Boundless arrogance

Just to remind you, formally the European Community is made up of 27 countries each equal under the Treaties.


Then you have reality.

A European financial transaction tax will be in place by the end of year, French minister for European affairs Jean Leonetti said on Wednesday, apparently speeding up the timetable."This is on the programme for the next European summit (on January 30). (French President) Nicolas Sarkozy and (German Chancellor) Angela Merkel have decided on this and it will be put in place before the end of 2012,"

Because the Merkozy says so, it is the case.
Interestingly only the UK and Sweden oppose this plan,

Leonetti said Germany and France were already in agreement on the tax and that Italy was not opposed to it. He said that of the 27 members of the European Union, only Britain and Sweden were opposed to the idea.

Interesting because of course this tax will hit the UK disproportionately, to provide the EU with what it laughably calls  it's 'own resources', and Sweden the only country to have self harmed in this fashion. This is what their Finance Minster Anders Borg said back in September,

When Sweden began taxing financial transactions in the 1980s, "between 90%-99% of traders in bonds, equities and derivatives moved out of Stockholm to London," Borg said.
"The impact was basically that we did not get any tax revenue. It brought in very little tax money while moving most of the businesses outside of Sweden

This is the chap who in November was named  the FT's European Finance Minister of the Year (not a competitive title this year I suspect)

How to pay for Europe's disasters

We all know that one of the sticking blocks  for an agreement on the EU's budget is the whole troublesome issue of own resources. Here is Josh Chaffin at the FT a few weeks ago,

The European Union should explore taxes on financial transactions, air transport and other activities to generate its own sources of funding, the European Commission recommended as it kicked off a formal debate over the future of the EU budget.

It seems however that things are coagulating around a single proposal to deal with the problem. And no prizes what it is... Yes it's Carbon taxes,

Visiting Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou expressed on Monday his support for carbon tax and transaction tax advocated by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Following a working lunch with the French president at the Elysee Palace, Papandreou told the press he and Sarokzy discussed a new mechanism for the stability of the European Union, which should be financed by carbon tax on Europe level and a tax on financial transactions.

Of course scrwing the poor benighted taxpayer in this way will be wrapped in sanctimonious claptrap about hpow we will be both sorting out the financial crisis and saving the world.

HT Reference Frame

Update,

Janet Daley in the Telegraph folows the story,

George Papandreou, the Greek prime minister has said that there may need to be new Europe-wide forms of taxation to help pay for the bail-outs that will be needed by the growing number of crashing economies in the euro-zone. His suggestions include “carbon dioxide taxes” which, he says, could provide “important revenues and resouces for funding such a [bail-out] mechanism.”

I’ve never actually heard a major politician (let alone a national leader) admit this before: what Mr Papandreou is saying is that carbon taxes would have not have the effect of reducing emissions - because if they did, they would be useless as an additional form of revenue. All the hokum that is talked about protecting the planet by taxing carbon use is just a front for the real purpose of such penalties on industry and consumers which is to raise more money for governments to spend (in this case, on trying to remedy their own political follies).

Don't bypass democracy

Nigel Farage, UKIP leader in action yesterday holding the French President, Sarkozy to account.


Cross posted from my campaign blog, Gawain Towler for the South West

Post-Democracy the Sarko way

The Tin-Pot dictator that is Sarkozy has let his guard down in an off the record briefing in Paris.

Bruno Waterfield has the details, proving the astonishing fact that excluding a journalist from a briefing doesn't mean that the journalist won't get to hear what is being said,

The French strategy during their six month EU Presidency, which began on July 1, is to isolate Ireland after last month's referendum rejection of the Lisbon European Union Treaty.

With the Irish people in quarantine, the other 26 EU countries will press ahead with ratifying the Treaty - 19 have done so. Mr Sarkozy made it very clear that there would be no renegotiation of a Treaty that was Part II of the EU Constitution rejected by French and Dutch voters three years ago.

"There will be no Treaty Part III," he said.

The Irish do not count.

France, along with the rest of the EU is looking for "escape hatch". "We need a soft landing in October," said Mr Sarkozy, when there will be EU summit in Brussels to find way forward by the time of European elections on June 4.

The Irish either will be asked to vote again, in a rerun of Ireland's second referendum on the Nice Treaty in 2002 - or Ireland's people will be bypassed.

If the perspective of a second vote in Ireland has been raised it is because it has happened before," said Mr Sarkozy.

"We need some kind of vote to get out of the situation - Parliament or referendum I don't know. But when democratic society says ‘no', you need some kind of democratic solution."

Any means necessary to get an Irish Yes, is what the French President is getting at here. There is no other answer.

But the Poles and Czechs are flies in Mr Sarkozy's ointment, with both uppity new East European countries threatening to delay or block a Treaty that requires all 27 EU member states to ratify it before it enters into force.

Mr Sarkozy made it clear he was deeply unimpressed with Polish President Lech Kaczynski's refusal to sign off a "pointless" Treaty after it had been ratified in his country's parliament.

"The Polish President has never been an easy partner to work with on building and shaping a stronger Europe," he said. "I can't imagine how the President can go against the will of the parliament. It's odd."

Mr Sarkozy warned the new member states that France would block any further EU enlargement unless Warsaw and Prague knuckle under and do what they are told.
"I will fight to ensure that EU membership does not exceed 27," he said.

The French President warned the Czechs that they would pay a price if Prague continues to grumble about ratifying the Treaty.

"Our Czech friends will have the EU Presidency on Jan 1 it is very difficult to see them blocking a solution," he said. "If the Czechs dig in their heels they will start their presidency in great isolation."

Always good to see those democratic credentials spilling out isn't it?

Sarkozy calls for a second referendum

According to La Figaro, before he left Paris for today's Brussels summit President Sarkozy called for a second referendum in Ireland.

«Jamais deux sans trois.» Dans l'entourage de Nicolas Sarkozy, on invoque les précédents de 1993 et 2001, lorsque les Irlandais avaient revoté les traités de Maastricht et de Nice, pour faire valoir que l'histoire n'est pas encore écrite. En clair, les Irlandais, qui ont refusé à près de 54 % de ratifier le traité de Lisbonne lors du référendum du 12 juin, pourraient être amenés à se prononcer à nouveau, positivement cette fois. Tel est l'option privilégiée par Nicolas Sarkozy et qu'il s'efforcera de favoriser lors du Conseil européen de Bruxelles, jeudi et vendredi.

Well Nicholas my dear chap. If you are so keen on second Referendums, you can make you wish come true by offering your own people one, rather than by trying to bully the Irish, you jumped wannabe Napoleon.

As ye sow, so shall ye reap

If the French hadn't been so bloody wet about Iran a few years ago then maybe this wouldn't be the problem it is now,

Iran missiles threat to EU
CHERBOURG, France: Europe's security was "at stake" because countries like Iran were increasing the range of their missiles, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said yesterday.

"Everyone should be aware today that nuclear missiles of countries, even if they are far away, can reach Europe in less than half an hour," he said in a defence policy speech as he inaugurated a new nuclear submarine named The Terrible.

"Today, only the major powers have such means. But countries in Asia and the Middle East are rapidly developing ballistic capacities," he said. "I am thinking in particular of Iran.

Or maybe and I am being cynical this is precisely the result hat the French were after. 'Iran is scary', following recent, 'climate change will cause mass immigration' and other such excuses foir demanding a fully fledged European Army.

Frenchy speaks with forked tongue

Who said this in May 2004?

I belong to the Gaulliste family which, wrongly or rightly, has always regarded the popular referendum as one of the most important expressions, indeed the most important expression, of Democracy.

And this in March 2005,

President Jacques Chirac chose the referendum. It was a good decision. A decision which will make it possible each one of us to take our responsibilities by expressing our opinion. To give a say to a sovereign people seems infinitely less risky to me than to try to advance Europe without asking the opinion of those who live it daily. If the European Constitution is, as I believe it to be, a major stage on the slow and patient construction of the Union, no one could understood and even less admit that a vote for all is not held

The same man who said this in November 2007,

"A referendum now would bring Europe into danger. There will be no Treaty if we had a referendum in France, which would again be followed by a referendum in the UK."

Harvey's law strikes again.

No, anything but that

According to reports on EU Observer and in the Telegraph, Sarkozy is preparing to endorse Tony Blair as the first non-rotating President of Europe. Given that the wrangling for this and the position of Foreign Minister (a job we believe Sarko would like to go to Bernard Kouchner currently France's Foreign Minister) will be taking place during the French Presidency in the second half of this year this would be a significant endorsement. As the article puts it,

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair will attend a conference of French president Nicolas Sarkozy's centre-right party UMP on Saturday (12 January), in what is said to be his first intervention for a party other than his own.

The move is fuelling speculation that Mr Blair, who belongs to the UK's center-left Labour party, is in the running for EU president – a new high-profile job that can be held for up to five years starting in 2009.

And it makes me feel all cold inside. The thought of Blair taking the European Union's imperial purple given the way in which he presented the Reform Treaty/Constitution as a fait accompli to Brown as his last significant act as Prime Minister abhorrent.

The man is sly, slick, disingenuous and has contempt for the people. Perfect qualifications for the job, I suppose.
(Picture from Number 10 website)

Bertolt Sarkozy

After the uprising of the 17th of June
The Secretary of the Writers Union
Had leaflets distributed in the Stalinallee
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could win it back only
By redoubled efforts. Would it not be easier
In that case for the government
To dissolve the people
And elect another?

Mr Sarkozy was in Strasbourg today, preaching to the world and Mr Brown in particular.

"When the people say "no", we cannot say the people are wrong. We must ask why they said "no".

he said, in the public forum of the plenary chamber.

But when he spoke in private to the Conference of Presidents he spoke rather differently. The Conference of Presidents is a gathering of the most powerful figures in the European Parliament, federasts almost to a man or woman, so he felt he was amongst friends. His message here was in stark contrast to his public pronouncements.
"the French ”No” to the Constitution was a catastrophe", he said. But he made it clear that he felt that pro Europeans could not guarantee a yes vote in any European country.

"It (a no vote) can happen in all member states if they have a referendum - there is a cleavage between people and the governments in the member states. A referendum now would bring danger to the EU - there will be no Treaty at all if we had a referendum in France. A referendum which would followed by one in Britain.

To that end he said that the French ratification would take place in "the first few weeks of 2008".
As a coda he nailed any hope that the Parliament would leave Strasbourg.

This is a shocking disgrace. He has just told a crowd of the Euro political elite that he will forge ahead in an utterly undemocratic fashion against the express wishes of his people, and demands that everybody follow his frankly dictatorial lead.

Update
His main speach will upset Mr Brown, who told us that this treaty would be the last for ten years,

"It would a mistake to think that with the simplified Treaty we have sorted everything, we can sleep easy and that no other issues a re pending. Now we have
got to resolve the political issues and to broach them without fear. We have got to debate them without taboos. Budgetary policy, trade policy, monetary policy,
industrial policy, taxation, all policies, any policies... What does our European commitment mean for each of us if we are incapable of debating the creation of a European defence?"

« Strasbourg n'est pas négociable »

Hidden in the reporting of Sarkozy's first trip to Brussels since being elected. Behind his great support for the Constitution (sorry basic law) was this little gem, (my translation so not gospel).

"Strasbourg is not negoitiable"
Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday blocked any suggestion of the European Parliament in Strasbourg being questioned, A position supported by many MEPs who would like to finish the monthly shuttles between their offices in Brussels and the Alsatian capital, "I do not see why the only negotiable thing would be Strasbourg, it is extraordinary", answered Mr. Sarkozy to the question "And Brussels, it is negotiable? ", during a press conference in Brussels.
"The complete treaties are non negotiable but the only negotiable point would be Strasbourg? I do not see why ", he continued, "No, Strasbourg that is not negotiable, it not formed part of balance created by the founders of Europe ", he added.

Well that rather cooks that particular goose, sorry about that Cecilia, people do not matter, grandstands do.