Cyprus-Forum.com

[supporttheunderdog]

As usual you attribute things that posters on here have never said or claimed - that really does make you the forum troll...

I am saying nothing....

[DrCyprus]

As usual you attribute things that posters on here have never said or claimed - that really does make you the forum troll...

She dwells on men of straw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

[cyprusgrump]

As usual you attribute things that posters on here have never said or claimed - that really does make you the forum troll...

She dwells on men of straw. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw_man

Indeed...

She is not averse to the odd ad hominem either....

[cyprusgrump]

Euro Puppets

Executive summary

• With public confidence in the European project waning, the idea of initiating a ‘civil dialogue’
with the public emerged in the mid-1990s as a way of bolstering the EU’s democratic legitimacy.

• Citizens have not been consulted directly, however. Instead they have been ventriloquised
through ‘sock puppet’ charities, think tanks and other ‘civil society’ groups which have been
hand-picked and financed by the European Commission (EC). These organisations typically
lobby for closer European integration, bigger EU budgets and more EU regulation.

• The composition of ‘civil society’ at the EU level is largely dictated by which groups the
Commission chooses to fund. There has been a bias towards centre-left organisations, with
a particular emphasis on those promoting policies that are unpopular with the public, such as
increasing foreign aid, restricting lifestyle freedoms and further centralising power within EU
institutions.

• The EC’s favoured civil society organisations are also marked by a homogeneous worldview
and similarity of jargon. The literature and websites of these groups suffocate the reader
with vague rhetoric about ‘stakeholders’, ‘sustainability’, ‘social justice’, ‘capacity building’,
‘fundamental rights’, ‘diversity’, ‘equity’ and ‘active citizenship’.

• Many of the groups which receive the Commission’s patronage would struggle to exist without
statutory funding. For example, Women in Europe for a Common Future received an EC
grant of €1,219,213 in 2011, with a further €135,247 coming from national governments. This
statutory funding made up 93 per cent of its total income while private donations contributed
€2,441 (0.2 per cent) and member contributions just €825 (0.06 per cent).

• There is virtually no funding for organisations which seriously question the Commission’s
direction of travel. By contrast, groups that favour closer union and greater centralisation are
generously funded. The ‘Europe for Citizens’ programme which ‘gives citizens the chance to
participate in making Europe more united, to develop a European identity, to foster a sense of
ownership of the EU, and to enhance tolerance and mutual understanding’ has a €229 million
budget for 2014-20.

• Substantial EU funds are also used to support organisations that share the Commission’s
environmentalist agenda. The Green 10 represent the largest of Europe’s environmental lobby
groups, but dozens, if not hundreds, of like-minded ecological organisations also receive EU
funding. The Commission freely admits that funds are given to environmental groups ‘to support
policy development’.

• Civil society groups in non-member countries are another funding priority for the Commission.
In 2012/13, its Neighbourhood Civil Society Facility had a €22 million budget to be distributed
to groups in Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, later increased to €45.3 million.
Many Youth in Action grants have been given to projects in potential new member states
such as ‘Unite Unite Europe!’ (Serbia), ‘Be Active, Be European!’ (Albania) and ‘Citizen of my
country, citizen of my Europe!!’ (Kosovo).

• The EC’s policy of picking allies and supporting them with taxpayers’ money has made the
system more elitist and less democratic.

Read the whole thing (and weep) here...

[GreekIslandGirl]

Are you still promoting this nonsense?

The reality being that your 100,000 euro purchased home in Cyprus of a decade ago is now worth a whole lot more than if you stayed in the UK. Meanwhile, soaked up a whole lotta sun and healthy lifestyle that will see you living several percentages more than the average Brit.

So what's your problem?

[supporttheunderdog]

Are you still promoting this nonsense?

The reality being that your 100,000 euro purchased home in Cyprus of a decade ago is now worth a whole lot more than if you stayed in the UK. Meanwhile, soaked up a whole lotta sun and healthy lifestyle that will see you living several percentages more than the average Brit.

So what's your problem?

is it in real terms worth a whole lot more or is the real value of one euro a whole lot less when price increases are costed-in?

[GreekIslandGirl]

Go on - tell us!

[cyprusgrump]

Are you still promoting this nonsense?

The reality being that your 100,000 euro purchased home in Cyprus of a decade ago is now worth a whole lot more than if you stayed in the UK. Meanwhile, soaked up a whole lotta sun and healthy lifestyle that will see you living several percentages more than the average Brit.

So what's your problem?

It is hardly nonsense is it...?

It is about unelected and unaccountable bodies spending millions of our money - our taxes - on vanity projects that nobody has ever voted for and in most cases doesn't need or want.

Billions spent on projects that may not work or achieve precisely nothing - yet nobody will be held to account, nobody prosecuted and the money never returned...

Meanwhile citizens across Europe are struggling to pay energy bills and put food on the table...

THAT is the nonsense of your beloved EU - it puts its own vanity and self-importance before the well being of the citizens that are forced to pay for it.

As for my house (not that it is relevant to the thread at all), it would be worth a great deal more if it wasn't for the spiralling prices and punitive taxes that the EU has brought us... the thousands of unfinished projects, unsold properties, closed businesses and empty hotels are a testament to the 'success' that your beloved EU has brought to Cyprus...

[supporttheunderdog]

Are you still promoting this nonsense?

The reality being that your 100,000 euro purchased home in Cyprus of a decade ago is now worth a whole lot more than if you stayed in the UK. Meanwhile, soaked up a whole lotta sun and healthy lifestyle that will see you living several percentages more than the average Brit.

So what's your problem?

It is hardly nonsense is it...?

It is about unelected and unaccountable bodies spending millions of our money - our taxes - on vanity projects that nobody has ever voted for and in most cases doesn't need or want.

Billions spent on projects that may not work or achieve precisely nothing - yet nobody will be held to account, nobody prosecuted and the money never returned...

Meanwhile citizens across Europe are struggling to pay energy bills and put food on the table...

THAT is the nonsense of your beloved EU - it puts its own vanity and self-importance before the well being of the citizens that are forced to pay for it.

As for my house (not that it is relevant to the thread at all), it would be worth a great deal more if it wasn't for the spiralling prices and punitive taxes that the EU has brought us... the thousands of unfinished projects, unsold properties, closed businesses and empty hotels are a testament to the 'success' that your beloved EU has brought to Cyprus...

The EU is sen by some as tool of eg the Bilderberg group to take control of society from elected Government and hand power to the super-capitalists - I have long thought it is a tool to peacefully do by stealth what Napolean and Hitler failed to do by force.

[cyprusgrump]

Are you still promoting this nonsense?

The reality being that your 100,000 euro purchased home in Cyprus of a decade ago is now worth a whole lot more than if you stayed in the UK. Meanwhile, soaked up a whole lotta sun and healthy lifestyle that will see you living several percentages more than the average Brit.

So what's your problem?

It is hardly nonsense is it...?

It is about unelected and unaccountable bodies spending millions of our money - our taxes - on vanity projects that nobody has ever voted for and in most cases doesn't need or want.

Billions spent on projects that may not work or achieve precisely nothing - yet nobody will be held to account, nobody prosecuted and the money never returned...

Meanwhile citizens across Europe are struggling to pay energy bills and put food on the table...

THAT is the nonsense of your beloved EU - it puts its own vanity and self-importance before the well being of the citizens that are forced to pay for it.

As for my house (not that it is relevant to the thread at all), it would be worth a great deal more if it wasn't for the spiralling prices and punitive taxes that the EU has brought us... the thousands of unfinished projects, unsold properties, closed businesses and empty hotels are a testament to the 'success' that your beloved EU has brought to Cyprus...

The EU is sen by some as tool of eg the Bilderberg group to take control of society from elected Government and hand power to the super-capitalists - I have long thought it is a tool to peacefully do by stealth what Napolean and Hitler failed to do by force.

It is certainly heading that way STUD....