The European Union is probably at the beginning of its death-throes. It will take another two, three or four years before the EU finally expires no doubt, but it's now beginning to meet problems which it cannot solve and which will only grow larger and larger in the coming years.
Leaders of the EU are now meeting in a summit in Seville and are supposed to be discussing how to absorb 10 new members -- Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia. These countries are destined to enter the EU in 2004 and are, quite naturally, hoping for extensive agricultural and regional subsidies -- just as the EU countries receive now. However, the farmers of France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and England do not intend to share their subsidies without a fight so it's a moot point whether a practical agreement can be reached at all. Two of the wannabe countries, Hungary and Poland, have said that unless they receive agricultural subsidies of the same order that EU farmers now receive, then there's not much point in joining. In the last year or two, however, another issue has also arisen. In five or six EU countries that have had general elections, far-right politicians have been elected on tickets of stopping up to a million illegal immigrants a year from a swathe of other countries situated all round the Mediterranean -- through to Afghanistan, India and China. So, in Seville, the EU prime ministers scrapped their original insoluble problem -- probably with great relief -- and turned to this one instead. At the time of writing, England, Spain and Germany are in favour of applying sanctions against those undeveloped countries who allow illegal immigrants to set off from their shores. Our own prime minister, that beacon of new socialism, has spoken of "punishing" these countries. Sweden and France, both upholders of freedom and the liberal tradition, are against that -- some other way must be found of "enlightening" those countries or at least of producing impermeable borders around EU. There we are, then. Who knows, at this stage, quite what the EU politicians will decide by way of practical decisions? They know they have to stop immigration -- even if this also denies sanctuary to individuals fleeing torture or death in their own countries -- or else the populations of Europe will elect politicians who are even more right-wing! Gosh! . . . that will never do! We mustn't allow real democracy -- that is, it would never do to allow the population to have an issue on which they would vote decisively. Keith Hudson ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
