Monday, August 04, 2008

The Magnificent Ten

Ten member states of the EU have expressed their support for Denmark in its current struggle to retain its own immigration laws. This is not yet a majority, but it’s certainly a resounding wake-up call for Brussels, since two of the Big Three are included.

The article below mentions Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland, Finland, and the UK. If anyone knows what the other five countries are, please list them in the comments.

This issue cuts to the heart of the EU. No nation-state can maintain any vestige of sovereignty if it cannot control who may or may not cross its borders and become a resident. The EU, on the other hand — with EuroMed as its ultimate goal — cannot reach its full expression without effectively destroying its internal borders. This battle is the most important one so far in the struggle to stop the European juggernaut.

According to the Copenhagen Post:

Broad backing for Denmark in EU immigration tiff

Ten EU member states have expressed their support for Denmark’s immigration rules which violate the union’s own regulations

Although Denmark is currently in the midst of a clash with the European Court over immigration laws, the country is far from alone on its side of the fence.

Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Finland and the UK are among 10 European Union countries that are supporting Denmark over its immigration policies, which are stricter than those of the EU.
- - - - - - - - -
Denmark’s problems with the EU over immigration laws resulted last week in an EC ruling which stated that any person who has obtained legal residence in an EU country may live in any member state they wish, along with their spouse and children. The court’s ruling emphasised the ‘free movement’ language in EU laws relating to union residents, where a person legally living in a member state may live and work in any member country.

But many member states have since blasted the ruling. Michael Aastrup Jensen, EU spokesman for the government’s Liberal Party, welcomed the other countries’ support.

‘It’s good news. Now we have the possibility to take the issue up at the highest levels of the EU,’ said Jensen. ‘If the EC can trump the national parliament on this sensitive issue, then it’s a ticking time bomb that no EU country would dare let tick away.’

Yet despite the strong words from the government, both the Socialist People’s Party and the anti-EU Danish People’s Party (DF) are dissatisfied with the Immigration Ministry’s handling of the case. So far, the ministry has only requested more precise clarification of the union’s immigration laws.

DF indicated the new ruling has made it necessary for the party to get directly involved in EU issues with the government — something it has generally avoided in the past.


Hat tip: TB.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Next they'll be firing on Fort Sumter. . .

Anonymous said...

The situation is far worse then it appears.

The final insult
Far too little attention was given to the Metock case last week, when the ECJ ruled that failed asylum seekers could stay in the EU if they married a citizen of an EU member state while they were waiting to be deported.

The one thing that the ECJ did concede, however, was that, if it was a "sham" marriage, the right to remain in the EU did not apply – but no more.

In a judgement yesterday our own Law Lords decided that the government cannot even ask such people to demonstrate that their marriages are valid. Such an idea is "arbitrary and unjust" - even for those who are here on a temporary visa and are getting married only weeks before their permission to stay in Britain runs out.


More here
THE FINAL INSULT

spackle said...

While this is good it smacks of cowardice. The "big 10" are content to sit on the side lines and let tiny Denmark slug it out and take all the heat. Disgusting.

spackle said...

Just as the US has to do all the military heavy lifting it seems that Denmark has to do all the ideological.

Joanne said...

Someone has to start the ball rolling, and ten member states are expressing their support for Denmark's stand. It is a start at least.

Anonymous said...

The Czech Republic and Greece also supports.

Proud Infidel said...

All of this is fine and dandy, but what next? The EU has proven itself quite adept at circumventing any roadblocks to it's schemes. Populations not approving the EU Treaty? Go around the people and do it through the legislatures. And not a peep from the populations of France and The Netherlands over the usurpation of their expressed will. Opposition to the EU in the EU Legislature? Change the rules for forming blocks. Not a peep from the people. It will prove no different here unless there's some real backbone and staying power to the opposition.

The problem I see is that the great majority of politicans and citizens in Europe when push comes to shove support the EU. Look at all the hoopla over the election of a more conservative government in Italy only to have them all vote for the Lisbon Treaty. They are making all the right noises about inmagration, yet they vote to wrap up the country in the suicidal inmigration policies of the EU. Say what?

The inmigration flap in Denmark is a start, but unless the politicians and population keep it going, the likely eventual result is the Danish politicians and people falling in line and the EU rolls on. I'd love to be wrong, though.

Anonymous said...

@Proud Infidel
I am almost certain that you are wrong on this one. Things are boiling here in Denmark. And just now Pia Kjaersgaard from The Danish Peoples Party made a statement where she threatened the very existence of the government: 'Do something, or we will withdraw our support'. (Meaning more or less the end of the government)
Fogh is on his way home from vacation and some very interesting days are ahead of us. On this issue, Kjaersgaard have broad support among the danes. If Fogh does not listen to Kjaersgaard everything can happen.

Proud Infidel said...

TB,
Like I said, I'd love to be proven wrong. And I'm convinced if anyone can hang on it's the Danes, who have taught the Western world a thing or two about standing firm in the face of a barrage of criticism (The Cartoon Issue).

But the EU has proven to be very skilled at backing up and trying to do the same thing through other ways when encountering opposition to it's plans. If the Danes succeed here, it could be the start of something, but for now I'll wait see how it goes. Hopefully there's some real support for the Danish position in the ten EU countries that have so far backed them in this issue.

Henrik R Clausen said...

But the EU has proven to be very skilled at backing up and trying to do the same thing through other ways when encountering opposition to it's plans.

Yes, indeed.

It's really unpredictable how this will work out. My hunch - and it's only that - is that this is just the beginning, and that more furore will ensue.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) starts the annual meeting of the Dansk Folkeparti leadership (mainly the MP's), and they are sure to have this on the top of their agenda. They will challenge our PM Anders Fogh on it, but just how far they'll go is uncertain.

I don't think we have any hard feelings in Denmark about having to be the ones spearheading a challenge to the EU. We've had enough of French-style bureaucracy, powergrabbing and centralization, and the public opinion is firmly with standing up. That 10 countries went along was a nice and unexpected help - it's unusual that so many voice their opinion in cases like this at all.

Yes, the EU has devious ways of coming back, implementing what was rejected before in a different way, and generally ignore public opinion, democratic style and common sense. In case you'd like to understand this deeper and be better at identifying it, I recommend the books by Jens-Peter Bonde. The most important of them are translated into English and can be downloaded for free at his site. Who else but us citizens to cry 'foul'?

We have work ahead of us :)

Henrik R Clausen said...

Just to show how big this debate is, here are the articles posted in Jyllands-Posten today, the 4th of August:

Article 1
Article 2
Article 3
Article 3

Jyllands-Posten has 88 major articles so far since the story broke on the 9th of July. Here's the complete list.

Berlingske Tidende, who first brought up the issue, has a whopping eight articles today. Here's one telling how Denmark in general has been more active in defending national interests against the ECJ:

Danmark opruster ved EF-Domstolen

It's more difficult to count related articles in Berlingske, but the impression is the same: This is a serious issue for Denmark and the government has yet been unable to come up with a meaningful response, while Dansk Folkeparti enjoys widespread support and recognition for having been right about the ECJ for years.

While I don't think this will bring down our government, the game sure is complicated and the stakes are high.

Anonymous said...

Im totally surprised that the dutch support the danes in this.

Does anyone know what the source of this claim is??

It seems greatly out of character for the dutch. Furthermore, im dutch and i havent heard anything about the netherlands supporting the danes on this!

I do now we recently have had a wave of dutch court rulings that effectively kills off the dutch immigration policy. The dutch government is somewhat annoyed about this, but to say that the dutch government supports the danes in its struggle against the EU, is a stretch.