Eurobloat #0080 • December 2016
December is the season of goodwill, so the European Council spent it explaining to Dutch voters that their referendum did not mean what they thought it meant. Between the lectures, the workarounds and the small print, Brussels managed a festive haul of overreach.
Folly of the Month: A referendum is for life, unless it is inconvenient
In April the Dutch held a referendum and voted 61 per cent against the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. On 15 December the heads of state and government, meeting as the European Council, produced a "Decision" attaching a legally binding interpretation that the agreement does not grant Ukraine a path to membership, security guarantees, military or financial aid, or free movement. In other words, rather than dropping the deal the voters rejected, the EU drafted a clarifying annex and pressed on. The lesson, helpfully delivered just in time for Christmas, is that a vote is welcome only so long as it agrees with Brussels.
→ consilium.europa.eu → europeanpapers.eu
1. The Court briefly remembers that privacy exists
On 21 December the Court of Justice ruled in the joined Tele2 and Watson cases that member states may not impose general and indiscriminate retention of everyone's traffic and location data. A rare and welcome outbreak of restraint, which various governments immediately set about ignoring.
2. A 485 million euro bill for a cartel nobody will go to prison over
On 7 December the Commission fined Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase a combined 485 million euros for rigging the Euribor benchmark a decade earlier. The banks deny it and are appealing, the money goes to Brussels, and the customers who were actually fleeced see none of it.
3. The Turkey deal gets another vote of confidence
At the 15 December summit leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the EU-Turkey statement and endorsed a Joint Action Plan. The Union that lectures the world about values had outsourced its border to Ankara for six billion euros, and in December it cheerfully signed up for more of the same.
4. A defence fund, but definitely not an army
On 30 November the Commission unveiled a European Defence Action Plan, and on 15 December the European Council invited it to propose a European Defence Fund in the first half of 2017. Billions of euros of joint procurement steered by a Commission coordination board, which we are assured is in no way a step towards an EU army.
5. One Stop Shop, one more layer of Brussels
On 1 December the Commission proposed new VAT rules for cross-border e-commerce, including an EU-wide "One Stop Shop" so online sellers can file their VAT through a single portal. A genuine simplification of a mess the EU itself created, sold to us as a gift while quietly routing more of the plumbing through Brussels.
6. Free roaming, terms and conditions apply
On 15 December the Commission adopted the implementing rules on "fair use" for roaming, the fine print attached to its much-trumpeted abolition of roaming charges. The headline promised the end of roaming fees; the small print invented limits, sustainability assessments and ways for operators to charge you anyway.
7. Brussels marks Poland's homework
On 21 December the Commission issued a second rule-of-law recommendation finding a "systemic threat" in Poland and giving Warsaw two months to comply. Whatever one makes of the Polish reforms, the spectacle of the Commission grading an elected national government and setting it a deadline is centralisation dressed up as concern.
8. A bigger database for a more watchful Union
On 21 December the Commission tabled three proposals to expand the Schengen Information System, adding more alerts, more biometrics and more sharing. Solving the failures of open borders by building an ever larger pan-European surveillance database is the most Brussels solution imaginable.
9. New gun rules, agreed in time for the holidays
On 20 December member states' permanent representatives confirmed a provisional deal on the revised Firearms Directive, tightening controls on acquisition, deactivation and registration across the Union. A directive launched in the name of security that mostly burdens the law-abiding licence holders who were never the problem.
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