Ever since this summer's dramatic "referendum" farce, and the subsequent hijacking of the Greek banking system by the ECB's ELA, Greece has officially been a nation without state sovereignty. Europe reminded Greece of just this a few days ago when days after its waved the carrot before Turkey promising billions in aid, and an EU acceptance fast track, it threatened Greece with expulsion [6]from the Schengen customs union (a union which as a subsequent leak [7]revealed will likely be "temporarily" shuttered for as long as two years unless the refugee crisis is brought under control).
Perhaps to confirm that few things will stand in its mission-creep to subjugate the sovereignty of European member states, starting with the poorest and most insolvent, namely Greece, we find out that the EU and its border agency, is not only preparing to take over border control of countries that have been found to be "ill-equipped" to deal with the refugee problem, but has already launched this plan into action in Greece.
Because after being threatened with expulsion from the Schengen zone, Greece (which does not actually share a contiguous, physical border with any Schengen nation) caved in and accepted an offer from the European Union to bolster its borders with foreign guards as well as other aid, including tents and first aid kits. This decision follows reports that Greece was unwilling to accept foreign border guards on its territory, but these were later denied by the government.
Greece asked #Frontex [8] yesterday to provide rapid intervention teams to the Aegean islands. https://t.co/gLF2D4deEu [9]
— Frontex (@Frontex) December 4, 2015 [10]
The deployment of additional officers will begin next week.
As Keep Talking Greece writes [11], "the masks have fallen. Hand in hand, the European Union and the Frontex want to cancel national sovereignty and take over border controls in the pretext of “safeguarding the Schengen borders”. With controversial claims, they use the case of Greece to create an example that could soon happen “in the border area near you.” And the plan is all German."
Paranoia? Or just another confirmation that the Eurozone is using every incremental, and produced, crisis to cement its power over discrete European state sovereignty and wipe out the cultural and religious borders the prevent the amalgamation of Europe into a Brussels, Berlin and Frankfurt-controlled superstate?
Decide for yourselves after reading this from The Independent [12]:
* * *
EU considers measures to intervene if states’ borders are not guarded
The European Union is considering a measure that would give a new EU border force powers to intervene and guard a member state’s external frontier to protect the Schengen open-borders zone, EU officials and diplomats said yesterday in Brussels.
Such a move would be controversial. It might be blocked by states wary of surrendering sovereign control of their territory. But the discussion reflects fears that Greece’s failure to manage a flood of migrants from Turkey has brought Schengen’s open borders to the brink of collapse.
Germany’s Thomas de Maiziere, in Brussels for a meeting of EU interior ministers, said he expected proposal from the EU executive due on December 15 to include giving responsibility for controlling a frontier with a non-Schengen country to Frontex, the EU’s border agency, if a member state failed to do so.
“The Commission should put forward a proposal … which has the goal of, when a national state is not effectively fulfilling its duty of defending the external border, then that can be taken over by Frontex,” de Maiziere told reporters.
He noted a Franco-German push for Frontex, whose role is largely to coordinate national border agencies, to be complemented by a permanent European Border and Coast Guard – a measure the European Commission has confirmed it will propose.
Greece has come under heavy pressure from states concerned about Schengen this week to accept EU offers of help on its borders.
Diplomats have warned that Athens might find itself effectively excluded from the Schengen zone if it failed to work with other Europeans to control migration.
Earlier this week, Greece finally agreed to accept help from Frontex, averting a showdown at the ministerial meeting in Brussels.
EU diplomats said the proposals to bolster defence of the external Schengen frontiers would look at whether the EU must rely on an invitation from the state concerned.
“One option could be not to seek the member state’s approval for deploying Frontex but activating it by a majority vote among all 28 members,” an EU official said.
Under the Schengen Borders Code, the Commission can now recommend a state accept help from other EU members to control its frontiers. But it cannot force it to accept help – something that may, in any case, not be practicable.
The code also gives states the right to impose controls on internal Schengen borders if external borders are neglected.
As Greece has no land border with the rest of the Schengen zone, that could mean obliging ferries and flights coming from Greece to undergo passport checks.
Asked whether an EU force should require an invitation or could be imposed by the bloc, Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman said: “Border control is the competence for the member states, and it’s hard to say that there is a need to impose that on member states forcefully.
“On the other hand,” he said, referring to this week’s pressure on Greece, “we must safeguard the borders of Schengen, and what we have seen is that if a country is not able to protect its own border, it can leave Schengen or accept Frontex. It’s not mandatory, but in practice it’s quite mandatory.”
A dramatic increase in EU powers over national territory would be deeply controversial in much of Europe.
On Thursday, Danes, who are part of the Schengen zone, heeded Eurosceptic calls and voted against giving their government power to deepen its cooperation with the EU policy agency.
The European Union faces another test over the next two years as Britain, its second biggest economy, prepares to hold a referendum on whether to quit – although it is not a member of the 26-nation Schengen zone. (full article Irish Independent [12])
* * *
Our Greek friends at KTG are hardly enthused about ceding control of their borders to Europe:
Dramatically increase EU powers over national territories? Be my guest. Brussels and Berlin should not be surprised to see the increase of Eurosceptics spreading like mushrooms. Brussels and Berlin may save the Schengen zone and the Euro zone, but in the end they will stand there with their pants down.
Maybe, but that would require Europe's "sovereign" states to take a stand against the oppressor. So far, they have all failed and refused to do that as any attempts to exit the Euro and Eurozone, would mean immediate loss of all Euro-denominated savings and a collapse of the financial sector as Greece found out the hard way.
For the time being however, we bring to mind the May 30, 2008 presentation from then-AIG's Bernard Connolly who laid out precisely what is happening now in Europe some seven years ago.
Here is his answer to the question What Europe Wants:
To use global issues as excuses to extend its power:
- environmental issues: increase control over member countries; advance idea of global governance
- terrorism: use excuse for greater control over police and judicial issues; increase extent of surveillance
- global financial crisis: kill two birds (free market; Anglo-Saxon economies) with one stone (Europe-wide regulator; attempts at global financial governance)
- EMU: create a crisis to force introduction of “European economic government”
The full presentation, uncannily prescient then, can be read below.
