According to the Dutch Financial Times, the European Commission wants to interfere with Dutch tax laws. Financieele Dagblad, 1 November: The Netherlands must sacrifice its tax allowances for independent contractors and its mortgage interest deduction in order to obtain EU billions. There is some irony in this because our PM has been highly critical towards Hungary and Poland for protecting their national laws against EU interference.
I suppose the Dutch PM is waiting for his successor of Rutte-III because this EU interference could – and probably would – jeopardize his fragile majority during a new Dutch general election. Nationalistic and/or far right parties might then cause a quick erosion of the fragile Dutch political middle by picturing Brussels as the enemy. A similar UK strategy resulted in Brexit.
Brussels seems to be heading for a showdown: either member states bend or break (out of the EU27). This game of chicken might well be another example of the infinity of human stupidity (also see my blogs). In business, this represents a grab for power by HQ despite outlets being the shareholders (eg, Rabobank).
In my earlier 2015-2019 blogs, I used to be positive about a Federal Europe (my blogs). Ever since April 2020, I’ve lost that loving feeling (eg, my 22 April 2020 blog). To a large extent, my former and current feelings are rooted in my 2017 blog: the ignorance of Nationalism and arrogance of Globalism. Initially, I focussed on the ignorance of nationalism. Now, I’m fed up with the arrogance of globalism.
Two interesting examples of the Federation model are Germany and USA. There are more examples (eg, China) but these examples hardly show any dualism between states and federal government. The American dualism between Blue states and Red states shows the seriousness of frictions within a Federation.
In my view, these American frictions are becoming existential threats, similar to the north-south and the east-west frictions within the EU27. At least, USA has one common language. The EU has 24 official languages (Wiki). Without a common language, there’s no common identity (eg, EU, UN).
Brexit has shown that the UK has lost its leverage over Europe. Hungary and Poland show that you’ve more leverage inside than outside. Hence, to answer my blog title: no, not yet.
Isn’t It Time? – 1977 – The Babys
artists, lyrics, video, Wiki-1, Wiki-2
(Isn’t it time? it took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
Isn’t it time?
(Isn’t it time? you took time to wait)
(Falling in love could be your mistake)
Note: all markings (bold, italic, underlining) by LO unless stated otherwise.
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