Europe as a continent has existed geographically for centuries. Throughout its history there have been many attempts to unite it politically under one superpower and to use military and economic means to subordinate its free nations and peoples to one dominant Big State. Today we must resist the latest attempt to do this in the name of the European Union and EU integration.

The European Union is very like a disguised Soviet Union - a form of federal bureaucratic socialism. The advocates of Estonia’s independence and sovereignty are against such a super-project. They regard it as downright harmful to the harmonious development of Estonia, Denmark and other European countries that aspire to maintain their national democracy and national indpendence.

The real purpose of enlargement

The EU’s development has now reached a critical stage and unless there is a successful joint resistance by all of us, its continuation is likely to bring with it an economic, social and political catastrophe for Europe. The real purpose of the EU’s enlargement eastward is to increase the well-being of the present Member States, and especially the bigger ones, at the expense of the EU candidate countries.

The mechanism for doing this is simple: the EU federal superpower in the making will take control of the domestic and foreign policy of new and old Member States and reap the economic benefits that derive from its vastly enlarged market. The current European Convention on the next EU Treaty, envisaged for 2004, is a smoke-screen for this goal.

Hypocritical character

It is sad for an Estonian to have to say that in order to please the EU, the Estonian Government has decided to bring its Accession Treaty negotiations with EU to an end within the next two months without any mandate from the Estonian people. Then the administrative baton will be passed to the EU, and what follows will be presented as solely an internal EU matter, decided by political strength, bribery and pressure.

In other words, the enlargement of EU does not really depend on upcoming referendums in Ireland or Estonia, but on the readiness of the undemocratic leadership of the EU to resolve through power politics and pressure the policy dilemmas that exist within the EU itself between internal reforms and enlargement to the East. The hypocritical character of the EU is thus once again exposed, and it threatens a political catastrophe.

Protect the democratic values

What can we do about it? We need to be alert and to use every means we can to oppose this destruction of the real Europe of Nation States and peoples. It is the historical duty of all of us to protect the democratic values of a Europe of Nations and work towards a Europe that will be free of occupation by superpowers for the next generation.

The break-up of the old Soviet Union started from Estonia, and you can be certain that the European Union and its architects will not have an easy time either trying to manipulate our country.

Dr. Uno Silberg
Chairman of the Movement No to EU, Estonia
Observer of the TEAM Board

Uno Silberg gave this speech at The People´s Movement against the EU´s 30th Anniversary on 21 April, 2002, in Copenhagen, Denmark.