Is the EU in better shape today than fifteen years ago? The answer is emphatic no. To paraphrase Shakespeare’s Hamlet: Something is rotten in the state of the union. There is more than ever instability, tension, and uncertainty.
To quote a recent issue of the Economist: “Inflation remains hot … Officials are increasingly worried by the cloudy growth outlook. … the bloc is facing recession”.
It is your credit that you initiated the sanctions against Russia. But again, one cannot be all too happy. Before the invasion, the Commission did not dare to do something about the German-Russian energy alliance. Through this refusal to act, the Commission bears some responsibility for the depth of the energy crisis.
The migration policy has been a failure. Despite the Commission’s hustle and bustle, the people smuggling business is thriving, and the disintegration of the social fabric continues. In Western Europe, the number of thefts, robberies, and rapes has soared - about thirty rapes for one hundred thousand inhabitants in France and Belgium, compared to two in my country.
Fit for 55, the Commission’s flagship, instead of being a vehicle of growth, is a costly extravaganza, over 300 billion euros by 2030, with rising living costs, energy bills, and other unpleasant aspects of the Commission’s and the parliament’s fantasies. The Commission has been unsurprisingly silent on this matter. The last sinister fantasy is the nature restoration law. The curator of these harmful reveries, Mr. Timmermans, has taken a convenient exit and seeks his luck in national politics. I hope the Dutch voters will give him what he deserves.
Another financial extravaganza has been the common debt of 800 billion euros by 2026. We already know that the predictions were erroneous. The cost of all this will be at least twice as high. The EU budget is in shambles: minus 66 billion euros. You apparently calculated that the markets would have more trust in the financial credibility of the EU, than that of the member states. Unfortunately, you mistook the EU propaganda for the real thing.
And finally, politics. When I compare the past Commissions with yours, I see a continuous slide towards oligarchy with a growing disregard for any restraints the treaties stipulated. The Commission turned into a partisan machine, meddling in national politics, trying to topple the governments they don’t like. You, yourself, Madame President, threatened the Italian voters before the elections. “If things go in a difficult direction, we have tools”. Let me remind you: you don’t have any tools to interfere with the democratic process of the nation-state. Mr. Łukaszenko has such tools, you don’t.
You have made the rule of law a caricature. There is an old proverb: Physician, heal thyself. Heal thyself, madame president: for one thing, let the Commission stop juggling with the legal bases, claiming, for instance, that taxes are not taxes but contributions, thus sidestepping the necessary procedures. And perhaps start by providing all the documents relevant to the vaccines deal, including the text messages. That would be a good example of how to be a law-abiding person.
And the last point, somewhat grotesque but symptomatic. This Commission will go in history as the one that tried to abolish Christmas. Yes, you withdrew from this idiotic move, but the fact is that your bureaucrats were planning it. That gives us an insight into how the Commission works, and what we see should be a warning to us all.