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| The US-EURO flag as designed by Petrus |
Military Integration
The idea that the U.S.
and the EU together are building a Transatlantic Empire started with
two observations coming together. On one side I read some critical
articles on trade negotiations between the European Union and the
U.S. started this year on the 14th of June. On the other side I was
surprised by the magnitude of the building site of the new NATO
Headquarters in Brussels. This did not look like a building of a
military alliance that was not important anymore since the end of the
Cold War by the downfall of the Soviet Imperium. On the contrary it
looks like a renewal of NATO by extending and modernizing its
Headquarters.
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| The construction site of the new NATO building opposite to "the old one" in Brussels, Belgium. |
Wikipedia (Dutch version: NAVO)
informs that in the autumn of 2010, the Dutch construction company
BAM started the construction of a new headquarters for NATO on the
other side of the Avenue du Bourget in Brussels, so to say opposite
the old NATO headquarter. The contract has a value of approximately
460 million euros (more than a half billion US$). The new building is
of about 250,000 sqm and will host about 4,500 employees. Such an
effort suggests more a strengthening of the NATO than the supposed
reduction of the importance of this transatlantic military alliance.
Such an investment indicates that NATO is planning to stay for
another long time.
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| NATO is build on the "Three Musketeers Principle" which reads "All for One, One for All" |
Since 1948, 4 years
after the Second World War, West European countries cooperated
military in the strongest way possible between free and independent
nations, that is to say in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NATO as an answer to Stalin's policy in Eastern and Central Europe.
The core of the treaty is Article 5, what I would call “The 3 Musketeers Principle" that reads "All for One, One for All”, which means that
in the event of an attack on one of the states north of the Tropic of
Cancer, it will be perceived as an attack on all, and that all
countries will cooperate to ward off the attacker.
It is clear that nearly
all West European countries became a member of the NATO including
also Turkey. It was a very successful alliance for the West European
countries because it guaranteed peace and stability for about 50
years, years in which West Europa could not only rebuild but also
create the so called welfare states. After the fall of the Berlin
Wall in 1989, the former member states of the Russian dominated
Warschau Pact became gradually member of the NATO, countries like
Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Letonia,
Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria and even a country like
Albania. Today NATO is going as far as the borders of Russia itself.
These days an internal political struggle is even still going in
Ukraina about which side it should choose, the European Union or
Russia?
According to the common
opinion, NATO had become less important after the end of the Cold
War. Member States conceded the peace dividend and reduced their
armed forces. But NATO has since been in a phase of transformation,
in which new tasks such as combating terrorism, proliferation and
anarchy on the agenda came. In the Prague Summit in 2002 and the
Istanbul Summit in 2004 agreed on this. Article 5 has been declared
to date once applied: after the attacks in New York and Washington on
September 11, 2001. NATO, the United States shortly after the attacks
supported by AWACS radar aircraft.
So it seems ironical
but it was probably the Al Qaida attack on the Twin Towers in New
York and the Pentagon in Washington that started the idea to rebuild
the NATO as a global military alliance against terrorism in stead to
be dedicated only to the defence of West Europe. Probably this is the
reason why France more or less surprisingly decided to reintegrate
the Nato command structure in 2009. In the time of the presidency of
General de Gaulle France went away from NATO (1966) with the aim to
develop its own independent nucleair capabilities, called Force de
Frappe. However under the presidency of Sarkozy France started to
reintegrate into NATO. The recent elected socialist president
Hollande did not change this policy. On the contrary, he continues the French Africa policy of military interventions in Libya, Mali
and recently in the Central African Republic. Great Britain
coordinates its military operations worldwide already a long time
with the U.S. It seems to me that in the next decades Europeans will
continue to cooperate military with the U.S., whereby the U.S. will be
the most powerfull and decisive military force.
On the economic level
we see the same development: more economic intergration between the
USA and Europe. “On 14 June (2013), Member States gave the
European Commission the green light to start trade and investment
talks with the United States. The launch builds on the
report of a High-Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth,
published in February 2013.”
Inmediately
after this report was published, USA and Europe issued a common
statement: “We, the Leaders of the United States
and the European Union, are pleased to announce that, based on
recommendations
from the U.S.-EU High Level Working Group on Jobs and Growth
co-chaired by United States Trade Representative Kirk and European
Trade Commissioner De Gucht, the United States and the European Union
will each initiate the internal procedures necessary to launch
negotiations on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
“The transatlantic
economic relationship is already the world’s largest, accounting
for half of global economic output and nearly one trillion dollars in
goods and services trade, and supporting millions of jobs on both
sides of the Atlantic. We are committed to making this relationship
an even stronger driver of our prosperity. In that regard, we welcome
the High Level Working Group’s recommendations on how we can expand
further our transatlantic trade and investment partnership, promoting
greater growth and supporting more jobs.
A high-standard
Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership would advance trade
and investment liberalization and address regulatory and other
non-tariff barriers.”
To
emphasize the importance of the negotiations of this Convention, the
European Commission made in March 2013 for its member states an
impact assesment on the future of the EU-US trade relations and an
in-depth analysis on the potential effects of the EU-US Treaty.
”When negotiations
are completed, this EU-US agreement would be the biggest bilateral
trade deal ever negotiated – and it could add around 0.5% to the
EU's annual economic output.
– The European
Union and the United States have the largest bilateral trade
relationship and enjoy the most integrated economic relationship in
the world....
– Total US
investment in the EU is three times higher than in all of Asia.
EU investment in the
US is around eight times the amount of EU investment in India and
China together.
– EU and US
investments are the real driver of the transatlantic relationship,
contributing to growth and jobs on both sides of the Atlantic. It is
estimated that a third of the trade across the Atlantic actually
consists of intra-company transfers.
– The
transatlantic relationship also defines the shape of the global
economy as a whole. Either the EU or the US is the largest trade and
investment partner for almost all other countries in the global
economy.
– The EU and the
US economies account together for about half the entire world GDP and
for nearly a third of world trade flows.”
That
these negotiations are about a further integration between the USA
and Europe we can read in the following statements of the European
Commission: “Given the low average tariffs (under 3%),
the key to unlocking this potential lies in the tackling of
non-tariff barriers. These consist mainly of customs procedures and
behind the border regulatory restrictions. The non-tariff barriers
come from diverging regulatory systems (standards definitions
notably), but also other non-tariff measures, such as those related
to certain aspects of security or consumer protection.”
How
deep the integration between Europe and the USA will be is indicated
by the fact that the recent negotiations were prepared by a so
called High Level Working Group
of the Transatlantic Economic Council that
published the above mentioned
report in February this year.
“The Transatlantic
Economic Council was set up in 2006
guide and stimulate the work on
transatlantic economic convergence. The TEC is currently the only
EU-US high level forum in which economic issues can be discussed in a
coherent and coordinated manner. It brings together a
wide range of ongoing economic cooperation activities
in issues of mutual interest and provides for a platform to give
political guidance and direction to this work. At the same time, the
TEC provides for a political forum for discussing strategic global
economic questions. The TEC brings together those Members of the
European Commission and US Cabinet Members who carry the political
responsibility for closer economic ties. Three "advisory"
groups have been set up to help guide the work of the TEC:
In addition, civil
society at large is consulted on the TEC's objectives and debriefed
after its annual meetings.”
The
barriers that must be demolished in this new major agreement include
different standards and laws that both continents have on for example
public health, public procurement, copyright and the like. It is much
more difficult to harmonize these kind of standards and laws because
they are often the result of deep cultural traditions and beliefs.
These are the laws that until now ban gene food from Europe, gives
protection to data and arrange to keep out of European hands the
shipping to U.S. ports. That is why France wanted to exclude from
these negotiations all aspects related to culture. After a lot of
talks the other 26 EU countries agreed to leave aside all what has to
do with culture, but if the European Commission during the
negotiations decides the matter has to be discussed with the U.S., it
can present the question again to the EU member States. "Then
we'll say no again, as now," French Trade Minister Bricq said.
But
today there is more criticism. The heart of this criticism is a
strong anti Europe attitude that in recent years is gaining political
ground in all West European countries including France, the
Netherlands, Germany and of course also Great Britain. It is a new
wave of conservative nationalism that was thought to be politically
dead after World War II. For many European workers things have gone
too fast. They feel threatened by the cheap labor force coming from
the new EU members, not only undermining their level of wages but
also other social security services. At the same time the global
competition makes disappear industrial activities to other parts of
the world, especially to China. Add to this the Bank and Eurocrisis
which had as a result that many West European countries had such huge
debts, they had to cut their national budgets, that in turn created
more unemployed. For the average wage earner in Western Europe, the
future has never been as uncertain as today. And as we know such an
uncertainty is the breeding ground for political experiments that
could destabilize Europe
The above
information is coming from public sources like Wikipedia, the website
of the European Commission, the NATO websit and papers.
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