The Commission must repair Europe’s great
Public Relations Disaster

Imagine President Bush and the Congress co-sponsoring an exhibition where Abraham Lincoln is quoted as saying he lied about his belief in democracy and he intended that US government be achieved by anti-democratic conspiracy. What would it do for America’s heritage, image and future? Astonishingly, in Brussels, an exhibition called ‘Image of Europe’ had in large letters:

"Europe’s nations should be guided to the super-state without the people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but which will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation."

These words were allegedly from one of the European Union’s founding fathers, Jean Monnet, the European Commission’s first president. A huge photo of Monnet introduces the main theme of the Dutch EU Presidency’s exhibition: between 1946 and 1992, Europe was integrated "by stealth" and "almost invisibly" to the public! The astonishing thing is that the exhibition was co-sponsored by the highest European officials. It was opened in September by Bernard Bot, the Dutch Foreign Minister for the Presidency of the European Union and the then Commission President Romano Prodi.

The exhibition stood for 2½ months on the Robert Schuman Roundabout between the buildings of the European Council of Ministers and the European Commission. If unscrupulous anti-Europeans had mounted the exhibition, they could have hardly claimed more of a triumph. It is the most dangerous of hoaxes. It subtly menaces European diplomacy and world freedom.

In October, I asked the organisers to prove the source for the quote or retract it. No reply. When my challenge was then quoted in a newspaper, Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Mark Leonard of the London-based Foreign Policy Centre, wrote a letter. They apologized honourably that they were "fooled" by the "crass …fabrication" allegedly Jean Monnet’s. They found it on "more than 100 websites". They corrected a French spelling next to Monnet’s giant face but not the Monnet misquote allegedly exposing his lies, deceit, conspiracy and anti-democratic "stealth"! Why did no European official insist it be changed? Is it more important to spell "engrenage" correctly?

How were Europe’s highest officials "fooled" too? What does it say of the training of many officials visiting it over several months? Do they think they work stealthily for an anti-democratic conspiracy? The Commission and the EU Presidency have not issued a press release condemning the fraud. Virulent opponents can therefore claim all Europe’s top brass implicitly confirmed, even championed, the idea that the EU is an anti-democratic conspiracy. Websites around the world can continue to poison public opinion, especially the ignorant and gullible, who will vote in elections and referendums. The fraud is still being used to encourage Britons to vote for leaving the EU.

I wrote to the EU President, Dutch Prime Minister, Jan Balkenende, about this curious art of communicating Europe to the people. The Dutch haven’t replied. The European Commission is legally empowered as the guardian of the treaties and Europe’s democratic patrimony. I asked the President to deny Europe is a plot. The Commission President’s adviser merely quoted me the organisers’ letter in a regional newspaper. How did European institutions get taxpayers to pay, not for honest debate, but an in-your-face, institutional libel and an insult to honest voters and the free press. Silence betrays those voters. It poisons citizens’ trust in European institutions. It cripples European foreign policy.

Today, the European Union is helping strengthen democratic standards in Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people spent bitterly cold nights in protest demanding the impartial rule of law. What moral legitimacy can the European Union have? Simultaneously the EU sponsors an exhibition claiming that Monnet conspired to mould "the super-state without the people understanding what was happening"? What does it say to new member states, the generation of 1989-91 who liberated themselves from Soviet-controlled "people’s democracies"? Why should other states aspire to join if Europeans and the press are so stupidly tricked by conspiracy and are heading for an anti-democratic federation? How can Europeans look the USA in the eyes?

Robert Schuman, as French Foreign Minister, created today’s institutional framework. It fired today’s European economic powerhouse. It is a magnet for democracies. Why? Citizens’ forums for European public opinion were founded earlier by an initiative of Schuman as Prime Minister: the Council of Europe, where Winston Churchill and many statesmen debated, the European Parliament and the European Court too.

Schuman improved on Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy: "of the people, by the people and for the people." Schuman’s simpler and more scientific definition is recently republished in a book of his early speeches. Democracy is "at the service of the people and acting in agreement with it." The European people are defining how they can best serve themselves, other Europeans and the world. Agreements must have multi-democratic affirmation.

The founding European treaties were debated and voted in all chambers of parliaments of all political colours. Under unprecedented scrutiny, all subsequent European treaties and much legislation are examined and voted in all 25 independent national systems. Each democracy has its own safeguards. The media and experts scrutinise everything for impartiality and benefits. What would happen if US federal legislation had to be voted and passed in all legislative chambers of 50 states?

If the European Commission, as guardian, won’t defend Europe’s democracy, heritage and future, who will guard the guardians? ##© DHPrice

 

 

Extract of Letter to Chester Chronicle, Sept 2003 (also on Internet).

"One of the founding fathers of the EU, Jean Monnet, stated, 'European nations should be guided towards the Superstate without their people understanding what is happening. This can be accomplished by successive steps, each disguised as having an economic purpose, but will eventually and irreversibly lead to federation!'

The only way to reverse the creeping concern of a European Superstate is to negotiate withdrawal from the EU.

The voters of Chester and the districts have another opportunity to vote 'no' to the European Union at the next General Election by voting for the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP).
PETER LOWE, Chester, UK

 

 

 

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