An article appeared in the Daily Mail about a single European state after the Olympics was over last week. The article had a picture of double gold medallist Kelly Holmes and was altered so she was carrying a EU flag instead of the Union Jack flag. I just thought it was the Mail being paranoid, but today I stumbled across a quote by the EU's autocrat-in-chief, Romano Prodi from the "Europa Newsletter" (it seems the EU names itself after the French word for Europe).
After congratulating the "EU athletes" he goes on to say:
In 2008, I hope to see the EU Member State teams in Beijing carry the flag of the European Union alongside their own national flag as a symbol of our unity".
Link(fourth paragraph)
So here we are, another example of Euro-creep. The EU has always recognized that the biggest threat to it was from national identity. It has worked for years in various ways to try to impose its image into peoples' lives and to reduce the feeling of national identity. It has images of itself into aassports, driving licenses, the creepy "European Dimension" that provides EU-approved textbooks and information pamphlets to schools, regional government, as well as the more obvious things such as a flag, national anthem and "Europe Day", oh, their currency too.
But Prodi knows that people get their most patriotic during major sporting events. That's when we see national flags flying all over Europe. The EU must counter this unacceptable sea of patriotism for the member state and try to redirect peoples' attentions so they cheer for the EU instead.
I find this attempt at manipulating peoples' love of sport for political advantage very distasteful, but at the same time, very typical of what we've come to expect from the Beast of Brussels.
