Editorial note: If you have not yet read our mission statement above, please do so in order that you can put our blogs in context. 

 29 March 2012

EUROPE CAVES IN TO AMERICA

In their never-ceasing quest for more and more independent states to surrender their national sovereignty in exchange for “ever closer homogenisation” within the strait-jacket of the European Union, the German-dominated Brussels-based Euro-elite  invariably holds out the invariably specious promise that these states will have more clout on the world stage in an EU that can punch its weight alongside the big boys.

The reality is otherwise.

Take the EU’s reaction to the demand by the Americans – pathologically obsessed with national security since they failed egregiously to protect their “homeland” from terrorist attack in 2001 –  that the European authorities provide them with an extensive batch of intrusive personal data on every EU citizen that flies into or out of the United States.

Stringent laws exist in the EU to protect personal data and at first it looked as if Europe might have the guts to stand up to the Americans. In 2007 the European Parliament rejected an initial proposal to give the USA whatever it wanted.

Bully for the European Parliament, cried the defenders of Europe’s data protection laws.

Too soon!

The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs has just approved a new text that will give the Americans just what they want.

What is more, the committee is said to have railroaded the new text through against the express wishes of its own chairperson, Dutch Liberal MEP Sophie in’t Veld, who reportedly believes that the new version does not comply with EU data protection laws.

According to the 29 March 2012 edition of French newspaper Le Monde, committee members ignored their chairperson on the grounds that the US was not prepared to make any further concessions.

“OK, you won’t make any further concessions, so we give in. Here’s our white flag.” That, one assumes, is how the negotiations went.

So much for the new Europe standing up to the big boys.

Once America waved the big stick, these valiant champions of civil liberty appear to have scuttled back into line.

The text approved by the committee is due to be adopted by the full parliament next month.

Mind you, a thought does occur to Antigone1984.

Why should anyone want to cross the pond in the first place?

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 You might perhaps care to view some of our earlier posts.  For instance:

 1. Why? or How? That is the question (3 Jan 2012)

2. Das Vierte Reich/The Fourth Reich (6 Feb 2012)

3. The shoddiest possible goods at the highest possible prices (2 Feb 2012)

4. Where’s the beef? Ontology and tinned meat (31 Jan 2012)

5. What would Gandhi have said? (30 Jan 2012)

Every so often we shall change this sample of previously published posts.

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