Herman Van Rompuy Releases Terrifying Proposals Ahead of This Week's Summit

Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, has released a terrifying document outlining plans for "genuine economic and monetary union" ahead of this week's summit. Rompuy, once chastised by Nigel Farage as having "the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk", is making sure that this crisis does not go to waste and is using it to implement want many in Brussels have wanted for a long time. The founding document of the European Union emphasizes the need for "an ever closer union among the European people." While the euro may have been a disastrous attempt to achieve this goal, something much more worrying could be the result of the currency's gradual collapse.

The new document outlines "four essential building blocks": 1) an integrated financial framework, 2) an integrated budgetary framework, 3) an integrated economic policy framework, and 4) ensuring the necessary democratic legitimacy and accountability of decision-making with the EMU (Economic and Monetary Union).

There are many integrations and frameworks being proposed. What the document is outlining is the need for a European-wide banking supervision service, a deposit guarantee scheme, the pooling of debt, shared employment law and taxation levels, and the vetoing of member states' budgets. The possibility of the eurozone as a whole borrowing money will be "explored". German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has called for the introduction of a European finance minister and an elected President of Europe.

This Thursday finance ministers from Germany, France, Spain and Italy will meet to discuss the proposals. Gavin Hewitt, Europe editor for the BBC, makes an important observation on the relations between the two powerhouses at these meetings: 

It has generally been true that the European project has been driven forward when France and Germany are in step. They are not at the moment. There is a deep philosophical and political divide between them. 

The socialist French government might welcome many if not all of the proposals Rompuy has outlined. However, the Germans have expressed reluctance to pool debt and would certainly resist calls for integrated economic policy.

It doesn't matter to policy makers in Brussels that Europeans overwhelmingly do not want to concede sovereignty to the European Union. The European Union is anti-democratic in nature and there is no reason to think that this is about to change. Nigel Farage once said to Rompuy, "I have no doubt that it is your intention to be the quiet assassin of European democracy and the European nation-state." It doesn't look like the assassination will be that quiet after all.  

Comments

[fish]

Where is my "Alt-Text"?

[fish]

Van Rompuy, once chastised by Nigel Farage as having "the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk".....

One of Orwells "Beetle Like" men.

[John]

You know who else had the charisma of a damp rag and the appearance of a low grade bank clerk?

No not Hitler just most of the people who did his actual dirty work.

[BakedPenguin]

That describes Borrman to a tee.

[John]

And Eichmann.

[joshua corning]

Eisenstein was a dumb as a bucket of nails socialist.

[Fist of Etiquette]

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for many peoples to dissolve the economic boundaries which have separated them...

[R C Dean]

To conclude: . . . which have separated them from the stuff they want that they can't afford.

[CE]

We the People, of the European Union, in order to form a bigger financial bloc, provide a single point of lobbying for the US to defend us, and to regulate Commerce as necessary and proper while promoting welfare generally, do ordain and establish this proposed European national Government.....

[Paul.]

...voting begins on Tuesday.

[Rich]

You can't fool *me*, Herman.

That report was written by this software.

[R C Dean]

There is a deep philosophical and political divide between them.

Indeed. The French seem to believe that you can borrow more and more forever and ever, and the Germans seems to believe in math.

[tarran]

with apologies to old Winnie Churchill

I think the French, (and Italy, Greece, Portugal etc) are willing to spend until the least bit of German savings is exhausted.

[John]

The idea is if you create a super state no one can move to other countries to avoid taxes. Now of course people would just move out of the EU. But this clown would stop that by closing the borders. After he ran out of German, French and UK money, he would then create an army and look elsewhere for money.

That is what Germany did. Hitler didn't invade Russia because he hated the communists. He needed the cash. Nazi Germany was built on a social welfare system that was paid for first by the wealth of the local Jewish population. Then when that ran out, the Jews of Austria and later the entire countries of Czechoslovakia and Poland. People always wonder why Hitler kept pressing his luck and constantly invading. He had to feed the beast or his own people would have turned on him. The same logic would apply to an EU super state.

[tarran]

Hitler didn't invade Russia because he hated the communists. He needed the cash. Nazi Germany was built on a social welfare system that was paid for first by the wealth of the local Jewish population.

John, I think you are taking a good argument too far:

1) You are right, the German govenment was dependent on plunder to keep operating (I read somewhere it was 20% of government spending came from private property plundered by the state). Once the plunder stopped, the German state did collapse.

2) The invasion of Russia *was* motivated by hatred of Slavs (read Mein Kampf sometime) *and* by a desire for farmland. One must not forget the effect of the English starvation blockade during and after WW-I on teh German psyche. When the battle of Britain failed, it made sense to try to bring all that farmland in the Ukraine into the German empire to counter the second starvation blockade they expected.

3)Also in his last years, Hitler's rampant, daily abuse of crystal meth did affect his cognition, and not in a particularly rational direction.

[John]

Once the invasion of England failed, where else was there to go? He had to invade Russia. But he would have done well to wait another year and started the invasion in May rather than June. He couldn't wait because he needed the money.

[Romulus Augustus]

He couldn't wait another year. Stalin was re-arming and giving him another year would have been a disaster for Germany. Without the month long delay at the start of the Nazi invasion
(see Hess mission, Greece) Moscow might have fallen before winter.

[John]

He was rearming too. The German Army would have been that much stronger in a year.

[Pro Libertate]

Russia had a lot more people and was getting aid from the West. I think the mistake was not invading earlier in the year.

Probably for the best, as a Russian capitulation likely would've meant peace with the Nazis controlling most of Europe. I don't think that would've gone well for us and more especially for Europe.

[Pagan Priestess]

Actually I can't see much of a fundamental difference between the Nazis controlling most of Europe and Stalin controlling most of Europe. The average European was thoroughly hosed either way.

[Scarecrow Repair]

Russia didn't get aid from the west until Hitler invaded. Up til then, he was odious for having split Poland with the Nazis.

[BakedPenguin]

He wanted to attack while the Russian officer corps was still weak from the 1938 purges, and the Russian Army still demoralized from their "victory" in the Winter War.

[Raston Bot]

was that when Finland beat their ass?

[BakedPenguin]

Exactly.

[KPres]

I'm still waiting for Hollywood to pick up on this guy:

[KPres]

I mean this guy:

http://www.badassoftheweek.com/hayha.html

[R C Dean]

But he would have done well to wait another year and started the invasion in May rather than June.

I think waiting another year wouldn't have worked. The Russians were ramping up faster than he was.

But he could have invaded in May rather than June of 1941. They got delayed/diverted by trouble in, I think, Rumania(?) where the pro-Nazis got tossed out of power by pro-Soviets(?) I'm a little foggy on the details.

[Tulpa the White]

Huh? Germany and the USSR were allies before the invasion.

He should have invaded the Middle East and met up with the Japs in India. That would have been a very dominant position to attack the USSR from.

[The Hammer]

Is this gonna be another Risk thread?

[Bill]

No another Axis and Allies (Hasbro) thread.

It's very easy for Germany and Japan to link up on that map.

[BakedPenguin]

Mussolini invaded Greece, and then the Italians got their asses licked back into Albania. Mussolini had to beg Hitler for help.

[Fluffy]

What BakedPenguin said.

Also, Yugoslavia had been pro-Axis, but the British sponsored a coup and installed a pro-Allies government. Hitler didn't think he could safely invade the Soviets with a pro-British government in Yugoslavia on his south flank.

[Fluffy]

He couldn't wait because he needed the money.

The obvious strategic move at that point was peace, actually.

I get what you're saying about spending, but by 1941 Hiter was effectively invulnerable to popular insurrection. The totalitarian machinery was too pervasive, and hadn't had time to decay on the Soviet model yet. If he was willing to kill (and of course he was) he could have cut back the welfare state and weathered the public discontent.

Peace, and digest Poland, the low countries, and northern France for a generation. That was the best available strategic move in hindsight.

Hitler couldn't conceive of it because it meant that Germany would only have a chance to achieve actual hegemony in another couple of generations, after Hitler's own death. Hitler didn't just want to win, he wanted to win on the timetable set by his own lifetime.

[CE]

50% of government spending in the US comes from private property plundered by the state. They borrow the other half to pay back in future plunder.

[joshua corning]

3)Also in his last years, Hitler's rampant, daily abuse of crystal meth

Really? I did not know that.

[Invisible Finger]

This time Germany will ally with Russia instead of those lazy Italians.

[Warty]

Why is such an obvious supervillain president of the EU? I mean, just look at his name. He's clearly an evil mastermind.

[BakedPenguin]

Why is such an obvious supervillain president of the EU?

Who else would want the job?

[Rich]

You'd be an evil mastermind, too, if the kids had called you "Hermie Van Romper-room" during your formative years.

[invisible furry hand]

He's president because he applied himself from an early age to acquiring power and exercising it ruthlessly. That's the thing with supervillians, they have such an impressive work-rate

[EDG reppin' LBC]

But such terrible minions. Quality of leadership really falls off below executive-level management.

[CE]

If you're an evil super-villain, you don't want minions that are competent enough to replace you. See Quayle, Dan or Gore, Al, or Cheney, Dick or Biden, Joe.

[joshua corning]

Cheney was more competent then Bush...

Still you have a point. Competent or not Cheney never could have launched a successful Presidential run even if the 2008 republican party wasn't so reviled.

[CE]

Well in the US case, the trick is to have a VP that the other party would never want to come to power, so they don't impeach you.

[KPres]

Sometimes if you're an evil super-villain, you put a puppet in power and lead from the shadows. See Reagan, Ronald or Bush, George W.

[Paul.]

Quality of leadership really falls off below executive-level management

You've obviously never worked for a big company.

[Rasilio]

But the really important question is ...

"Does he look good in a cape?"

[Pro Libertate]

No capes!

[AlmightyJB]

That's not hios real name. That's obviously an older Hannibel Lechter.

[BarryD]

He is about to kill the whole thing.

Somebody needs to tell him something about timing...

[RPR2]

he makes the classic mistake. monologuing.

[Tulpa the White]

Supervillainy without monologues is like sex with your clothes on. Sure, it works quicker. But it feels weird as hell.

[Groovus Maximus]

Then explain peanut butter.

[Episiarch]

Nothing can ever make the Europeans into one homogeneous group. Nothing. You needn't worry.

Van Rompuy is delusional, and can try whatever he wants. He will fail.

[Rich]

Nothing?

[John]

If they don't quit, at some point there will just be revolutions. No way are the Germans going to let the EU steal their savings or if they do allow the government that did it to remain in power.

[Admiral]

Don't you know that German opposition to the EU is misdirection? It's all part of their insidious plan to instate a Fourth Reich.

Even though I live in Germany, I was unaware of this plot until it was exposed by the New York Times, a section of which (unfortunately) comes in the South German newspaper every Monday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06......html?_r=1

[fish]

He's a Top Man Epi....don't under estimated his dark bureaucratic powers.

[Groovus Maximus]

This really is true, Epi. However, heterogeneous mixtures can and do inhabit the same discrete, closed space, and Europe is not terribly large.

[Paul.]

This really is true, Epi. However, heterogeneous mixtures can and do inhabit the same discrete, closed space, and Europe is not terribly large.

It's the largest group of white people who hate eachother in the world.

[robc]

Nothing can ever make the Europeans into one homogeneous group. Nothing.

Immigration to America has done a pretty good job of it.

[Restoras]

Well, it took the balls to leave your home and embrace an idea, and not an ethnic identity, for that to happen. Don't see the same thing happening in Europe proper. They will revert to killing each other, as they have for centuries.

[Paul.]

This. The American Experiment was self-selecting. The people who wanted to come here were sick of all the old beefs, ethnic strife, entrenched politics, corruption and graft.

The EU merely codified that shit into law... look where it got them.

[Rich]

Nothing can ever make the Europeans into one homogeneous group.

Nothing?

[TANSTaaFL]

That reminds me of an old joke.

How do you get 20 Frenchmen into a pinto?

A blender.

How do you get 20 Frenchmen out of a Pinto?

Baguette.

[sarcasmic]

Won't it be ironic if Germany decides to leave the Union, and the rest of Europe wages war to keep them in.

[John]

None of them have functioning armies anymore. It would be a slap fight.

[Whiterun Guard]

Finland has half of the Wehrmacht in cryogenic stasis. They're just biding their time.

[CE]

Plus the Tesseract.

[tarran]

This is how Turkey will get in. The huge Turkish army was supposed to provide the bulk of the infantry (after the U.S.) to NATO.

Those Eurocrats will look at their personal maps of Europe and know where they can get all the young fit men in uniform they need to make their dreams reality.

[fish]

I think it will take more than all the swarthy in Turkey to achieve those goals. It will take the strapping young lads from "Meh" to satisfy Europe!

[Tulpa the White]

None of them have functioning armies anymore. It would be a slap fight.

You forgot Poland.

[Groovus Maximus]

And Ukraine.

[Tulpa the White]

I know you're playing a game, but they're not in the EU.

[Restoras]

UKRAINE IS STRONG!

[Paul.]

None of them have functioning armies anymore. It would be a slap fight.

Don't make me post that picture...

Hugh will complain.

[John]

What will be funny is when there are legitimate popular revolts against this. The salty tears of shock and rage from American liberals over the evil European spring are going to be fabulous.

[Paul.]

If Germany pulls out of the EU, will we call it Springtime for Merkel?

[Mike M.]

This is exactly what globalist types and international socialists really want in their heart of hearts: a gradual and ever-continuing transference of power and control away from people at the local level to an ever smaller, more distant, and more centralized group of bureaucrats and technocratic so-called "elites" who won't really be accountable to anyone, until we're all one big happy world where nobody has any real freedom left to speak of.

The fact that most Europeans want no part of this is hardly relevant; most didn't want the Euro to be adopted either. All that matters is what the so-called elites want, therefore it will eventually happen.

[John]

Until the mob shows up and hangs them.

[Mike M.]

Ha. Today's Europeans have nothing whatsoever in common with those of previous generations. The only way to whip up a European mob now is to tell them they have to actually start working for a change.

As long as they're made to believe that the free ride can keep going, they will be easily bullied into going along with whatever they're told.

[John]

The Germans still work. And the others will start rioting when the money runs out. The illusion of a free ride can't be maintained anymore.

[Mr. FIFY]

A portent of things to come in this country, John.

[John]

We are much better off than Europe. We might save ourselves. In Europe something like OWS would have been a real movement. Here it was a joke.

[Restoras]

I don't think we are much better off than Europe. Certainly from a debt and fiscal point of view we are not. The only advantage we have relative to the Europeans is that a lot of people here actually like to work, save, invest, and at least pay lip service to the idea of limited government.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

So close. I guess that is what I get for using your non de plume.

[?Ex Nihilo?]

Ha. Today's EuropeansAmericans have nothing whatsoever in common with those of previous generations. The only way to whip up an EuropeanAmerican mob now is to tell them they have to actually start working for a change.

As long as they're made to believe that the free ride can keep going, they will be easily bullied into going along with whatever they're told.

FIFY

[Bardas Phocas]

The Merkel says,"no fucking way" on 'shared debt' and the market sells everything. It's called the 'Merkel Moment'.
http://www.zerohedge.com/sites.....merkel.png

[EDG reppin' LBC]

Why does Angela Merkel hate my portfolio? She doesn't even know me!

[invisible furry hand]

SugarFree put her in some slash fic and now we're all guilty by association

[SugarFree]

It's not my fault that Hollande vowed to "fuck the farts out of her ass."

[Mike M.]

She's channeling her inner Herman Cain. As in "Nein, nein, nein."

[NotSure]

Its called being responsible, something the infantile leaders of America, France, Greece etc. seem to lack.

[Raston Bot]

fucking Belgium.

so does that guy look like the evil doctor in Human Centipede I?

[0x90]

Here is a picture of southern Europe's future.

[Pro Libertate]

I watched Rompuy Room as a kid. I always thought he was a woman.

[NotSure]

Pooling of debt is the daftest idea, there is an assumption that it will make Greek debt the same quality as German debt, it will turn out to be the other way around. As for the whole monitoring the other countries to make sure they don't mess up their debt leves, those rules already were in place, look how well they turned out in the end.

[0x90]

And Farage is a riot...imagine if somebody like Johnson or Paul had his personality.

[Tommy_Grand]

"is making sure that this crisis does not go to waste and is using it to implement WANT many in Brussels have wanted for a long time"

unintentionally accurate

[Bardas Phocas]

The day's news from Euroland gets better.
Former Goldman-Sachs fluffer turned Italian Prime Minister threatens The Merkel: "Eurobonds or I quit, bitch .... if things do not change we are not able to bring Italy out of the abyss".
The Merkel pops his head like a pimple and gives an evil germanic laugh.
http://translate.google.com/tr.....=1act=url

[Mike M.]

Yep, I see in the news that the Lazy Loser Coalition is holding nothing back now and has openly starting calling Merkel the new Hitler.

This is obviously the last desperation gambit. We're truly at the endgame now, and it's all about to come apart at the seams.

[CE]

The idea of a democratically elected president over most of a continent is truly terrifying....

[ant1sthenes]

Didn't work out very well here, I can tell you.

[Fluffy]

While the euro may have been a disastrous attempt to achieve this goal...

The euro wasn't a disaster.

The euro was actually a success.

It put manipulation of the currency beyond the reach of individual European governments. Hurray for the euro!

It was only a disaster if you embarked on a political programme that required you to be able to debase your own currency.

The Greeks, Spanish and Italians are like jewel thieves that undertook complex, Ocean's Eleven style heist plans, and got halfway through them and discovered they forgot to bring a can opener and now they're fucked.

[Suthenboy]

Look at that pic....he is clearly a vampire. I thought they didnt show their fangs in public like that? The mask is off I guess.

[shamalam]

Does anybody else think Von Rumpuy looks like Mr Burns on the Simpsons?

[joshua corning]

Is the EU, as it stands now, libertarian?

I always liked that it allowed citizens to move and work in any member state they wanted to.

Is free labor mobility libertarian?

Also the unified currency does seem to put pressure on spendthrift states.

If the US throws money out of helicopters and into state employee pension plans no one seems to give a shit. When Greece does it other EU members freak the hell out.

But then again it has not worked very well.

[ChrisO]

Free movement of labor is about the only libertarian aspect of the EU. Otherwise, it's just another collection of bureaucrats and smothering regulations on top of the one the individual states already have.

[Tulpa the White]

I always liked that it allowed citizens to move and work in any member state they wanted to.

So does the US. If I'm from Montana I can work in South Carolina if I want.

If this is an attempt at an open borders talking point, you're making a bad analogy. The proper comparison is how the EU deals with potential workers from outside the EU.

Also, compare the level of opportunity a Mexican immigrant in Phoenix has compared to a Tunisian in the Paris banlieus.