The Editorial

The news of the last few days has raised a lot of questions! What’s going on in the highest spheres of European administration? Is there a problem of endemic corruption, which would allow the unbridled entry of foreign powers bent on toppling Europe, or is it just plain stupidity? We have every right to wonder, given the two appalling announcements that have just been made.

The first concerns the validation of a Privacy Framework for data exchanges between the US and the EU, where the European Commission, ignoring the position of the European Parliament, has decided to sell off the personal data of Europeans in exchange for American shale gas, investments and military equipment (Press Release Député P. Latombe)! The decision taken is to consider that American and European law are compatible. The consequences of this iniquitous decision are staggering: what about the fines imposed on GAFAM recently? Our only extra-territorial legislative weapon, which enabled us to respond to American attacks, has just been sabotaged on the altar of German interests!

The second decision, which is no less surprising and goes against all the interests of Europe and its member countries, is the appointment of Fiona Scott Morton, an American economist and lobbyist, and former advisor to Amazon and Apple at the European Commission in the competition department! It’s mind-boggling, bringing the wolf into the henhouse: haven’t our high-paid Brussels civil servants had enough? Where’s their duty to protect European interests? What’s even more astonishing is that no one outside France seems to have been moved by this appointment. A number of political and public figures have spoken out against it, as has the French employers’ federation (MEDEF), and a petition has even been launched (link), but it seems to be a non-event for the rest of Europe…

Firstly, what are the heads of state and government of the nation-states that make up Europe doing? Shouldn’t they have the interests of their populations at heart? The second question concerns the potential corruption of our European representatives. The most emblematic, and the one that particularly concerns us, concerns Ursula Von Der Leyen. It concerns the affair of the text messages between Ursula Von Der Leyen and the boss of Pizzer during the pandemic, with no certainty or proof, and many questions raised… It should be noted that her appointment as head of the European Commission enabled her to escape questions about potential corruption during her time at the German Ministry of Defense, which in no way reassures us about her probity… All the more so as the American President himself is now said to support her candidacy for the presidency of NATO! A reward for services rendered?

In any case, these two announcements can only reinforce the mistrust that many Europeans have in the European Union, and this is becoming increasingly unbearable in France, of which I am one. After having flouted the will of the people in 2005 on the European constitution, the undemocratic functioning of the European Union poses serious problems, demonstrating once again that the road to Hell is paved with good intentions!

I’m therefore calling for a broad mobilization to sign this petition, and above all, next year we have an important electoral deadline, the European elections, so it will be important to mobilize and vote for the electoral lists that will propose a program that protects our economic, cultural, commercial and digital interests! History is never completely written, we can still react and not accept to be the whole of the Americans, whom I can no longer call our friends!