Twitter / SophieCo_RT: '#Ukraine's #EU choice has
'#Ukraine's #EU choice has to be made by voting, not riots' - Miguel Martinez, VP of European parliament @Europarl_EN http://rt.com/shows/sophieco/vice-president-eu-parliament-114/
Brussels is trying to integrate more states into its union, but some Europeans who are already in, now want out. Ukraine is on fire, split between those who want to join and those who want to stay away from crisis-stricken Europe. Skepticism is gaining ground across the continent, and the upcoming EU parliamentary polls may bring some unexpected upsets. What can be done to reverse the bloc’s fortunes? To answer that, we are joined by Vice-President of the European Parliament Miguel Angel Martinez.
SS: You’re saying Ukrainians should decide by themselves; we’ve seen lately a lot of European politicians actually taking part in demonstrations in Kiev and picking sides in the dispute.What do you think of that? Is that justified?
SS: But also we have heard in the press a lot of extensive criticism towards Kiev for passing the package of anti-rioting laws in the wake of the clashes. Criticism from the EU as well, but a similar law proposal that sparked riots in Spain hasn’t really provoked any criticism from Brussels. How do you explain that?
SS: On a broader note Mr. Martinez, I want to talk to you about the shape EU finds itself right now in. The Euroskeptic movement is on the rise, especially in Great Britain. Would the Union suffer if Britain left, for instance?
MM: What do you mean? You mean, Euroskeptics – this is what you mean?
SS: Yes, Euroskeptics, people who think that EU didn’t turn out to be the great union that everyone aimed for when it was started, because of the crisis, because a lot of people are losing faith, they don’t have the solidarity in their vision anymore.
MM: This is, of course, a subject of concern. This is a very great paradox. In my opinion the European Union is more necessary than ever. More necessary to our respective people – in times of globalizations, none of our countries and none of our people will be able to maintain the progress that we have succeeded to achieve and which, I suppose, nobody discusses, even in the Russian Federation.
The standards of living and the social progress that we have built within the European Union are of enormous value, at least of enormous value for our respective people. The level of equality and inequality that we have in our respective countries, even if it is growing in recent years, under conservative ruling, the inequality in any of our country is much smaller than the one is reaching nowadays in the Russian Federation, not to speak about countries like China or others in the world.
Our system is a system which is reasonably satisfactory, even if it needs to be improved. In any case, it is indispensable if we want to maintain these standards that we have succeeded to build. The strange thing and the failure of many of us is that at the moment in which this process is more necessary than ever it is also – you were right with your question – more threatened than ever. Now, one has to question: why is this process being threatened and by whom? If you want, I can tell you why it is threatened and by whom it is threatened.
SS: Yes, tell me please.
MM: It is threatened exactly by the powers of financial world which know that if the EU consolidates itself the power that the financial, the banking system and in general, the capital, because I’m not worried with using a term which doesn’t seem to be very fashionable today.
The capital knows very well that if we consolidate the EU, it is going to build systems to control the capital, and to oblige the capital to behave with full respect for a number of social progress, social justice measures, and of course the capital doesn’t want that. The capital has been gaining power enormously in recent years. The capital which was controlled more or less at national level has broken these controls with the globalization in the world, and they don’t want the EU to become a political power, which will necessarily control the behavior of the capital and will oblige the capital to obey to social justice mechanisms and values.
That is why the capital is trying to oppose, by all means, the consolidation of the EU. It is doing that through a tremendous intermediate power, which is indeed attacking and denying any credibility to the European Union process, and it is doing that also through the creation and the financing of political parties and instruments which indeed are putting into question the EU as such.
The European Union is the big danger for the capital power which has been enormously growing in Europe and in the world, and they know very well that it is not in their interest – a European Union that consolidates. That’s as clear as that.
SS: But does that capital have anything with austerity measures that are being implemented over and over again in the EU countries? Because, overwhelming majority of economists are saying that these measures aren’t working.
SS: You’ve got elections coming up pretty soon, right? And the latest ballot polls are actually saying that young people – and young people have always been the main supporters of EU idea – are losing faith in the EU leadership. Do you see it as a problem for the future?
Twitter / SophieCo_RT: 'Capital needs a weak #EU to
'Capital needs a weak #EU to evade social obligations' - VP of Euro parliament Miguel Martinez http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJNVu0S5UKo
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/d1021/20140120#1390216088
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/d1021/20140119#1390128965
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/d1021/20140116#1389870202
