I have said frequently that the European Union is NOT our friend. Here’s proof: The Heritage Foundation is reporting that the EU has given about $30 million dollars to US causes to influence our policies as to so-called “global warming”, opposition to the death penalty, and the International Criminal Court. Here’s some examples:
However, according to the European Union’s financial records posted online, large amounts of European taxpayer money were spent directly inside the United States and served to give the European Union greater influence, and advance the EU’s favored political causes, in America. Some of America’s wealthiest academic institutions have received millions of dollars in research grants and other contracts to promote a positive view of European integration. U.S. non-governmental groups received large sums of money from the EU’s human rights budget to advance a social agenda that many Americans would consider radical. A number of multimillion-dollar confidential payments were also made inside the U.S. to unidentified “natural persons” (individuals, not corporations) from an array of EU budget lines, including the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).
This is outrageous! Not only because European taxpayers should not have to subsidize propaganda (they also propagandize their own people, too) but because it is dirty pool for them to seek policy changes in other nations directly. (I would now respond to the comment about I do not trust foreigners – yes I have to trust foreign-made products but the Constitution forbids allowing them to run our nation or put its citizens in jail unless they violate a local law in that nation.)
The death penalty is a big European bugbear. I always believe that the Europeans might change their tune if they saw some of the heinous acts done that get killers here sentenced to death. We only execute willful murderers in the USA and there are many safeguards such as appointed counsel, expert help, training for both sides, special rules for capital cases and seemingly endless appeals.
Besides, when it comes to criminal justice, Europe hardly has room to talk: They once refused to extradite a killer of two Virginians for fear he might get the death penalty (Jens Soering). Roman Polanski fled the USA and has been treated as a hero in Europe even though he was charged with sex with a 13 year old girl. Spain tried to try former Chilean dictator Pinochet (who was not a nice guy but he saved Chile from communism!) and held him in Great Britain for months and has threatened US leaders with human rights trials.
Yet the EU is “…deeply concerned about the number of executions in the United States of America…” Here’s my advice to the EU elites: Go talk to a crime victim. (Now for the record, I am opposed to the death penalty, not because of any sentimentality about killers, but because the costs are so high they hinder other efforts to do justice.) They spent several million dollars to fund “anti-death penalty advocacy.” One is the American Bar Association; I suggest the ABA give the money back.
The propaganda money in general is being spent in ways that are secret:
Many of the budget lines identified through the FTS are wasteful, questionable, or require further explanation. In particular, several multimillion-dollar payments to confidential sources and “natural persons” inside the United States require additional scrutiny by EU member state governments and European parliamentarians, as well as oversight by the U.S. Congress to ensure that U.S. interests are being protected in such transactions.
Heritage reported that the auditors have refused to sign off on the EU budget for the last SIXTEEN years! (If a corporation tried to do that, the CEO would be doing hard time in Leavenworth!)
The EU also wants us to give up our sovereignty to the International Criminal Court:
In 2008, the EU spent €970,783 ($1.41 million) in the U.S. advocating America’s ratification of the Rome Statute, which would formally make America a member of the ICC. The money was allocated from its European Instrument for Democracy & Human Rights (EIDHR) budget, whose key objective is to enhance human rights and fundamental freedoms in countries and regions where they are deemed to be most at risk. (footnote omitted)
I suppose the EU thinks human rights are at risk in the USA. They are of course not at risk in Europe, where any nation that defies the EU elites has to fight them again and again (see Ireland) or gets called names (racist, xenophobic, etc). The EU allowed Germany to ban homeschooling and is anti-creationism as well.
Here’s the numbers on the anti-death penalty propaganda drive:
The EU has funded more than 30 anti-death-penalty initiatives around the world since 1994, spending a total of €15 million ($21.8 million).[14] In March 2011, the European Union’s High Representative Catherine Ashton congratulated Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn on signing legislation that abolished the death penalty in his state. Lady Ashton’s press release did not note, however, that in 2009, the EU granted €193,443 ($281,305) to an Illinois-based advocacy group in order to influence this debate.
It gets worse: many of the “grants” are unknown and confidential – especially concerning so-called global warming:
Promoting the EU’s Views on Climate Change: Total Expenditures Unknown. The EU claims that human activity is primarily responsible for accelerating the rate of dangerous global warming.[20] Brussels wants to see global emissions reduced by at least half of their 1990 levels by 2050. The EU believes that this should be implemented through a legally binding global agreement to reduce and limit greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. did not ratify the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which will expire in 2012, and it has not pledged to sign any successor agreement that would mandatorily limit emissions. * * * Eight “Natural Persons.” [24] In 2009, eight U.S.-based “natural persons” received a total of €42,311 ($61,715) from the FP7’s budget line designated “cooperation—environment including climate change.”
Five “Natural Persons.” [25] In 2008, five U.S.-based “natural persons” received funding from the FP7’s budget line designated “cooperation—environment including climate change.” However, it is not possible to determine their exact level of funding since these natural persons received an unidentified amount from a total grant which was allocated to multiple unidentified “natural persons” (often in countries other than the U.S., too).
Natural persons? It is still illegal to give foreign money to campaigns; how do we know this is not being used in campaigns? Or as third party efforts? There’s more:
Unidentified Recipients: €6.8 Million ($9.9 Million). A “natural person” is a human being, as opposed to an “artificial person” which would be a corporation or organization. The EU has allocated a number of high-value grants to unidentified natural persons inside the U.S. from a variety of its budget lines including its foreign policy budgets. U.S. congressional leaders should investigate these payments and ensure that they are consistent with U.S. laws and America’s broader interests.
Heritage is right! These grants ought to be investigated. President Obama ought to call in the EU’s highest diplomat in the USA and ask him/her what the story and to stop it right away. (If any liberal reader says I am a hypocrite because I do not speak to US funding for democracy, etc. I say the only nation that ought to get foreign aid is Israel. Period.)
Remember, the EU is NOT our friend! Now you have evidence. Thank you Heritage for spreading the news.
Article written by: Elwood "Sandy" Sanders
About Elwood Sanders
Elwood "Sandy" Sanders is a Hanover attorney who is an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing and has written ten scholarly legal articles. Sandy was also Virginia's first Appellate Defender and also helped bring curling in VA! (None of these titles imply any endorsement of Sanders’ views)
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