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An Obscure Fate
Nice to see some Euro-stories have a happy ending. David Rennie posts in his Brussels Blog in the Telegraph on the grand opening of the EU's "Jacques Delors Building." Delors, as some of you might reminder, was the EU's most famous and visionary Commission President: His zeal for federalism, coupled with his Gallic Socialism, made him a bogeyman among Eurosceptics.
And today? Delors attended the opening of the building named in his honour, along with a couple of other ageing Eurofanatics. Rennie was about the only journalist present, suggesting that Delors' legacy has made more impact on sceptical Brits than on the federasts he hoped to inspire. Rennie says that the building houses Delors' pet projects: "the two most useless EU institutions in existence, the Committee of the Regions, and the European Economic and Social Committee."
The latter is forces employers, trade unionists and professional associations together to chew the cud in the Rhineland capitalist fashion: Judging by the state of Rhineland capitalism today, it is probably a good thing the committee is toothless. The former represents the high water mark of Delors's federalist vision: "yet another plank of the federalist dream of establishing a direct benefactor-client relationship between Brussels and regional politicians, undermining the hated nation state in the process."
It's now, like so much else in Brussels, a means for local councillors to gorge on moules frites and Belgian beer on the taxpayer's Euro. Rennie describes it as the European version of Siberia.
Delors railed against the state of Europe during the building's inauguration. Tellingly, he complained about "the poor performance of Western democracy."
Does "poor performance" mean "people voting againts things Jacques Delors supports?"
It seems you can take the man out of the EU, but you can't take the EU out of the man.
