• IN reply to Alfio Bernabei (The UK should continue to exercise its influence inside the EU, January 17), the September 2018 opinion poll he highlights states that, after over 60 years of membership, only 44 per cent of Italians could say that they have trust in the EU.

He also says that in Italy and elsewhere “aggressive nationalism and neo fascism are once again posing a threat”. This is a direct result of the EU neoliberal economic project that has sidelined people all over Europe.

The Eurocrats urged countries like Italy to sell their most lucrative state earners in sectors like banking, insurance and telecoms. Tens of thousands of people lost good jobs, 125,000 in Italian telecoms alone. At the same time, freedom of movement meant that managed immigration based on the consent of the host population became a thing of the past.

In addition, no account was taken of the effect of this free for all on countries like Romania who were having their economies hollowed out.

Since it joined the European Union in 2007 over three million Romanians have fled the country, and as of 2013 the number of Romanian physicians working abroad exceeded 14,000, representing over a third of the country’s total number of doctors.

Since the early 1990s, some 20 million of central and eastern Europe’s most talented workers have left. They have largely headed for western Europe, pulled by its prosperity and assisted by the EU’s open border policy.

Mr Bernabei states that “the EU needs to bring about changes, but this can best be achieved by working together”. This is fanciful in the extreme. The chaos I have highlighted was carefully crafted by the Eurocrats over many decades. They weren’t listening over all that time so why should they suddenly start now?

Mr Bernabei states that “It wasn’t the EU that started the banking crisis of 2008”. They may not have started it, but they certainly played their full part in creating the conditions for such recklessness with their full support, along with others, for relaxation in controls on banks’ capital and activities which made it easier for them to take risks.

And when it all went horribly wrong, the Eurocrats made a political choice by urging the mass privatisation of state assets, along with cuts to pensions, public sector wages and services like health and education, as I highlighted with my example of the 2011 austerity package inflicted on the people of Portugal. Such measures are the very DNA of the European Project.

For a socialist, No deal is the real deal. No more stifling rules against state aid. No more restrictions on state ownership to mere arms length management companies bidding for contracts. Proper direct democratic ownership of utilities, Railways, and postal services, banking, insurance and telecoms.

A national investment bank to create good jobs throughout the United Kingdom. And a properly managed immigration policy that takes account not just of our own people but the needs of any other country with which we are dealing.

It must be a relationship of mutual benefit. No more hollowing out of other countries economies. Mutual respect and cooperation is the only way to combat fascism, and that will never be possible as long as we are part of the EU neoliberal project.

LOUIS LOIZOU
Raglan Street, NW5