Europe to Build Up New Centers of Power
Source:
Foreign Policy Diary/South Front
Global Research, October 07, 2015
People, who believe that the European Union is a monolithic entity that conducts business that benefits individual European nations, have made a huge mistake. Today, the EU is a crumbling bureaucratic intergovernmental organization with several centers of power serving their own interests.
Each of these are seeking to convert the EU into a super state controlling Western Eurasian, exploiting its nations, borderlands and a number of third world countries through a sophisticated set of economic and political tools. The competition among European and external players affecting developments of the union is ongoing for the right to become the main control center of the arising super state. So it was yesterday and so it is today. But, very soon, the EU political model will be changed under the influence of sharp internal circumstances and external crises.
There are 4 well-known projects shaping and distorting the face of Europe:
The first project is the so-called Fourth Reich or a project related to supreme German dominance and above all, German economic control over the European Union. During the ongoing Eurozone Crisis, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was accused of having pushed for Germany to have a greater say in the domestic governance of the Eurozone’s then-18 members, as part of a deal which saw Germany provide a significant part of the Euro Bailout program. Among other measures meant to reduce the likelihood of another Euro Crisis, she called for greater European power over individual countries budgets. The recent developments of the Greek Crisis have shown once again that Germany has enough power to impose its own rules upon recalcitrant governments.
This economic power allows Germany to dominate over Southern and Eastern Europe and implement measures over countries in order to impose its economic doctrine, for example, as an export policy. In 2011, former Polish Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński went so far as to state in his book that “Germany wants to annex part of Poland”. However, currently, Poland is far away from the role of being sacrificed to Germany.
Poland is a part of another EU project- the Anglo-Saxon North Atlantic project, whose goal is the dividing of Europe and Russia by utilizing the zone of buffer states or their confederation. This confederation includes Poland, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Ukraine, Belorussia and the Baltic States and heavily resembles the shape of the former Greater Poland or the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth, as it’s core. The US and the UK are the main beneficiaries of this strategy. It is not surprising that they want to protect themselves from the restoration of Russian power or the occurrence of a strong European project with any real independence from the US and UK. The current French political establishment seems to support this plan also. Unfortunately, since Charles de Gaulle, French elites are heavy influenced by Anglo-Saxons. However, France also has a chance of renewing its own national goals. The leader of the National Front Party, Marine Le Pen, aspires in this particular direction.
The third power shaping the European Union is the Euro bureocracy. In large part, the EU is a bureaucratic organization developed and established by government entwined business and corporations. The essence of this power is an unorthodox combination of US influence, career bureaucrats and corporate interests. The important point is the European bureaucracy is largely administered by the leaders of the Benelux and small European states. They promote the interests of transnational corporations established in the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands such as Royal Dutch Shell, Unilever, Philips, EXMAR and others.
The fourth project is the wishful project to establish Turkey as a full member of the European Union. It will lead to a boost for Europe by adding the large Turkish population which, is claimed, is close to European culture historically. This would also propel Europe into a new geopolitical sphere and would strengthen European security from the direction of the Middle East. In turn, Turkey would gain full access to the European markets including new military technology and assorted energy sectors.
The ongoing migration and economic crisis along with the destructive US-NATO military actions around the world and a number of exogenous factors include the growth of Chinese influence and Russia’s readiness to defend its own interests and sphere of influence, set the ground for a buildup of new centers of political power in the European Union and forces that combine to act in the rapidly changing world.
This is particularly occurring in the border states affected by migration flows, economic recession and those countries with a lack of resources and the inability to resist independently. At the moment, the situation is escalating in the territory of the South-Eastern Europe. Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and neighboring states are currently being overwhelmed with hundreds of thousands of migrants from the Middle East and the North Africa.
Existing European decision-making centers don’t have the political will, and ability, or just simply aren’t interested in solving the serious problems due to the US and EU policies being implemented against their own interests and around the world. Therefore, the European periphery needs to solve the problem via their own methods. In the short run, this will lead to 2 important changes: the strengthening of borders between EU member states and a growth of the EU border states’ political independence from the main European powers and Brussels Eurocracy.
Hungary has constructed a fence on the Serbian border and is now strengthening the border with neighboring Croatia. On September 21st, Hungary’s parliament authorized the government to deploy the army to help subdue a wave of migrants, granting the military the right to use rubber bullets, pyrotechnical devices, tear gas grenades and net guns. Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated Hungary would act on its own accord until the EU found common ground on how to handle the migration crisis. On September 22nd, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn suspended services to Austria and Hungary until October 4th, citing border controls introduced to manage the record surge of refugees. Meanwhile, Austria raised the number of police patrols in preparation of additional migrant flows.
The EU bureaucracy reacted in short thrift by approving a relocation plan for distributing refugees among member states. Under the plan, refugees will be relocated from Italy, Greece, and Hungary to other countries in the EU. Eastern Europe, represented by the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, voted against the plan. However, under European law, three of the countries that voted against the proposal would be required to accept migrants against their will. Matters such as these highlight the fact that European countries no longer have independence and have relegated their vital democratic decision making processes to Brussels eurocrats who do not to have the particular states best interests at heart.
Thus, the migration crisis has already triggered disputes between member states highlighting the contrasts between the European periphery and the controlling center. Therefore, Eastern Europe is faced with a dilemma: to surrender under the pressure of the main European powers and the eurocracy or try to defend what remains of their unique national sovereignty. At the moment, Hungary and Austria are showing a similar approach to security threats. The majority of Hungarian elites are oriented towards Hungary’s own national interests. This could lead to a new political union based upon the cultural and historical references which have played a strong role in the region since the times of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this case, Hungary and Austria would try to concentrate power and resources to their own borders. Slovakia, the Czech Republic and some of Balkan states may arrive under the influence of such an idea. It would mark the beginnings of the project of the new South-East European Fortress. And it could become a tipping point in the changing future of the European Union.
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