Barroso on Collision Course With Britain
The European Union needs to become an economic union with euro bonds, must speed up decision making and should introduce a financial transaction tax, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said in his State of the Union speech, September 28.
“We are today faced with the greatest challenge our union has known in all its history,” he said. “I think this is going to be a baptism of fire for a whole generation.” While most in Europe would support his calls for more integration, they are directly opposed to British government policy.
Barroso announced that the Commission had adopted a proposal for a financial transaction tax (ftt). A British Treasury spokesman has already said that the UK will “absolutely resist.” Britain said it would support an ftt that was introduced globally.
At the moment Britain can veto the proposal. But in his speech, Barroso said he wanted to get rid of that power. “A member state has the right not to move,” he said. “But not the right to block the moves of others.”
“Today we have a union where it is the slowest member that dictates the speed of all the other member states,” he said. Britain is that slowest member. Barroso said the EU should consider changing the treaties to stop this.
Barroso also said: “We need to complete our monetary union with an economic union. It was an illusion to think that we could have a common currency and single market with national approaches to economic and budgetary policy. Let’s avoid another illusion that we could have a common currency and single market with an inter-governmental approach …. We need to really integrate the euro area, we need to complete the monetary union with real economic union …. In the coming weeks, the Commission will … present a proposal for a single, coherent framework to deepen economic coordination and integration, particularly in the euro area.”
Given the EU’s unpopularity in Britain, there is no way the UK could go down the road Barroso is heading. It is also clear that Barroso wants to leave Britain in the dust. As the Trumpet has said for years, a parting of the ways is inevitable. At least a small group of EU nations will continue toward a unified Germany-dominated union.