Monday, 5th January 2009
Brussels Briefing - January
1. BRITAIN MUST NOT ABANDON THE £
The dramatic fall and rise of sterling against the Euro has left many people perplexed. Shortly after New Year the pound and the Euro were almost in parity. British tourists travelling to the Eurozone were horrified to find that a pint of beer was costing nearly £7 and a meal in a fast food restaurant nearly £30. Just as quickly as it fell, however, the pound rose again like the proverbial phoenix from the ashes. Now a Euro is worth only 90p and the pound continues to strengthen. This is almost certainly because the international markets have discovered that the recession in the Eurozone is much deeper and more severe than they had previously realised. At the same time, countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece, all stalwart Eurozone members, are now struggling to survive the disastrous strait-jacket that membership of the single currency imposes. Each of these countries has spiralling debts but cannot react by devaluing their currency the way Britain has done. With their respective economies in deep recession and unemployment rising to frightening levels (already 13% in Spain), what these countries need is a sharp cut in interest rates, similar to that agreed by the Bank of England.
But interest rates in the Eurozone are controlled by the European Central Bank. The ECB fuelled the inflationary boom by keeping rates too low for too long and they now seem determined to maintain them at too high a level to benefit countries like Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. The on-going riots in Greece are a fore-warning that the economic collapse of these countries is now a distinct possibility. There is no doubt that the British economy is in an equally bad state after 10 years of Labour mismanagement, but, because we have remained outside the Eurozone, at least we are in a position to use the traditional tools of economic management to sort things out.
In addition, while the pound remains relatively weak against the Euro, it makes it easier for UK business and industry to export goods abroad. The value of British goods suddenly looks extremely competitive and full order books may help some companies survive the looming disaster of the economic meltdown. Foreign tourists too should find the UK a more attractive and cheaper destination for holidays so long as the pound/euro remains at its current level. This could be great news for Scotland during the 2009 Year of Homecoming.
While it would be to nobody’s advantage either in the UK or in the Eurozone to see the single currency fail, we must be steadfast in our resolve never to join it. Britain should keep the pound but the UK economy needs to be properly managed so that the real value of sterling against other major currencies is maintained. Gordon Brown once famously stated “A weak currency is the sign of a weak economy, which is the sign of a weak government!” It is a great irony that due to Gordon Brown’s horrendous economic bungling, Britain would in any case now fail the tests to become a member of the Eurozone. I suppose every cloud has a silver lining!
2. ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY
Lord Acton’s famous statement in 1870, that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely,” rings true today regarding the EU Council of Ministers. This body has become so certain of its own absolute power that it has become absolutely corrupted.
Comprised of government ministers from the 27 EU Member States, the Council basically takes the final decisions for running Europe. They are not directly elected by the people and the minutes of their secret meetings are not published. Yet, in an attempt to appease one of the world’s most vile regimes, this group of senior European politicians has repeatedly and blatantly broken the law.
The European Court of Justice and the Court of First Instance (CFI) in Luxembourg are the highest courts of the European Communities. On four consecutive occasions the CFI has ruled that the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI) has no connection whatsoever to terrorism and therefore should not be listed on the EU terrorist list. But, each time, the Council of Ministers has simply brushed aside the court’s ruling and re-listed the PMOI, freezing its assets across the whole of Europe, severely curtailing its ability to operate as the main opposition to Iran’s vile theocratic regime.
Why has the Council acted repeatedly in such a corrupt and illegal way? The answer, sadly, is appeasement. Iran’s oppressive fascist rulers fear and loathe the PMOI. They have tortured and executed more than 120,000 of the PMOI’s supporters in the past 27 years, and have even murdered and maimed senior PMOI figures in Turkey and Europe. They dread the PMOI securing a foothold in Europe from which it could launch a successful attempt to replace the terrorist regime with a secular democracy. Yet this is the regime the Council of Ministers seeks to appease by defying the law. Why?
Iran also has something the West badly needs….oil. In addition to rich petro-dollar contracts, the mullahs also use their nuclear enrichment programme as a bargaining tool, dangling the possibility of a halt to the process to keep the West on side, while demanding the PMOI’s blacklisting. It is too easy for Europe’s leading politicians to ignore the rule of law when such alluring prizes are on offer.
The former British Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, who visited Tehran more often than any other city apart from Brussels and Washington, openly admitted that the PMOI’s listing in the UK was at the behest of the mullahs. The UK then asked the Council of Ministers to follow suit. But, starting on 30 November 2007, verdicts by a special tribunal, which described the original decision to list the PMOI as “perverse”, and later by the UK Court of Appeal led to the PMOI’s delisting in June 2008. The EU’s listing was thus deprived of its sole sponsor.
Undeterred, the mullahs simply turned their focus on Paris, urging the French to step in to the breach in return for continuing rich contracts for French companies in Iran. Predictably, President Sarkozy complied and the Council of Ministers agreed to France’s request to place the PMOI once again on the EU terror list in defiance of the courts.
On 23rd October and on 4th December, the CFI again ordered the Council to stop defying the law and to de-list the PMOI. The judges awarded all costs against the Council. They were particularly incensed because the French government had refused to show them a copy of the evidence against the PMOI, which had presumably been drawn up by Iranian intelligence and passed to Paris and was too absurd even to show to the courts!
This sad tale is a cause of great distress to the Iranian people, who are the real victims of acts of appeasement aimed at this evil regime. The mullahs have continued to execute more people than ever, including pregnant women, children and political opponents. Their brutal brand of fascist oppression endorses torture, flogging, amputation, eye-gouging and stoning, as medieval forms of punishment. The Council must apologise to the people of Iran, as every act of appeasement has simply emboldened the mullahs to commit ever harsher acts of oppression.
The Council’s craven act of appeasement has not achieved anything for the West either. The mullahs are now nearing completion of a nuclear warhead and a delivery system which will target Israel and threaten peace on a global scale. And, they continue to fund and inflame the Iraqi insurgency and supply money, weapons and train terrorists to assist Hamas and Hizbollah, fanning the flames of conflict across the Middle East.
The Council must end this illegal farce and implement the decision of the courts. The real terrorists are the mullahs, not the PMOI.
The PMOI is our closest ally in the fight for democracy, human rights, women's rights and an end to nuclear weapons development in Iran. The EU must unlock the PMOI’s handcuffs, open its cell doors and allow the PMOI and the charismatic leader of the Iranian Resistance, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, to spearhead the campaign for freedom in Iran.
Struan Stevenson MEP
