Jul 2009 10

Where Credit is Due3

For people interested in exploring the submerged trenches of European policy, one particular website comes highly recommended. euabc.eu has been set up by veteran EU campaigner and lately retired Danish MEP Jens-Peter Bonde. It’s definitely worth checking over on a rainy day.

The main part of the site digs into particular aspects of the EU and provides handy explanations of issues that are too often complicated by in-house vocabulary and terminology. There’s also a handy compact version of the Lisbon Treaty, showing where all the changes lie, such as the British Management Data Foundation for some years has professionally been producing in the UK. Crucially, however, the explanations are balanced out by being provided by different sides of the political divide. If you are interested in exploring one aspect of the Treaty in a hurry, this is the one stop shop of choice.

Mr Bonde is the Che Guevara of European politics, albeit without the beard, cigar, and Norton 500 motorbike. His political quasi-autobiography, Mamma Mia: On 25 Years of Fighting for Openness in the EU, is quite a revelation. The quote is attributed to Romano Prodi on discovering that the Commission kept two sets of documents, one of which was the official text, the other the one that was for public consumption.

Over the next few months we are going to hear a lot about political reform from MPs and MEPs. I recommend the first chapter, which spills a lot of beans on what really went on behind the scenes during the collapse of the Prodi Commission. It is above all a salutary reminder to be cautious about politicians claiming the credit for the reforms pushed by others. Combined with Marta Andreasen’s new book, Brussels Laid Bare, they make excellent holiday reading – but only if you want to break a few deckchairs in frustration and ruin your holidays.

 

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  • Ron Lamb

    The whole political system in local national and the E.U. is now so corrupted it is a complete waste of time voting for any of the main parties. we urgently need to exit the
    E U, and use our vote to elect smaller parties before we find our only option is from the point of a gun.

  • Zerine Tata

    I used to be in favour of the EU and our membership of it, mainly because I felt “where else can we go after deserting our Commonwealth partners?”
    But I have now realised that unless you are one of the group of first members of the EU (i.e. Benelux counries, France, Germany and Italy) or the one of the poorest, you just do not get a good deal and we much loose more than we gain.
    If we look at examples of other European countries who have decided to stay out of the EU, you will find that they are far better off, trade freely with whom they want and also they have very favourable terms with EU countries, without actually being one.
    The most important thing is their independence, they rule themselves and have their own laws which have been made to suit their own country and culture. All the EU countries have long histories of their own, different cultures, thinking and attitudes. The “one-size fits all” attitude of the burearcrats in Bruxelles cannot possibly work for us.
    Last but not least, it is a totally corrupt union, with its members stealing billions from the taxpayers and it is costing us even more by the utter waste of money in every direction.
    We have to have that referendum next year. I am sure we will vote overwhelmingly to get out!

  • gildedtumbril

    What is this commonwealth twaddle? Surely it might more properly be named commonpoverty?
    I fully expect Our Glorious Leader, the great cretin to call the general election on the last day he can which will be after 5 May 2010 the day on which Britain ceases to exist and the Crown, Orb, and Sceptre become mere tawdry tinsel embellishments on the National Winter Festival Tree.