The European Union that Britain left will not be the EU of 2024.
As the Leave campaigners predicted, the EU’s direction is all about expansion, centralization of power, and ambitions such as the EU’s military, whether voters across Europe actually want it or not.
People in Brussels are now openly talking about expanding the EU to include more countries by 2030.
There are still calls for an expansion of the budget. The EU Commission recently requested an additional €66 billion.
However, for some people that’s clearly not enough. Belgian Prime Minister Alexandra de Croo has called for a more radical approach in the future.
He would like to see the European Union raise more money for itself through EU-wide taxes.
In the midst of this apparent push to tax the EU, Decroo told Politico: “The legitimacy of a democracy is tied to its own finances. It’s inseparable.”
“Today, European funding is indirect and precariously linked.
“We all have our own ways of consulting parliaments, but if Europe is to continue to move in the direction it is going, and we have the momentum, we need something more direct.
“We have to make sure we have the funding to be accountable.”
This intervention was welcomed by MEP Guy Verhofstadt, who responded:In fact, the EU needs to be funded in a completely different way. Instead of contributions from the MS and those with veto power, it is a new, democratically determined source of funding.
“The Belgian Presidency and the EU election campaign are at the moment of finally starting a discussion on such reforms through the Treaty.
“Put your money where your mouth is!”
However, these kinds of declarations seem increasingly out of touch with political realities across Europe.
Geert Wilders, a pro-Brexit candidate, recently won a victory in the Netherlands. Marine Le Pen is currently the frontrunner to become the next French president. The Sweden Democrats, a growing force on the political right in their country, are talking about the possibility of a future exit from Sweden.
Giorgia Meloni is currently the Prime Minister of Italy. And I could go on!
Even in Belgium, the backyard of De Croo and Verhofstadt, Eurosceptic forces are on the rise.
Currently leading in Belgian opinion polls is Vlaams Belang, who is clearly a Eurosceptic in the polls and has risen to 25% in polls.
In second place with 22% is the New Flemish Union, another opposition party that also opposes further centralization of power in the European Union.
Both countries want independence for Flanders, which could lead to the dissolution of Belgium itself.
All of this once again shows that everywhere in Europe there is currently a backlash against the promotion of a federal EU superstate. Even in Belgium!
Perhaps instead of fixating on further centralizing power, people in Brussels should pay attention to the messages their voters are sending to their country.