According to the people that award the Nobel Peace Prize, the EU has brought peace to Europe and promoted democracy and human rights over 60 years - a whole decade more than they claimed last year when they thought they were going to win the prize and a whole decade of revolution and armed uprisings to add to the list of conflicts in Europe while the EU was supposed to have been bringing peace.
Before I go on, let's just remind ourselves of the list we compiled last year of armed conflicts in Europe during the 50 years of peace the EU brought ...
Fifty years ago was 1961, two years after the Basque separatists started a civil war in Spain and France. In 1968, the USSR invaded Czechoslovakia and the IRA started a civil war in Northern Ireland. In 1970 various far left groups started a civil war in Italy and in 1974 Turkey invaded northern Cyprus. In 1984 the PKK started a civil war in Turkey and in 1988 Armenia and Azerbaijan went to war over Nagorno-Karabakh. In 1989 Romania underwent a revolution and in 1991 Slovenia went to war with Yugoslavia for its independence. In 1991, rebels in South Ossetia and Abkhazia started a civil war in Georgia and Croatia went to war with Yugoslavia for its independence. In 1992, ethnic Moldovans started a civil war in Transnistria, there was ethnic cleansing in North Ossetia, civil war in Abkhazia and the start of the war in Bosnia. In 1994, civil war started in Chechnya for the first time. In 1998 there was civil war in Kosovo, the Real IRA started terrorism again in Northern Ireland and civil war broke out in Abkhazia again. In 1999, Chechnyan separatists invaded Dagestan, the second civil war started in Chechnya and there was another uprising in Yugoslavia. In 2001 there was civil war in Macedonia. In 2004 there was more fighting in Kosovo. In 2007 there was civil war in Ingushetia and in 2008 there was a second war in South Ossetia with a Russian invasion.
So people can come up with whatever explanations they want for 50 years of peace in Europe, be it the EU, the partition of Germany or the Cold War but 50 years of peace in Europe is a myth. The only genocide in Europe since the second world war (Bosnia) was not only during this supposed era of EU-imposed peace but under the watch of EU "peacekeepers".
Now another decade has been added on to the 50 years of "peace" so let's add the 1953 uprising in East Germany which was violently put down by Soviet and East German military and police, the 1956 uprising in Poznan in Poland where 100,000 Poles clashed with the military and police, the Hungarian revolution also in 1956 which resulted in thousands of deaths and 200,000 refugees leaving Hungary, the forced deportation of tens of thousands from the Baltics to Siberia in the late 40s and early 50s and the infamous "Cod Wars" between the UK and Iceland to the list.
Today English and Scottish fishermen have asked for assistance from the Royal Navy after being attacked by French trawlers while a French coastguard ship stood by and watched. On Friday, Turkey - currently being prepped for EU membership - forced a Syrian plane en route to Moscow to land in Turkey, escorted by Turkish fighters and is now engaged in a public spat with the Russians and Syrians. At the weekend, French police arrested alleged members of a muslim terrorist cell which they say was planning the biggest bomb attack on France since Algerian Islamists were giving them a kicking in the 90s. All this while the Nobel Peace Prize for 60 years of peace in Europe is being awarded to the EU.
Channel 4's EU news page is quite amusing at the moment - possibly unintentionally - with the top story of course being the award of the Nobel Peace Prize followed immediately by the Greek government arresting and deporting immigrants to save money then violent protests in Greece (complete with swastikas) at a visit by Merkel to her vassal state, protests in Spain over the imposition of EU austerity and a little further down more protests in Spain at EU austerity and then more violent protests in Greece over EU austerity.
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU for bringing peace to Europe is not only based on a flawed premise but it's frankly insulting to the memory of the millions of Allied troops that lost their lives fighting two world wars started by the Germans and the hundreds of thousands of people that died in the various conflicts during the 60 years the EU is supposed to have brought us peace. To give the Nobel Peace Prize to an organisation run by and for the Germans for their work in bringing peace and democracy to Europe when they have been (and still are) the biggest threat to peace and democracy on the continent in living memory makes a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize and is offensively inappropriate.
Today English and Scottish fishermen have asked for assistance from the Royal Navy after being attacked by French trawlers while a French coastguard ship stood by and watched. On Friday, Turkey - currently being prepped for EU membership - forced a Syrian plane en route to Moscow to land in Turkey, escorted by Turkish fighters and is now engaged in a public spat with the Russians and Syrians. At the weekend, French police arrested alleged members of a muslim terrorist cell which they say was planning the biggest bomb attack on France since Algerian Islamists were giving them a kicking in the 90s. All this while the Nobel Peace Prize for 60 years of peace in Europe is being awarded to the EU.
Channel 4's EU news page is quite amusing at the moment - possibly unintentionally - with the top story of course being the award of the Nobel Peace Prize followed immediately by the Greek government arresting and deporting immigrants to save money then violent protests in Greece (complete with swastikas) at a visit by Merkel to her vassal state, protests in Spain over the imposition of EU austerity and a little further down more protests in Spain at EU austerity and then more violent protests in Greece over EU austerity.
The Nobel Peace Prize hasn't been awarded to the EU just for the 60 years of peace it's failed to bring to Europe, it's been awarded for its work to bring democracy to Europe as well. Only yesterday the EU Foreign Affairs committee criticised the lack of progress of Iceland's membership application despite over 70% opposition to EU membership in Iceland. Then there's the Irish, French and Dutch referenda on the EU Constitution. They came back with the wrong answer (no) so they changed the name from EU Constitution to Lisbon Treaty and added even more power grabs in to the appendices, the Irish were told to try again and make sure they gave the right answer this time whilst France and the Netherlands just didn't bother asking again. And of course there are the EU coup d'états in Greece and Italy - the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, was overthrown and an EU technocrat installed in his place followed by the overthrow of Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi who was replaced with another EU technocrat. There is no such thing as democracy in the EU.
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU for bringing peace to Europe is not only based on a flawed premise but it's frankly insulting to the memory of the millions of Allied troops that lost their lives fighting two world wars started by the Germans and the hundreds of thousands of people that died in the various conflicts during the 60 years the EU is supposed to have brought us peace. To give the Nobel Peace Prize to an organisation run by and for the Germans for their work in bringing peace and democracy to Europe when they have been (and still are) the biggest threat to peace and democracy on the continent in living memory makes a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize and is offensively inappropriate.
Stuart Parr is a 
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