Lave Knud Broch

Lave Knud Broch
Vice President, EUDemocrats
Incumbent
Assumed office 2011
Personal details
Born	(1972-03-22) 22 March 1972 Malmö, Sweden
Political party	EUDemocrats, Danish Social Liberal Party, People's Movement against the EU
Alma mater	University of Copenhagen
Website	http://broch.dk/

Lave Knud Broch is a Danish politician and Vice President^[1] of the European political alliance, EUDemocrats and substitute member to the European Parliament^[2] for the People's Movement against the EU.

He chairs the Danish UN Association’s Peace and Conflict resolution committee and serves on the executive board^[3]

He is best known in the Danish public for arguing that Denmark should not participate in military actions without a UN mandate ^[4] and he strongly supports Danish participation in the UN's efforts to promote peace including establishing a permanent UN peace force .^{[5][6][7][8][9]}

He grew up in Malmö in Sweden but is from a Danish-Norwegian family. Lave Knud Broch is (Lave Broch) cand.scient.pol., from University of Copenhagen. He is also a member of the Danish Social Liberal Party and was a European Parliament candidate for the first time in 1994^[10]

Political views

Lave Broch is a social liberal. His opinions are for example: A living and involving democracy with openness in the government must be promoted and defended. He believes that the best society can be created if all humans are empowered and have access to high standards of welfare, education and social security. Human life and the nature is precious for him. Therefore conflict prevention or soft military peace solutions should be attempted in the worlds conflict areas. For Lave Broch international cooperation is crucial. He is a strong supporter of the UN but building an EU super state he believes is the wrong path. The EU contains little to no democracy and works for interests that are damaging to peace, welfare and the environment, which is why Denmark needs to opt out and seek a united Scandinavian/Nordic solution and EFTA membership instead. Lave Broch was also active in the Danish euro referendum and does not support that kronen (the Danish currency) is tied to the euro. And lastly Lave Broch is pro ecology and green solutions for example sustainable energy over nuclear plants and against EU initiatives that weaken national standards for organic products and the environment.

Lave Broch's view on conflict resolutions Lave Broch's is against the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and warned that it would lead to many civilian casualties and that no sustainable solutions were presented. He was also against the Iraq war because the lack of a UN mandate. The fight against Taliban in Afghanistan is for example wrong because the western coalition cooperates with suspected war criminals, the civil losses are too great and the use of torture as a means of interrogation. Which is why Lave Broch argues for undeniable human rights in war and any other circumstances, that cannot be bent in times of distress without consequences.^[11] Lave Broch also argues that EU actions have been damaging in different conflict situations. For instance he mentions that the EU did not listen to the UN secretary general concerning the recognition of Croatia. Even though the UN secretary general warned that a fast recognition could lead to "the most terrible war" in Bosnia and Hercegovina.^[12] Therefore Lave Broch would rather see issues which are currently solved by military means solved by conflict prevention and arbitration or at the very least a united UN military force, that do not promote special, national or economical interests. The first step is humanitarian aid with food, camps etc. The second step is objective UN observers in conflict zones. And the third step is negotiations.^[13]

Lave Broch also opposes the EU's close connections to the European weapons industry. Where accelerating export of weapons is common practice,^[14] selling weapons to dictators is common practice,^[15] and the EU being the second largest exporter of weapons globally is a fact^[16] according to Lave Broch.

Lave Broch's views on Scandinavian cooperation Lave Broch would rather see a united Scandinavian/Nordic cooperation than EU and he believes that a Nordic league could be an advantage for the development in the world. The united Nordic cooperation would with a combined view on environment, legal policy, foreign policy and trade increase the collected voice of Nordic countries, BT (a daily Danish newspaper) writes about Lave Broch in an article in 2014 after a poll showed that 47% of Denmark would prefer such an arrangement.^[17]

Lave Broch's views on ecology Lave Broch thinks ecology and sustainable energy is a must if future generations are to survive and in order to protect nature. This is why Lave Broch in a blog on Altinget is troubled by EU's constant invasion of national sovereignty, because in Denmark's case it weakens the current standards for no apparent reason by force undermining the Danish organic brand "Ø-mærke". In order to promote ecology the national state needs to set standards in their own pace and not by the EU lowering Danish standards.^[18]

Notes