<nettime> Failure for 90 percent of the people (the rest will be fine)

[Brian Holmes <bhcontinentaldrift@gmail.com>]

http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/10/14/a-coup-in-the-european-union

Failure for 90 Percent of the People (The Rest Will Be Fine)
A Coup in the European Union?
by SUSAN GEORGE

European Union workers’ pretentions to better pay and working 
conditions, shorter working lives, munificent retirement benefits, long 
holidays and time off for this and that have got to be brought under 
control!  Enough is enough!

Let us be thankful that the European Commission has the answers.  Soon 
the neoliberal model will become irreversible and all these pretentious 
upstarts will have to shut up once and for all.  High time too.   In a 
brilliant move, the  Commission has pushed through a bundle of measures 
called the “six-pack”—a cheerful name suggesting parties where the beer 
flows freely.  This bundle is rather more austere and will give the 
Commission hitherto unheard-of leverage in the affairs of its member States.

By a close vote on 28 September 2011, the European Parliament passed the 
Commission’s plan—a far-reaching takeover of individual countries’ 
capacity to set their own budgets and to manage their own sovereign 
debts.  From now on, the Parliament and the Council (with the Commission 
naturally overseeing the process) will be able to force governments to 
comply with the Maastricht Treaty recommendations—otherwise known as the 
“Stability and Growth Pact”–to which member States had recently paid 
precious little attention.  After 2005 this Pact seemed almost a quaint 
relic.  But now, thanks to the six-pack, no deficits greater than 3% and 
no national debts above 60% of GDP will be countenanced.  What these 
people need is stern discipline, make no mistake.

Starting in 2012, Euro-parliamentarians and the Council will dissect 
national budgets before national parliaments have any say at all or even 
a chance to look at them.  If countries do not reduce their debts fast 
enough or refuse the budgetary “suggestions” from Brussels, enforcement 
measures will kick in.  In case of further recalcitrance on the part of 
member States, punishment can mean either depositing or forfeiting .01, 
.02 or even .05% of the country’s GDP to the EU, depending on how severe 
the country’s non-compliance is judged.  In the case of, say, France, 
with a GDP of about €1.900 billion ($2.600 billion) the Commission could 
demand a deposit or a fine of some €20 to €40 billion  or even €100 
billion if the Commission were to escalate the sanctions to .05% of GDP.

True to the Commission’s usual quietly efficient methods, these 
permanent six-pack measures went through the whole approval procedure 
with barely a ripple,  little debate and virtually zero citizen 
involvement.  Most Europeans have not the slightest inkling that any 
change has taken place, much less a savage attack on their governments’ 
capacity to govern.  Thanks to this legislation, we can count on the 
lasting power of neoliberal doctrine throughout Europe, particularly in 
the euro zone, as elected officials are dispossessed by appointed, 
non-accountable ones of their right to draw up their own budgets.  They 
lost the right to a say on monetary policy long ago.  .

The six-pack, thanks also to the right-wing euro-parliamentary majority 
is now firmly entrenched and will be difficult if not impossible to 
reverse.  Anywhere else, one might have heard accusations of a mass coup 
d’état against member State governments and their peoples.  But so far, 
all’s quiet on the EU front.

Simultaneously, the Commission is pushing the member States to follow 
another part of the neoliberal scenario through a variety of other 
directives ensuring longer work weeks and working lives and the gradual 
alignment of wages and social benefits according to lowest common 
denominators. This process may be a bit slower but will also be enhanced 
by the six-pack.

The European Court of Justice is doing its part on the second objective 
in particular with at least four separate judgments obliging workers to 
accept sub-standard wages even when working in countries with strong 
worker-protection laws like Sweden or Finland.

One has to admire the Commission’s capacity for discretion and getting 
things done without unnecessarily upsetting member States’ citizens or 
their national parliaments.  The apparent technical complexity of the 
measures and the process of putting them in place help to keep things 
quiet, although these measures are actually quite straightforward (and, 
one might add, have German fingerprints all over them).

Meanwhile, the largely neo-liberal European media see no reason to make 
an issue of what’s happening behind the scenes in Brussels and assist in 
keeping the lid on protest until too late for citizens to intervene. 
All this spells greater victories ahead to come for neoliberalism and 
the failure of European economies.  No, sorry, only failure for 90 
percent of the people.  The rest will be fine.  Not to worry.  As Martin 
Wolf recently paraphrased Tacitus in the Financial Times to describe the 
European situation, “They create a desert and call it stability”.

Susan George is a TranNational Institute fellow, President of the Board 
of TNI and honorary president of ATTAC-France [Association for Taxation 
of Financial Transaction to Aid Citizens]


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