Debates - Wednesday 12 January 2005

Pflüger (GUE/NGL), on behalf of the group. –(DE) Mr President, on 22 and 23 February, the US President, George W. Bush, will visit Europe, where, after a visit to Brussels, he will be received in Mainz by the German Chancellor. I am delighted that protests will be held on the occasion of this war criminal’s visit, and I myself will be addressing the demonstration in Mainz. The fact that transatlantic relations are now so good surprises some people, but this is merely down to the fact that the EU’s policies do not differ in any fundamental way from the line followed by the US Government. The debate on the EU Constitutional Treaty made it apparent that EU Heads of State or Government want the EU, too, to become a global and even military player. Two examples of this are the militarisation of the EU, with the inclusion of an express commitment to rearmament in the new EU Treaty, and the fact that economic and monetary policy is based on neoliberal principles. As I see it, a form of transatlantic relations whereby the EU becomes a world power, mostly working together with the USA, but sometimes competing with it, is the stuff of nightmares.