An ingratitude signed Cameron
(BRUSSELS2) British Prime Minister David Cameron's latest proposal to limit the rights of European migrants has begun to elicit some scathing responses from governments in Eastern Europe, whose nationals are particularly affected, and targeted , by these measures.
London causes bitterness in Eastern Europe
The most scathing came from Czech State Secretary for European Affairs. Tomáš Prouza wonders, photo in support, about the fate of Czech pilots engaged in the Battle of Britain during the Second World War: "These Czechs "worked" in the UK for less than four years. No benefits for them?” Very ironic question which shows how much David Cameron and Great Britain are mistaking their voices in their fight to change certain European rules.
Limit rights before 4 years of presence
The tone used — "either you accept my proposal or I'm out" (*) — is above all intended for the internal scene. Like the proposals: limitation of social benefits before a period of 4 years, establishment of quotas, expulsion of the unemployed after 6 months without work... These are not so revolutionary as that. The internal provisions of the European Union already make it possible to limit certain rights to free movement and to social assistance, such as the expulsion of people without resources, before 5 years of residence.
Breaking a European dynamic
But this discourse clashes head-on with certain European principles – the free movement of workers and people. And, a dynamic. The European objective is precisely to remove borders, to remove little by little all the obstacles that may exist, to create a vast common space, a "common market". Principles to which the countries coming from communism are attached, certainly at the economic level but even more at the political and symbolic level. The European Union in its conception is an area of "freedom". Reducing it and limiting it to a space of unfreedom is contrary to its history.
A position against the British soul
These proposals are also contrary to the entire British position in Europe, which has always advocated the free opening of markets, and beyond that has always been a benchmark in terms of freedoms. We all remember the irony with which Tony Blair, at the time, welcomed the temporary limits put in place by almost all the other countries (France, Belgium, Germany, etc.) not to welcome " new arrivals. Ten years later, London not only wants to unravel certain European principles but is backtracking and denying its own policy, its raison d'être... This will certainly not make it any easier for British diplomats to find allies when it comes to fighting over this land, on this subject ... or others.
(NGV)
(*) “ If I succeed, I will campaign to keep this country in a reformed EU. If our concerns find no resonance and we fail to change the terms of our relationship with the EU in a more advantageous way, then of course I will not rule anything out”.
