30th April 2023, Copenhagen/Denmark - Wishes
7 / 8 / 9
In the name of Peace and Justice.
I have three wishes today, which I present to you in the name of Peace and Justice - in the hope they may be fulfilled.
My first wish for today is about border conflicts. Border
conflicts can lead to war - and we don't want wars, we want
peace. So, border conflicts need to be resolved, the sooner the
better. Border conflicts need to be resolved NOW!
In Western Europe, these are the ongoing conflicts, with the
countries involved:
1. |
GB/IRL |
Rockall Island - silly rock in
the middle of nowhere |
2. |
GB/IRL |
two fjords between Northern
Ireland and Ireland |
3. |
D/NL |
Bay of Dollart |
4. |
F/I |
Summit of Mont Blanc |
5. |
GB/E |
Gibraltar |
6. |
E/P |
Olivenza and some border
villages |
My wish is for the countries and the governments involved to sit
together and find a speedy solution to these disputes NOW.
Which brings me to my second wish for today.
In the past centuries, European countries have fought untold
numbers of wars with each other, with millions and millions and
millions of casualties. Since the end of WW II, great efforts
have been made to make Europe a safer place. Today it can be
said that Western Europe is in fact the most peaceful region in
the whole world.
Which doesn't mean that we can't go even further.
My wish is that Western Europe should unite in such a way as to
become one single country, with one single constitution, one
single government, one single parliament, one singe common
currency, one single military institution.
You remember my wish number 6 where I asked Switzerland to work
out a comprehensive European integration plan from a Swiss
perspective. Well, this time I'm asking the (Western) European
nations to do the same, from the point of view of core European
countries, including of course Great Britain, the four EFTA
member states, as well as European microstates.
We can then sit together and discuss an ideal oompromise, the most promising version for the
creation of a brand-new United States of Western Europe.
And with this, I'm coming to my third and last wish for today.
You see: if Switzerland is going to introduce an unconditional
basic income scheme (as I suggested in my wish number 5),
there's really no reason why the rest of Europe shouldn't do the
same. In every region, and in every today's country, it is
possible to calculate the local basic financial needs per
person, the locally applicable poverty line - and, based on
these costs, introduce a UBI scheme that covers all the basic
expenditures for everybody to live a decent life, without
poverty.
We want a Europe without poverty!
It will be up to European societies at large to discuss ways and
means how to narrow the gap between different levels of poverty
lines in the future - ideally, I think, it would make sense to
even out the UBI's within Europe to differ by not more than,say,
ten percent from one region to the other.
Such is my third and last wish for today. And with this I say, in the name of Peace and Justice: Thank you!
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