Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2016-12-14-Speech-3-038-000"
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"en.20161214.7.3-038-000"2
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"Mr President, thank you and I hope we can all agree that 2016 has been a momentous – indeed historic – year. As it is Christmas, let’s think of those events in terms of the three wise men bearing their gifts. First, we had the Brexit deliverance; then we had the Trump triumph; and then thirdly, of course, the Italian rebellion. It’s just that in this case, the gifts were all the same: democracy and the rebirth of the nation state. I really think you had better listen, because I know in the past you’ve managed to ignore Danish, Dutch, Irish and French referendums, but this time it is for real. A democratic revolution has begun.
Yet, when the 28 leaders of the EU countries meet tomorrow, I see no sign on the agenda of humility. I see no understanding of what has happened at all. In fact, what I see is the implementation plan of the EU global strategy on security and defence. In simple English: EU militarisation – the building of a European army. Indeed, Mr Juncker used Donald Trump’s magnificent victory to say: ‘well that means that NATO won’t be here anymore. We have to do this ourselves’. That is what you said, and this is a huge and dangerous error. Trump is not a threat to NATO. He wants it to be redefined, and he wants the members to pay their way. It is Mr Juncker who is a threat to NATO. You can pretend today, if you like, that your military structure is going to run in parallel with NATO, but those two structures cannot run together without being in direct conflict with each other.
It was Tony Blair that first really worried me about this project when he said the rationale for the EU today is not peace, it’s about power. Already we’ve seen that power exercised in terms of foreign policy in Ukraine, where we have wantonly provoked Russia – and we actually got rid of a democratically elected leader. You know, history is littered with conflicts caused by empires that seek to expand, and it’s about time the British Government stood up tomorrow and said: enough. This is madness. We, as an independent United Kingdom, will act as the bridge between America and the nation states of Europe to make sure that NATO is secure.
I also hope tomorrow that we see the British Prime Minister stop dithering on Brexit. It has been six months since we voted for our liberation, and at the minute we’re being dictated to by courts and European Commissioners and told what we can and cannot do. I hope we do that, but I suspect we won’t, and I suspect the other 27 leaders will continue on the same course. That’s why you can all look forward to some even bigger traumatic shocks coming in 2017. It’s going to be, for nation-state democrats, a very happy New Year."@en1
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