US's EVOLVING TIES WITH EU

The Obama Administration's recent untimely

intervention over Britain's future membership

of the EU may indicate an ideological turning 

point in re-framing America's relationship

with the EU. 

 

A free enterprise economy operating in an

open, representative democracy led to the

rise of the United Sates as the pre-eminent

global power. It has underpinned the defence

and economies of western countries since

the Second World War.

These values are everything that the EU is

not. Its Commission, far from reflecting the

will of the people, represents an unelected

and unaccountable elite.The introduction

of the flawed single currency, the

monumentally wasteful Common

Agricultural Policy, largely unaudited

capital transfers to the twenty-five

recipient countries, funded by Germany

and the UK, are manifestly antithetical to

that for which what the US has always stood.

However, in warning the UK against leaving

the EU, perhaps the US Assistant Secretary
of State for Europe and Eurasia reflects a

possible drift of the US Government into the

kind of EU mindset, which US Republicans

fear. For economic and other reasons,

President Obama may have come into line

the with the social, political and economic

values of the US's largest trading partner,

using its 'special relationship' with the UK

as a convenient means to an end.

This is not without its risks. With almost all

western economies flatlining, how long before
the EU Commission begins to insinuate its

social objectives into US policy as a quid

pro quo for trade, with predictable economic

and geo-political consequences?