Europe is caught in its own web of bureaucracy, regulations and lack of capacity for implementation. It is difficult to like an EU that is actively trying to commit economic suicide.
This is what former government minister Ola Borten Moe (Centre Party, Sp) writes in an opinion piece in Dagens Næringsliv. He believes that the union has many strategies, but no ability to implement changes of significance.
In Ursula von der Leyen’s recent ‘State of the Union’ speech, few new, far-reaching measures were announced, but many new strategies. Europe appears to be caught in its own web of bureaucracy, regulations and inability to implement meaningful changes.
While both China and the United States are experiencing strong economic growth, Brussels is ensuring that our continent is left behind on the platform. The EU zone is being paralysed by the war in Ukraine, bureaucracy, high taxes and climate measures that the rest of the world ignores.
Of all the future scenarios that can be envisaged, there are few, if any, in which one can imagine Europe emerging stronger with today’s policies: We lack resources and raw materials, energy is inaccessible and expensive, China outcompetes us in most areas and we are not participating meaningfully in the AI race.
Here in Norway, we give away our electricity to data centres that international companies use to develop artificial intelligence (AI), which is highly energy-intensive. The bill is sent to Norwegian electricity customers and taxpayers, while the revenues largely disappear out of the country.
The oil and gas industry is our most important livelihood, covering the gigantic deficit in the mainland economy. But the EU is preventing exploration for new reserves, according to Borten Moe, who was Minister of Petroleum and Energy in the Stoltenberg government from 2011 to 2013.
In Brussels, the focus is on what is politically correct, without taking into account actual circumstances and realities with which the continent’s 450 million inhabitants must live, according to the former deputy leader of the Centre Party.
While the United States openly pursues the doctrine of ‘Energy dominance’ as a strategy for preserving its position as global hegemon (both parties in practice), and China does the same without saying very much about it, the strategists in Brussels evidently think that even greater dependence on the United States, Russia and dictatorships in the Middle East is what is best for us.
Unless one actually believes that heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines are to form the backbone of an entire continent’s energy supply system, and thus its competitiveness, this is about as close as one can come to active economic suicide. Thinking individuals know better, but they do it anyway.
The consequence for EU citizens is higher energy bills, lost competitiveness, lost opportunities and declining living standards. Politically, this is causing parties such as AfD, Rassemblement National and Reform UK to surge ahead in Germany, France and the Brexit country of the United Kingdom, which is not an EU member but is struggling with mass migration across the Channel from (mainly) France.
The regime-loyal media are concerned about the right-wing wave, but few of them point the finger at those responsible for the development, according to Borten Moe. He asks a simple question: Who, then, is to blame?
Is it the newcomers, or is it the established parties that are incapable of adapting their policies to reality, thereby opening the door to entirely different forces?
There are many who need to take a hard look at themselves, but unfortunately there are no signs that this is about to happen.
