EU ESM Treaty

I had intended to post on the above, however Ian Parker-Joseph beat me to it and with his inimitable attention to detail has done a far, far better job than I could have ever hoped to do - so with his permission (I hope) I reproduce it below:

"What do you do when you get into financial trouble. What do you do when all your friends are in financial trouble as well?

Do you cut your spending? Do you borrow more? or do you, as the European Commission has done:
Set up a company, get all those friends who are in financial trouble to buy shares in your new venture by robbing their taxpayers of huge amounts to raise the paid up capital (details at the bottom), then get all the friendly governments to give this new company legal status, privileges normally reserved for diplomats along with full immunity for all and anything they do whilst working for the company, plan to employ a whole raft of new staff, appoint a Board of Directors and a Managing Director, invoke professional secrecy rules on them all, and get governments to grant immunity to the persons and exempt them from income tax (the company will tax its employees and keep it).

On top of that, ensure that your new company is exempt from all and any kind of registration, regulation, supervision, oversight or taxation and can operate OUTSIDE of all legal structures, AND gets to audit itself whilst leaving the EU Commission as the sole negotiator on loans made by your ‘company’.
That is exactly what the EU Commission have done with their ESM Treaty (European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism). The Mafia could not have done any better. This is racketeering and money laundering on a continental scale.

Perhaps we should all have a go as individuals, families, groups, friends, villages, towns etc follow the EU Commission’s lead, start up and run businesses on this basis, citing ESM type rules.
So lets take a look at this ‘Treaty’, but before we go any further I must tell you that the UK is not a signatory…. yet, and this is a long post, so please bear with me. (there is a link to the treaty at the end of this post if you want to skip my analysis).

The first thing to note is that they changed the Lisbon Treaty, without a vote or re-ratification in National Parliaments.

Whereas:

(2) On 25 March 2011, the European Council adopted Decision 2011/199/EU amending Article 136 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union with regard to a stability
mechanism for Member States whose currency is the euro1 adding the following paragraph to Article 136: “The Member States whose currency is the euro may establish a stability mechanism to be activated if indispensable to safeguard the stability of the euro area as a whole. The granting of any required financial assistance under the mechanism will be made subject to strict conditionality”.

Then in true Mafia style, the Commission insists that all Euro area member states become members of the new company. No doubt an offer they couldn’t refuse, although non euro area states were told they could watch (7).

(5) All euro area Member States will become ESM Members. As a consequence of joining the euro area, a Member State of the European Union should become an ESM Member with full rights and obligations, in line with those of the Contracting Parties.

It then goes to to arrange that Collective Action Clauses (CACs) will be included in the T&Cs of all new euro area government bonds starting in July 2013, and that these arrangements will be finalised by end 2011.

Then it arranges for this new ‘company’ to give itself Preferred Status.

(10) Like the IMF, the ESM will provide financial assistance to an ESM Member when its regular access to market financing is impaired. Reflecting this, Heads of State or Government have stated that the ESM will enjoy preferred creditor status in a similar fashion to IMF, while accepting preferred creditor status of the IMF over the ESM. This status shall be effective as of 1 July 2013. In the unlikely event of ESM financial assistance following a European financial assistance programme existing at the time of the signature of this Treaty, ESM will enjoy the same seniority as all other loans and obligations of the beneficiary ESM Member, with the exception of the IMF loans.

So, no haircuts for this mob.

Now let get to the Articles. This ‘Treaty’ to me can only be considered illegal and fraudulent, casting itself as it does outside of all legal structures and oversight whilst spending taxpayers money with no constraints.

Article 1
Article 1.1 gives this its corporate status, Article 1.2 the shareholders.

1.
By this Treaty, the Contracting Parties establish among themselves an international financial institution, to be named the “European Stability Mechanism” (“ESM”).
2.
The Contracting Parties are ESM Members.

Article 2 provides the rules for new members beyond the initial shareholders.

Article 3 provides the purpose. It sets out that it will operate under strict economic policy conditionality, not legal conditions.

Article 4 sets out its Structure and voting rules, and reiterates that if an ESM member doesn’t pay, it loses its voting rights.

1.
The ESM shall have a Board of Governors and a Board of Directors, as well as a Managing Director and other dedicated staff as may be considered necessary.
2.
The decisions of the Board of Governors and the Board of Directors shall be taken by mutual agreement, qualified majority or simple majority as specified in this Treaty. In respect of all decisions, a quorum of 2/3 of the members with voting rights representing at least 2/3 of the voting rights must be present.
6. The voting rights of each ESM Member, as exercised by its appointee or by the latter’s representative on the Board of Governors or Board of Directors, shall be equal to the number of shares allocated to it in the authorised capital stock of the ESM as set out in Annex II.
7.
If any ESM Member fails to pay any part of the amount due in respect of its obligations in relation to paid-in shares or calls of capital under Articles 8, 9 and 10, or in relation to the reimbursement of the financial assistance under Article 14 or 15, such ESM Member shall be unable, for so long as such failure continues, to exercise any of its voting rights. The voting thresholds shall be recalculated accordingly.

Now read Articles 4.2, 4.6 & 4.7 above very carefully. The way that this is cleverly laid out means that it will potentially allow at some stage in the future, Germany and/or France as the biggest shareholders to gain complete control of the board, the voting and the money, as the smaller countries fail or are unable to pay new capital calls.

Article 5 lays out the structure and rules for the Board of Governors, including the election of the Chairman in 2 year periods, for which is is no limit on re-elections, and those who may participate or observe in Governors meetings.

3.
The Member of the European Commission in charge of economic and monetary affairs and
the President of the ECB, as well as the President of the Euro Group (if he or she is not the
Chairperson or a Governor) may participate in the meetings of the Board of Governors as observers.
4.
Representatives of non-euro area Member States participating on an ad hoc basis alongside the ESM in a financial assistance operation for a euro area Member State shall also be invited to participate, as observers, in the meetings of the Board of Governors when this financial assistance and its monitoring will be discussed.
5.
Other persons, including representatives of institutions or organisations, such as the IMF, may be invited by the Board of Governors to attend meetings as observers on an ad hoc basis.

No mention of elected officials such as National Parliamentarians or MEPs, none, nada, zilch, but then as you may recall me saying earlier this is a Commission Mafia operation.

Still within Article 5 we now get to what the Board can do…(the highlights are mine)

6. The Board of Governors shall take the following decisions by mutual agreement:
(a) to issue new shares on terms other than at par, in accordance with Article 8(2);
(b) to make the capital calls, in accordance with Article 9(1);
(c) to change the authorised capital stock and adapt the maximum lending volume of the ESM, in accordance with Article 10(1);
(d) to take into account a possible update of the key for the subscription of the ECB capital, in accordance with Article 11(3), and the changes to be made to Annex I in accordance with
Article 11(6);
(e) to grant financial assistance by the ESM, including the economic policy conditionality as stated in the memorandum of understanding referred to in Article 13(3), and to establish thefinancial terms and conditions, and the choice of instruments, in accordance with Articles 12 to 15;
(f) to give a mandate to the European Commission to negotiate, in liaison with the ECB, theeconomic policy conditionality attached to each financial assistance, in accordance with Article 13(3);
(g) to change the pricing structure and pricing policy for financial assistance, in accordance with Article 14(4);
(h) to change the list of financial assistance instruments that may be used by the ESM, in accordance with Article 16;
(i) to establish the modalities of the transfer of EFSF support to the ESM, in accordance with Article 35;
(j) to approve the application for membership of the ESM by new members, referred to in Article 39;
(k) to make adaptations to this Treaty as a direct consequence of the accession of new members, including changes to be made to the distribution of capital among ESM Members and the calculation of such a distribution as a direct consequence of the accession of a new member to the ESM, in accordance with Article 39; and
(l) to delegate to the Board of Directors the tasks listed in this Article.
7.
(h) to approve the annual accounts of the ESM, in accordance with Article 23(1);
(i) to appoint the members of the Internal Auditing Board, in accordance with Article 24;
(j) to approve the external auditors, in accordance with Article 25;
(k) to waive the immunity of the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, a Governor, alternate Governor, Director, alternate Director or the Managing Director, in accordance with
Article 30(2);
(l) to determine the taxation regime applicable to the ESM staff, in accordance with Article 31(5);
(m) on a dispute, in accordance with Article 32(2); and
(n) any other necessary decision not explicitly provided for by this Treaty.

Articles 5.6 and its subsections are what you would pretty much expect of a corporate body, but 5.7 starts getting into the illegal and fraudulent stuff… if it was a body that was subject to scrutiny, the law or any regulatory oversight… but its not, as I shall highlight in later Articles.
But hey, its only taxpayers that will have to cough up for all this shite…

Article 6 outlines the same kind of rules etc for the Board of Directors (who also have immunity).

Article 7 focuses directly on the role of the Managing Director.

1.
The Managing Director shall be appointed by the Board of Governors from among candidates having the nationality of an ESM Member, relevant international experience and a high level of competence in economic and financial matters.

At least that rules Gordon Brown out of the role.

NOW we get to the interesting stuff. Its all taxpayers money remember, until it goes into the coffers of a company… and this new body is such a company.

Article 8 – Authorised capital stock.

1.
The authorised capital stock shall be EUR 700 000 million. It shall be divided into seven
million shares, having a nominal value of EUR 100 000 each, which shall be available for
subscription according to the initial contribution key provided for in Article 11 and calculated in Annex I.
2.
The authorised capital stock shall be divided into paid-in shares and callable shares. The
initial total aggregate nominal value of paid-in shares shall be EUR 80 000 million. Shares of
authorised capital stock initially subscribed shall be issued at par. Other shares shall be issued at par, unless the Board of Governors decides to issue them in special circumstances on other terms.

Thats 700 BILLION of Eurozone taxpayers Euros, and once its in… it stays in.

3.
Shares of authorised capital stock shall not be encumbered or pledged in any manner
whatsoever and they shall not be transferable, with the exception of transfers for the purposes of implementing adjustments of the contribution key provided for in Article 11 to the extent necessary to ensure that the distribution of shares corresponds to the adjusted key.
and they can call for more at any time.

Article 9 Capital Calls
1.
The Board of Governors may call in authorised unpaid capital at any time and set an
appropriate period of time for its payment by the ESM Members.
2.
The Board of Directors may call in authorised unpaid capital by simple majority decision to
restore the level of paid-in capital if the amount of the latter is reduced by the absorption of losses below the level established in Article 8(2), as may be amended by the Board of Governors..

Article 10 Changes to authorised capital stock

Article 11 Contribution key

Article 12 Operations

Article 13 Procedure for granting financial assistance

3. … the Board of Governors shall entrust the European Commission with the task of negotiating with the ESM Member concerned – wherever possible together with the IMF, and in liaison with the ECB – a memorandum of understanding (the “MoU”) detailing the economic policy conditionality, contained in a macro-economic adjustment programme and attached to the financial assistance.
4.
The European Commission shall sign the MoU on behalf of the ESM, subject to prior
compliance with the conditions set out in paragraph 3 and approval by the Board of Governors.

See the correlation to the Mafia yet?. The EU Commission do the negotiations, call the shots, make the rules and sign the contracts but this new company paid for by the taxpayers is just the front man… no wonder they want immunity in this money laundering operation. And not a law enforcement or an elected official in sight.

Article 14 ESM stability support

Article 15 Primary market support facility

Article 16 Review of the list of financial assistance instruments

Article 17 Borrowing operations

1.
The ESM shall be empowered to borrow on the capital markets from banks, financial institutions or other persons or institutions for the performance of its purpose.

Not content that they have already ripped taxpayers to the tune of Eur700 Billion, they have given themselves the ability to borrow more on the markets.

Article 18 Investment policy
The Managing Director shall implement a prudent investment policy for the ESM, so as to ensure its highest creditworthiness, in accordance with guidelines to be adopted and reviewed regularly by the Board of Directors.
The Mafia Bank Ltd ….

Article 19 Dividend policy

Article 20 Reserve and other funds

Article 21 Coverage of losses

1. Losses arising in the ESM operations shall be charged:
(a) firstly, against the reserve fund;
(b) secondly, against the paid-in capital; and
(c) lastly, against an appropriate amount of the authorised unpaid capital, which shall be called in accordance with Article 9(3).

Item (c) is what we call Taxpayers.

Article 22 Budget
They get to make and approve their own budget.. again, no oversight.

Article 23 Annual Accounts

Article 24 Internal Auditing Board

1.
The Internal Auditing Board (the “IAB”) shall consist of three members appointed by the Board of Governors for their competence in auditing and financial matters.

Article 25 External auditing

The accounts of the ESM shall be audited by independent external auditors approved by the Board of Governors. The auditors shall have full power to examine all books and accounts of the ESM and obtain full information about its transactions.

Ok.. so that will be like the Commission audits then, with no doubt the same results.

Article 26 Location.
With so much French involvement in this money laundering scam it is little wonder that this will be headquartered in Luxembourg.

Article 27 Legal Status, privileges and immunities
The opening clause in this Article sets the scene.

1.
To enable the ESM to fulfil its purpose, the legal status and the privileges and immunities set
out in this Article shall be accorded to the ESM in the territory of each ESM Member. The ESM shall endeavour to obtain recognition of its legal status and of its privileges and immunities in other territories in which it performs functions or holds assets.

Now watch this:

2. The ESM shall have full legal personality; it shall have full legal capacity to:
(a) acquire and dispose of movable and immovable property;
(b) contract;
(c) be a party to legal proceedings; and
(d) enter into a headquarter agreement and/or protocols as necessary for ensuring that its legal status and its privileges and immunities are recognised and enforced.
3.
The ESM, its property, funding and assets, wherever located and by whomsoever held, shall enjoy immunity from every form of judicial process except to the extent that the ESM expressly waives its immunity for the purpose of any proceedings or by the terms of any contract, including the documentation of the funding instruments.
4.
The property, funding and assets of the ESM shall, wherever located and by whomsoever held, be immune from search, requisition, confiscation, expropriation or any other form of seizure, taking or foreclosure by executive, judicial, administrative or legislative action.
5.
The archives of the ESM and all documents belonging to the ESM or held by it, shall be inviolable.
6. The premises of the ESM shall be inviolable.
7. The official communications of the ESM shall be accorded by each ESM Member and by each state which has recognised the legal status and the privileges and immunities of the ESM, the same treatment as it accords to the official communications of an ESM Member.
8.
To the extent necessary to carry out the activities provided for in this Treaty, all property, funding and assets of the ESM shall be free from restrictions, regulations, controls and moratoria of any nature.
9.
The ESM shall be exempted from any requirement to be authorised or licensed as a credit institution, investment services provider or other authorised licensed or regulated entity under the laws of each ESM Member.

So lets understand this. Total Immunity except in the case of a contract. But… you can’t search buildings or assets, can’t take any legal actions and all archives and documents are inviolable, its buildings and communications are given diplomatic immunity so you can’t touch them for anything. The property and funding is outside of the reach of anyone and they don’t need to be licensed or regulated in any way. It really is a legalised Mafia.

Article 28 Staff of the ESM

Article 29 Professional secrecy

Both during and after their duties have ceased, covered by the obligation of professional secrecy.
Article 30 Immunities of persons

1.
In the interest of the ESM, the Chairperson of the Board of Governors, Governors, alternate Governors, Directors, alternate Directors, as well as the Managing Director and other staff members shall be immune from legal proceedings with respect to acts performed by them in their official capacity and shall enjoy inviolability in respect of their official papers and documents.

You really do have to question WHY? Normal corporate indemnification should suffice unless they are expecting to do things that are illegal Are they expecting the Board to skim off a good amount of taxpayers money or make inappropriate loans as the head of the IMF is alleged to have done, and are they really expecting that any of these clauses will hold water when the Euro collapses and the EU burns.
Article 31 Exemption from taxation

1.
Within the scope of its official activities, the ESM, its assets, income, property and its operations and transactions authorised by this Treaty shall be exempt from all direct taxes.
4.
Goods imported by the ESM and necessary for the exercise of its official activities shall be exempt from all import duties and taxes and from all import prohibitions and restrictions.
5.
Staff of the ESM shall be subject to an internal tax for the benefit of the ESM on salaries and emoluments paid by the ESM, subject to rules to be adopted by the Board of Governors. From the date on which this tax is applied, such salaries and emoluments shall be exempt from national income tax.

Above all else, this one really does take the biscuit, bearing in mind that this Mafia body’s very existence will be based upon the robbing of taxpayers to make loans that taxpayers will have to repay because their respective governments have wasted their taxpayers money and overspent. In other words, money laundering.

Article 32 Interpretation and dispute settlement

Article 33 International cooperation
This is the clause that effectively lets this Mafia engage in a turf war and muscle in on the activities of the IMF, non euro area States, and any international organisation or entity (which will include banks but does not specifically say so). Its how the Mafia would want it.

Article 34 Relation with EFSF lending

Article 35 Transfer of EFSF supports
This is how the EU Mafia take over the existing bail-outs and repayments..

Article 36 Payment of the initial capital

1.
Without prejudice to paragraph 2, payment of paid-in shares of the amount initially subscribed by each ESM Member shall be made in five annual instalments of 20 % each of the total amount. The first instalment shall be paid by each ESM Member within fifteen days of the date of entry into force of this Treaty, but not earlier than 2 January 2013. The remaining four instalments shall each be payable on the first, second, third and fourth anniversary of the payment date of the first instalment.

So the poor taxpayers in the Eurozone can expect their taxes to massively go up to cover this. They really do need to pray that the Euro and the EU collapse and burn before 2013.

Article 37 Temporary correction of the contribution key
This set of clauses allows for readjustments to be made should any other countries be stupid enough to join the Euro and be forced into this scheme.

Article 38 First appointments
1.
Each ESM Member shall designate its Governor and alternate Governor within the two weeks of the entry into force of this Treaty.
2.
The Board of Governors shall appoint the Managing Director and each Governor shall appoint a Director and an alternate Director within the two months of the entry into force of this Treaty.
My money is on a certain disgraced Frenchman, an ex-IMF man taking control of this lot.

Article 39 Accession
You guessed it, joining the Mafia Bank will become part of the Accession agreement for any new member state of the EU.

Article 40 Annexes

Article 41 Deposit

Article 42 Ratification, approval or acceptance

Article 43 Entry into force

1.
This Treaty shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date when instruments of ratification, approval or acceptance have been deposited by signatories whose initial subscriptions represent no less than 95 % of the total subscriptions set forth in Annex II.
Done at Brussels on the eleventh day of July in the year two thousand and eleven in a single original, whose Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Maltese, Portuguese, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish texts are equally authentic, which shall be deposited in the archives of the Depositary which shall transmit a duly certified copy to each of the Contracting Parties.

Subscriptions to the authorised capital stock
ESM Member                             Number of shares         Capital subscription
(EUR)
Kingdom of Belgium                             243 397                    24 339 700 000
Federal Republic of Germany          1 900 248                  190 024 800 000
Republic of Estonia                                 13 020                      1 302 000 000
Ireland                                                    111 454                    11 145 400 000
Hellenic Republic                                  197 169                    19 716 900 000
Kingdom of Spain                                  833 259                    83 325 900 000
French Republic                                  1 427 013                 142 701 300 000
Italian Republic                                   1 253 959                 125 395 900 000
Republic of Cyprus                                   13 734                      1 373 400 000
Grand Duchy of Luxembourg                  17 528                      1 752 800 000
Malta                                                            5 117                         511 700 000
Kingdom of the Netherlands                  400 190                   40 019 000 000
Republic of Austria                                  194 838                  19 483 800 000
Portuguese Republic                               175 644                   17 564 400 000
Republic of Slovenia                                 29 932                     2 993 200 000
Slovak Republic                                         57 680                     5 768 000 000
Republic of Finland                                 125 818                  12 581 800 000
Total                                                      7 000 000                700 000 000 000

The EU has always been corrupt, but this new form of corruption will leave millions of people in poverty. It may save a few faces, it may save a few banks, but the peoples of Europe will never forgive or forget this new form of economic slavery, a heinous crime, and the levels of totally un-repayable debt that is now being thrust upon them… by the unelected mafia that is the EU Commission.

Ref:
ESM TREATY – ENGLISH"

I cannot let this pass without further reference to the immunities that have been granted to the members of the ESM - they must have been watching our politicians!