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The upcoming European Parliament elections.

 
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ophone



Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 2191
Location: Lëtzebuerg


PostPosted: Sun May 11, 2014 02:31    Reply with quote

The upcoming European Parliament elections.
(I hope I can get political here, if not Mouse, delete my thread.)

Since there are so many citizens from the European Union here, I want to start this thread, trying to discuss the upcoming elections of the European Parliament.

I am pretty sure I'll cast my vote here in Luxembourg for a party named "Déi Lénk" (The Left). (For example, they are linked to the German "Die Linke".) And no, I clearly won't vote for the CSV, whose European party is the conservative and christian EPP (European Popular Party). Even if the head candidate of the EPP for the post of the president of the European Commission (something like the President of the EU) is our former prime minister Jean-Claude Juncker. I might be quite patriotic, but not at that point.

Why will I most probably cast my vote for déi Lénk?
They are so far the only party here in Luxembourg who are reasonably EU critical, unlike the communists (Help, some of those people are still nowadays Maoists and Stalinists...) or the ADR (the non christian right wing party here, sometimes even said to be slightly extreme right.)

And because they are as far as I know the only Luxembourgish party who are clearly against TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) between the US and the EU.
Well, déi Lénk are against TTIP, but the communists probably too (I haven't got communist propaganda so far in my mail). But hey, as I said, the communists still give shelter to Maoists and Stalinists, and I clearly won't vote for people who support two of the three most evil dictators who were also two of the three greatest mass murderers of the 20th century.

How I come to be against TTIP?
Trade and investment partnership doesn't sound that nasty after all.
Well TTIP negotiations are done with the exclusion of the public. They are performed with almost only lobbyists from the big multinational companies. Only snippets of the texts and propositions they are handling get to the public, without being meant too. No transparency and no democratic participation!

The whole thing is in fact all about how these big companies can even make more money by undermining social and enviromental achievements of the EU (and probably even the US too). And even worse, they want to undermine democracy itself, by installing private arbitral courts, which would have more power than actual national/European courts and elected parliaments. For example these courts could then fine nations, for not lowering their environmental and social standards. This because big companies fear they could not make as much profit as they wanted if these standards prevail.

Such private arbitral courts already exist, they are currently messing up in North America in the name of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) between Canada, the US and Mexico. Canada can already sing a song about it when it comes to fracking. Canada is clearly against fracking, but these private arbitral courts have sent fines of enormous proportions to the country to the north of the US on behalf of oil/gas companies.
Even if TTIP isn't signed, there is one prominent case happening already here in Europe. Between the Swedish company Vattenfall, a giant electric energy provider, and the German Federation. This because Germany wants to stop to use nuclear power. Vattenfall fears now it could not make as much profits from the German market, if ever the German Federation makes it real and turns its back to nuclear power.

This TTIP monster should never come to life, because it would be a nightmare for all of us, not only for the people of the EU and the US.

OK, it looks like some election propaganda, nonetheless, my fellow citizens from the European Union, go out and vote smart.
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