Wednesday, 22nd October 2008

It was bound to happen. There is nothing the Eurocracy likes better than a crisis, because it offers Brussels another excuse for increasing its centralising powers.

Thus President Sarkozy's call in the midst of the  current financial turmoil for a "clearly identified economic government" for the eurozone. And where will that government come from? No prizes for guessing the answer.

Never mind democracy. What the EU wants is increasing state control by bureaucracy, and that is what the Lisbon Treaty gives it the opportunity to achieve.

The roots of the financial crisis lie in a massive failure not of capitalism but of regulation. Yet Mr Sarkozy's statement and other noises coming out of Brussels make it apparent that the European elite can only see opportunity for aggrandisement in the face of disaster.

It's a classic case of the "Doctrine of Beneficial Crisis" by which the EU grabs power whenever there is a problem. Asian Tsunami? The answer is more Brussels. The Erika tanker disaster? More Brussels. Chad and Darfur the same, and now the financial crisis.

The fact is, however, that government by centralised regulation will merely make problems worse and systems more rigid.

Flexibility has to be the key – and that only comes with greater independence for national governments.

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