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The EU’s £300m ‘Space Egg’ stinks

Rory Broomfield
December 8, 2016

The EU's newly unveiled £300m 'Space Egg' will offer little comfort to the come as little comfort to the 22 per cent of Spaniards, and the near 50 per cent of young Greeks who are without jobs, says Rory Broomfield.

At the very point when the Euro seems at its most fragile, with chronic economic problems in Greece, the rise of anti-euro parties in France and Germany and a referendum defeat in Italy, what is the response of the Euro elite when trying to save this centralising, bureaucratic and failing project? The unveiling of a new £300 million 'Space Egg' headquarters.

'Of course!' I can hear the 22 per cent of unemployed Spaniards, the near 50 per cent of young Greeks who are still – after many years – trying to find work, or even those who are paying for the so called "benefits" (meaning costs) of this Euro project cheering heartily that something resembling an egg (presumably sans cracks) is being delivered £80 million over budget after 12 years of waiting.

Or, rather, I can't. You see, whether you ask Mariana in Madrid, Alexandros in Athens or Hermann in Hamburg, what this signals is yet another waste of money by the Euro-elite at a time of austerity. This 'Space Egg' smells bad.

What they and others are looking for are credible policy responses to the fundamental problems facing the Eurozone. Instead, they get a glass egg.

There is a disconnect with reality that those in charge of the Euro project, the European Union's flagship policy, exhibit. Like with the wider EU project, the response to every crisis that the project faces seems to be a desire to either spend more money or to increase the centralising power that the project has.

The response is effectively: we (as Eurocrats) have helped to create chronic unemployment in X, Y or Z countries because of the policies and the frameworks that we've put in place. What can we (as meddling Eurocrats) do to solve the problem? We know: obviously we didn't go far enough in implementing our insane policies in the first place – let's go further!

Addressing the problems of the EU with more EU, with added regulation and spending, seems always to be the response, and time after time seems to end up in failure.

Of course, however, the Euro and the integrationist project is the real focus of the EU's elite at this time. The plans set out in the Five Presidents' Report, much discussed during the UK's EU Referendum, describe their intentions. The problem is, of course, the constant view that they are the ones that can solve the problems faced by these countries.

It comes back to a fundamental: the idea that bureaucrats and technocrats (soon to be in their new overpriced 'Space Egg') thinking that they know what's best for those in far off places of the continent that continuously suffer from the polices that these unaccountable elites are peddling.

It's like those across Europe are there to serve the elite. Instead of 'Regions' they should be called 'Districts'; a real-life Hunger Games set up for the pleasure of the EU elite. 

The alternative to power over policy decision making constantly being sucked up and centralised in Brussels is for it to be devolved down to the individuals and communities across the EU. This is evidently not what's happened, happening or will happen in the future. The EU Commission, along with its policies to build 'Space Eggs' and to pursue deeper Eurozone integration is intent on developing more harmonised policies for the internal market (indeed, it is one of its priorities), extending its influence over digital policy and many other centralising measures. All this was made clear – and discussed – during the EU referendum. As such, the idea that UK might stay part of the EU's Single Market is an idea to ignore (and go against) the will of the British people.

This entire project has a bad smell about it. What this 'Space Egg' illustrates quite nicely is the status of the integrationist project and of those at the core. It's rotten.

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Rory Broomfield is Director of The Freedom Association and the Better Off Out campaign. He is an authority on the EU and has written a number of books including his latest, co-authored with Iain Murray, Cutting the Gordian Knot: A Roadmap for British Exit from the European Union. He has previously worked in the City of London and in Westminster for a number of Members of Parliament, including the current Prime Minister, Theresa May; the current Chairman of the 1922 Committee, Graham Brady; and Sir Richard Shepherd.
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