EU Set To Impose ‘Rule of Law’, Remove Veto, And Change Its Own Rules To Do This.

EU prepares to cut off funds within 7 months if it doesn’t like a member state’s laws.

And these moves have relevance to ‘Brexit UK’
after the end of this year — see below

Last Thursday in Brussels, the EU’s three main bodies — the Council, the Parliament, and the Commission — came together in their determination to change the rules of how they will deal with member states whose domestic laws the EU apparatchiks don’t like.

Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement with the Council presidency on 05 November on legislation establishing a mechanism that would allow the suspension of budget payments to a member state violating what the EU calls its “rule of law”.

The new procedures will only require qualified majority voting

Currently, the EU can only impose sanctions against a member state, including the suspension of membership rights, under Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union, if all member states including the alleged transgressors agree. This involves the principle of unanimity and means that an EU country can veto the proposed actions.

Under the new procedures, this would no longer the case. Arch-federalist MEP Guy Verhofstadt was delighted, saying: “Agreement reached on a proper rule of law mechanism! EU funds are tied to EU values… No double standards, no excuses”

Here’s the EU Parliament on Thursday:-

“The decision on the suspension will have to be taken by the Council acting by a qualified majority on the proposal of the European Commission.”

What’s more, a country doesn’t need to commit an actual offence for the EU to cut off funds

The new draconian powers now planned by the EU do not require a member state actually to commit ‘an offence’ which might involve EU funding. The EU will be able to take action merely if it thinks this is possible.

Here is the EU Parliament on Thursday, 05 Nov 2020.

“Crucially, MEPs succeeded in keeping a strong preventive aspect for the mechanism: not only can it be triggered when a breach is shown to directly affect the budget, but also when there is a serious risk that it may do so, thus ensuring that the mechanism prevents possible situations where EU funds could finance actions that are in conflict with EU values.”

Actions against a member state will be taken much more speedily

Again, here is the EU Parliament’s report on Thursday:-

“MEPs succeeded in shortening the time that the EU institutions will have for the adoption of measures against a member state, if risks of breaches of the rule of law are identified, to a maximum of 7–9 months (down from 12–13 months as initially requested by Council).

“The Commission, after establishing the existence of a breach, will propose to trigger the conditionality mechanism against an EU government. The Council then will have one month to adopt the proposed measures (or three months in exceptional cases), by a qualified majority. The Commission will use its rights to convene the Council to make sure the deadline is respected.”

The relevance to Brexit Britain and the Withdrawal Agreement

For years the EU has been extending its legal powers in the way I have reported in its latest moves above.

A good example of this is the Withdrawal Agreement it drafted, in collusion with the Theresa May Government and her civil servants. Regardless of any compromised trade deal which might be put together in the coming days, the Withdrawal Agreement guarantees the EU legal oversight over parts of the UK’s laws and parts of its day-to-day operations — both now and in the future.

The EU wants this oversight (in its Withdrawal Agreement with the UK and in these new rules for member states) as a stick with which to keep awkward states in line with its authoritarian neoliberal agenda.

And this includes the United Kingdom.

The latest move by the EU on Thursday shows how the EU has lost none of its appetite for legal domination of its remaining members, and of the United Kingdom.

Year after year the EU has extended its powers and has made no secret of its ambition to become a superstate, subsuming all member countries into a monolithic bloc run from Brussels.

The report above is just one more example of how the EU is determined to rule everything in Europe, according to laws and directives devised by federal fanatics in the Commission and in the EU Parliament.

Like most people, I love Europe. I enjoy and celebrate the different experiences to be had when visiting different countries. Every year, thanks to EU apparatchiks, these differences diminish and so do some of the pleasures of experiencing life in free countries.

At the end of this year, it is essential that the United Kingdom moves as far away from the EU’s creeping, totalitarian homogeneity as possible. I really hope the UK can be a beacon of light to freedom-lovers everywhere.

[ Sources: EU Parliament | EU Commission ]