Tag Archives: European Union

Why EU Leaders Dread A Ukraine Peace Process, by Yanis Varoufakis

Posted on December 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

A Ukraine peace would expose the fissures within the EU. From Yanis Varoufakis at zerohedge.com:

After the 2008 financial crash, the European Union only papered over the internal North-South conflict that emerged, and the war in Ukraine has produced a new East-West divide. Once peace arrives, both fault lines will only grow deeper, uglier, and impossible to ignore.

This is not a polemic about whether Russia can be trusted to respect any future peace treaty with Ukraine. Nor is it a commentary on the merits of ending the war by diplomatic means. It is, rather, a reflection on the latest European paradox: While peace in Ukraine would help stem Europe’s economic hemorrhaging, the moment any peace process begins, the European Union will be divided by an internal East-West fault line, which is bound to reawaken the EU’s earlier North-South conflict.

A credible peace process will require difficult negotiations involving the world’s great powers. Who will represent Europe at that high table? It is hard to imagine Polish, Scandinavian, and Baltic leaders ceding that role to their French or German counterparts.

In the EU’s eastern and northeastern flanks, French President Emmanuel Macron is considered a Putin appeaser ready to impose on Ukrainians a reprehensible (to them) land-for-peace agenda. Likewise, setting aside Germany’s long-term reliance on Russian energy, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s standing as a torchbearer of Europe’s collective interest has been damaged further by his €200 billion ($212 billion) fiscal defense of German industry – the type of tax-funded protective shield which Germany vetoed at the EU level.

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An election went well in Europe, and George Soros is not happy, by Andrew Benjamin

Posted on April 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

Hungarian nationalist Viktor Orban recently won his fifth election and the EU and George Soros are not happy about it. They are already exacting their revenge. From Andrew Benjamin at americanthinker.com:

The E.U. is corrupt, tyrannical, autocratic, and undemocratic.  It expresses the very characteristics of which it has accused Hungary, Poland, and its leaders.

On the take, bribed, spiteful, woke, and unjust, the E.U. has come unhinged after their plans to dominate Hungary’s people failed after the elections of March 3.

One of the key players aligned against Hungary is the billionaire oligarch George Soros, who backs a well-funded web of NGOs, media, and lobbyists.  Uncle “Gyuri” has been clear about his desire to punish Hungary using the E.U.’s sanctions mechanism: “I call on the EU to make Hungary a test case.”

Hungary’s two sins?

  1. Hungarians want Soros to harass some other people.
  2. Exercising democracy.

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European Union Unveils New Strategy to Become a Global Power, by Soeren Kern

Posted on April 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Ample skepticism about this European initiative is warranted. From Soeren Kern at gatestoneinstitute.org:

  • The goal is “strategic autonomy” — the ability for the EU to act independently of, and as a counterweight to, the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization — in matters of defense and security.
  • The key component of the Strategic Compass is the development of a so-called EU Rapid Deployment Capacity (RDC), a military force able to intervene in “non-permissive environments” anywhere in the world.
  • The RDC is to become fully operational by 2025 and commanded by an institution called the “EU Military Planning and Conduct Capability.” (The term “capability” is a politically correct substitute for “headquarters,” as in “military headquarters.”)
  • The push for Europe to achieve strategic autonomy from the United States is being spearheaded by Macron, who, as part of his reelection campaign, apparently hopes to replace former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the de facto leader of Europe.
  • The danger is that many of the pie-in-the-sky policy proposals in the Strategic Compass will divert and drain resources and finances from where they are actually needed: NATO.
  • A logical course of action would be for EU member states to honor past pledges to increase defense spending as part of their contribution to the transatlantic alliance. That, however, would fly in the face of the folie de grandeur — the delusions of grandeur — of European federalists who dream of transforming the EU into a geopolitical “great power.”

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Posted in Foreign Policy, Geopolitics, Governments, History, Military, Politics, Propaganda, War

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Poland’s Beef with the EU Shows the Dangers of Political Centralization, by Jose Niño

Posted on December 5, 2021 | Leave a comment

You can’t make once-size-fits-all laws and regulations for over twenty countries, even if they are all on the same continent. From Jose Niño at mises.org:

Across the pond, Poland and the European Union find themselves deadlocked over a question about judicial primacy. In early October, Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal sparked controversy when it ruled that EU law does not supersede national legislation.

At stake in the EU-Poland legal dispute, was Poland’s decision in 2018 to rein in its judiciary and establish a disciplinary chamber to remove judges. Before these reforms were undertaken, the Polish judiciary was largely viewed as corrupt and inefficient, possessing vestigial features of the previous Communist order, when Poland was a member of the Warsaw Pact. What initially started out as a mundane domestic reform soon transformed into an international controversy.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) took exception to Poland’s reforms and ruled that EU law takes precedence over Polish law. The ECJ’s ruling did not deter Poland, though. Back in March, Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki brought the case before the Polish Constitutional Tribunal, subsequently leading to the Polish tribunal’s controversial ruling in October. Following the October ruling, the EU commission had choice words for Poland’s superior court and reaffirmed its EU-law-über-alles stance.

Possessed by a universalist spirit, the EU ramped up the pressure on Poland by slapping it with a daily fine of €1 million euros (slightly over $1.1 million) until the Law and Justice (PiS, Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) government modifies its judicial legislation to align with EU standards.

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EU’s Beleaguered Immigration Policies Will Be the Sword Which It Falls on, by Martin Jay

Posted on November 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

As Martin Jay illustrates, the EU’s immigration policies are problematic, but debt and currency issues can’t be ruled out as the sword upon which it falls. From Jay at strategic-culture.org:

The refugee flows are nothing new. And the games that poorer, weaker countries play by using them, have also been around for a while.

The Belarus border is just the most recent in a long list of examples how Brussels cannot fight back countries who use refugees as a weapon against the EU’s failed hegemony

For many erudite commentators who know the EU well, the scenes on the Poland-Belarus border felt a bit ‘déjà vu’. Once again, the EU’s failed policies when tackling immigration flows — which in many cases are as a direct result of propping up dictators or for dabbling in geopolitics — comes right back and smacks Brussels in the face. Perhaps Belarus is using Syrian refugees as a tool to hit back at Brussels and its bellicose sanctions-based so-called foreign policy. For journalists and analysts who lead with this argument, we can assume that many will be supporters of the EU project itself and are unable to see a bigger picture.

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Poland Claws Back Sovereignty from European Union, by Soeren Kern

Posted on October 26, 2021 | Leave a comment

It wouldn’t be a surprise if the EU didn’t exist a decade from now. From Soeren Kern at gatestoneinstitute.org:

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that Polish law takes precedence over European Union law. The landmark ruling, which seeks to reassert national sovereignty over certain judicial matters, has called into question the legitimacy of the EU’s supranational legal and political order. Pictured: Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal building, in Warsaw. (Image source: Adrian Grycuk/Wikimedia Commons)

Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal has ruled that Polish law takes precedence over European Union law. The landmark ruling, which seeks to reassert national sovereignty over certain judicial matters, has called into question the legitimacy of the EU’s supranational legal and political order.

The power struggle has angered European federalists, who are seeking to turn the 27-member EU into a European superstate — a United States of Europe — and who do not take kindly to those who challenge their authority.

The EU, which Poland joined in 2004, has vowed to retaliate, including with potential financial penalties. Poland, which threw off the yoke of Soviet domination in 1989, replied that EU institutions are unlawfully overstepping their powers.

Poland is not the only country to challenge the supremacy of EU law. The United Kingdom, once the EU’s second-largest member state, officially left the bloc in 2020 to reclaim its sovereignty from the tentacles of the EU administrative state.

More recently, Germany’s Constitutional Court issued an unprecedented ruling that directly challenged the authority of the European Central Bank to purchase vast amounts of government bonds, a monetary policy known as quantitative easing. The German court ruled that the practice is illegal under German law as neither the German government nor the German parliament signed off on the purchases. The EU’s legal feud with its largest member has threatened to unravel not only Europe’s single currency, the euro, but the EU itself.

Poland says that it has no plans for a “Polexit.” Unlike Britain before its Brexit referendum in 2016, popular support for EU membership remains high. If, however, Poland were to leave the EU, it would cast doubt on the bloc’s future viability.

Poland’s dispute with the EU revolves around sweeping judicial reforms implemented by the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) since 2015. The government has argued that its changes were necessary to tackle corruption in a justice system dominated by communist-era judges, but critics, including the European Commission, the EU’s administrative arm, say the reforms have eroded the independence of Poland’s judicial system.

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Global Vaccine Passports Have Arrived Courtesy of Google, EU, by Privacy To Go

Posted on July 14, 2021 | Leave a comment

Our wise and munificent rulers are determined to give us vaccine passports, whether we want them or not. From Privacy To Go at off-guardian.org:

n June 30th, 2021, the Google Developers blog announced the launch of vaccine passports in Android through its Passes API.

Less than 24 hours later, the European Union, long mired in a sea of national standards for digital jab records, rolled out its EU-wide vaccine passport.

Two completely different vaccine passport schemes unveiled on the same day, encompassing the whole of the Western world? What are the odds!

Exceedingly low, of course. This level of coordination belies yet another blitz in the ongoing rollout of a global, technofeudal control grid. The EU has arguably been at the forefront of this rollout – its standardized digital jab certificate is little more than an aggregator for the draconian technology now operating at the Nation-State level.

Adoption of this unified standard is already approaching 100% of EU Member States. Doublethink rhetoric of restoring the Schengen Area’s “freedom of movement” abounds, even as additional barriers to travel are erected.

In this sense, Google and the US are playing catch-up. While de facto vaccine passports have been implemented sparingly in places like New York, California, and Hawaii, an ever-expanding number of States have banned the notion outright.

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EU: New Political Alliance to Fight Creation of European Superstate, by Soeren Kern

Posted on July 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

Not everyone in Europe is jumping for joy at the prospect of the Europe Union doing away with national sovereignty and the continent being run out of Brussels. From Soeren Kern at thegatestoneinstitute.org:

  • The July 2 “Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union” represents the first significant endeavor by euroskeptic parties to jointly oppose efforts by European federalists to transform the European Union into a godless multicultural superstate.
  • The document states that the European Union requires “profound reform” because, “instead of protecting Europe,” it has itself become “a source of problems, anxiety and uncertainty.” The signatories say that the EU has become a tool of “radical forces” that are determined to carry out a civilizational transformation of Europe. Their objective, they say, is to create a European superstate void of European traditions, social institutions or moral principles.
  • “We are convinced that the cooperation of European nations must be based on tradition, on respect for the culture and history of European States, on respect for the Judeo-Christian heritage of Europe and on the common values that unite our nations — and not in their destruction.” — Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union, July 2, 2021.
  • “All attempts to transform European institutions into bodies that take precedence over national constitutional institutions create chaos, undermine the sense of the treaties and call into question the fundamental role of the constitutions of EU member states. The resulting disputes over competences, in effect, settled by the brutal imposition of the will of the politically stronger entities on the weaker ones. This destroys the basis for the functioning of the European Community as a community of free nations.” — Joint Declaration on the Future of the European Union, July 2, 2021.
  • “Some EU officials are doubtful that an additional layer of bureaucracy — the conference will have a ‘Joint Presidency,’ an ‘Executive Board,’ a ‘Conference Plenary’ and a ‘Common Secretariat’ — will solve the EU’s already confusing bureaucratic ills.” — Maïa de La Baume, French journalist, Politico, March 4, 2021.
  • “The EU’s ‘Conference on the Future of Europe’ has already written its conclusions. It seeks the forced federalization of the EU against the true will of European nations and apart from the national parliaments…. We do not want a federal Europe in which all decisions are made in Brussels.” — Santiago Abascal, leader of Spain’s conservative party Vox, July 2, 2021.
Leaders of 16 political parties from across Europe have announced an unprecedented alliance to defend the sovereignty of European nation states, protect the nuclear family and preserve traditional Judeo-Christian values. It represents the first significant endeavor by euroskeptic parties to jointly oppose efforts by European federalists to transform the European Union into a godless multicultural superstate. Pictured: The headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels, Belgium. (Photo by Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty Images)

The leaders of 16 political parties from across Europe have announced an unprecedented alliance to defend the sovereignty of European nation states, protect the nuclear family and preserve traditional Judeo-Christian values.

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Who Benefitted from the Euro and Who Pays the Piper Now? by Mike “Mish” Shedlock

Posted on April 25, 2021 | Leave a comment

The European monetary system has essentially been in exercise in vendor financing, with the productive countries lending money to the less productive countries to buy their goods. What happens when the borrowers can’t pay? We’ll soon find out. From Mike “Mish” Shedlock at mishtalk.com:

Let’s take a look at the latest currency imbalances in the EU with a series of questions and answers. This discussion started from reader comments.
Euroscepticism Grows In Germany 

A noteworthy reader-led discussion just took place in response to my previous article Euroscepticism Grows In Germany as 63% Say the EU is Excessively Bureaucratic

One of my readers, PecuniaNonOlet, commented “I thought Germany was the biggest beneficiary of the EU.”

That is (or was) an accurate assessment. The response from TexasTime65 was perfect.

“They were the biggest beneficiaries. But now they are potentially the biggest losers because all the other countries owe them a lot of money and have no real way to pay any of it back unless Germany becomes a net importer of goods and services (which is politically a no-go in Germany),” replied TT.

Trade Statements by German Finance Minister “Utter Lunacy”

I have commented on trade aspects many times before.

For example please consider my September 13, 2016 article Michael Pettis Calls Surplus Trade Statements by German Finance Minister “Utter Lunacy”

At that time the six largest deficit countries owe a collective 797.3 billion euros to the four creditor countries, primarily Germany.

Target 2 Imbalances

It’s been a while since I reported on Target2 (what countries owe each other).

Spain, Italy, Greece, and the ECB now owe Germany (alone) over a trillion euros!

Tiny Luxembourg is a creditor to the tune of 267 billion euros.

The creditor total is over 1.5 trillion euros!

How can that be paid back?

It can’t. Target2 is one of the fundamental flaws of the Eurozone.

The ECB denies this and so does the pro-EU clan in general, but Target2 imbalances are a measure of capital flight.

Those imbalances can only be paid back in one of these ways: Default, forgiveness, monetary printing and handouts against Maastricht Treaty rules, or a very prolonged period in which Germany becomes a net importer of goods and services from Spain, Italy, and Greece.

Place your bets, but I rule out the last choice.

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Posted in Banking, Business, Currencies, Debt, Economics, Economy, Financial markets, Geopolitics, Governments

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The ECB’s Financial Suttee, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on March 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

European banks are a strong contender in the contest to see which institution or institutions leads the world into a humongous financial crisis. From Alasdair Macleod at goldmoney.com:

he European Commission is failing. Its response to Brexit and the pandemic, where it is now threatening emergency powers in order to secure vaccines is a latest throw of the political dice. Even before this development markets were getting the message with capital flight worsening.

The only thing that holds the Commission together is the magic money tree that is the ECB.

Following the recent change in the Commission’s leadership, the political dysfunction in Brussels is a new challenge for the ECB. It is already juggling with overindebted member states, a global rise in bond yields, a rotten settlement system and commercial banks both over-leveraged and with mounting pandemic-related bad debts.

It really is a horror show in the making.

Introduction

This week, the ECB took the next step towards its inevitable destruction of itself, its system and its currency. This ending, a sort of financial suttee where it joins the failing EU Commission on it funeral pyre, is plainly inevitable, and will increasingly be seen to be so.

On 3 March, Bloomberg reported “European Central Bank policy makers are downplaying concerns over rising bond yields, suggesting they can manage the risk to the euro-area economy with verbal interventions including a pledge to accelerate bond-buying if needed.”

Then last week, the story changed: the ECB vowed that: “Based on a joint assessment of financing conditions and the inflation outlook, the Governing Council expects purchases under the PEPP over the next quarter to be conducted at a significantly higher pace than during the first months of this year”.[i]

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