THE current economic and political crisis engulfing the EU has its roots in the very inception of the organisation and the influence of the US in its creation. The European Iron and Steel Community formed in 1951, which eventually morphed into the European Union in 1992 was heavily based on the ideas of the right-wing economist Friedrich Von Hayek. 

Hayek wanted to limit state intervention in the economy and prevent, from his perspective, distortions of free trade and competition deriving from collective action. He supported the idea of creating a supranational government, seeing it as a way of limiting the power of the nation states. 

In his own words: “Interstate federation that would do away with the impediments as to the movement of men, goods and capital between the states and would render possible the creation of common rules of law, a uniform monetary system, and common control of communications.”

His theoretical framework got very practical and enthusiastic backing from the US, as Bruce Carolan notes: “…the earliest stages of European integration … were heavily influenced by US insistence on creation of supranational institutions that could exert dominance over sovereign European governments.”

It is hardly surprising, then, that today the EU and Nato, the main military vehicle for US imperialism (its own armed might aside) are umbilically tied. The 2022 Strategic Concept, Nato’s core policy document, coming hard on the heels of the Russian invasion of Ukraine described the European Union as a “unique and essential partner for Nato.” This was deepened in 2023 with the third Joint Declaration on EU-Nato Co-operation “further strengthening and expanding the strategic partnership between Nato and the EU.” 
It was this commitment that drove core EU countries, principally Germany, as well as some comparative new comers, like Poland and the EU’s estranged cousin, Britain, to put their money where the workers’ mouths were. 

In July, Poland (along with six other EU countries) was deemed to be in breach of the EU’s fiscal rules — a deficit ratio of 3 per cent to GDP. 

According to Poland’s Ministry of Finance, the high deficit in Poland is the result of the war in Ukraine which had provoked a massive increase in expenditure on modernising the Polish army as well as the costs associated with helping Ukrainian refugees. Britain too has sunk precious resources into this venture; thus far it has committed £12.8 billion for Ukraine. 

Meanwhile in Britain, as well as the perpetual crisis in healthcare, winter fuel payments have been cut, the Waspi women have not been compensated and the two-child befit cap remains in place, which would not be the case for Keir Starmer if the electorate got the chance to vote on his premiership. 

But it is in Germany, surely, where the slavish adherence to US imperialism with its leader who seems to have modelled himself on the emperor Caligula, has done the most damage. Some of it, it must be said, is self-inflicted, in particular the so-called “debt brake.” First introduced in 2009, the debt brake is fiscal rectitude as practised by the Marquis de Sade. It limits the federal government’s deficit to 0.35 per cent of gross domestic product, and prohibits Germany’s 16 federal states from running any deficits at all, meaning there is no scope for borrowing to support Germany’s ailing economy. However, its current economic problems were exacerbated by its unwavering support for the Nato position on Ukraine.

This is because the German economy was based on low labour costs in the manufacturing sector and supplied by cheap, Russian gas. The war in Ukraine blew that up along with the Nord Stream pipelines. According to the Financial Times, towards the end of last year: “The country has seen no meaningful quarterly real GDP growth since late 2021, and annual GDP is poised to shrink for the second year in a row. Industrial production, excluding construction, peaked in 2017 and is down 16 per cent since then. According to the latest available data, corporate investment declined in 12 of the past 20 quarters and is now at a level last seen during the early shock of the pandemic. Foreign direct investment is also down sharply.” 

The advance of Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD), currently sitting second at 20 per cent in the polls for the federal elections of February 23, according to Politico’s polling, is a symptom of that crisis. The “centrist” leaders of Europe’s core countries must be incensed that the alliance, which has cost them so dearly and so closely conforms to the blueprint set out by the US, may now be dumped by Trump as he turns his attention to his southern and northern borders and the Middle East. 

Indeed, a Germany no longer able to produce cars and other goods that can compete in the US market will be seen as a gain by Trump’s plutocracy, eager to prosecute the surely impossible task of rolling back international outsourcing that helped rob the US (and Britain) of its manufacturing base. 

This does not mean a retreat from empire on the part of the US. Quite the reverse; the threat of the loss of global domination provokes aggression and US power is still as brutal as the Roman legions of Caligula’s time. However, a partnership with European powers, and certainly a partnership that is seen to cost the US, no longer appears to be necessary in the exercise of that dominion. 

This almost certainly means that Ukraine will be abandoned, because the European powers are neither willing nor able to face Russia down militarily, without US support. The foundations of both the EU and the Nato-EU alliance have been shaken.

As for Trump and US imperialism, it is hard, when watching the ruins of Gaza, not to recall the words the Roman writer Tacitus gave to Calgacus, the imagined leader of the Caledonian confederacy in AD 84, when facing Roman colonisation: “The robbery, slaughter and plunder they falsely name empire; they make a desert and they call it peace.”

Vince Mills is joint secretary of Radical Options for Scotland and Europe (Rose).