We are told that Europe needs a huge emergency package because the Virus has devastated Europe. The amount of money is beyond belief – €750 billion…
We already know that the misuse of EU funds, financial fraud inside EU bodies and in many member states is rife… amounts of this size cannot be handed out with strict controls…
… and we already know that such controls do not exist.
Let’s be clear – the Virus is responsible for some 2% of all global deaths and is at the same level of deaths from car accidents, diabetes, HIV, suicide and other smaller causes of death – death from heart failure and cancer are twenty and ten times higher respectively.
The economic impact of the Virus is that that the EU’s economic activity is expected to fall by some 9% in 2020 and grow by 7% in 2021. The Virus is a shock is strong, but it is not so serious as the inaction over Climate Change, Trump’s protectionism, or Xi’s attacks on the human rights…
Some countries have tried to keep their economy open and seen higher death rates, while others have been strict and kept deaths lower by restrictions. But when you look at the figures below the death rates for Belgium, Italy, Spain and France are extremely high compared to the rest.
You only have to look at the worst numbers per 100 000 of their population to see that their governments have not done a good job.
Just look at the Nordics, with the exception of Sweden. We have seen a better performance which is one tenth and one twentieth of those big EU countries…
Meanwhile, the rest of Europe, excluding Netherlands and Ireland have seen much lower death rates per 100 000 of the population.
Those countries with higher death rates have been lax in the management of the Virus – that is clear from the tables that show that most countries had far lower death rates… why should those with high death rates be rewarded by the rest who managed their healthcare system better?
…. and if you examine the above table you will see that the less well-off countries in the EU did much better…
But other arguments have been put forward…
If the countries with higher death rates tell us that they saved their economy at the cost of more deaths by staying open, then they should be able to afford payments to those that closed down their economies and suffered from weaker economic performance! But that is just as stupid because they made a choice to be proactive and stop unnecessary deaths.
In fact, we already know that Italy has another reason for not receiving our cash. They have a thriving mafia taking criminal advantage of public as reporters recently in FT 7.7.2020: “Italian mafia bonds sold to global investors:The bonds were created out of unpaid invoices to Italian public health authorities from companies providing them with medical services…” … and that is probably the tip of the iceberg of such criminal activity in Europe.
No country should be receiving EU support if they are not adhering to what we normally call the Rule of Law. It is not hard to identify despots… so Hungary and Poland need to rethink what they want and stop complaining. It is not the job of taxpayers in democratic countries to support tinpot depots.
Finally, there is no reason to hurry such a package and especially when the President of France and the German Chancellor are bullying smaller member states to accept their solutions. Macron and Merkel are lame duck leaders in their own countries. They too should observe democratic values, of which bullying smaller member states is not one.
Don’t we have enough of Truimpian politics?
