No to the Europe of the Monopolies! For the Sovereignty of the Peoples!

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Draft EU Constitution:
No to the Europe of the Monopolies! For the Sovereignty of the Peoples!

The Italian Presidency

EU-US relations at new low

The recently concluded Thessaloniki summit and the start of the six month Italian presidency, with Silvio Berlusconi at the head, has once again confirmed that the entire EU project serves the interests of European finance capital and is directed against the sovereignty of the peoples.

The draft EU constitution which was presented at Thessaloniki and which will be more fully debated at the Inter-Governmental Conference in October envisages a number of changes to the political arrangements within the EU. These include the establishment of an EU president and foreign minister, the extension of qualified majority voting into 50 areas including judicial and economic policies where national vetoes presently exist and the establishment of a 15 member commission to represent all 25 members after enlargement takes place in May 2004.

Tony Blair in his statement to Parliament on June 23 defended these reforms as being necessary to ensure the functioning of the enlarged 25 member EU after May 2004. In fact, however, they strengthen the hold of the big powers over the decision making process and ensure that the 10 new member states are marginalised within this organisation. In this way, obstructions are being placed in the road to block the peoples of these countries from exercising their sovereign power and these countries are being annexed by European big finance capital.

At the Thessaloniki summit the EU also discussed a paper submitted by Javier Solana on the organisation's foreign and security policy strategy. In this too the EU stressed its pre-occupation with "terrorism and weapons of mass destruction" and its willingness to "resort to pre-emptive military action" to tackle these problems. Thus the EU's orientation is one directed against the people and their will in defence of the interests of European capital.

This unity of the European financial oligarchy against the people's sovereignty cannot hide the growing contention between them. This has recently burst out into the open in the rift between Germany and Italy, while Tony Blair in his statement in Parliament welcomed the new entrants from Eastern Europe because, as he put it, they "share the British perspective. They are firmly in favour of the Transatlantic Alliance." In this, a major point of contention is the "Common Foreign and Security Policy", which seeks to build up the EU as a military superpower with a coherent global strategy, which the British government is opposing from the point of view of the threat to the aggressive US-led NATO military alliance.

A great European Union needs great institutions, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi told the European Parliament during the presentation of his government's programme for its six-month EU presidency. This is an attempt to rise above the growing rifts between the different sections of European capital and reaffirm the project of France, Germany, Italy and Spain (the continental Europe big four) to build the EU as a reactionary superpower in its own right. The US-British perspective is to hold Europe in check while trying to unite it under its own control. At the same time, the governments are united in further entrenching the agenda of neo-liberalism and diverting or crushing any progressive movement among the peoples, particularly the aim of the workers’ movement for socialism.

In pursuit of this agenda, and to increase the competitiveness of European capital as against the US in particular, but also Japan, Berlusconi told the European Parliament that the EU must set about increasing "public and private investment in infrastructures, guaranteeing sustainable pensions and modernising the labour market". And emphasising the primacy of finance capital and the intention to attack social programmes, Silvio Berlusconi added, "The requirements of monetary stability and strict financial policies must not be questioned."

And in plans to exploit the emerging South East Asia market, the European Commission on June 9 adopted plans for a "new partnership with South East Asia", which is being seen as a stepping stone to a free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and what the Commission describes as "one of the most dynamic growth area's in the world economy".

That relations between the US and the EU "are at their lowest point for at least a generation", was emphasised by a report published on July 8 by the House of Lords. The Conservative peer Lord Jopling, who led the research committee that drew up the report, said that NATO should remain the conduit for security and defence co-operation, although the EU should continue its efforts to built up an independent military force.

The report says that there is a tendency for the EU to disagree with US policy simply to make its voice heard, and this is damaging for both sides. Another problem, notes the report, is that the EU does not always speak with a single voice, and this diminishes the influence it wields on the world stage. The report raises concerns that the attitude coming out of Washington is that America wants the European Union on-side, but only if things are done the American way.

The report is worried that the EU is seeking to undermine NATO rather than compliment its military power. NATO should be the "principal and most systematic forum for EU-US consultation on security and defence issues", says the report.

Thus, while identifying the contradictions, the report is lost in illusions over the nature of the conflict.