EU Parliament and Commission in Standoff Over Fines, Sovereignty

The fall out from this piece of news will probably be blamed on Brexit although it is absolutely nothing to do with Britain's decision to leave the EU and relates to chains of events that began several years ago. It anything can directly be blamed it is the debilitating effect of the European Single Currency system (the Euro) on the weaker economies among European Union member states. A secondary reason is that the unreasonable level of welfare payments impose by EU policy together with the rapid increase in population dues to EU imposed mass immigration policies makes balancing budgets impossible.

In another demonstration of the European Union becoming unjoined,the European Parliament is preparing to take on the dictatorial European Commission (EC), the unelected bureaucrats who make European policy and expect the elected assembly to rubber stamp it, over EC plans to impose penalties on Spain and Portugal for their failure to bring down their budget deficits. The European Parliament move challenges Brussels' right to impose penalties on sovereign states.

The Economic and Financial Affairs Council, July 12 ruled that Portugal and Spain had not reduced their deficits below 3% of GDP, the EU standard for government deficits, by the deadline. It also said efforts made by the two countries had been inadequate.

Commission Peresident Jean-Claude Juncker, nicknamed J-C Drunkard, is set to impose penalties on both countries on July 27. It will be the first time member states have had such sanctions imposed and in the eyes of many Members Of The European Parliament sets a dangerous precedent as it will be seen by the emerging nationalist parties in many member states as an attack on national sovereignty by the bureaucrats.

The penalties include a fines and withholding of funds. Although MEPs in the European Parliament are not part of the sanctions process, the assembly can demand "structural dialogue" over some of the sanctions, effectively halting, or at least reducing, some of them. The process could also delay imposition of the penalties while nationalist and anti - EU groups such as France's Front National, Five Star and Liga Nord in Italy, Alternatif fur Deutschland, The Danish People's Party, Netherlands' Freedom Party and the Sweden Democrats organise the opposition to this profoundly undemocratic course of action.

The President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz told Juncker and other European Commissioners that the Parliament would raise the issue of the withholding of millions of dollars of EU structural funds. This is the first time this situation has arisen and goes to the heart of power in Brussels, Lisbon and Madrid, bringing to the forefront of European politics the question of who really rules European Union member states, the democratically elected national governments or the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels.

Portugal's finance minister, Mario Centeno sent a letter July 18 to the Commission saying the fines would be unfair as the country is "on the right road to eliminate the excessive deficit" and that it would have "a highly negative impact" on the Portuguese people's support for the European project.

Spain has asked Brussels for two additional years to reduce the deficit. Its finance minister, Luis de Guindos wants the EU to allow it to reduce the deficit to 3 percent of GDP in 2018 instead of 2016.

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