Brexit aftershocks
The Express reassures their readership that they made the right choice:
Express -- European SUPERSTATE to be unveiled: EU nations 'to be morphed into one' post-Brexit
EUROPEAN political chiefs are to take advantage of Brexit by unveiling their long-held plan to morph the continent’s countries into one GIANT SUPERSTATE, it has emerged yesterday.
(capitalization in original)
Controversially member states would also lose what few controls they have left over their own borders, including the procedure for admitting and relocating refugees.
The plot has sparked fury and panic in Poland - a traditional ally of Britain in the fight against federalism - after being leaked to Polish news channel TVP Info.
Ah, yes, the strong Warsaw-London axis, close friends ever since Churchill sold Poland to Stalin.
So what did TVP Info report on?
Radio Poland -- New EU 'superstate plan’ by France, Germany: report
The foreign ministers of France and Germany have proposed creating a “European superstate” limiting the powers of individual members following Britain’s referendum decision to leave the EU, Polish public broadcaster TVP Info has reported.
The document in which the proposals appear is to be presented to Visegrad Group countries meeting in Prague on Monday by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, TVP Info said, adding that the document was an "ultimatum".
TVP Info said the proposals would mean members of a superstate would in practice have no right to their own army, to a separate criminal code or a separate tax system, and would not have their own currency.
(emphasis added)
The Visegrád Group is an alliance of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia named after a summit in 1991. They met with Frank-Walter Steinmeier yesterday.
At a meeting early on Monday, Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier briefed the ministers on the consultations he had in Berlin with the foreign ministers of the six EU founding states. The discussion also covered a proposed German-French document on the EU’s future.
So Frank-Walter Steinmeier is the emissary from the Inner Six to the Visegrád Four (I'd like to say "between" but let's be realistic). OK, so anyway, what did the document allegedly leaked by TVP Info actually say? Reuters knows more.
Reuters -- German, French ministers plan for 'strong Europe in uncertain world'
"Neither a simple call for more Europe nor a phase of mere reflection can be an adequate answer," Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault said in the paper, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
"We have to find better ways of dealing with different levels of ambition so as to ensure that Europe delivers better on the expectations of all European citizens," they said.
To this end they proposed three initiatives:
- A European Security Compact, [...]
- A common European asylum and migration policy. [...]
- Fostering growth and completing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). [...]
Pretty standard, flatly aspirational EU prose, but admittedly tone-deaf after the Brexit vote. Nobody is in the mood for love and certainly not the Brexiteers, drunk on their first victory in years:
Telepolis -- Visegrád-Staaten wehren sich gegen eine stärkere EU-Integration
Gar nicht so freundlich hörte sich freilich an, wenn sich das polnische Außenministerium über die Botschaft in London über ausländerfeindliche Angriffe "gegen Polen und andere Migranten" in Großbritannien beschwert. In Großbritannien lebende Polen werden aufgefordert, xenophobische Vorfälle der Polizei zu melden. Nach dem Referendum waren u.a. Graffitis und Karten mit Parolen wie "Go home, Polish scum" oder "No more Polish Vermin" aufgetaucht. Hier schlägt die auch von der regierenden PiS geschürte Fremdenfeindlichkeit zurück auf die eigene Bevölkerung.