European Union

Will the EU ever get tough on defence?

European leaders are in Brussels today for an emergency summit on defence, and the future of both Ukraine and the continent. In a further attempt to hash out a peace plan for Ukraine, the 27 EU heads of state are joined by Volodymyr Zelensky. Arriving this morning, Zelensky declared, ‘It’s great we are not alone’.

As part of today’s agenda, members of the bloc are expected to endorse Ursula von der Leyen’s ReArm Europe plan – which will make €150 billion (£125 billion) available in loans for members to boost defence spending. The summit will also likely discuss French President Emmanuel Macron’s proposal to extend his country’s ‘nuclear umbrella’ to its continental neighbours.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEU, Europe, European Union

How Does an Entire Continent Fail?

The Trump administration attempts to save Europe from itself.

The second Trump administration has hit the ground running, tackling the biggest problems faced by America and the world simultaneously. Some of the most vexing challenges facing humanity have their root in the European Union, which has created a spectacular failure for its member nations. Can President Trump and Vice President Vance force Europe to correct course before it slips away entirely?

We’re going to find out — because that’s exactly what the administration is pressuring them to do.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, Trump World

Trump: EU was formed to screw USA – and they’ve done a good job of it

The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, Donald Trump has declared.

Speaking during his first cabinet meeting, the US president said: “The European Union was formed in order to screw the United States, that’s the purpose of it. And they’ve done a good job of it. But now I’m president.”

The president says his administration planned to impose tariffs on the EU very “very soon”.

Full meeting.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, Europe, European Union, President Trump, USA

Here’s what would happen if Canada joined the European Union

In the face of uncertainty about Canada’s relationship with the United States, some have been proposing an alternative path: backing away from the Americans a bit and joining the European Union.

The 27-state economic and political group includes a variety of countries with which Canada already has close economic, historic and political ties, including France and Germany. Notably, however, the United Kingdom, the country to which Canada perhaps owes its largest debt, left the EU in 2020.

The EU is more anti-democratic, more corrupt, woke and crazy than the Liberal government. Hard as that may be to believe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, European Union

What Is Really Destroying Europe? The EU.

The founding idea of the European Union was to build, through shared prosperity, solidarity and a sense of shared destiny among the nations of Europe. That was why three communities were formed: the economy, coal and steel, and nuclear energy. Until around 2000, in terms of growth and innovation, the European economy, year in, year out, was on par with the American one.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union

Trump says EU tariffs will ‘definitely happen’

Donald Trump has threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the European Union – and potentially the UK – will face levies, even as he conceded that Americans could bear some of the economic brunt of a nascent global trade war.

It comes as Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, announced on Saturday, sparked retaliation from all three countries. Mexico and Canada have vowed levies of their own while China and Canada are seeking legal challenges.

Trump said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU will “definitely happen”, repeating previous complaints about the large US trade deficit with the bloc and his desire for Europe to import more American cars and agricultural products.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, USA

Why Europe fears free speech

A war of repression is under way

We all know the old joke: when a European referendum delivers the “wrong” outcome, the country votes again until they get it “right”. The EU thought this would be the case after Brexit. But so far, no one’s laughing.

If anything, things have got worse. Take Romania, which recently cancelled its presidential election when Călin Georgescu, leader of a nationalist Right coalition, won the first round. Thierry Breton, former French European Commissioner, revealed the EU’s mindset during a damning recent TV interview. “We did it in Romania and we will obviously do it in Germany if necessary,” he said. In other words, if you can’t beat the far-Right, ban them.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Freedom of speech

EU Globalist Explicitly Threatens To Cancel German Election Result If Right Wing AfD Wins

Former French European Commissioner Thierry Breton has essentially openly confessed that the West stole the Romanian election and stands ready to do it again in Germany if deemed necessary.

“We did it in Romania, and we will do it in Germany if necessary,” a translation from the French of Breton’s recent appearance in European media said. Early last month a top Romanian court simply annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election in order to create what amounted to a ‘do over’ election.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Germany, Germany - AfD party

American Free Speech vs. European Censorship

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges US social media platforms to take a whole arsenal of preventive and repressive measures, basically to prevent the sharing of information that displeases the European Commission. The new US administration will not tolerate levying fines of tens of billions of dollars on major US technology companies by a European Union that is drifting towards authoritarianism and is at the same time more dependent than ever on American power.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Freedom of speech, USA

The U.S. and Europe May Be Headed for a Divorce

Among the more childishly enjoyable fruits of Donald Trump’s election victory has been watching the spectacular gymnastic contortions of political leaders in Europe, where I have spent time recently, as they try to reconcile their previously expressed revulsion toward him with the political reality of his renewed status as the most powerful man on the planet.

Gold medal for the back flip with full twist and 180-degree turn goes to David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, who congratulated Mr. Trump and said he looked forward to finding “common ground” with the newly re-elected president. “I felt in my bones that there could be a Trump presidency,” he cheerily told the BBC the day after the election.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, President Trump

European Union Is Funding Iranian Aggression

The Iranian regime, largely thanks to the backing of a powerful ally, the European Union, has managed to sustain and even increase its revenue streams.

The continued funding of Iran’s regime by the EU is crucial in bolstering Iran’s ability to attack its neighbors and US troops in the region, both directly and through its proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis — and to accelerate enriching uranium to complete its nuclear weapons program.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Iran

Europe Between Hope and Fear

The results of this month’s European Parliament elections have prompted two reactions from political analysts in the old continent.

One reaction could be described as the ostrich option, burying one’s head in the sand and praying that the storm will blow over. The other could be labeled apocalyptic, pointing at the four terrible horsemen riding across the horizon.

The ostrich party points out that despite the successes scored by radical right parties, the next European Parliament will still be dominated by right-of-center and social-democratic outfits stuck in the past and determined to maintain the status quo.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union

Time to retire the ‘far right’ slur

Millions of Europeans have not suddenly turned into fascists. We need a new political language.

As the EU establishment struggles to make sense of last week’s revolt in the European elections, one thing is clear: our outdated vocabulary is not up to the task of describing today’s political landscape.

Gains for France’s National Rally, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been described as a ‘far-right surge’ in newspapers and TV reports, not just across Europe but around the world. Even before the election results came in, labels like far right and extreme right were bouncing off commentators’ keyboards. All agree that the far right is on the rise and ordinary people need to worry. This is Europe’s ‘Trump moment’, explained Politico. Some go further. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is described as ‘neo-fascist’, while academics calmly ask if the AfD is the new Nazi Party. ‘Fascism has arrived’, declared French author Emilia Roig when the election results became clear. Yet with almost a quarter of Europe’s voters having backed a party branded ‘far right’, it is worth asking how accurate this label is and what purpose it now serves.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Elites vs. Populists", "extremists", "far right", Europe, European Union

Don’t Blame the Russians When Europe Votes Right

An Afghan knifeman tried to assassinate a leading anti-Islamist campaigner at a rally in the German city of Mannheim on Friday, and murdered a young policeman in the attack. The stabbing, carried out by a failed asylum-seeker who had been living in Germany illegally for years, was a searing indictment of successive German governments’ mass migration policies.

A week before the elections to the European Parliament, this attempted assassination of a critic of political Islam provided a graphic illustration of why support for the right-wing, anti-migration Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) has soared in recent times.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union