What the EU can teach America. (The Last Word).(Brief Article)

At the outset, the European Union's (EU) champions presented it as a plan to increase trade and lessen restrictions on travel among the nations of Western Europe. But the EU's leaders have forged it into a powerful political force, swallowing up national sovereignty and threatening the personal freedom of all who reside in member nations.

Americans must take a hard look at this emerging superstate because we have been placed on an identical slippery slope. The lure of gaining enhanced economic activity via NAFTA, the Free Trade Association of the Americas, the World Trade Organization, and other economic pacts will lead our nation to the same loss of sovereignty and freedoms that Europeans now face.

New awareness about the ultimate goal of the EU is taking hold throughout Europe. During 2001, for instance, the Austrian people gathered the constitutionally required number of signatures on a petition seeking to have their government reconsider EU membership. But Austria's pro-EU leaders promptly rejected the petition. Having previously assured the people that entry into the new European structure would never adversely impact national sovereignty, Austrian leaders now insist that the people voted for everything the EU has become when, years ago, they opted for EU membership.

The Charter's Article 21 reads: "Any discrimination based on any ground such as sex, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation, shall be prohibited." Another article states that the unelected European Council "may take appropriate action to combat discrimination."

Professor Roberto de Mattei of Italy's Monte Cassino University notes that "it is difficult to find a term as ambiguous as 'discrimination.'" In his analysis in the U.S.-based Chronicles, he insists that the "pretense of abolishing any form of discrimination constitutes an act of brutal egalitarianism." He predicts that a clergyman who praises the traditional family, condemns homosexual unions, or upholds traditional moral standards will invite "criminal sanctions." Ultimately, he claims, the Charter that is to be the basis for a new European constitution exudes "a totalitarian spirit [that] will provide an indispensable tool to corner those who do not identify with the new European values."

German economist/journalist Dr. Bruno Bandulet sees the influence of Antonio Gramsci in this Charter. A diehard communist, Gramsci held that total power could best be achieved by attacking a region's culture. Bandulet insists that "the family" is its main target, and the Charter's goal is "changing society, [a] part of ...