POLITICAL THREATS AND FINANCIAL REWARDS
Report from the German journalists of german-foreign-policy.com
translated by Rodney Atkinson
BERLIN The urgent aim of German Foreign Policy is to push through the failed European Constitution within a year. Germany is threatening member states with severe consequences if they refuse to fall in line.
According to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder “there will be no concessions to solve the conflict about vote weighting” in the new Constitution. If necessary a “Core Europe” along the Berlin Paris Axis will emerge, Schroeder warns. Corresponding preparations are under way and Berlin is confident of the support of several of its client states. This arises out of Berlin’s influence in the distribution of billions of Euros in subsidies from EU funds. Repeated threats have come from Berlin since the beginning of 2004 that Germany will know how to break the resistance to the proposed Constitution. As well as Schroeder Martin Schulz the Social Democrat lead candidate in the coming European Elections has said that Germany “will not be stopped from deepening European integration”.
Should Poland and Spain continue to reject the German demands on voting strength then those countries would not be “among the winners” of future developments!! According to Schulz the “decisive question is whether German Foreign policy is the basis of European foreign policy”
Both demands for allegiance and threats are designed to reduce subsidies for Madrid and Warsaw so as to put the resistance to German demands under financial pressure. Simultaeously Berlin lets it be known what would be in store for its East European clients should they join the Polish-Spanish resistance to “German Europe”. This message seems to have been understaood in Prague and Budapest. As a precaution the Czech Government has agreed it would join Berlin in a “Core Europe”. Equally the president of the Hungarian Parliament assures the German European leadership of loyalty by expressing “complete satisfaction” with Germany’s voting weight as set out in the European Constitution and looks forward to “close cooperation with Austria” – the recognised German advanced post for expansion into East and South East Europe.
The unusually crude and diplomatically provocative attitude of Berlin is designed to achieve both Security and the extension of European economic interests. At the centre of the German activities are billions of EU funds (The European Growth Initiative – made necessary because of Germany and France’s economic failure and the disaster of their Euro project -ed) which German politicians see as securing German big business’s cross border industrial projects.
According to information made available to german-foreign-policy Berlin plans to distribute the spending programme – initially set at 64 billion Euros (circa £144 billion) – to aid the research budgets of European “market leaders” (Siemens, Bosch) and to share this with Paris. Funds would also be made available for corporations in the rest of “Core Europe” (Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Austria). What part of such subsidies would flow to London is the subject of discussion by budget experts in the countries concerned. This is to prepare the way for decisions by Blair Chirac and Schroeder in an exclusive meeting in March 2004. (Note how undemocratic these exclusive meetings are, most of them being between France and Germany – no wonder Spain, Italy and Poland are angry! Ed)
