I’m watching an Ursula von der Leyen presser. Ursula… von… who?
Well, she’s the head of the European Commission, its top bureaucrat. Interesting that the person who speaks for the EU is a non-popularly elected bureaucrat.
Anyway, two things jumped out at me:
1. The UE has implemented “emergency measures” allowing EU members to do “whatever they need”, to spend whatever they want, to fight the coronavirus.
Wow! In other words, the EU’s initiative here, its “historic decision” is to allow member states to do what they would have done if they’d never been members of the EU in the first place. Fantastic.
2. The EU is allocating €200 billion to fight the virus. Sounds a lot, but it’s just one tenth of the US’ anti-virus spend. The US says it may go up to $6 Trillion, 30 times than the bigger EU.
Free movement of labour will continue, Ursula assures us. Great. That was effectively the case before the monster squid of Eurocrats wrapped its tentacles around daily life of Europeans.
Pathetic.
And now we have EU has-been, the hack Donald Tuisk, lecturing us on the morality of how to handle the virus. Spare us!
ADDED 6 April:
Well, she’s the head of the European Commission, its top bureaucrat. Interesting that the person who speaks for the EU is a non-popularly elected bureaucrat.
Anyway, two things jumped out at me:
1. The UE has implemented “emergency measures” allowing EU members to do “whatever they need”, to spend whatever they want, to fight the coronavirus.
Wow! In other words, the EU’s initiative here, its “historic decision” is to allow member states to do what they would have done if they’d never been members of the EU in the first place. Fantastic.
2. The EU is allocating €200 billion to fight the virus. Sounds a lot, but it’s just one tenth of the US’ anti-virus spend. The US says it may go up to $6 Trillion, 30 times than the bigger EU.
Free movement of labour will continue, Ursula assures us. Great. That was effectively the case before the monster squid of Eurocrats wrapped its tentacles around daily life of Europeans.
Pathetic.
And now we have EU has-been, the hack Donald Tuisk, lecturing us on the morality of how to handle the virus. Spare us!
ADDED 6 April:
When Italy asked for urgent medical supplies, no EU country responded. Germany initially banned the export of medical masks and other protective gear. France requisitioned all production of face masks. The European Commission was forced to step in, restricting medical equipment exports. This restored a semblance of EU solidarity, but at the expense of poor countries dependent on EU suppliers and at the risk of tit-for-tat trade restrictions.So, spare us your “morality”, Donald!
