In a lengthy review of the most recent, spectacular EU sanction against former Swiss Army Colonel Jacques Baud, Swiss blogger Pascal Lottaz points out that there has been a pattern of such sanctions used as a political tool to isolate and silence internal EU critics. This is done on the basis of a perverse EU law on combatting alleged “disinformation” that enables the EU to use that tool without having to document why it is being used. Therefore, Baud can appeal the sanctions decree at the European Court of Justice, which, however, can only rule on the formality of the decree, but not on its content. And even if the ECJ finds the decree to be incorrect, the EU can still ignore it, as it has done before, and keep Baud on the sanctions list.
Lottaz likens that to the Patriot Act after 9/11, which “gave the U.S. government the ability to use security services internally that were meant to protect the nation only from external enemies, the expansion of EU sanctions against people within the EU (or the Schengen area) is transforming a dirty foreign policy tool into an even uglier domestic policy tool.” This is applying neo-colonialism against Europe’s own citizens.
