France and Germany cynically use EU rules to strangle Britain’s fracking industry

Who really runs the EU? Could it be Malta – population. 0.5 million and GDP $0.01trn? Or Ireland – population 4.6 million and GDP $0.2trn? Or Denmark – population 5.6 million and GDP $0.3trn? Or France – population 64 million and GDP $2.6trn? And Germany – population 80 million and GDP $3.4trn? Right, so it’s France and Germany.

Well, France and Germany are up in arms. Not literally, of course. If the French were ‘up in arms’ everyone would just laugh. It’s the Germans you have to worry about. Anyway, the escargot- and sauerkraut-eaters are metaphorically up in arms at the thought of Britain developing a successful fracking industry.

The French are against it because they sell us over 12 billion kWh of electricity from their nuclear power stations each year – a figure that is set to hugely increase as we ludicrously close down many perfectly good coal-fired power stations in the “fight against Global Warming” (thanks to future PM Ed Miliband’s deranged Climate Change Act 2008), while we also decommission 15 of our 16 nuclear reactors by 2023.

The Germans are against it because they are committing economic suicide to satisfy the fictitious god of Global Warming by going from 23% of their energy from renewable sources to 80% by 2050. Moreover, following the Fukushima tsunami and nuclear reactor problems, Germany decided to shut down its nuclear industry – 8 out of 17 reactors have already been switched off with the remaining 9 to go by 2019. Perhaps the Germans forgot that almost all their nuclear reactors are hundreds of miles from the sea and that it’s been a while (a few million years or more?) since a major tsunami or earthquake hit Germany. So, with Germany’s power costs rocketing due to the commitment to unaffordably-expensive renewable energy, the Germans can’t bear the thought of Britain’s energy costs falling making our industry more competitive than theirs.

So how are our “friends” going to crush our fracking? They can’t just bomb us or invade us – that’s against EU rules. What they’re going to do is use EU rules to stop us fracking. The EU Commissioner for the Environment has just decided that the EU should set out a new set of regulations for the fracking industry. And nobody can start fracking till we have these regulations (click on picture to see more clearly)

To work out what these regulations will be, the EU will set up an “expert committee”. In addition to the EU’s 42,548 full-time employees, there are over 2,200 “expert committees” with more than 50,000 supposed “experts” all advising the EU on new regulations.

What will happen will be something like this. A decision is taken to set up an expert committee to investigate fracking. Most EU countries will want at least one (if not more) of their supposed “experts” on the committee. But the people chosen will mostly be political cronies or chums of those in power in each country, not experts in geology or anything especially relevant. The “experts” will all fly to Brussels (business class of course) where they will enjoy the best food and finest wine and champagne at our expense. They’ll then decide a plan of action (or inaction?). This will include “fact-finding” missions to many countries around the world (first or business class travel, best hotels, best restaurants, pleasant female company and so on). Many “experts may find it “necessary” to take along attractive young “research assistants”. The “experts” will also hold regular meetings – many will be in Brussels. But a few may be in places like Bali (very popular with the meeting brigade). Or perhaps they’ll choose Brazil during the World Cup so they can demand free VIP tickets at the best games?

As the members of the fracking expert committee settle into the good life of luxury travel, wonderful hotels, the best food and booze in the world, they’re hardly likely to be in a hurry to end their “important” deliberations. So, it might take one or two or even three years before they come up with their recommendations. Then there will be lots more meetings and discussions. And during this time, the firms that could have been investing in UK fracking creating tens of thousands of jobs, reducing our energy costs to make us more competitive than Germany and freeing us from dependence of French electricity will lose interest due to the uncertainty.

And anyway, we know the result will be such stringent regulation that fracking in Britain will be virtually impossible. Yippeee, they’ve done it. The French and Germans have strangled Britain’s fracking industry at birth.

This is just yet another reason we have to leave the corrupt, wasteful, bureaucratic horror that is the EU and regain our status as an independent country.