It is necessary to articulate a confederal Europe capable of overcoming the technocratic, militaristic, post-national and Atlanticist design of the European Union
Why confederal? The EU is at its core an intergovernmental organization. Unless we get rid of the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EUCJ, nothing will ever change. We don't need a supranational bureaucracy, a fake parliament and a kagaroo court to run a customs union and common policies...
The way I see it that's just another term for a loose BRICS-style form of international cooperation, though of course the devil is in the detail. Those institutions would obviously all have to go. But the point is getting rid of the EU and returning to nation-states – how they then decide to re-establish forms of cooperation is something to be decided subsequently.
Those parts are exactly where the EU is hijacked by the USA. Von der Leyen is a failed german politician who would NEVER be elected by any plurarily of the European masses to represent them. She is selected to subvert democracy.
What the peripheral nations of Europe should do is withdraw from NATO. NATO serves absolutely no useful purpose 35 years after the end of the so-called Cold War (so called, because it was known by this name only in the "West", not in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries).
Yes, but now "NATO" is rapidly morphing into a tool to enrich the European 0.1% by funnelling money into the coffers of BAE, Dassault, Rheinmetall, Kongsberg, Nammo, Saab, and many more such purveyors of the tools of murder. And on top of that by privatising much infrastructure and energy across Europe in the militarisation effort. When things get privatize, the hadge funds, banks, insurance and pension and financial companies are basically the beneficial owners, and these in turn are owned mainly by the 0.1%.
Atlanticism, the hegemony of American interests over Europe, is the glue that holds Europe in bondage. Under 'Daddy', Europe is commanded to eschew hydrocarbons and deindustrialize while borrowing billions to subsidize the toys produced by the US MIC. Five percent of Europe's GDP will be directed to protecting Europe from a non-existing Russian threat. What that means is that Europe will become ever more warlike and impoverished. There is only one eventuality that can avoid this dark Atlanticist future and that is if the Ukraine conflict is ended.
For Europe to free itself it must seek a rapid end to the Ukraine conflict. If Europe is to have any future at all it must be in cooperation with Russia. But how can the war end without a Russian military victory?
While these proposals are directionally correct, I'm afraid that they are a straw man and miss the real mark: EU is useful for Euro elites' and Atlanticist control. National elites couldn't affect the policies cascaded down from and through Brussels, in the name if Europe- that holy cow that meant peace and cooperation but now means something else. Fazi has previously affiliated the blame shifting that takes place. This is about subversion of national wills in the service of elite interests, which control national parliaments both directly or indirectly though the Brussels agenda (and all of its 'tools').
It seems to me that you have to again, save Europe from itself, which I argue in my last analysis on European Strategic Autonomy. But saying this openly as an academic who tries to function in mainstream academia is sure to get you banished.
What is confederal? Federations have a tendency to grow more centralized over time. With each new development (at the moment a.o. AI, Trump, the rise of China and the Russian "threat") there is a tendency to centralize.
Europe needs a kind of constitution that points out the rights of the member states and that is hard to change. Only in that way can the creeping centralization be stopped.
Another point is that the member states need a lot more freedom. The EU is centralizing a lot of things that don't need to be centralized. They are only imposed because lobbyists push the subject. And behind the lobbyists are usually big corporations or the US. The result is that the rules discriminate against the small and medium size companies and that undermines the long term competitiveness of the EU, not to mention the national democracies.
"...This is not about returning to the old exclusionary nationalisms, but rather starting from the premise that there can be no democracy without a demos, and that only within the framework of an organised political community, endowed with the capacity for deliberation, decision-making and self-government, can the general will be expressed...."
This here is the heart of the matter. Because in fact there are many across Europe who dont want this concept even within their own countries, and they want only a facade of it, to control the masses.
In the US this has LONG been the situation - it's not a democracy, and elections are purely a charade:
The sooner the Euros bear the full freight of their policies, the better. America doesn’t need the EU or NATO any more than it needs stable relations with near peer countries separately. The EU is not a near peer and cannot help us w Russia, China or others.
I'm confused. Isn't the organization that is promoting militarism and confrontation with Russia NATO not the EU? The EU is not necessarily Atlanticist; that's NATO. The US had a lot to do with nurturing the formation of the EU but it doesn't control it like it does NATO.
Very much liked what you had to said in this article Thomas. Sounds like many such as yourself are contemplation a sort of DEI multipolar world where geopolitics melds into global humanity politics. Can both exist in harmony....let's try.
Why confederal? The EU is at its core an intergovernmental organization. Unless we get rid of the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EUCJ, nothing will ever change. We don't need a supranational bureaucracy, a fake parliament and a kagaroo court to run a customs union and common policies...
https://www.eclaireur.eu/p/the-eu-aims-for-a-significant-push
The way I see it that's just another term for a loose BRICS-style form of international cooperation, though of course the devil is in the detail. Those institutions would obviously all have to go. But the point is getting rid of the EU and returning to nation-states – how they then decide to re-establish forms of cooperation is something to be decided subsequently.
That's precisely my point. Get rid of institutions but don't get rid of the treaties that enable common policies on a volontary basis.
Those parts are exactly where the EU is hijacked by the USA. Von der Leyen is a failed german politician who would NEVER be elected by any plurarily of the European masses to represent them. She is selected to subvert democracy.
All EU "leaders" were always failed national politicians: Monnet, Spaak, de Gasperi, Delors etc...
What the peripheral nations of Europe should do is withdraw from NATO. NATO serves absolutely no useful purpose 35 years after the end of the so-called Cold War (so called, because it was known by this name only in the "West", not in the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries).
Yes, but now "NATO" is rapidly morphing into a tool to enrich the European 0.1% by funnelling money into the coffers of BAE, Dassault, Rheinmetall, Kongsberg, Nammo, Saab, and many more such purveyors of the tools of murder. And on top of that by privatising much infrastructure and energy across Europe in the militarisation effort. When things get privatize, the hadge funds, banks, insurance and pension and financial companies are basically the beneficial owners, and these in turn are owned mainly by the 0.1%.
Even the central ones.
Atlanticism, the hegemony of American interests over Europe, is the glue that holds Europe in bondage. Under 'Daddy', Europe is commanded to eschew hydrocarbons and deindustrialize while borrowing billions to subsidize the toys produced by the US MIC. Five percent of Europe's GDP will be directed to protecting Europe from a non-existing Russian threat. What that means is that Europe will become ever more warlike and impoverished. There is only one eventuality that can avoid this dark Atlanticist future and that is if the Ukraine conflict is ended.
For Europe to free itself it must seek a rapid end to the Ukraine conflict. If Europe is to have any future at all it must be in cooperation with Russia. But how can the war end without a Russian military victory?
While these proposals are directionally correct, I'm afraid that they are a straw man and miss the real mark: EU is useful for Euro elites' and Atlanticist control. National elites couldn't affect the policies cascaded down from and through Brussels, in the name if Europe- that holy cow that meant peace and cooperation but now means something else. Fazi has previously affiliated the blame shifting that takes place. This is about subversion of national wills in the service of elite interests, which control national parliaments both directly or indirectly though the Brussels agenda (and all of its 'tools').
So much for all those assurances that the mere existence of the EU would provide a guarantee against any more wars on our continent.
That seems rather hollow right now.
Queen Von der Leyen will never willingly let go of her control and power. She is an enormous part of this mess. Perhaps the biggest global puppet.
She has no power. Purely a scandal-tainted puppet remote controlled from Langley, VA.
It seems to me that you have to again, save Europe from itself, which I argue in my last analysis on European Strategic Autonomy. But saying this openly as an academic who tries to function in mainstream academia is sure to get you banished.
What is confederal? Federations have a tendency to grow more centralized over time. With each new development (at the moment a.o. AI, Trump, the rise of China and the Russian "threat") there is a tendency to centralize.
Europe needs a kind of constitution that points out the rights of the member states and that is hard to change. Only in that way can the creeping centralization be stopped.
Another point is that the member states need a lot more freedom. The EU is centralizing a lot of things that don't need to be centralized. They are only imposed because lobbyists push the subject. And behind the lobbyists are usually big corporations or the US. The result is that the rules discriminate against the small and medium size companies and that undermines the long term competitiveness of the EU, not to mention the national democracies.
"...This is not about returning to the old exclusionary nationalisms, but rather starting from the premise that there can be no democracy without a demos, and that only within the framework of an organised political community, endowed with the capacity for deliberation, decision-making and self-government, can the general will be expressed...."
This here is the heart of the matter. Because in fact there are many across Europe who dont want this concept even within their own countries, and they want only a facade of it, to control the masses.
In the US this has LONG been the situation - it's not a democracy, and elections are purely a charade:
https://archive.org/details/gilens_and_page_2014_-testing_theories_of_american_politics.doc
Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens
by Martin Gilens, Professor of Politics at Princeton University, and Benjamin I. Page, Professor of Decision Making at Northwestern University.
Publication date 2014-01-01
The sooner the Euros bear the full freight of their policies, the better. America doesn’t need the EU or NATO any more than it needs stable relations with near peer countries separately. The EU is not a near peer and cannot help us w Russia, China or others.
I'm confused. Isn't the organization that is promoting militarism and confrontation with Russia NATO not the EU? The EU is not necessarily Atlanticist; that's NATO. The US had a lot to do with nurturing the formation of the EU but it doesn't control it like it does NATO.
Or am I missing something?
Very much liked what you had to said in this article Thomas. Sounds like many such as yourself are contemplation a sort of DEI multipolar world where geopolitics melds into global humanity politics. Can both exist in harmony....let's try.
May I share this piece on my column, The Flensburg Files?
Sure