Monday, November 22, 2010

The EUstapo in Waiting

In time, I believe the European Union will trample the freedoms of Europeans and the powers of European states.

The lengthening span of EU regulations is accomplishing the latter's demise. The former can see the form of their new persecutors already:

The full extent of the police and criminal prosecution powers that the European Union has over British citizens can be revealed today.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has uncovered an alarming array of new EU controls over justice and home affairs for which no one has voted, and most are unknown to the public.

These include:
  • Europol, the £60 million-a-year European criminal intelligence agency, whose officers have diplomatic immunity.
  • An 800-strong paramilitary police force called the European Gendarmerie Force. 
  • The European Arrest Warrant, which now allows British citizens to be seized in the UK and sent without appeal to foreign jails for months or years without bail while awaiting trial.

No one has voted for this expansion of police powers? Sure, this is true. But the lack of democracy in the EU is a feature and not a bug. Get used to it, Europe. You are being herded into the Soviet Union Lite and don't even seem to notice.

And good luck to the first country that tries to withdraw from the EU. You can be sure that Brussels will have their own version--perhaps kinder and gentler, but perhaps not--of the Brezhnev Doctrine to stop that.

If any country wants out of the EU, they'd best do it before the instruments of EU force expand to armed forces and not just police powers.