REALity Volume XXXVI Issue No. 10 October 2017
The twentieth century brought with it two devastating world wars that caused the pulverization of cities, suffering, depravation, terror and death.
After World War II, world leaders were determined that such destruction should never occur again.
Consequently, two institutions were established after World War II to, hopefully, prevent a re-occurrence of the terrible nightmares experienced in the early twentieth century. These institutions were the United Nations (UN), established in 1945, and the European Union (EU), established formally in 1957. Both institutions have proven themselves to be grave disappointments to mankind, creating more problems than they have solved, in this still corrupt and unhappy world.
The UN
Nearly 70 years after the UN was established, it has degenerated into a corrupt, impotent organization operated by overpaid, incompetent bureaucrats. The latter are supported mostly by the wealthy western nations, which use the UN as a tool to force anti-life, anti-family policies on the developing world. The UN has also failed to stop wars, starvation and suffering. It stands as a monument to mankind`s good intentions and to its colossal failures.
The EU
The EU began as an economic union in 1957, established by the leaders of Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. It was believed that economic co-operation, fostered by countries trading with one another, would result in an inter-dependent group likely to avoid conflict with one another.
This economic union expanded to include social and political issues. Today, it is a union of 28 European countries that covers much of the European continent. The organization has also expanded its policy areas from economics to climate, environment and health, to external relations, security, justice and migration among other issues. It has abolished border controls among its members, making it much easier to live, work and travel abroad in Europe. It has a single or internal market and monetary system (with the Euro as currency), which now enables most goods, money and people to move freely.
The EU Structure
The only directly elected body of the EU to represent the EU’s five hundred million inhabitants, is the European Parliament consisting of 751 members. The European Parliament also elects the President of the European Commission. The role of the Commission is to serve as the EU’s executive body responsible for proposing legislation to the EU Parliament and implementing its decisions, monitoring treaties and the day-to-day running of the EU. Another body of the EU is the European Council which consists of the heads of states of governments of the European States. The council defines the general political direction and priorities of the EU.
EU Human Rights Goals
One of the EU’s main goals is to promote human rights, both in Europe and around the world. The problem with its human rights goal is that the EU’s supposed “core values”, interpreted as human rights, are anti-life/family.
Problems with the EU
One of the main problems with the EU is that its only directly elected institution, the EU Parliament, has become an empty shell. As a result, many EU decisions are made by the leaders of the Member States on the European Commission as well as the bureaucrats in Brussels, not by the European Parliament itself. It is significant that the EU has 7000 employees and officials carrying out its work, accounting for 34% of its budget
Unfortunately, although there are some conscientious, hard-working members of the European Parliament, there are all too many who do not take their jobs seriously, and who infrequently take their seats in the Parliament. For example, in July 2017 only a few dozen of the 700-plus legislators of the European Parliament showed up for a special session marking the end of the six-month presidency of Malta at the EU. The meagre showing of members of Parliament caused the head of the EU’s Commission to denounce the European Parliament as “totally ridiculous” and “not serious”. Election to the European Parliament is perceived as an easy job for politicians without a big national portfolio, or for veterans seeking a leisurely path to retirement. The salary of a member of the European Parliament is $142,605.78 (CDN) annually, plus expenses (travel, office and assistants) for very little work. The members are entitled to an old-age pension from the age of 63.
Bureaucrats Step into the Void
Because the European Parliament is not effective, the European Union is operated mostly by the EU bureaucrats in Brussels. It is they who decide regulatory details, for example, the number of strawberry plants that a farmer in Spain may cultivate each year!
Also, importantly, these bureaucrats are stepping on the sovereign rights of the EU member states, trying to impose their own interpretation of human rights as the international position of the EU. Unfortunately, the policies are anti-life/family and have had a very detrimental effect, especially at the UN.
Those member states of the EU that are Christian-based, such as Hungary and Poland, which want to make up their own internal decisions and laws, have become very dissatisfied with the EU. They claim that the EU’s interpretation of controversial issues, such as human rights, climate change, migration, etc. are interfering with their domestic policies. As a result, these countries have become alienated from the EU. Britain’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit) is illustrative of EU members unwilling to continue ceding their rights as sovereign nations to the centralization tactics of the bureaucrats in Brussels.
No one wants to return to a time of wars between European nations, border controls and complex money exchanges. Unless the EU reorganizes itself that may well happen as more nations are feeling compelled to move away from the EU.