Documenting Europe’s Decline and Its Source

Eric Zuesse

On 28 September 2022, I headlined “How America Is Crushing Europe”, and opened:

America creates, imposes, and enforces the sanctions against Russia, which are forcing up energy-prices in Europe, and are thereby driving Europe’s corporations to move to America, where taxes, safety-and-environmental regulations, and the rights of labor, are far lower, and so profits will be far higher for the investors.

Furthermore, America can supply its own energy.

Therefore, supply-chains are less dicey in the U.S. than in Europe. There is less and less reason now for a firm to be doing anything in Europe except selling to Europeans, who are becoming increasingly desperate to get whatever they can afford to buy, now that Russia, which had been providing the lowest-cost energy and other commodities, is being strangled out of European markets, by the sanctions. Money can move even when its owner can’t.

The European public will now be left farther and farther behind as Europe’s wealth flees — mainly to America (whose Government had created this capital-flight of Europe’s wealth).

Europe’s leaders have cooperated with America’s leaders, to cause this European decline (by joining, instead of rejecting, America’s sanctions against Russia), but Germany’s companies can also enjoy significant benefits from relocating or expanding in America. Germany’s business daily newspaper, Handlelsblatt, reported, on September 25th, “More and more German companies are expanding their locations in North America: Washington attracts German companies with cheap energy and low taxes. This applies above all to the southern states. Berlin is alarmed – and wants to take countermeasures.” …

On 8 May 2024, I headlined “U.S. empire is now falling apart.”, and reported that

Though the U.S. economy seems to be doing well now, via extracting manufacturing jobs from the EU by forcing up energy-costs there (such as by blowing up the Nord Stream pipelines, sanctioning firms that trade with Russia — which was by far the lowest-price energy-source for European countries — etc.) and by otherwise encouraging those European employers to manufacture in America, where the energy-prices have thus become much lower than they now are in Europe; all of this harm that the U.S. has thus done to European economies incentivizes EU countries to end their being U.S. colonies (‘allies’), and to become more associated with EurAsia, and less with America’s anti-Russian military alliance, NATO. Thus, the ties that are binding the U.S. empire together across the Atlantic, are actually becoming weaker, even as the U.S. Government and its NATO expand into the Asia-Pacific region so as to become a military alliance against China too. The EU, which was created by the U.S. Government as part of its Cold War against the Soviet Union, is increasingly being treated by the U.S. Government as colonies that (like its Latin American banana republics famously have been) it exploits economically, not merely politically. In fact, one of former U.S. President Barack Obama’s major themes, which he stated repeatedly in his speeches, was that ONLY the U.S. is “indispensable,” which means that all other nations are “dispensable”; and he even made a point to America’s future generals, that their function must be to keep down every other country, because “rising middle classes compete with us, and governments seek greater say in global forums,” so that “it will be your generation’s task to respond to this new world.” This also means keeping European countries down, which is actually being done. …

On 17 July 2024, Politico headlined “Von der Leyen loses vaccine contract transparency case in EU court: The ruling comes a day ahead of the MEPs’ vote on Ursula von der Leyen in Strasbourg.”, and reported:

The European Commission failed to give the public “sufficiently wide access” to Covid-19 vaccine contracts, an EU court ruled on Wednesday — a day ahead of a decisive vote for Ursula von der Leyen.

The European General Court ruled that the Commission’s decision to redact sections of the agreements contained “irregularities.” It found that the Commission did not demonstrate that wider access to the contracts would undermine the commercial interests of the pharmaceutical companies — the executive’s defense for the secrecy. …

Von der Leyen needs to secure the support of 361 MEPs to be reconfirmed as president. The margins currently look slim. …

On 22 July 2024, ZeroHedge headlined “Von der Leyen Wins – Stay Tuned for ThyssenKruppGate”, from Phil Butler at JournalNEO Report, and opened:

Congratulations to all European Union citizens. With the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen, you can all expect more of the same. It should be of further comfort to Europeans within the bloc that 284 of 401 elected parliamentarians voted to put the Queen of vaccines and European militarism in charge once again. So, your leaders have matters well in hand.

The Poor Greeks …

A Dumber, More Deviant Europe …

Stay Tuned for ThyssenKruppGate [but in this version the billions will be flowing instead to firms such as Lockheed Martin] 

In February, Ursula von der Leyen declared that the EU would “ensure it has the sufficient quantity of material and the technological superiority that we may need in the future.” She went on to say the bloc intended to turbocharge the EU’s military-industrial complex. The EU boss spelt out her plan in no uncertain terms:

“At the heart of this must be one simple principle: Europe must spend more, spend better, spend European.”

And spending more against enemies created by German, French, and the US conniving over the Euromaidan and the Minsk agreements will not come from the Western elite’s pockets. …

On 4 August 2024, Conor Gallagher at Naked Capitalism headlined Why Is the EU Upping the Pressure on Meloni in Italy? , and reported:

On July 24 the European Commission announced it is putting Italy on notice for alleged “rule of law” deficiencies, which could put in jeopardy EU cohesion and recovery funds earmarked for Rome.

In theory, the warning is supposed to be about democratic standards, corruption, the independence of the judicial system and the safety of journalists. In reality, the threat to cut off some EU funds is used as a form of financial blackmail to keep bloc countries from straying from neoliberal orthodoxy and NATO priorities.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made this clear when she issued her thinly veiled “tools” threat ahead of Italy’s 2022 election that brought Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Brothers of Italy (FdI) party to power:

Disclose.tv

@disclosetv

NEW - EU Commission President on the upcoming elections in Italy, where a right-wing victory is expected: 

"We will see. If things go in a 'difficult direction' - I have spoken about Hungary and Poland - we have tools."

23 September 2022

The use of these rule and law tools for purposes other than their intended purpose is also apparent in the case of Hungary and Poland. The Commission used billions in withheld funds earlier this year to bribe Orbán into relenting on money he was holding up for Project Ukraine. …

Neoliberal Nation 

The Meloni government has been overseeing a wave of privatizations, including critical communications infrastructure to CIA-connected private equity, and plans for more of the state rail company Ferrovie dello Stato, Poste Italiane, Monte dei Paschi bank and energy giant Eni.

Last year, Meloni chose May Day to announce her government’s promotion of short-term worker contracts, as well as the abolition of Italy’s basic income program, which provided the unemployed with an average of 567 euros a month. Despite the program providing a mild stimulus to the economy, Meloni said its elimination will force people back to work. “Where is the slump in the economy and employment?” she asked.

She failed to mention that roughly 40 percent of Italian workers earn less than 10 euros an hour in the country where average wages have fallen 2.9 percent since 1990. Millions of Italians emigrate looking for better opportunities while Meloni backtracked on her strict immigration stance in order to bring in more workers and keep the country’s wage-suppression model on track.

The government in Rome has also been pushing through a series of “reforms” as part of deals to keep money flowing from the EU’s Covid recovery fund. This neoliberal overhaul was initiated under Meloni’s predecessor, unelected former European Central Bank (ECB) President and Goldman Sachs executive Mario Draghi, with an assist from McKinsey and includes privatizing local public services and transfering power from elected officials to bureaucrats at the Italian Competition Authority which is overseen from Brussels.

It’s common knowledge that the billions in disbursements from the EU Covid recovery fund would be put on hold if Meloni deviated from the path of Draghi. So Meloni, willingly or not, has gone along. …

Problems with “The Most Powerful and Successful Alliance in History?”  …

Has the Meloni-led coalition shown any signs of getting wobbly on Project Ukraine? Not really.

Some in government like Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini are often critical, specifically of how the economic war against Russia harms Italian interests. Italian officials were also among some of the louder voices in opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron’s dalliances with officially sending European forces into Ukraine.

But Meloni has been a major backer of Ukraine. After all the hysteria over her election back in 2022, a year and a half later, the New York Times was able to declare that Meloni solidified her credentials and “has put the European establishment at ease. She has proved to be rock-ribbed on the question of Ukraine…” …

Split on Syria?

Last week, the foreign ministers of Italy, Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia and Slovakia said they are willing to thaw ties with Syria in a step they hope will lead to the return of Syrian refugees. …

On July 26, Rome also announced its intentions to return an ambassador to Damascus after a decade-long absence during the West’s efforts to topple the government.

Washington and Brussels will not be in favor of such a move, especially considering that the European Commission just unveiled its own plan to throw a billion euros at Lebanon to host Syrian refugees there (who knows where they’ll go when Israel gets its war with Hezbollah) and the simple fact that Syria is an ally of Russia. …

China? …

If Meloni were to lead Italy down that path, Brussels and Washington would work to quickly install a new government in Rome. …

Zhou Bo wrote the following last year in the South China Morning Post:

“The battleground won’t be in the Global South, where the US has very much lost to China, especially in Africa and Latin America. … It will be in Europe, where the US has most of its allies and where China is the largest trading partner.

Gradually, the transatlantic alliance will relax. Even if America’s decline is gradual, it cannot afford a global military presence. It will have to retreat from around the world, including from the Middle East and Europe, to focus on the Indo-Pacific, where the US sees China as a long-term threat. Successive US presidents, Republican and Democrat alike, have asked Europeans to take greater ownership of their security. In other words, Europe has to have strategic autonomy, even if it doesn’t want to. That Europe takes China as a partner, competitor and systemic rival at the same time says more about Europe’s confusion.” …

Meloni Flailing About Unable to Change the One Fact that Really Matters

Meloni’s doubling back to China after confidently bailing on the B[elt&]R[oad]I[nitiative] last year is one of her many headscratchers. …

Maybe the rule of law notice from Ursula’s Commission is simply out of spite to remind Meloni who’s really in charge. Von der Leyen is nothing if not vengeful. Recall that after a wolf killed her cherished pony Dolly, she began working to reduce wolves’ legal protection so hunters could again go after them to the point of extinction in Europe. EU diplomats describe von der Leyen’s focus on wolves as “strange,” “bizarre,” “puzzling,” and definitely “pushy.” …

Even if Meloni bends the knee again to the Commission, it likely won’t make a difference for her political future due [to] a series of approaching problems that not even von der Leyen can help with. Meloni swallowing her pride and going hat in hand to Beijing after championing her withdrawal from the BRI is an acknowledgement of the economic trouble on the horizon for Italy, as well as much of the eurozone. …

EU austerity enforcement is on the horizon. On July 26 Italy, France, and five other EU countries were placed in the bloc’s dreaded  excessive deficit procedure for violating sacred budget rules: a state’s debt must be no higher than 60 percent of national output, with a public deficit of no more than three percent.

Italy must now present a plan to Brussels and will have no choice but to lean heavily on extreme austerity that could well be worse than during the spending cuts of the 2011-2014 Euro Crisis — brutal budgetary tightening that leads to life expectancy drops for poorer citizens.

So even if the European Commission doesn’t torpedo Meloni’s government over perceived violations of NATO/EU dogma, the coming economic implosion will almost certainly end her time as prime minister.  … Nor does she have a level of control over financial institutions in the country with its own currency like in Hungary with Orban, which has allowed him to withstand endless pressure campaigns from Brussels. …

his is another reminder that EU countries are not in charge of their economies and foreign policies. That would be Brussels above them and above Brussels, Washington. Until that hierarchy changes, the only change Europeans are likely to see is continual decline.

The fact that the EU needs to rely more and more on these types of threats and financial blackmail in order to force member states to go against the interests of a majority of their citizens is not a recipe for long term success. …

The question becomes: what’s an elected leader of an EU nation to do if they want to do what’s best for their country and stay in power? …

On 10 August 2024, the MoonOfAlabama blog headlined “The Sanctions Are Working [Against Europe]”, and reported:

In March 2022 I predicted some consequences of the sanctions imposed on Russia:

The first [map] shows the countries which banned Russian airplanes from their airspace. Russia in turn denied its airspace to operators from those countries. It will cost quite a bit for U.S. and EU airlines as their flight times and cost to and from Asia, which typically fly through Russian airspace, will now increase. Carriers from Asian countries will now easily out-compete U.S. and European airlines on these routes.

bigger

As British media reported yesterday:

British Airways is temporarily scrapping flights to Beijing until at least next year. …

British Airways described London-Beijing as “one of our most important routes”. …

It is one of many Western airlines avoiding Russian airspace, which is adding to their flight times, fuel costs and complexity over how they deploy crew and aircraft. …

As I continued on sanctions: …

The U.S. also sanctioned all imports of oil products from Russia. … European countries can not follow that step as their economies depend of imports of oil and gas from Russia and will continue to do so for years to come. …

Meanwhile in Germany, which currently has a rather crazy government, industrial production is further declining while bankruptcies have reached a record height:

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https://menafn.com/1108538360/German-Industry-Is-Paralyzed

https://archive.is/A3jj4

[[Middle East and North Africa Business Report, in short (MENA REPORT), also known as MENAFN (Middle East and North Africa Financial Network) is a business news website. It is run by Al Bawaba (Amman, Jordan, and Dubai). It was established in 2001.[1][2] It covers business and economics, entertainment across the Arab world.[3]]]

German Industry Is Paralyzed

9 August 2024

(MENAFN- AzerNews) The lack of orders and falling exports put Germany at the bottom of the list in terms of growth rates, Azernews reports.

Germany, with its energy-intensive industry and shortage of raw materials, has been particularly affected by the rapid rise in energy prices. Large corporations such as BASF are closing factories because management no longer believes it can efficiently produce essential chemicals. There is a trend of deindustrialization.

The volume of orders from German machine-building and engineering companies decreased by 12 percent in the first half of 2024, according to the industry association VDMA. year to year in real terms. Orders from Germany itself fell especially sharply - by 18 percent. Orders from foreign companies fell by 9 percent. Metallurgical corporations are also suffering, as demand for their products is also falling.

According to Arne Rautenberg, a representative of the Union Investment stock company, industrial production has been falling since 2017. Every second company complains not only about high energy prices but also about the lack of qualified labor and high bureaucratic obstacles.

Political setbacks, on the one hand, and economic changes, on the other, have pushed the German economy into the background, says Eric Heymann from the Deutsche Bank think tank.

]

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The idea isn’t necessarily just to weaken Europe (of which Russia is the largest and most populous land, even in merely its westernmost third) but to weaken all countries so that the U.S. regime can take them over — and it has been a successful plan, up till now. The most crucial part of it is to make, and now increasingly to keep, Russia be and remain politically and economically OUT of Europe, because whereas Europe was rich in human capital, Russia is by far the world’s biggest country in terms of physical capital. Russia’s land is 17,098,242 square kilometers and is also by far the land with the highest natural resources. By comparison, ALL of Europe (including the western third of Russia) is only 10,180,000 square kilometers, and with remarkably few natural resources. Europe actually has far less natural resources per kilometer than Russia, whereas Russia has slightly higher than the world’s average of natural resources per kilometer. As a result, the only way for Europe to be economically competitive is to get most of its natural resources from Russia, by pipelines, rail, truck, and plane. The United States is the world’s fourth-largest country, and has significantly higher natural resources per kilometer than average, and so can pretty well handle its own needs, especially because Canada, the world’s second-largest country, borders it to the north. China is the world’s third-largest country, but ranks #6 in terms of natural resources (China is #1 in human resources); so, in order for the U.S. regime to remain the world’s most powerful Government long-term, which is its top objective (far higher than is the welfare of its own or any foreign people), breaking Europe apart from Russia, and breaking China apart from Russia (Russia’s borders include both Europe to its west and China to its southeast), are the U.S. Government’s overriding #1 concern to achieve, and might even top avoidance of a WW3 (which would destroy the entire world) in order to achieve that #1 objective. (The U.S. regime calls that objective its own ‘national security’ though it enormously endangers not only its own inhabitants but all peoples everywhere.)

That’s why Russia has been the U.S. regime’s central target ever since 25 July 1945.

So: that’s the bigger geostrategic picture, in terms of which the whoredom of the leaders of America’s colonies in Europe and elsewhere can be rationally understood — it is all by payoffs of one sort or another, because it rapes their own land’s people. It’s ‘justified’ ONLY on lies.

So, today, I very sadly conclude: Goodby, Europe, as it has been known. I love you, but you are heading evermore steeply downhill, blinded (by U.S.-and-allied billionaires and their millions of agents) to the reality.

As I have previously reported, “The EU is fraudulent”. President Truman started it so as to colonize Europe to become what this article documents has been remarkably successfully achieved. Europe is now just banana republics, without the bananas but with lots of very pretty sights and formerly very rich cultures (which are being increasingly Americanized and otherwise alienated from those very rich local cultures). It’s rape of the entire planet, by America’s billionaires, who keep this regime going — heading straight to WW3.

Brian Berletic, on August 12th, headlined “US Regime Change in Bangladesh: The Danger of Ignoring US Interference”, and reported the successful U.S. coup that in NBC News’s August 5th report had been headlined as “Bangladesh prime minister is ousted after weeks of deadly protests”. Berletic’s report explained how this U.S. actual coup was done. He also posted separately his article on it that includes links to some of the sources which were discussed in his video. The U.S. has done numerous coups not only in “banana republics” but at least 18 also in Europe during 1947-1989, some of which (like this present one in Bangladesh) succeeded. Of course, America’s successful 2014 coup in Ukraine likewise occurred after 1989. Berletic closes his video by explaining why ONLY via outlawing Washington’s National Endowment of Democracy (NED — which in the 1980s replaced the CIA as America’s coup-machine) in their country can a leader of any Government anywhere safely avoid having a U.S.-installed government. Berletic there makes comprehensible the terror that even the leaders in the countries already controlled by the U.S. regime live under, that if they ‘misbehave’, Washington will target them, too, for “regime-change.” America’s Government is psychopathic and determined to control the entire world. Any Government that resists them, becomes targeted by them.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.