EU authority fraying as governments challenge Union’s policies

PanARMENIAN.Net - The European Union's authority is fraying as governments and politicians in many members challenge EU policies and take aim at "Brussels bureaucracy" in the aftermath of Britain's vote to leave the 28-nation bloc, Reuters reports.

The Czech president and some contenders for the French presidency have called for their own referendums on continued membership of the pan-European economic and political community, although no such plebiscite is on the cards in the near future.

Verbal assaults on the role of the European Commission and the European Parliament since the British shock almost two weeks ago look more like an attempt to appease domestic public opinion than a concerted drive to strip Brussels of its main powers.

But they could further undermine the legitimacy of the EU's common institutions in the eyes of citizens.

France, facing a presidential election next year, has threatened to stop obeying EU rules on workers posted from one member state to another, which it says undercuts the jobs of native employees. President Francois Hollande has also demanded a rewriting of EU merger control rules and restrictions on state aid to industry to enable the creation of "European champions".

Socialist Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Sunday an EU regulation allowing employers to pay seconded workers less than their local counterparts must be changed soon or Paris would stop applying it.

Employers are not now obliged to pay posted workers more than the minimum wage of the host country - often well below the average wage in the sector - and they pay social contributions in their home country welfare systems which are usually far lower than those in western Europe. Central and east European governments oppose moves to reduce the gap.

"There must be equal treatment upwards to fight social dumping," Valls said.

Spooked by a surge of support for anti-EU nationalist Marine Le Pen, conservative candidate Alain Juppe called on Monday for a new balance of power between Brussels and member states and a halt to further EU enlargement, ending Turkey's membership bid. He called last week for a referendum on a "new Europe".

Italy is demanding a loosening of recently adopted EU regulations that make shareholders, bondholders and depositors liable for the losses of failed banks before taxpayers.