http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/14/a-coup-in-the-european-union
Failure for 90 Percent of the People (The Rest Will Be Fine)
A Coup in the European Union?
by SUSAN GEORGE
European Union workers’ pretentions to better pay and working
conditions, shorter working lives, munificent retirement benefits, long
holidays and time off for this and that have got to be brought under
control! Enough is enough!
Let us be thankful that the European Commission has the answers. Soon
the neoliberal model will become irreversible and all these pretentious
upstarts will have to shut up once and for all. High time too. In a
brilliant move, the Commission has pushed through a bundle of measures
called the “six-pack”—a cheerful name suggesting parties where the beer
flows freely. This bundle is rather more austere and will give the
Commission hitherto unheard-of leverage in the affairs of its member States.
By a close vote on 28 September 2011, the European Parliament passed the
Commission’s plan—a far-reaching takeover of individual countries’
capacity to set their own budgets and to manage their own sovereign
debts. From now on, the Parliament and the Council (with the Commission
naturally overseeing the process) will be able to force governments to
comply with the Maastricht Treaty recommendations—otherwise known as the
“Stability and Growth Pact”–to which member States had recently paid
precious little attention. After 2005 this Pact seemed almost a quaint
relic. But now, thanks to the six-pack, no deficits greater than 3% and
no national debts above 60% of GDP will be countenanced. What these
people need is stern discipline, make no mistake.
Starting in 2012, Euro-parliamentarians and the Council will dissect
national budgets before national parliaments have any say at all or even
a chance to look at them. If countries do not reduce their debts fast
enough or refuse the budgetary “suggestions” from Brussels, enforcement
measures will kick in. In case of further recalcitrance on the part of
member States, punishment can mean either depositing or forfeiting .01,
.02 or even .05% of the country’s GDP to the EU, depending on how severe
the country’s non-compliance is judged. In the case of, say, France,
with a GDP of about €1.900 billion ($2.600 billion) the Commission could
demand a deposit or a fine of some €20 to €40 billion or even €100
billion if the Commission were to escalate the sanctions to .05% of GDP.
True to the Commission’s usual quietly efficient methods, these
permanent six-pack measures went through the whole approval procedure
with barely a ripple, little debate and virtually zero citizen
involvement. Most Europeans have not the slightest inkling that any
change has taken place, much less a savage attack on their governments’
capacity to govern. Thanks to this legislation, we can count on the
lasting power of neoliberal doctrine throughout Europe, particularly in
the euro zone, as elected officials are dispossessed by appointed,
non-accountable ones of their right to draw up their own budgets. They
lost the right to a say on monetary policy long ago. .
The six-pack, thanks also to the right-wing euro-parliamentary majority
is now firmly entrenched and will be difficult if not impossible to
reverse. Anywhere else, one might have heard accusations of a mass coup
d’état against member State governments and their peoples. But so far,
all’s quiet on the EU front.
Simultaneously, the Commission is pushing the member States to follow
another part of the neoliberal scenario through a variety of other
directives ensuring longer work weeks and working lives and the gradual
alignment of wages and social benefits according to lowest common
denominators. This process may be a bit slower but will also be enhanced
by the six-pack.
The European Court of Justice is doing its part on the second objective
in particular with at least four separate judgments obliging workers to
accept sub-standard wages even when working in countries with strong
worker-protection laws like Sweden or Finland.
One has to admire the Commission’s capacity for discretion and getting
things done without unnecessarily upsetting member States’ citizens or
their national parliaments. The apparent technical complexity of the
measures and the process of putting them in place help to keep things
quiet, although these measures are actually quite straightforward (and,
one might add, have German fingerprints all over them).
Meanwhile, the largely neo-liberal European media see no reason to make
an issue of what’s happening behind the scenes in Brussels and assist in
keeping the lid on protest until too late for citizens to intervene.
All this spells greater victories ahead to come for neoliberalism and
the failure of European economies. No, sorry, only failure for 90
percent of the people. The rest will be fine. Not to worry. As Martin
Wolf recently paraphrased Tacitus in the Financial Times to describe the
European situation, “They create a desert and call it stability”.
Susan George is a TranNational Institute fellow, President of the Board
of TNI and honorary president of ATTAC-France [Association for Taxation
of Financial Transaction to Aid Citizens]
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