European Union - System: Power Corrupts

Consolidated versions of the Treaty on European Union ... (Article 2)

The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.'.

All these principles have been violated by the European power elite, one way or another.

Konrad Adenauer - Henry Kissinger: Diplomacy

France and England will never be powers comparable to the United States and the Soviet Union. Nor Germany either. There remains to them only one way of playing a decisive role in the world; that is to unite to make Europe. ... We have no time to waste: Europe will be your revenge.

José Manuel Barroso - European Union and Global Order (26 May 2008)

Today, I wish to say a few words on how the European Union can contribute to global governance. My argument is built around four words: competition, opportunities, challenges and governance. The competition that Europe faces in the 21st Century world. The opportunities created by globalization. The challenges that Europe must tackle. And, finally, the European Union as an example of international and transnational governance for the world.

Martin Feldstein - The Failure of the Euro

The primary political motive for increased European integration [is] to enhance Europe's role in world affairs.

The EU is a major globalization project of the power elite by which they rule their self-created superstate including the nations and all the people in them. Books like The European Union and Emerging Powers in the 21st Century: How Europe Can Shape a New Global Order by Sven Biscop understate the given that globalization is a one-way street, towards the often mentioned New World Order, leaving no room for alternatives. The European Parliament in Strasbourg represents the new Tower of Babel as is seen in the obvious symbolism used by the power elite.

Deutsche Welle - The 'who's who' of European tax havens

If you want to avoid paying taxes and have no problem with dicey business practices, Europe has a lot to offer.

Tax Justice Network - How Europe's Investment Bank flouts its own tax haven policies

We all know that the finance sector is addicted to offshore...

The power elite have created a tax haven empire for the super rich.

Guardian - Jean-Claude Juncker's real scandal is his tax-haven homeland of Luxembourg

During Juncker's reign ... the duchy reinvented itself as Europe's largest tax haven...

Der Spiegel - Pressure Mounts for EU Crackdown on Tax Havens

Politicians in Brussels have maneuvered to save him from the scandal...

Guardian - Luxembourg tax files: how tiny state rubber-stamped tax avoidance on an industrial scale

Luxembourg ... multi-billion dollar tax secrets of some of the world's largest multinational corporations.

As minister of finance Juncker turned Luxembourg into Europe's leading tax haven. He was involved in the so-called Luxembourg Leaks and the Juncker spy scandal. The European power elite elected Juncker as president of the European Commission. After being exposed to have lied he said "when it becomes serious, you have to lie." Before the French referendum on the EU constitution in 2005 he said "if it's a yes, we will say, 'On we go', and if it's a no, we will say, 'We continue'." A professional liar like Juncker in such an important position says a great deal about the EU and the power elite in control of it.

EU Observer - EU tax havens drain money from developing nations

Tax havens in countries such as Luxembourg are zapping billions of euros from the coffers of developing countries...

European Commission - How many people live in poverty in the EU?

In 2012, close to 125 million people - almost a quarter of the population in the EU - were at risk of poverty or social exclusion (see STAT/13/184). Almost 50 million are suffering severe material deprivation.

WHO - Rising numbers of children living in poverty across Europe

The number of children living in relative poverty is increasing across all Member States in the WHO European Region.

While the rich get richer and the super-rich even richer, economic inequality keeps rising.

Gabriel Reznick - Shared Sovereignty and the European Union

The EU has shown that states can come together and form a collective, in terms of sharing laws, currency, security, and other areas that are usually under the control of a singular nation state. Consequently, the traditional view of sovereignty has especially been challenged in recent years. Since the EU is made of different member states, in order for the EU to have power and sovereignty, the member states have given up much of their sovereign power.

Spectrezine - The Nation State, Sovereignty and the European Union

Last year's referendums on their Accession Treaties were travesties of democracy. Public funding, the mass media and the referendum rules were grotesquely unbalanced in favour of EU accession. The EU Commission, ever anxious to increase its own power, interfered massively in favour of the Yes-side - almost certainly in breach of EU law, which gives the Commission no competence in treaty ratification.

Claes H. de Vreese - Why European Citizens will Reject the EU Constitution

The democratic deficit is a lack of legitimacy in that EU decisions are not sufficiently responsive to public preferences and scrutiny. This gap between elite opinion and public opinion on European integration has also been established in more empirical terms showing differences in the areas in which political elites and European publics are willing to confer power to the EU.

Globalization is against democracy and sovereignty. See also EU Constitution.

Sarkozy and Berlusconi taking a bath (source: cagle.com)

David Craig, Matthew Elliott - The Great European Rip-off

It has been estimated that the EU costs us around £1,000 billion a year - an incredible £2000 for every man, woman and child in Europe. So what do we get for our money?

European Commission - Eurobarometer: Corruption on the rise?

Corruption remains a major problem in the countries of the European Union and levels are thought to have risen over the last three years.

Cecilia Malmström - Corruption on the rise?

Corruption is a disease that destroys a country from within, undermining trust in democratic institutions, weakening the accountability of political leadership and playing into the hands of organised crime groups. Corruption can only be tackled successfully through the will and commitment of leaders and decision-makers at all levels.

The EU is a bureaucracy whose leaders are not democratically elected by EU citizens, but they are appointed by the EU power elite themselves. This is cronyism. The EU power elite make laws and regulations for member states without the consent of the people who are simply forced to abide. The EU is in essence undemocratic. The question is not whether the EU is corrupt, but how corrupt. Of course anybody who thinks that corrupt people will ever tackle corruption is a complete idiot. The facts speak for themselves.