Many self-righteous and smug Eurocrats will be celebrating the European Union’s Nobel Peace Prize, which was awarded earlier today in Oslo, Norway.
Wisely and sensibly, some European leaders, such as British Prime Minister David Cameron and Czech President Václav Klaus, decided not to attend today’s ceremony.
It was clear to many when the announcement was made in October that this was nothing short of a public relations stunt to shore up support for the failing European Project. Far from ensuring a peaceful and stable Europe, the hubris shown by Brussels-based Eurocrats when dealing with the Eurozone crisis has ushered in an era of instability and uncertainty across the continent not seen for a generation.
According to the Nobel Committee responsible for selecting the winner, the European Union won this award because the EU has “for over six decades contributed to the advancement of peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.”
The committee further suggested that, after World War II, there was a real threat of war between France and Germany and that the EU somehow prevented war from happening.
Whatever threat of war existed, it was quashed by the unconditional surrender of Germany (unlike after World War I), the subsequent U.S. and allied occupation force in Germany, the unifying threat to Western Europe posed by the Soviet Union, and, most importantly, the establishment of NATO. If any organization deserves the Nobel Prize for peace and stability in Europe, it is NATO. No objective analysis proves otherwise.
Perhaps the most nonsensical claim by the committee is about the EU’s promotion of democratic values. Far from promoting democracy in Europe, the EU has been steadily eroding democratic values. Over the past six decades, the EU has developed into one of the most undemocratic institutions in the Western world. Power has been removed from sovereign nation states and has become consolidated in obtuse decision-making institutions in Brussels.
So as Greece and the eurozone continue to burn and EU leaders continue to drink $190 bottles of 1992 Chateau Angelus Premier Grand Cru, perhaps they should reflect on where Europe would be today without NATO and the U.S. security guarantee.