End Game: Amid EU Inflation at (at least) 8.5%, Member-States Call for 'EUropeanisation' of Energy Policy

Doubling down on the arrogance, EU Bureaucrats give themselves a pay raise of 8.5% while a 'price cap' and 'electricity subsidies throughout Europe' are mulled: guess who's going to foot *that* bill…

As it happens, the Covidiots are at it yet again: using the failed blueprint of the injection mandate, Austria’s state governors (Landeshauptleute) are building pressure, politically speaking to make the federal government ‘do something’ against high energy prices and rising discontent. Or appear to be doing something.

If you are thinking: wait a moment, I’ve seen this before, you’re, of course, correct. This reads almost exactly like the train wreck masquerading as injection mandate. For references, you could kinda go through my dedicated postings, but the short-hand version may be found here.

It is important to remember two things: why on God’s green earth would anyone think that following the ‘Covid policy playbook’ would constitute a good idea? (Here’s looking at you, Austro-Covidian government.)

We’ve seen this ‘dynamic’ of political ‘action’ before: create a crisis, amplify the fearporn, and claim it’s all a new situation that has never before existed in human history.

If you think that this is a stupid proposition that would never fly, well, look at us, 2.5 years after the ‘emergence’ of Sars-Cov-2. It worked like a charm, eh?

So, here’s two notions that are important to understand for the first part of the below posting: first, to the members of the political caste, appearances are all that matters, and, second, it doesn’t matter if these actions aren’t working, if not counter-productive, inappropriate to the occasion, or stupid (or a combination of the above). That’s politics: look market-able and see who shows up, even though I do have to admit I’m not sure where the difference would be between politics and, say, prostitution. But I digress.

Yet, this is what we get, predictably, and every f****** time.

States Ramp Up Pressure on the Feds

Hence, on 12 July 2022, there was this article over at state broadcaster ORF Online, which informed the populace that the powers-that-be are considering further market interventions to fight inflation, in particular energy prices.

We do see the same dynamic that worked so well (until it didn’t) for the injection mandate: the governors are huffing and puffing, demanding the federal government ‘does something’—and here’s the crucial part: the latter also wants to be seen ‘doing something’, hence the federal government will jump at any of these propositions, modify it a bit by pulling up a position paper from yesteryear out of its proverbial (to claim they had the original idea), and—voilà: a post-graduate degree in politicking is obtained.

Vienna State Governor (whom we call Bürgermeister, or mayor, as opposed to the Landeshauptleute, or governors, for the other eight states, because Vienna, while also a co-equal state, is also a big city) Michael Ludwig, yes, he of enduring Covid Hawkery, demanded a ‘Pricing Summit’ to ‘consider’ what to do against inflation. Mr. Ludwig, a SPÖ stalwart (apparatchik) has been supported by his fellow party member and governor of Burgenland, Peter Doskozil. As predictable as day following night (and vice versa), the one and only thing the Social Democrats (ahem) could come up with is: more subsidies, in particular a means-tested one-time tax credit between € 400-700, depending on one’s income level.

Leaving aside the utter absurdity of this proposition—including, but not confined to, questions, such as: how fast would that money be available? And: if utility bills are due monthly—to say nothing about food prices—how, exactly, would a one-off tax credit help?

Sidenote: My in-laws (who live just outside Vienna, i.e., in the surrounding state of Lower Austria) just received a letter by their energy supplier: accept a unilateral doubling of gas prices or don’t get any gas (I doubt that The Godfather would do that to seniors, to say nothing about Mr. Putin, eh). My parents, on the other hand, are planning to fight the looming gas crisis (and, yes, they heat their apartment with Russian gas) by using electrical heaters…leaving aside the salient, if stupefyingly unaddressed, issue of where, exactly, electricity comes from, my mother at least recognised that if everyone—who could still afford sky-high energy prices, that is—would do that, there’d be serious problems with the grid. Sure thing, if electricity supply fails, too, she mentioned that putting on more clothes would help.

Returning to the matter at-hand, the right-of-centre also had a field day in proposing to do something, specifically a government-mandated cap of energy prices. This absurdly stupid proposition comes from the self-declared ‘experts’ at running a successful economy (who just drove said economy in a ditch by siding with NATO vs. Russia, which supplies about 80% of Austria’s natural gas demand: talk about sitting on a branch while applying a chainsaw to said branch…).

Raising the Bars of Arrogance (and Stupidity)

Of course, the federal government is jumping at these propositions, if only because they themselves are either out of ideas (possible) or have their own agenda (more plausible, I think): Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) stated he had ‘of course sympathies’ for whatever measures against high energy prices, but if one wishes to talk about price caps, one should do that at the pan-EU level:

‘That means’, added the finance minister, ‘to consider this [price cap] on the European level’, sounding much like Wolfgang Urbanitsch, managing director of E-Control [Austria’s regulatory agency]. At the same time, Brunner demanded more speed as regards joint gas supply contracts: ‘Here, the EU Commission must finally switch from talking to doing.’

I’m at a loss of words: it’s too stupid, and the Covid Policy Blueprint—of creating a (sense of) emergency to transfer the remaining vestiges of national sovereignty to unelected and unaccountable technocrats in Brussels (who, by the way, just gave themselves a 8.5% pay raise to deal with the rising cost of living due to—their own insane energy policies, mainly).

The more insidious truth about the EU cleptocrats’ move, however, is this: yes, get angry at them, but keep the eye on the ball. The EU’s bureaucrats have a COLA clause in their contracts, i.e., their wages are tied to inflation.

That means: whatever you’re reading or hearing from the governments or other ‘experts’ (ahem), inflation in the EU/EEA is running at 8.5%, at the bare minimum.

Sidenote: yes, in case you’re wondering—or are upset, because if your employment conditions don’t include what’s called a COLA (cost-of-living adjustment) clause, you’re stuck with some measly point-something nominal wage increases, which will not cover the rising prices. In effect, you’re getting poorer every day, but then again, as everything else in economics, this ain’t a natural law as in, say, the geophysical sciences, it’s all man-made, i.e., there are those who suffer (we, my pay increase comes in at 2.46% this year and 1.1% for the subsequent nine years, courtesy of what qualifies as the most incompetently union-negotiated collective bargaining arrangement in recent memory).

Let’s return to Austria before moving on: Gabriel Felbermayr, head of the country’s chief pro-business think (ahem) tank—which, at that point, I fear we must take literally, that is, a misguided thought in a tank rolling over the citizenry, which turns into roadkill, or ‘collateral damage’, of sorts—gave away the game plan (my emphases):

Brunner described a proposal by Gabriel Felbermayr, head of the Austrian Institute of Economic Research (WIFO), to subsidise electricity throughout Europe as an ‘interesting suggestion’. He said they ‘regularly’ exchange ideas with Austrian and European experts and examine the plans. ‘We all take these proposals very, very seriously’, said the [Brunner].

Here’s a quick pro tip to understanding politicking: if a politician takes whatever shitty proposal ‘very, very seriously’, hold on to your wallet.

Also: ask yourself the following question: who’s going to go foot the bill to subsidise electricity throughout Europe? Last time I checked, the EU cannot (ahem) level taxes or raise bonds, but I suppose that can be changed within very short time, if push comes to shove, as explained by none other than convicted money launderer, former German finance minister, and current head of the Bundestag, Wolfgang Schäuble, a few years ago (my emphases):

European unification is to create a new form of governance, where there is not one level that is responsible for everything and which then, in case of doubt, confers onto others certain policy areas through international treaties. I am firmly convinced that this is a much more forward-looking approach for the 21st century than a relapse into the regulatory monopoly of the classical national state of past centuries...

I would like to make it quite clear to you that I am quite convinced that in a period of less than 24 months we will be able to change the European regulatory framework in this way. We just need to amend Protocol 14—whoever wants to read it, in general, in the Lisbon Treaty—in such a way that we create on it the broad outlines of a fiscal union for the eurozone....

For further particulars, you’re referred to the below piece:

Downside Up: (EU) Citizenship and its Discontents, with the Bonus Feature of Explaining Why Germany is a Banana Republic

Mr. Brunner was supported by his co-conspirator, Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler (Greens), who

let Puls24 [a private legacy media outlet] know that she thought Felbermayr’s proposal to give households part of their electricity needs at more favourable conditions, but to charge the high market prices for the rest, was interesting. This would have two advantages: ‘The help would reach the households—and not large corporations from abroad. But those who waste energy will not be rewarded for it’, the statement said. Gewessler had commissioned her experts to work out the details. In principle, Gewessler also stressed that solutions had to be found in harmony with the EU.

Tellingly, the only halfway sane comment comes, like with the Covid mess, from the Freedom Party whose chairman, Herbert Kickl, drove home that point stating, as quoted by ORF,

The same parties who further ramp up this inflation tsunami now pretend to provide solutions to it.

Thomas Sowell, anyone?

A Few Bottom Lines

So, here we are: the final frontier of globalist exploitation, energy security, is about to be breached. So far, energy policies were the only area that had remained outside—beyond—Brussels’ reach, but this is about to change.

With the EU Commission being cheered on by their camp followers in member-states’ politics and journalism (ahem), here’s what you’re not being told:

While arguably most member-states—and EEA-affiliated neighbours, such as Switzerland or Norway—domestic legislation already ‘follows’ Brussels (there’s talk about some 3/4 laws passed in national parliaments is ex-post ‘legalisation’ of policies made by the EU), the issue of where energy comes from, and how much it would cost, had been carefully retained by member-states.

This is a momentous change that will fundamentally alter the balance of power in Europe. Sure, if European governments continue down the path of further antagonising Russia, which supplies them with cheap energy that, in turn, keeps Europeans warm in winter and economically productive throughout the year, there is but one way to go: down.

If Europeans don’t heed sensible advice, such as the suggestion by former GDP politician Egon Krenz to ‘go to Washington’ to find a way out of this mess, we’re looking at what (even) The Economist can clearly foresee:

Note the pictorial messaging: Mr. Putin is the big bad wolf as ‘Europe’ is considered an innocent child (which, on another level, is actually quite apt an illustration of the utter insanity masquerading as European ‘politics’ vs. the Swamp Masters of D.C.

Let’s not mince words about the implications:

Mass protests, worse than anything against the Covid mandates, in Sri Lanka, or in 2019 (which was, after all, a year with ‘protests in every corner of the globe’, as The New Yorker’s Robin Wright had it), are in store.

Most governments are incapable of dealing with sustained acts of civil disobedience, in particular because of three decades of austerity-induced ‘streamlining’ of both domestic police forces and the military. While this is a good thing, it also means that governments are cognisant of this fact will, at the first appearance of such protests, act extremely harsh and mete out punishment way out of proportion—to deter future protests.

This is how we got Dutch police opening fire at anti-mandate protesters, to say nothing about French police aiming at protesters’ heads and eyes since 2018.

We ain’t seen nothing yet, though, and the tragedy of it all is that the politicians will double down on failed policies of the past, if only they are so spineless critters that cannot admit wrongdoing (which, in particular in the case of the Covid fraud, would have legal consequences for both medical professionals, regulatory agencies, and politicians.

Still, the conferral of energy policy to the EU constitutes, in my opinion, treason, and it does so for two main reasons:

• As regards the national level, everywhere in the EU/EEA area, politicians are supposed to uphold the law, specifically the constitutions, which indicate that national politics is connected to the population of any given country. Leaving aside the few anachronistic monarchies that don’t feature popular sovereignty, national politics is, via representative assemblies, responsible to the citizenry. Once energy policy is devolved to Brussels, the accountability link between the government and the governed is broken.

• On the transnational (globalist) level of the EU bureaucracy, it suffices to state, I think, that given how this monstrosity of an entangled web of institutions, regulatory agencies, think tanks, and lobbying firms ‘work’—Brussels is second only to D.C. in terms of the number of lobbyists present—accountability, which, at least in democratic theory, is what connects, via representation in parliament, a government minister to the sovereign citizenry, is lost. I mean: how does one hold to account the author(s) of an obscure footnote to an EU regulation, which is discussed at, say, the ECOFIN meeting (of the bloc’s economics and finance ministers) or the informal Eurozone discussions held between delegated officials and staffers whereas any decisions are made by the EU Council (heads of government) or Commission?

The outcome is the same in both instances: governance so far removed from anything even remotely resembling accountability, transparency, and popular sovereignty.

Any politician who supports this should be indicted for high treason.

In a sane world, the fourth estate would be outraged and, possibly, advocate for the return of capital punishment for such high crimes.

In our world, though, we’ll most likely see the further ‘devolution’ of popular sovereignty and the continued abrogation on part of most citizens (ahem) who elect to ignore all of this.

Democracy dies in darkness, it has been aptly said. The art of self-government, or republicanism, is dying because most people couldn’t care less that this form of government and, yes, self-respect, doesn’t just convey rights and privileges, but it comes with duties and responsibilities, too.

Yes, we the people need to take back what’s us by birth: sovereignty.

Yet, what is equally important is that we all get off our comfy chairs and re-learn how to be an active citizen again. If we the people fail to do so, we quite likely deserve to be ruled, as opposed to self-govern ourselves.