An "Act of Hostility"’ Quickly Reversed

February 1, 2021.

It is a remarkable thing indeed when broadcaster Piers Morgan points out that the EU managed to unite both the leave and remain movements with their invoking of Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol in what was widely seen around the world as a blatant attempt to corral the UK into giving up a supply of the Covid-19 (C19) vaccines.

Whatever one thinks of the C19 vaccine programme, there is no doubt that the UK has been quite efficient so far in ordering and rolling them out. The EU on the other hand, has been undeniably slow and sclerotic. It, and its member countries, are thus someway behind the United Kingdom.

But why does the EU Commission (which is where the real power in the EU lies, despite assertions to the contrary by its supporters) think it is entitled to grab supplies ordered by and paid for by a country not in membership of the EU? The answer of course, is that it is not.

What it is and isn’t entitled to matters not of course, to the unelected power keepers of the EU Commission. All that matters to it is its own good, and the subjugation of everybody else. That is why it has, or at least tried, to reserve only unto itself the power to decide who gets vaccinated and who doesn’t throughout the continent, even if countries within the area are not members. It is also why Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster was correct in her description of the attempt last week by the Commission as an ‘Act of Hostility’.

There is speculation as to which country might try to leave the EU next. It could be any of them – dissatisfaction with the EU, its authoritarian Commission and its rules, regulations and overbearing pomposity grows across the populations of member countries. The question is, will the Commission then engage yet again in the same kind of deceitful, underhand tactics deployed against the United Kingdom?

The speed with which Article 16 was triggered suggests that it will – but the equal speed with which the action was reversed also shows that pressure applied correctly will have its effect.

If (and perhaps even when) member countries see to it that the EU Commission is dismantled and real power returned to the people and the European Parliament, bureaucracy removed, and the organisation becomes once again one of free trade and one that enables things to happen (rather than a restrictive one that prevents them) then perhaps this particular union might bring benefits to all and not just a select few.

© KJM Today 2021