Unrehearsed comments from the leading candidate for the European Presidency indicate that a federast is in charge. The next steps are already being refined in stealth: new European taxes, raised and set at Commission level, to fund their new competences and expanded welfare state.
Without the link to a legislature, the link between representation and taxation vanishes, though European federalists would cite an attenuated connection. We are not convinced.
“The financing of the welfare state, irrespective of the social reform we implement, will require new resources,” Mr Van Rompuy told European and American guests, who included Henry Kissinger. The former US Secretary of State is cited as the inspiration for an EU president following his reported remark: “Who do I call when I want to call Europe?”
Mr Van Rompuy added: “The green fiscal instrument is one possibility although an ambiguous one: this type of regulatory tax should eventually become redundant. But the possibility of financial levies at European level needs to be seriously reviewed and for the first time ever, the big countries in the Union are open to this.”
There is an unholy alliance here: federalists who extend power at a European level and politicians who can raise taxes without the tiresome bother of explaining themselves to parliaments or electorates.
What greater evidence do we need for an EU struggling against the historical tide of democratisation as they try and establish a bureaucratic-rational oligarchy. It is for the good of the planet, you know!