The
European Single Currency and a United States of Europe
The
Political Nature of the European Single Currency
The
Origins of European Integration
The
Wartime Nazi Blue-Print Revived
THE POLITICAL NATURE OF THE
EUROPEAN SINGLE CURRENCY
The European Single Currency
was created for a primarily political and not an economic purpose. The guiding
principle of the European 'project' enshrined in the Treaty of Rome of 1957 is: 'the
ever closer union among the European peoples'. The signatories of this, and the subsequent treaties,
have always understood this to mean the creation of a European political
super-state. The importance of the
political aspect is aptly demonstrated by the evolving name of the entity: European
Economic Community, European Community, and the current, European
Union, gradually de-emphasising the economic aspect
(officially there never was a 'Common Market'). Whatever the ultimate name, the end product is, and always
was, intended to be a 'United States of Europe'.
The new super-state cannot properly come into being until
certain key stages are passed: one of these is gaining control of the economies
of member states. Key to
achieving this is a single European currency under the control of a European
Central Bank. Countries that
abolish their national currency in favour of the Euro will have effectively
handed over ultimate control of their economies to the European Union.
The individual countries of Europe can function perfectly well and
prosper without the need for a single European currency but the new super-state
cannot be completed without acquiring that mark of all true political states:
its own currency.
Former German Chancellor Dr
Helmut Kohl summed up the political nature of the project when he said: "At Maasricht 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 of modern Europe
dreamed of following the last war: the United States of Europe".
[Speech
by Chancellor Kohl, Bertelsmann Forum, 3rd April 1992].
THE ORIGINS OF EUROPEAN
INTEGRATION
The engine behind European integration has been the post-war Franco-German alliance, but alliances between other powerful groups have also been necessary to make it possible. References to a United States of Europe go back many years and throw valuable light on the forces that have brought the European project this far. Two quotations may be given as examples: "The Labour movement should carry on a great education work in the way of promoting . . . a United States of Europe". [Ernest Bevin, British Trades Union Congress, Edinburgh Sept. 1927. Bevin by Trevor Evans published 1946]. And …"What must be done today is to remove all obstacles to the future foundation of the United States of Europe". [Fritz Thyssen, 'I Paid Hitler', published 1941]. Ernest Bevin was a British trade union leader who rose to become Minister of Labour and National Service in the Second World War coalition government, and Foreign Secretary in the post-war Labour government. Fritz Thyssen was a German industrialist who helped to finance the rise of Hitler in the 1920s & 30s. How could two figures, one representing socialism, and the other representing right-wing capitalism, voice support for the same political idea?
The process of European
integration represents a deal struck between some elements of the organized left
and centre-left (socialist parties and Trade Unions), and some elements of big
business (multi-national companies).
Socialists unable to transform society through the ballot box (especially
illustrated by the example of Great Britain) can now have socialist style
policies imposed by decree from the European Union; while multi-national
companies increasingly have only one legislative body (the EU) to lobby,
negotiate and deal with. Both
groups have had to compromise but they have succeeded in bypassing the
inconvenience of dealing with elected democratic governments accountable to the
people of individual nation states. This
has all been made possible by cross-party political elites in the member states
who have no faith in the democratic process and who no longer believe in the
nation state; but they do believe the power of a great new European super-power
to rival the USA on the world stage, and they see a role for themselves in it.
These politicians have handed over to the European Union the democratic
powers entrusted to them by their electorates - most notably in Britain.
This is amply illustrated by the fact that the Conservative Government of
1972 under Edward Heath could not have passed the necessary legislation for
Britain to join the European Economic Community without the assistance of
67opposition Labour MPs.
In fairness it has to be said
that there are still some sincere socialists within the British parliamentary
Labour Party who are opposed to the policies of the European Union and to
Britain's adoption of the single currency on democratic and economic grounds. A small number of Conservative MPs also oppose Britain's
integration into the EU.
THE WARTIME NAZI BLUE-PRINT
REVIVED
In 1942 a document was published in war-time Germany entitled Europäische Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft (European Economic Community), which contained the blueprint for how German political, financial and industrial leaders planned to organise the post-war European economy after a German victory. It's proposals for a 'New Europe' bear a remarkable resemblance to the European Union of today. Key elements in the German plan were: 'The Harmonization of European Rates of Exchange' and 'The Future Form of the European Currency System' . These were key components in the Treaty on European Union of 1992 creating the European Single Currency. Also contained in the German document were sections with direct parallels to current EU policy areas: The European Agricultural Economic Order (Common Agricultural Policy), The European Industrial Economy (The Common Industrial Policy), Employment in Europe (The Common Labour Policy a.k.a. The Social Chapter), and European Traffic Networks (The Trans European Networks).
The
bureaucrats who would have administered Europe's economies in the event of a
German victory in World War II were of a similar type to the bureaucrats who
eventually did set up and administer the European Economic Community in post-war
Europe. One of the
greatest promoters of the European
Union during the 1980s and early 90s was the French President, Francois
Mitterand. Monsieur Mitterand
served as an official of the wartime French Vichy government that collaborated
with the German occupiers; he changed sides to the resistance when the tide of
the war turned. This great
political survivor ended up as one the architects of the 'European Economic
Community' decades after the war. The
European Union needed such people just as the German
'Europäische Wirtschaftgemeinschaft'
would have needed them.