Robin’s Ramblings – Rhetorical Questions

witewash?Thinking about all the Chapters involved in getting a country into the EU, I was wondering what you have to “unfulfil” to get out of it. I mean Greece and Ireland nearly managed to ditch the Euro. The Maastricht treaty is used as an excuse to send the “Blue Letter” as a warning to countries exceeding the 3% stability criteria. Does it end with this warning? I can see no clause (I stand to be corrected) which sees a clear route to be taken to actually expel a member state for whatever reason. An error of judgement in the creation of the constitution? An oversight? Crass blindness to reality? I don’t know.

It’s easy to find excuses not to let someone into the club, especially, as in Turkey’s case, the candidate makes saying “no” quite easy. They talk one thing, but do another. The fact the North is in no way fit to even consider itself as an appropriate candidate on not just these criteria , but dozens of other reasons, is secondary and irrelevant. The Chapters under observation are Freedom of Speech, Human Rights and the independence of the judiciary and police. Yet there are violations on these fronts just south of here. Yet they still managed to get into the club. I see Standard and Poor’s downgrading of Cyprus, Greek and Irish sovereign debts to highly speculative, downgraded from just speculative. Highly speculative, which in financial circles just a short while ago was regarded as Junk. The word junk seems to have vanished from the scene. The taste remains the same though. Spain resorts to bolstering its economy by reintroducing the Peseta in some regions to get people to part with hoarded cash. Ditching the Euro?

A club member who applies the rules when they suit and ignores the others that are “inconvenient”, is in my mind not a member worthy of support. Maybe there should be an independent judging panel that continually assesses the suitability of that member’s future in the “club” based on continuing adherence to the rule book, for better or for worse. I wonder if the EU would still consist of 27 states?

By the way, I saw snow on the mountains yesterday or was it whitewash?

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