Starmer’s EU spree

A few days before the local elections you might have thought a Labour prime minister would be supporting Labour candidates somewhere in Britain. But true to form, living up to his “never-here” tag, Keir Starmer was on a one day visit to Armenia on 4 May – at our expense naturally.

Technically he was not attending an EU meeting but a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC). Armenia is a member although it’s in Asia – but that is another technicality.

Pull back

EPC funding comes from the EU budget; it is a mechanism for extending EU tentacles. In particular, it is a vehicle for trying to pull Britain back into the EU orbit post-Brexit.

The meeting in Armenia concluded with a joint declaration of a strategic partnership between Britain and Armenia. Ironically Keir Starmer is committing Britain to support “sustainable economic growth” in Armenia!

Reckless

But that wasn’t the main purpose of the visit. Rather it was the cover for two EU plans which were discussed. Both entail vast transfers of our money to the EU, yet the UK prime minister has no mandate for either. He appears to be going on a reckless spending spree at our expense!

First was a discussion with EU negotiators about access to the EU single market and Starmer’s plans to start paying into EU budgets for the first time since Brexit. The Times reported on 5 May that EU negotiators were suggesting a payment of £1 billion a year.

‘Prolonging war abroad and increasing national debt is Starmer’s recipe for war on British workers at home.’

The second item was Britain’s participation in the EU’s £78 billion loan scheme for Ukraine! Starmer claimed that this would somehow benefit British industry. Prolonging war abroad and increasing the national debt is his recipe for war on British workers at home.

The EPC is a scarcely known organisation. It was established only in 2022 on the proposal of French President Emmanuel Macron; like Starmer he seeks foreign meetings as a relief from internal troubles. It calls itself an “intergovernmental forum for political and strategic discussions about the future of Europe”.

The EPC claims to be distinct from the European Union and the Council of Europe. But in reality it is intertwined with them: both organisations participate in their own right, as do NATO and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

Alignment

The 47 national participants include a couple not universally recognised (Cyprus and Kosovo) and exclude Russia and Belarus. But you will find the “United Transitional Cabinet of Belarus” (a government in exile, supported by the EU). So the political alignment of the EPC is hard to distinguish from the EU/NATO axis.

The trouble is that it’s not just Starmer. His predecessor, Rishi Sunak, was just as keen on using the EPC meetings to give away sovereignty. For example at its first meeting he agreed to join defence organisation PESCO and to re-join the North Seas Energy Co-operation group – both EU creations.