The foreign ministers of France and Germany have proposed creating a “European superstate” limiting the powers of individual members following Britain’s referendum decision to leave the EU, Polish public broadcaster TVP Info has reported.The document in which the proposals appear is to be presented to Visegrad Group countries meeting in Prague on Monday by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, TVP Info said, adding that the document was an "ultimatum".TVP Info said the proposals would mean members of a superstate would in practice have no right to their own army, to a separate criminal code or a separate tax system, and would not have their own currency.In addition, TVP Info said, member states would lose control over their own borders and procedures for admitting and relocating refugees.Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski told TVP Info: "This is not a good solution, of course, because from the time the EU was invented... a lot has changed.“The mood in European societies is different. Europe and our voters do not want to give the Union over into the hands of technocrats.“Therefore, I want to talk about this (in Prague) -- whether this really is the right recipe today in the context of a Brexit."Martin Schaefer, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry, said: "Berlin does not want superstate, it wants a better Europe."Meanwhile, Waszczykowski said later on Monday that the document by Germany and France was drawn up before the Brexit decision. He said it included "old ideas" and "does not take into account what happened during the... referendum."
Schulz: "The British have violated the rules. It is not the #EU philosophy that the crowd can decide its fate".
France and Germany will promote the EU as an independent and global actor able to leverage its unique array of expertise and tools, civilian and military, in order to defend and promote the interests of its citizens. ..The EU should be able to plan and conduct civil and military operations more effectively, with the support of a permanent civil-military chain of command. The EU should be able to rely on employable high-readiness forces and provide common financing for its operations.
In the longer term, it would make sense to enlarge the scope of the European public prosecutor’s office in future (currently limited to prosecuting offenses concerning the EU’s financial interests) to include fighting terrorism and organised crime. This would require harmonisation of criminal law among the member states.
Public support for the euro is undermined by a lack of progress on its social dimension and fair taxation among its member states. Hence, as a general principle, any step to further deepen the EMU should be accompanied by progress in the field of common taxation, in particular with regard to transnational corporations, as well as the development of a social union underpinned by common social minimum standards.
Suggestions for further contributions to an already existing military structure on a completely voluntary basis?Harmonization of national criminal law provisions, which has been going on for literally decades?Expansion of the EMU to common tax policies in certain fields?
Leave has been equally guilty of it.
I feel like we're just saying the exact same thing in every bread at this point.
New EU "superstate" plan by France and Germany
