 'Margaret', you can call it
'Mary-Anne', you can find any name, but it is a joint effort for
peace-keeping missions - the first time you have a joint, not
bilateral, effort at European level."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, The Independent, London, 4
Feb.2000
____________
"We must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single
economy, a single political entity . . . For the first time since the
fall of the Roman Empire we have the opportunity to unite Europe."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, European Parliament,13 October
1999
__________
"It is only natural that the eastern part of the continent will become
our preoccupation for years to come, because Germans see this as a
matter of historical destiny. The most fundamental priority we have is
trying to integrate all of Europe. But for France the underlying issue
is all about coming to terms with its loss of influence in the world."
- Herr Immo Stabreit, former German Ambassador to France,
International Herald Tribune, 11-12 September 1999
__________
"The euro was not just a bankers' decison or a technical decision. It
was a decision which completely changed the nature of the nation
states. The pillars of the nation state are the sword and the
currency, and we changed that. The euro decision changed the concept
of the nation state and we have to go beyond that."
- EU Commission President Romano Prodi, Financial Times interview, 9
April 1999
____________
"The introduction of the euro is probably the most important
integrating step since the beginning of the unification process. It is
certain that the times of individual national efforts regarding
employment policies, social and tax policies are definitely over. This
will require to finally bury some erroneous ideas of national
sovereignty. . . I am convinced our standing in the world regarding
foreign trade and international finance policies will sooner or later
force a Common Foreign and Security Polic worthy of its name. . .
National sovereignty in foreign and security policy will soon prove
itself to be a product of the imagination."
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder on 'New Foundations for European
Integration', The Hague, 19 Jan.1999
____________
"Our future begins on January 1 1999. The euro is Europe's key to the
21st century. The era of solo national fiscal and economic policy is
over."
- German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder,31 December 1998
___________
"The euro is a sickly premature infant, the result of an over-hasty
monetary union."
- German Opposition leader Gerhard Schröder, March 1998
___________
"The euro is far more than a medium of exchange. . .It is part of the
identity of a people. It reflects what they have in common now and in
the future."
- European Central Bank Governor Wim Duisenberg, December 31 1998
___________
"Transforming the European Union into a single State with one army,
one constitution and one foreign policy is the critical challenge of
the age, German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said yesterday."
- The Guardian, London, 26 November 1998
____________
"The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since
the foundation of the European Community . . . It is a decision of an
essentially political character. . . We need this united Europe...We
must never forget that the euro is an instrument for this project."
- Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, May 1998
__________
"Federalism might make eurosceptics laugh but, with the creation of
the euro,the halfway stage would be reached. Four key organisms would
have a federal or quasi-federal status: the Central Bank, the Court of
Justice, the Commission and the Parliament. Only one institution is
missing: a federal government."
- M.Jacques Lang, Foreign Affairs Spokesman, French National Assembly,
The Guardian, London, 22 July 1997
____________
"As a monetary union represents a lasting commitment to integration
which encroaches on the core area of national sovereignty, the EMU
participants must also be prepared to take further steps towards a
more comprehensive political union."
- Annual Report of the German Bundesbank 1995
_________
"In Maastricht we laid the foundation-stone for the completion of the
European Union. The European Union Treaty introduces a new and
decisive stage in the process of European union, which within a few
years will lead to the creation of what the founding fathers dreamed
of after the last war: the United States of Europe."
- German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, April 1992
________
"There is no example in history of a lasting monetary union that was
not linked to one State."
- 0tmar Issing, Chief Economist, German Bundesbank, 1991
__________
"A European currency will lead to member-nations transferring their
sovereignty over financial and wage policies as well as in monetary
affairs. . . It is an illusion to think that States can hold on to
their autonomy over taxation policies."
- Bundesbank President Hans Tietmeyer, 1991
_________
"We argue about fish, about potatoes, about milk, on the periphery.
But what is Europe really for? Because the countries of Europe, none
of them anything but second-rate powers by themselves, can, if they
get together, be a power in the world, an economic power, a power in
foreign policy, a power in defence equal to either of the superpowers.
We are in the position of the Greek city states: they fought one
another and they fell victim to Alexander the Great and then to the
Romans. Europe united could still, by not haggling about the size of
lorries but by having a single foreign policy, a single defence policy
and a single economic policy, be equal to the great superpowers."
- Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who initiated the UK's application
to join the EEC, The Listener, London, 8 Feb.1979
__________
"On the basis of repeated meetings with him and of an attentive
observation of his actions, I think that if in his own way W.Hallstein
(ed:first President of the European Commission) is a sincere
"European", this is only because he is first of all an ambitious
German. For the Europe that he would like to see would contain a
framework within which his country could find once again and without
cost the respectability and equality of rights that Hitler's frenzy
and defeat caused it to lose; then acquire the overwhelming weight
that will follow from its economic capacity; and, finally, achieve a
situation in which its quarrels concerning its boundaries and its
unification will be assumed by a powerful coalition."
- President Charles de Gaulle, Memoirs of Hope, 1970
__________
"The fusion (of economic functions) would compel nations to fuse their
sovereignty into that of a single European State."
- Jean Monnet, founder of the European Movement, 3 April 1952
_________
"Who controls the currency, controls the country."
- John Maynard Keynes, 1932
_________
"I have always found the word 'Europe' on the lips of those who wanted
something from others which they dared not demand in their own names!"
- German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck,1880