Michael v.d. Schulenburg, a German Member of the European Parliament, discusses the alarming erosion of the rule of law within the EU, primarily through its sanction policies.
- Sanction Transparency: EU sanction decisions are made in extreme secrecy by the Council, with MEPs only informed after the fact and no decision protocols available. This complete lack of transparency violates basic judicial requirements.
- Rule of Law Concerns: The EU Council acts as both lawmaker and judge, especially in foreign relations, where decisions are virtually unchallengeable in the European Court of Justice, creating a parallel to medieval authoritarianism. ⚖️
- Legal Challenges: Sanctioned individuals face immense difficulties mounting a legal defense, often without access to their bank accounts or income. The EU offers no clear legal recourse, and the "disinformation" they are accused of lacks any official definition. 🧑⚖️
- Parliamentary Power: Despite being the only democratically elected EU body, the European Parliament has no right of initiative and limited power to influence or reverse the Council's sanction decisions, exposing structural limitations. 🏛️
- Impact on Democracy: These sanctions are seen as an attack on social media and dissenting voices, aiming to intimidate critics of EU war policy. Schulenburg views this as a flagrant breach of the rule of law and an assault on democracy and freedom of thought. 🇪🇺
- Double Standards: The EU exhibits clear hypocrisy, simultaneously awarding the Sakharov prize to imprisoned journalists while imposing sanctions on 70 individuals for their opinions, demonstrating a stark double standard regarding freedom of speech. ❓
- Legal Opinion: A commissioned legal opinion by a former European Court of Justice judge and international law professors concludes that the EU's sanction regime is illegal under both European and international law, warning the EU has "crossed the Rubicon." 📜
- War and Censorship: Schulenburg argues that the EU's intense war rhetoric, particularly concerning Ukraine, fosters internal censorship and suppresses dissenting voices by framing critics as an "enemy from within." 📢
- Ukraine War: Based on his UN experience, Schulenburg asserts the EU's inflexible and maximalist conditions for peace negotiations with Russia are impossible to fulfill, ultimately leading to Ukraine's destruction rather than a stable, sovereign future.
- Recommendations: To counter this, people in the EU should generate public outcry, write to their political parties, and support public awareness campaigns by leveraging the published legal opinion and associated materials, urging the media to recognize the gravity of the situation.
Final Takeaway: The EU's current trajectory of opaque sanctions and suppression of dissent, driven by war rhetoric, gravely jeopardizes its foundational principles of democracy and the rule of law, risking self-destruction and isolating itself geopolitically.