Europe Marches South
San Anton Palace, Valletta, Malta Sunday, March 5
Dark has fallen on this early spring evening in the ancient capital of the Mediterranean island of Malta. Our Maltese representative, Daniel Frendo, and I have walked the red carpet up the ancient steps of the presidential palace to the presidential reception room. We are ushered into the presence of Maltese President Guido de Marco, where, with a handful of other journalists, we await the arrival of the president of the European Commission, Romano Prodi, and his commissioner for European Union Enlargement, Gunter Verheugen.
The doors swing open and a smiling Romano Prodi advances to shake the hand of the Maltese President. The two settle into a pair of sumptuous regency-striped chairs in front of a warming fire set in the ornate open fireplace. Pleasantries are exchanged, then both men make key statements which affirm the stance of each on Malta’s pending accession to EU membership.
President De Marco succinctly puts his government’s view of Malta’s relationship with the EU: “It is possible that apart from the political discussions on the nature of the relationship with the EU, all will agree that Malta’s relationship with the EU is of fundamental importance.”
President Prodi’s response highlighted just how crucial he regards Malta’s membership: “Malta and the Mediterranean are of the highest priority, even though they have been recently overtaken by the Balkan problems. The EU actively wants economic growth and cooperation in the southern Mediterranean, and Malta can contribute in this. Future peace depends on this development, and crisis would result if these efforts failed.”
In a crucial statement that was to be reinforced as he lobbied hard over the next two days to strengthen Maltese support for EU membership, Prodi then declared, “Malta is the southern pillar of Europe.”
Both Guido de Marco and Romano Prodi are only too aware of the historically strategic positioning of Malta as a bulwark of defense to the Mediterranean and as a gateway to the east and the south. Hence Prodi’s stressing that “future peace depends on this development.”
Europe in the South
For some time the EU has sought involvement in the south within the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East. In 1960, concessionary trade agreements were concluded by the EU with certain of these countries. They were expanded in the 1970s to include economic and financial cooperation, culminating in 1990, following the unification of Germany, with the adoption of the New Mediterranean Policy. This policy introduced the concept of EU-Mediterranean partnership, by the use of EU assistance, to encourage economic and structural reforms in Mediterranean countries.
However, in November 1995, at the Barcelona Conference convened between the 15 member states of the EU and 12 countries of the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Middle East, the EU agenda began to solidify. The agenda declared that peace and stability in the region were “of the highest priority.”
The EU was moving aggressively, at this point, out from behind its façade as an economic and trading bloc and flexing its political muscles, following the conclusion of the 1994 Maastricht Treaty. This treaty introduced an entirely new role to the EU, that of defense and security initiatives via titles v (articles J to J.11) and vi (articles K to K.9) allowing for the development of a common defense and security policy. This was further strengthened by the conclusion and implementation of the Amsterdam Treaty in mid-1999.
Article v of the treaty deserves thoughtful consideration in respect of the European Union’s agenda. From its inception, the Eurocombine was touted as an economic entity. For over 40 years it grew upon a policy of the development of a single market, together with the protection and extension of that market’s international trade. Then, with the Maastricht Treaty, the single currency issue, which replaced the national sovereign currencies of member nations, elevated the European community into a singular political entity. With the subsequent adoption of the Amsterdam Treaty, the prospect of the EU becoming a combined European economic, political and military power became a reality. Article v (ex-article B) of the common provisions of the Amsterdam Treaty states that one of the objectives of the Union is to “assert its identity on the international scene, in particular through the implementation of a common foreign and security policy, including the eventual framing of a common defense policy, which might in time lead to a common defense.”
It is the EU’s aggressive pursuit of this policy which has led the present strained relations with the U.S. to the point where two months ago, the U.S. administration dispatched Defense Minister William Cohen to Brussels to try and figure out just what the EU was up to. The U.S. fears conflict between nato and a future EU defense arm.
The Soft Underbelly
Winston Churchill, when contemplating the European continent, pointed to its weak point—the “soft underbelly” of the Mediterranean. It was the heroic stance of Malta, under the greatest siege in warfare history, which allowed the Allied forces to secure the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa and turn the tide of war against the Nazi onslaught in 1942.
This history is well known to Romano Prodi, who has been at the forefront calling for yet another treaty to build upon Maastricht and Amsterdam “to give us our own defense capability.”
Thus, as we observed the cordial meeting between the Maltese President and Romano Prodi, we took particular note of the commission president’s declaration of the EU’s next move. This move is pending on the securing of the Balkans by the EU under Commissioner Bodo Hombach’s 1.8 billion ecu (European Currency Unit) plan for Balkan and Romanian “economic reconstruction.” Prodi stated “I will be very happy to open the door for Malta to enter the EU…. I give the highest priority to the entry of the countries of the Mediterranean into the EU. I’ve always regarded Malta as part of Europe—historically, culturally and politically. We’ve been taken up with the Balkans up to now but soon we shall focus on the Mediterranean. I want to see Malta in the EU.”
Mr. Prodi continued with this theme as he addressed an official dinner later that evening at the Auberge de Castille, the official residence of the prime minister of Malta.
The next day we represented the Trumpet at the Palazzo Parisio in Valletta where EU Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen addressed a meeting of the mini-European assembly of the National Student Travel Foundation. Mr. Verheugen was pointed in his comments, which reflected a typical Teutonic federalist approach to Europe: “Working together quite simply works better than acting alone.”
This is the argument that has seen the loss of national sovereignty of the 15 European Union member nations to the point where they are now referred to, not as nations, but as “European communities.”
Reflecting the globalist thrust of the EU, Verheugen continued, “What Malta has to offer to North Africa, or Australia, or wherever, becomes more effective…. You become a gateway. And psychologically, too, you will leave behind unequal relationships of the past.” This last comment was designed to remind Malta of how often it had been overtaken by foreign powers and the struggles it has experienced in developing as an independent nation since the British left.
As has been the habit of this rising beast with a rotten heart (refer to Bernard Connolly’s The Rotten Heart of Europe, previously quoted in this magazine), cash is on offer to tempt aspiring members of the EU into the fold. Mr. Verheugen proffered, “There will be money to modernize Malta. There are large funds available.”
Yet, most intriguing for us was the commissioner’s revealing the future focus of EU expansion—to the south and east! Mr. Verheugen declared, “For Europe, Malta has been described as a springboard to the whole Mediterranean region, and especially to the African and Middle Eastern shores. Malta will be at the heart of north-south relations. The goal is a stable and prosperous Mediterranean basin, with its southern and eastern flanks filling their true potential.”
This is not just trade talk—this is talk of a strategic plan, prepared by an aggressive European political entity bent on becoming a dominant world power, superceding even the present global dominance of the U.S.!
Political Blackmail?
The modernized chamber of Malta’s House of Representatives gives stark contrast to the historic warmth of the beautiful Tapestry Room where President Prodi and Commissioner Verheugen were officially welcomed by the House speaker, prior to the EU commission president’s address to the parliament of Malta. This was the second day of their visit to this rocky island.
During his speech to the assembled House of Representatives, Romano Prodi stressed three key areas for consideration by the Maltese when contemplating whether or not to pursue EU membership: considerable EU financial support; the prospect of the 400,000-strong Maltese population going it alone or joining the giant Euromarket to their north; and the idea that national sovereignty would be strengthened rather than lost upon accession to EU membership.
It was in attempting to convince his audience of these three prospects that Mr. Prodi revealed the true nature of the web which the EU weaves around contenders for membership.
The first, the promise of “considerable aid” is pure blackmail to a struggling independent nation of less than half a million population such as Malta.
The second proposition was put by Prodi thus: “In Europe, the crucial location factor for international business from outside often comes down to one thing—are you inside or outside the trading bloc of 400 million people?” This statement is not much more than a veiled threat. It is tantamount to declaring that if a small independent nation wishes its international trade to survive, then it had better yield to the pressure to accede to EU membership—if you’re in you eat, if you’re out you starve! (Rev. 13:16-17).
The final proposition is but an out-and-out, barefaced lie. Romano Prodi stated before all the assembled parliamentarians, diplomats, honored guests and the gathered press that “paradoxically, you have more influence and real sovereignty inside the union than out. This is because sovereignty is pooled rather than lost.”
The very opposite is the truth!
Britain is slowly waking up to this fact. In a letter to the Sunday Times of Malta dated November 26, 1999, author Rodney Atkinson tried to warn the Maltese of this reality in the following terms: “As the author of the book Europe’s Full Circle, quoted by your correspondent Eddie Privitera (October 17), might I warn the people of Malta of the malign and blatantly political interference of the ‘European movement’ in Britain over the last 30 years as our nation, democracy and 800-year-old Constitution have been largely wiped out…. Malta played a noble part in the defeat of the totalitarian superstate of the 1940s—I am sure you will resist the siren voices of the European movement today and choose nationhood and freedom.”
Yet the voice of business in Malta is not working to this end if the words of John E. Sullivan, president of the Malta Chamber of Commerce, are to be believed as he addressed Romano Prodi at a meeting of Maltese business organizations and trade unions on March 6. Sullivan declared, “Our country cannot remain detached from these winds of change if it is to pursue its future path of continuous economic development. Maintaining the status quo [non-membership of the EU] would certainly constitute a recipe for disaster for Malta.”
As Mr. Atkinson mentioned in his letter previously quoted, “The European movement is financed by big business and the European Commission, neither of which have of course been elected by anyone.”
Malta’s course is set. Either the island nation accedes to membership and loss of national sovereignty, or it will simply be overtaken by events as the EU pursues its aggressive strategy—a strategy underscored by both Romano Prodi and Gunter Verheugen during their recent visit. The EU is moving south and east, and Malta is in the direct path of that move. The securing of this ancient island bastion is crucial to this southward and eastward advance of the Eurobeast.
Ancient Prophecy
As Mr. Frendo and I witnessed these recent events in Malta, we could not avoid turning our minds to an ancient prophecy in the book of the prophet Daniel. Speaking of the physical fulfillment of a latter-day type of Antiochus Epiphanes, described as a “little horn” attached to a mighty beast power, that prophecy predicts that the rising European combine will move south and east, toward the Holy Land! Those are the very words of both EC President Prodi and European Commissioner for Enlargement Verheugen, which we heard with our own ears at these recent crucial conferences in Malta in March. Read those words again: “Malta is the southern pillar of Europe…. I want to see Malta in the EU”—Romano Prodi. “You [Malta] become a gateway…. For Europe, Malta has been described as a springboard to the whole Mediterranean region [south and east], and especially to the African [south] and Middle Eastern [Holy Land] shores”—Gunter Verheugen.
Now, with those words ringing in your ears, read the clear prophecy of Daniel which these words are destined to fulfill: “And out of one of them came forth a little horn, which waxed exceeding great, toward the south, and toward the east, and toward the pleasant land” (Dan. 8:9).
You need to understand the application of this ancient prophecy to the events even now happening in Europe, the Mediterranean, reaching into North Africa, across to Cyprus and into the Middle East!
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