A group of MEPs gunning to become the most influential conservatives in Brussels is launching a Euroskeptic glossy magazine.
The first issue of New Direction is out Thursday, featuring a cover image of a shark swimming towards a huge euro symbol in icy waters under the headline “That sinking feeling.” It also features an editorial spelling out the “economic and political ramifications of the single currency” — an economic project that the MEPs say has veered dramatically off-course.
“As the French say cul-de-sac,” said Hans-Olaf Henkel, a German MEP from the European Conservatives and Reformists group, who edited the first issue. “If you are in a cul-de-sac, you either continue and bang against a wall, or you make a U-turn. We believe we must make a U-turn.”
The bi-monthly magazine is the brainchild of New Direction, the conservative think tank bankrolled by the European Parliament and taxpayers. The publication will explore “the most important problems the EU is facing,” according to its president Tomasz Piotr Poreba, a Polish MEP.
The eurozone crisis has forced the German chancellor to “stick her nose in the internal affairs” of other eurozone countries
Euroskeptic thought leaders throw punches in the first issue. Jean-Jacques Rosa, a former economics editor at Le Figaro; Antoni Soy, a professor at the University of Barcelona and member of the Catalan government; and Brigitte Granville, a professor at the University of London, are all contributors.
“The IMF and the eurozone: Fireman or Arsonist” is the headline of Granville’s article.
Henkel said that the euro has backfired as a tool for European integration.
“In May 2010 Germany was the most liked country by the Greeks,” he said. “But can you imagine that the last time Frau Merkel went to Athens she had to be protected by thousands of policeman?” The eurozone crisis has forced the German chancellor to “stick her nose in the internal affairs” of other eurozone countries, Henkel said.
“She says that Italy has too many government servants, which is also true, but it’s not her business. And this is the consequence of the euro,” Henkel said.
Upcoming issues will focus on migration and subsidiarity — the idea that, whenever possible, Brussels should have less, not more, decision-making power than national governments.
Asked why he thought a magazine was the best way to address these issues, Poreba said: “My intention is to strengthen our think tank, to strengthen its power in the market of ideas in Brussels.”
The first issue will be distributed to all 751 members of the European Parliament, ambassadors in Brussels, European commissioners and “all influential people in Brussels.”