War movement
After token resistance, the EU bowed to Cameron’s call to send even more arms to al-Qaeda in Syria. Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said, “The EU should hold the line. We are a peace movement and not a war movement.” But the EU decision proves that it is a war movement.
Unscientific
The EU still refuses to embrace GM crops and food. This anti-scientific approach is potentially disastrous for developing and developed countries alike. The EU’s approval system for GM seeds in fact serves largely as a disapproval system. First applications for planting have to go to the European Food Safety Agency, and then to member states – meaning that countries such as Austria that are opposed to GM crops can stop any country adopting them.
Good money after bad
According to an internal Bank of Spain document, Spanish banks could need to put aside a further 10 billion euros to cover bad loans. Much of this arises from the banks extending loans which borrowers could not repay – a practice known as “extend and pretend”.
Youth unemployment is Spain 56.4 per cent, the highest in the eurozone. Spain’s GDP fell for the seventh consecutive quarter. And after all this suffering, the Spanish central government’s deficit was still higher than in April 2012.
Work more, pay more
OECD data shows that Greeks work the most hours per year in the eurozone but have one of the lowest average net incomes per year. Yet the EU, the IMF and European Central Bank are all demanding that Greece makes cuts of another 4.6 billion euros in 2014.
Iceland cold-shoulders EU
Iceland’s Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has told the European Commission that their EU membership bid is over. He said: “This is how democracy works”, pointing out that both parties in the new government had campaigned against EU accession. It’s good to see that one country in Europe still has some democracy; the EU is killing it off everywhere else. ■