-Caveat Lector- From http://www.scotsman.com/cfm/home/text_only.cfm?articleid=41403&domain=www%2Ethescotsm an%2Eco%2Euk&pathinfo=%2Fworld%2Ecfm&qstring=id%3D41403&navlevel2= >>>First the superhighway, then the VolksWagen (I know quasi-oxymoronic), then the Marshall Plan (antidote to Versailles), reunification, and now > "There was one thing people there had not heard before; the clarity with which > Germany intends to draw the lines of future development, thereby incidentally laying > down direction, pace and content for its French neighbour. His comments will send a > shudder through his partners in London and Paris." Patience is a virtue? A<>E<>R <<< }}>Begin Schröder launches Brussels offensive GERMANY, ploughing ahead with plans to strip EU members of sovereign decision- making, will throw its weight behind federalist plans at the Strasbourg summit with France in a week�s time. Berlin is expressing confidence and flexing new-found muscle as its economy perks up and the status of its post-war relationship with France is redefined. Its new drive for a Europe governed from Brussels shows scant regard for Britain and other countries that continue to voice fears of national sovereignty being subsumed beneath a rising tide of Eurocracy. The chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, a year away from a general election, knows that the eyes are off the ball in both Britain and France, where national concerns are on domestic polling this year. Until now he had left most of the European-sculpting to his foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, but at a weekend think-tank in Berlin the chancellor outlined his vision for a Europe where decisions on tax, defence, health, insurance and a plethora of other issues were defined by the EU and not national governments. One German newspaper said his comments would "send a shudder through London and Paris". Those shudders will be addressed tomorrow when Mr Fischer meets Robin Cook in London, particularly as Mr Fischer will try to sell Britain a timetable for agreeing to a common European constitution to be agreed upon at another conference in 2004. The weekend think-tank in Berlin was hosted by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Other participants included the Spanish prime minister, the French foreign minister and Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission. "I urge support for the Commission and the institutions that do integrationalist thinking," said the chancellor. For Britain, which still widely views the EU as a trading bloc with opportunities for British businesses, the notion of surrendering sovereign powers over a wide range of policies and issues is abhorrent. France, too, has begun to worry. The Nice summit in December clearly illustrated the oil-and-water content of the EU patchwork quilt when the 15 member states barely made an accord after marathon sessions that left no doubt that unity is a four letter word for many. Mr Schröder, according to close government sources, saw Nice as a failure of the policy of inter-governmental co-operation which is why he now wants full steam ahead for the EU to take the decisions and make the laws of the community of over 300 million people. German thinking is that the EU is "wobbling" on eastwards expansion, the enlargement that will effect Germany the most, with its borders with Poland and Czech Republic. "Germany has come to regard France as having an anti-European Commission attitude," said a government source. "It believes it must stand up for itself." Romano Prodi is fully behind the German initiative. He declared intergovernmental co- operation as "a recipe for mutual mistrust between member states in the absence of an honest broker" - the honest broker being his Commission. At Nice Germany tried, and failed, to win more power for Germany in the so-called "vote re-weighting" to reflect the greater population of Germany over other states. Now it wants to put that issue on the back burner, while forging ahead with plans to delegate national powers to European decision makers. Germany�s bold new posturing at the weekend was summed up by the country�s influential Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper which said: "There was one thing people there had not heard before; the clarity with which Germany intends to draw the lines of future development, thereby incidentally laying down direction, pace and content for its French neighbour. His comments will send a shudder through his partners in London and Paris." Those comments included Mr Schröder saying: "We need a simplification and a redesign of treaties, a clear division of authority between the Brussels institutions and, above all, a clear sharing-out of responsibilities between the EU, its member states and the regions." As to the Franco-German relationship, Mr Schröder admitted: "Undoubtedly it needs redefining." There was little pleasure across the Rhine at his comments, or of those of Mr Fischer. who also spoke stridently of German efforts to build the Federalist Utopia that has long been at the heart of his political philosophy. "The German government will not stand idly by but would take courageous steps against the centrifugal forces of the inter-governmentalists," Mr Fischer said. The role of the United States within the EU club was also discussed at the weekend with Henry Kissinger, former secretary of state in the Nixon administration, there as a participant. Members were agreed that the EU must maintain and develop strong ties with Washington, particularly now that the Bush administration may turn away from foreign policy in favour of isolationism. Allan Hall In Berlin Tuesday, 23rd January 2001 The Scotsman top | back End<{{ A<>E<>R Forwarded as information only; no endorsement to be presumed + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without charge or profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Integrity has no need of rules. -Albert Camus (1913-1960) + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. -Marcel Proust ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The libertarian therefore considers one of his prime educational tasks is to spread the demystification and desanctification of the State among its hapless subjects. His task is to demonstrate repeatedly and in depth that not only the emperor but even the "democratic" State has no clothes; that all governments subsist by exploitive rule over the public; and that such rule is the reverse of objective necessity. He strives to show that the existence of taxation and the State necessarily sets up a class division between the exploiting rulers and the exploited ruled. He seeks to show that the task of the court intellectuals who have always supported the State has ever been to weave mystification in order to induce the public to accept State rule and that these intellectuals obtain, in return, a share in the power and pelf extracted by the rulers from their deluded subjects. [[For a New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, Murray N. Rothbard, Fox & Wilkes, 1973, 1978, p. 25]] <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. 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