Roger Helmer MEP blogs on Nicholas Sarkozy latest socialist idea.
A couple of weeks ago, French President Nicholas Sarkozy, currently President-in-Office of the European Council during the French Presidency of the EU, proposed a European bail-out fund for Europe’s financial institutions.
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He’s decided (Sarkozy, not Zebedee) that he wants Europe to have a Sovereign Wealth Fund. If all those oil producers like Russia and Abu Dhabi, and manufacturing/exporting nations like China, can have Sovereign Wealth Funds, and can go round buying up Western companies, then Europe must do the same.
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Of course the French love a dirigiste, corporatist approach to industry, and nothing would please them more than a back-door nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy. Those of us who value liberty and prosperity (and have some idea about how liberty and prosperity are best promoted) will resist further nationalisation.
It is sad to see Mr. Sarkozy urging Europe further along the road of socialism. We do thank Roger Helmer for being a proponent of liberty and prosperity in Europe.
He is right that this may be actually a “back-door nationalism”. Setting up a SWF for that purpose is a try to use these state-owned investment vehicles as a new tool for protectionism. More and more countries are up to setting their own SWF and now there are about 50 of them. At Sovereign Wealth Funds Review website you can read some news on that topic as well as detailed fund information.