The European Leviathan
1, The 13 eurozone countries will issue a special two-euro coin this week to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Rome. All copies are illustrated with an open book on a background representing the Capitoline Square, in Rome, and bear the words “Treaty of Rome” in the language of the country. Belgium, the only country with three official languages, opted for the Latin expression “pactum romanum”, while Ireland included the mention in Gaelic. This is the first time that all countries in the euro zone have issued a two-euro coin with the same side to commemorate an event. Commemorative coins have already been issued in the past, for example in Greece for the Athens Olympic Games or in Spain for the 400th anniversary of the first edition of Don Quixote. (Belga 03/22/2007)
2, The euro is the last major avatar of the project, started in 1985, to build a large European market. The conditions for the introduction of the euro deprived the Member States of a significant part of their prerogatives in matters of economic policy. Banned from budgetary policy and banned from monetary policy, European countries have all fallen back on two political choices: lowering taxes, particularly corporate taxes, and moderating wages. Overall, in the absence of social and fiscal harmonization and real economic power at the European level, the euro has objectively become a means, among others, to reinforce harmful economic competition, for workers and for the citizens. This is much more serious than the – modest – price increases “snapped” by a few traders or cafe owners. (03/22/2007, Institute for Sustainable Development).
3, “The voice of all those who ratified the Constitution, and they are the most numerous today, is not audible. We wanted to restore a sort of balance in the current debate and in the debates to come. 18 Member States have ratified the Constitution. This makes two thirds of the countries of the European Union. We cannot write off these votes. By meeting in Madrid, we want to send a positive message to all the countries which do not. have not yet ratified and who must do so If we respect the two countries which have said “no” for the moment, France and the Netherlands, everyone must understand that we must also respect the opposite choice. , namely the “yes” of 18 other sovereign states.” (statements by Luxembourg politician Nicolas Schmidt on the sidelines of the informal meeting of the “18” in Madrid on January 26, 2007, Le Quotidien of 01-25-2007).
1, Regarding the new coin, we will note, on the one hand, the recovery of the Treaty of Rome by the euro, and on the other hand, the surprisingly imperial connotation of the expression “pactum romanum”…
2, The Treaty of Rome of 1957 ultimately created a protective Europe, with community preference, and dynamic, with the removal of internal customs barriers. It is especially since the Treaty of Maastricht inspired by the French State, in 1992, that there has been a shift towards the construction of a supranational State.
3, The euro, an essential instrument of this construction, has been a source of economic devastation – unemployment and inflation. We had foreseen these consequences even before 1998. The adoption of the euro did not allow the Union to cope with the economic slowdown of early 2001. European leaders were unable to stop the slide of the dollar, which penalized European exports. While in the middle of its mandate, the Bush Administration let its budget deficits slip away, the European countries found themselves caught on the wrong foot, suddenly strangled by the stranglehold of the stability pact, and moreover incapable of reforming their instrument. budgetary fetish.
4, The “call of the 18” is presumptuous: we must not forget that in a number of countries which have ratified the constitutional treaty, citizens were not consulted, the treaty having been ratified simply by parliamentary means. Opinion studies often showed citizens’ hostility to the treaty. The methods used in the process of establishing the European State are always the same: its supporters resort to intimidating catastrophism, attribute to themselves the virtues of dynamism, amalgamate Europe with the European Union… when voters vote against it, we make them vote again; or we try to circumvent the verdict of the ballot boxes by avoiding consulting them.
5, The European constitution project consists of nationalizing society by organizing a supra-national State with sovereign prerogatives. This uncontrollable Leviathan is not only useless, but dangerous. In 2005 in France and the Netherlands, people intuitively felt that they were being taken where they should not go, and they made their choice accordingly.
