But… but… the leftist Swedes said no to the euro!! That’s the only result that really matters, and proves that the EU is doomed. Just because every single one of the 10 accession candidates has approved membership, doesn’t change this basic fact.

/sarcasm

Vaara,

What it proves is that the accession candidates are seeking to cement their position in respect of the bear to the east. The Swedes, free from any such consideration, were able to take a more mature and measured view of their decision.

It is notable that the the European process began in cementing freedom from past horrors. It still serves well in this respect. But the fatal disconnection with the popular will seems to arise when coersion re-enters or is perceived to re-enter the equasion. Perhaps that’s not so surprising, given that there is no popular demand for any of it.

I’m not sure how this applies to Malta, though.

Ah, but Vaara, the Maltese are learning the hard way that they were lied to in their referendum campaign as a large part of their hitherto thriving ship repair dockyards have just been closed on the orders of Brussels because there is over-capacity in Europe. Not so much ’suck on a Malteser’ as ’all Maltesers are suckers’!
David Duff

David Duff: Fascinating news. Of course, Alstom’s shipyard operations were given a large subsidy by the French government. I suppose they’re more important than the Maltese, - or is it simply because they’re French?

I wonder if Latvia will have the backbone to stand up to the Franco-German Conspiracy. My home country, Finland, certainly does not.

Interesting.. well, that’s another for the numbers..

David - are you referring to the story about Malta being seven years to phase out the government subsidy to its shipyards?

Damn these evil Eurocrats, and the way they’re banning the Maltese from subsidising other countries’ shipping lines with their tax money…

Damn these “no HTML” comment boxes…
http://www.independent.com.mt/daily/newsview.asp?id=20395

Those evil Eurocrats have also just nixed the French government’s plan to bail out Alstom.

Vaara: It will be interesting to see if the French government will ignore the EU commissioners, and just continue with their bailout, or devise some other way to get around the ruling. The French “cultural exception” has been used to justify changing the rules in the past…

John b:
Alas, I tried but failed to dig up the story of the Maltese shipyard closures in order to link to it but from memory the closures were beginning now with fairly hefty job losses. Sorry not to be more specific but, I confess, whilst it is true that I don’t go out nearly enough, even so, Maltese shipyards are not high on my list of interests!
David Duff

Markku said:
“I wonder if Latvia will have the backbone to stand up to the Franco-German Conspiracy. My home country, Finland, certainly does not.”

It did in the pre-Gulf War II, when Latvian President Vaira Vike-Frienberga supported the US effort in Iraq. In fact, we have a couple of hundred troops down there working with the Polish military.

On the other hand, Latvia managed to withstand the pressure from the US over the International Crime Tribunal, thus losing its US military aid.

Well, the Evil Eurocrats and the Evil Subsidising French agreed on a compromise: http://www.lefigaro.fr/perm/afp/dos1/030923072404.eeos4rrk.html or when is a bail out not a bail out?

As for Latvia, being the last to vote was very much an incentive to vote yes. So for me this is something of a non-event (although I’m very glad they voted yes, but what’s that got to do with it?)