Some of the EU’s greatest champions are openly discussing paring it down in order to try saving it. Former French President Sarkozy calls for the suspension of Schengen:
With the far-Right Front National polled to pip Mr Sarkozy’s crisis-wracked UMP to the post in Sunday’s EU elections in France, the ex-president said: “Schengen I must be immediately suspended and be replaced by a Schengen II of which member countries can only be a part if they previously agree to the same immigration policy.”
Europe migration policy has failed and the need to replace Schengen I has become obvious, he added, as the current system allows immigrants who enter it to “choose the (European) country with the most generous welfare system. Europe is not meant to organise social and migratory dumping, almost systematically at the expense of France,” he warned.
Without mentioning by name his Socialist French presidential successor, François Hollande, Mr Sarkozy nevertheless decried an “absence of leadership (that) is placing Europe in danger, as it is without vision, direction or priorities”.
He also called for half of the competences of Brussels to be returned to national governments. The European Commission, meanwhile, should be stripped of all legislative powers – the sole preserve of the EU parliament.
However, he warned against the rise of populist anti-EU sentiment, saying the bloc protects its citizens from the “ideological veering off course of governments and majority parties.
“If the European Union broke up centuries-old hatred and conflicts of interest would resurface more violently.”
“We must correct its excesses but as a project it must be preserved.”
At this point, even its leaders understand that the EU is a complete failure. If it is conserved at all, it will be as some sort of Franco-German free market. But the Euro is a disaster and the grand scheme of the United States of Europe is already dead.
And with UKIP doing much better than expected with the local councils – it’s already confirmed to have taken 89 council seats, 9 better than the 80 projected, and could end up with as many as 230 – it shouldn’t be too many years before Great Britain is out of the monstrosity, with or without Scotland.