While politicians and commentators from all points on the conservative spectrum are debating the meaning of the latest EU fudge, one thing is certain – the deal speeds the militarisation of the union and copper-fastens austerity.
This was made crystal clear by EU negotiator Michel Barnier in a speech to the Berlin Security Conference on November 30th. Minutes after he stepped off the platform, he hot-footed it to Dublin, where he will have known he was guaranteed a hearty welcome. For bone-headed Nationalists of one sort and another, he was a grand fellow altogether as long as he kept bashing the Brits.
Nobody in Ireland could be blamed for enjoying the humiliation of May, Davis, Johnston etc. in the last few weeks. They had it coming. Millions of British people, too, were chuckling at their discomfiture.
But we shouldn’t fool ourselves into thinking that Barnier, Tusk and the rest of the Brussels bureaucracy have the interests of the mass of the Irish people at heart. Far from it.
It’s worth quoting Barnier’s account in Berlin of progress towards a militarised EU with a common foreign policy and an army capable idea of defending European interests anywhere in the world. He celebrated how far the Union had come and outlined “the road-map we need to follow between now and 2025.”
“In September 2014, Jean Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, called for a relaunch of European defence.
“In June 2016, Federica Mogherini renewed our integrated approach with the Global Strategy on Foreign and Security Policy, which defines the Union's level of ambition as a global player.
“In a historic declaration in July 2016, President Juncker, Donald Tusk and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg relaunched the strategic partnership between the European Union and NATO.
“In November 2016, Vice-President Jyrki Katainen and Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska proposed a European Defence Fund so that defence technologies and equipment could be financed jointly from the European budget for the first time.
“In June 2017, we strengthened our capacity to plan and conduct external operations – including training missions in Mali, Somalia and Central African Republic.
“Also in June 2017, the Commission set out ideas for discussion on the future of Europe's defence, even suggesting the establishment of a common defence.
“Most recently, on 20 November 2017 in Brussels, 23 Member States stated their intention of implementing the Permanent Structured Cooperation [PESCO]. This initiative, which owes a great deal to the personal determination of the German Minister Ursula von der Leyen, will serve to step up the commitment to European defence – in terms of capacity and at operational and industrial level.”
All this with a “global” reach.
The four of the 27 States which didn’t sign up were Denmark, Malta, Portugal, Ireland and, of course, the UK. The Dail put that “right” as far as Ireland is concerned on December 7th with a vote to sign the pact, supported by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail and a number of “Independent” TDs beholden to the government. It had taken them a week to come around to doing what the EU bosses wanted.
As Robert Emmet didn’t say - “Ireland has taken her place among the imperialist nations of the earth” – to the cheers of some who fancy themselves as “anti-imperialists.”
What’s the relevance of all this to Brexit? Barnier explained:
“The United Kingdom has not been the spearhead of European defence.
“The British contribution to EU-led military operations is limited - barely five percent of the personnel deployed.
“The British have never wanted to turn the Union into a military power.
“The British have always resisted setting up a European Headquarters.”
Now, with the Brits out of the way, it’s full steam ahead for Irish armoured cars, and tanks and guns to join with the French, Italians, Germans etc. in confronting any threat, real or imagined, to Western, and specifically EU interests.
Of course, the reason the British were so stand-offish from the notion of an EU army had nothing to do with a distaste for militarism, but everything to do with the Tories’ continuing delusions of imperial grandeur. Whatever the reason, the departure of Britain removes an obstacle to the expansive, military scheming of the cabal at the top of the EU.
Does anybody imagine that Dublin will be allowed to dodge its “duty?” Not a chance. The EU States, as they constantly tell us, have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the South in facing down Britain. Tusk emphasised that the Irish would have a veto over whatever agreement emerged. “We will consult Leo Varadkar before accepting an agreement.”
Commentators in every Dublin newspaper gloried in the State’s new status, a fully-fledged member of the elite at last, stronger than Britain for the first time in history in a set-piece confrontation.
But there’s pay-back to come. No chance, none at all of the Irish being given a bye-ball when it comes, for example, to repelling desperate people risking their lives in efforts to cross the Mediterranean. Most Irish people felt good about themselves as the navy ship LÉ Eithne rescued hundreds from the sea and took them to shore in an EU country.
It’s highly unlikely the EU will allow that sort of thing in future. EU policy on migrants plucked from the Mediterranean is to dump them back in Libya, a failed State as a result of bombardment by EU States, where they can be subjected to torture, rape and murder.
Meanwhile, more than a thousand kilometres of barbed wire “protects” the EU’s eastern flank from “invasion” by refugees.
Soft border? Not if you are a refugee.
These are some of the implications of the deal welcomed by Fine Gael, Fianna Fail, Sinn Fein and Labour in the South, by the DUP, UUP, Sinn Fein and Alliance in the North.
In the run-up to the EU referendum, People Before Profit denounced the EU, urged both NI and the Republic to leave, and advanced the slogan “In or Out, the fight goes on.”
Events of the last few days confirms us in this view.
