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European Union Tag

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 25, 2016 12 Comments
Viktor Orban, Hungary’s Prime Minister, threw another spanner in the EU’s push to settle migrants across the member states. Prime Minister Orban announced to hold a referendum on whether Hungary should be forced to take in more migrants, dealing another blow to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s plans to ease pressure off German in the wake of unchecked mass migration. In September 2015, Prime Minister Orban became the first European leader to seriously challenge Brussel’s open border policy when he ordered to build a fence along Hungary’s border with Serbia to stop the migrant influx. Many European leaders and mainstream media slammed Hungary for taking--what they called-- “egoist” measures. At that time, Martin Schulz, German politician and President of the EU Parliament, called the step taken by Hungarian government “irrational” and driven by “national egoism.” Since then other EU members such as Austria, Macedonian and Slovenian have started working on their border fences.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 23, 2016 4 Comments
As Britain heads for the June referendum, the question of country's membership in the European Union is pitting the political establishment and the mainstream media against a rising tide of public sentiment against the Brussels, deepened by recent Eurozone debt crisis and EU’s inability to regulate mass migration. The present policy paralysis within the EU on migrant crisis has once again revealed the vulnerabilities of the European project -- geared towards expansionism and bureaucratic centralization. Conservative EU parliamentarian and prominent ‘Eurosceptic’, Daniel Hannan said, “the alternative to remaining in a structurally unsafe building is, of course, walking out.” The call for referendum, announced last week, has also exposed the rifts within Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative Party, with six cabinet ministers and other leading conservatives coming out in support of Britain’s exit from the European Union, Brexit. However, the biggest blow to Prime Minister Cameron’s pro-EU camp came from London Mayor Boris Johnson’s surprise announcement to back the Brexit campaign.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on February 20, 2016 7 Comments
In November, Vijeta wrote about David Cameron's warning to the EU: reform or risk "Brexit" (British exit from EU).  Cameron's demands were as follows:
The New York Times reports: After days of conflicting signals about his attitude toward the European Union, Prime Minister David Cameron on Tuesday formally outlined his approach to negotiations with other member countries ahead of a crucial referendum that will determine whether Britain stays in the 28-nation bloc. His demands included a safeguard to prevent countries that use the euro from discriminating economically against Britain, which has retained the pound; a stronger role for national parliaments in European Union decision-making; and an end to Britain’s legal commitment, as a signatory to European Union treaties, to pursue “ever closer union,” which conservatives see as a threat to national sovereignty.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 11, 2016 15 Comments
Amid a massive refugee crisis, the diplomatic relations between Germany and Poland have reached a post-WWII low. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s EU-backed proposal to distribute large number of newly arriving Arab and North African migrants across Europe has been met with stiff resistance from the recently elected Polish government. The rhetoric coming from Germany has turned especially hostile in recent months. Leading members of Merkel’s government have talked about taking “punitive measures” against Poland and placing the country “under supervision.” Germany’s Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has also called for economic sanctions against EU-members who refure to “shoulder the burden” and accept their “fair share” of migrants.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on February 02, 2016 5 Comments
According to the head of Iran’s state-run oil company NPC, two leading German companies are set to invest a total of €12 billion in Tehran’s petroleum and gas sector. The latest agreement could make Germany the first big foreign investor in Iranian oil sector, after the nuclear deal was signed seven months ago. Once the deal is finalized, these German firms will start setting up petrochemical plants in Assaluyeh in southern Iran. Mullahs in Tehran plan to get 6 unfinished petrochemical projects off the ground, which could double Iran’s annual oil revenue. Germany has been the biggest European beneficiary of the Iranian Nuclear Deal. As German companies hoping to get up to €6 billion in back payments from Tehran, once country’s banking assets are unfrozen as part of the Obama-backed deal.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on January 30, 2016 11 Comments
Following reports of increasing sexual violence and general law breaking throughout Europe, including particularly in Germany, EU leaders double-down on their delusional thinking.  Apparently, they are insisting that the increased crime and sexual assaults are not linked to the Middle Eastern refugee influx. The Telegraph reports:
The sex attacks that took place in Cologne on New Year’s Eve were simply a “matter of public order” and had nothing to do with the refugee crisis, Jean-Claude Juncker’s inner circle believe. The European Commission will be the "voice of reason" and tell the public that there is no link between the migration crisis affecting the continent and attacks on women in Germany, internal minutes disclose, amid growing concerns at a “xenophobic” backlash.
Apparently, public safety is not high on their list of priorities; instead, they are focused on trying to manage and manipulate the public's perceptions.  Indeed, according to The Daily Mail, the EU  leaders want to "unconditionally reject" the link between the Cologne sexual assaults and the migrant crisis.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 04, 2016 8 Comments
The strains are showing throughout Europe from the current wave of migration from Muslim lands. The latest to bow to reality are Sweden and Denmark, which just implemented border controls. The Christian Science Monitor reports:
Denmark and Sweden tightened their borders on Monday in efforts to stem the flow of migrants entering Scandinavia from Germany. Just hours after Swedish rules went into effect requiring train passengers traveling from Denmark to show ID, the Danish government announced it had beefed up border controls with Germany as of noon Monday (1100 GMT, 6 a.m. EST). "We are introducing temporary border controls, but in a balanced way," Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen told reporters in Copenhagen, adding there would be no problem for "ordinary" Danes and Germans to cross the border.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 14, 2015 4 Comments
There was a sense of panic on the political stage in France as two mainstream parties Conservatives and Socialists scrambled to prevent French regional government from falling into the hands of Front National in the second round of the voting. Last week, Front National under the leadership of Marine Le Pen had emerged as the leading political party ahead of President François Hollande’s Socialists and former French President Sarkozy’s conservative Les Républicains in the first round of the French Regional Elections. Before the second round of polling, the Socialists pulled out their candidates in key constituencies in a bid to thwart Front National. The tactical voting worked and Socialists voters opted for Sarkozy’s Les Républicains to shut out Front National from the regional government, preventing a historic win for the Right-Wing party. British Newspaper The Telegraph reports:
The far-Right Front National was thwarted in its bid to clinch a historical electoral victory in France on Sunday after failing to secure power in any of the country’s 13 regions.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 10, 2015 20 Comments
TIME magazine named German Chancellor Angela Merkel as its Person of the Year. The New York-based magazine praised “her resilience and leadership when faced with the Syrian refugee crisis and turmoil in the European Union over its currency this year.” Angela Merkel is the first women to lead Germany and last month completed uninterrupted 10 years at the helm of Europe’s largest economy. Merkel has often been referred to as the most powerful woman in the world. In fact TIME's celebratory issue’s cover story calls her “the Chancellor of the Free World.” Since President Obama has abandoned the leadership of the Free World as a matter of principle, the top job was up for grabs anyway. The problem is only the direction Merkel is steering the Western World in face of the historic migrant crisis. To give credit where it’s due, the liberal editors at TIME Magazine had quite a tough time picking this year’s winner. German Chancellor was pitted against “Black Lives Matter” activists, Islamic State’s “Caliph” Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, celebrity transgender Caitlyn Jenner, and Iran’s dictator Hassan Rouhani. Republican hopeful Donald Trump was upset over the fact that judges at TIME didn’t chose him for this year’s award, and as Trump (rightly) put it, “picked a person who is ruining Germany.”

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 07, 2015 12 Comments
The popular rebellion against Europe’s migration policy has reached the European heartland, with a day that saw one of the worst defeats for the France’s traditional Socialist Party and a historic win for the far-right Front National. The anti-migration and anti-EU party Front National (FN), with Marine Le Pen at the helm, secured 28 percent of the votes and took lead in 6 out of 13 regions that went to polls. The is a huge gain for the far-right party compared to only 11 percent it got in the last regional elections in 2010. Front National has never held the leadership of a French region before in party's more than 40 years of existence. In French regional election being held from December 6-13, 2015, 13 Regional Presidencies within mainland France and 5 Presidencies overseas (out of total 27) are up for grabs. The regions in France hold limited powers, as the country in centrally governed from Paris since the Napoleonic times, but the provincial governments get to manage big regional budgets.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on December 03, 2015 4 Comments
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban claims that Germany has struck a secret deal with Turkey to resettle 500,000 additional refugees in Europe. The revelations came just days after the EU and Turkey reached an agreement to curb the inflow of migrants. According to Prime Minister Orban, the 'secret pact', which is not part of the deal reached over the weekend, would be announced by Germany in the coming days. European leaders denied any secret deal with Ankara. However, an European Commission officials, quoted by Bloomberg, confirmed EU's intentions to bring in migrants to Europe in a "managed, open, and voluntarily process.” London-based newspaper The Independent reports:
Germany has struck a secret pact with Turkey for the European Union to take in as many as half a million Syrians currently living in Turkish refugee camps, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed. While EU officials were vociferously denying the suggestions of a secret deal with Ankara, they did not dispute that efforts are being made to manage the resettlement of Syrians in Europe more efficiently. Speaking in Budapest, Mr Orban said an EU agreement on the transfer of refugees from Turkey would be announced in Berlin on 3 December or the day after. “A nasty surprise lies in wait for Europe,” he said.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 26, 2015 13 Comments
In a show of defiance against the European Union, Poland's newly-elected conservative Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has broken with the practice of her liberal predecessors and decided to remove the EU flag from her weekly news conference. Last month, Prime Minister Szydlo's conservative Law and Justice Party won a landslide victory on an anti-immigration and Eurosceptic platform. The new Polish government is opposed to the EU-backed German proposal to distribute migrants across EU member states. Poland is only willing to accept displaced Christians from the Middle East.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 19, 2015 11 Comments
As German Chancellor Angela Merkel doubles down on her open-border policy just days after the deadly Paris terror attacks by reiterating her government’s willingness to absorb more migrants, the political landscape in changing rapidly before her eyes. The anti-immigration party AfD that was just above 3 percent in opinion polls as recently as August, is now polling above 10 percent. Established in 2013 as a grassroots reaction to the EU’s monetary policy, the party has skyrocketed to the country's third largest political force. AfD (Alternative for Germany) has aligned itself with the anti-Islamisation movement ‘Pegida’, drawing impressive crowds to its rallies, especially in the eastern part of the country.

Posted by Sarah Rumpf on November 17, 2015 39 Comments
A growing list of mostly Republican Governors sent open letters to the federal government on Monday, announcing that because of the terrorist attacks in Paris, France, their states would not accept refugees from Syria, and urging the federal government to cease any efforts to bring Syrian refugees to the United States unless better security procedures could be implemented. The most updated list, according to CNN, of Governors sending these letters include those representing Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin, and the lone Democrat on the list thus far, New Hampshire. The main cause for concern was the fact that at least one of the terrorists involved in the attack on Paris had entered the country by posing as a Syrian refugee, and that a terrorist could take similar advantage of the refugee crisis to enter America. As Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) noted in his letter, "American humanitarian compassion could be exploited to expose Americans to similar deadly danger."

FBI Director admits feds can't properly vet the Syrian refugees

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 11, 2015 5 Comments
British Prime Minister David Cameron has laid out new conditions for his country to remain in the European Union. Ahead of the historic EU referendum scheduled to take place in 2017, Prime Minister is trying to renegotiate UK's relationship with EU. If the bid fails, it may eventually lead to British exit from the European Union or Brexit. European Commission reacted promptly to British Prime Minister's new demands calling some of them "highly problematic." The New York Times reports:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on November 09, 2015 9 Comments
While European leaders and the mainstream media continue to defend open border policies, millions of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa have embarked on an unstoppable march towards Europe. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been the leading proponent of Europe’s policy of unrestricted migrant intake, and she is firmly backed by the EU’s powerful bureaucracy. Before the year ends, Germany alone is expected to take in as many as 1.5 million migrants. Despite repeated calls by the Islamic State to target European countries on their own home soil, EU leaders continue to brush aside the growing fear of terrorism and Islamic radicalisation in Europe. Faced with opposition from a few Eastern European member states, the EU has decided to double down on its open border policy. Italy's Interior Minister Angelino Alfano has joined the chorus, assuring Italians that there is no need to worry about Islamic terrorists posing as migrants; but the latest high-profile arrest in Italy of a known ISIS operative once again shows how out of touch European politicians really are with the grim realities of mass migration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Posted by Amy Miller on November 02, 2015 12 Comments
Back in June, the anti-Democratic Erdogan regime fielded a major blow when Turkish voters, led by the Kurds, denied the Justice and Development Party (or A.K.P.) a parliamentary majority. It was a victory for not only the Kurds, but for liberal and/or secular Turks who had spent years protesting the power creep advocated by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the A.K.P., as well as the administration's crackdown against dissidents. After that election, we wondered, could this be the beginning of the end of Erdogan's hold on power? It would have been a long time coming for the man who was behind the 2010 Gaza "Flotilla," and who turned to paranoid Jew-baiting to whip his base into an anti-Israel frenzy. Unfortunately, that victory was short lived; yesterday, Erdogan and the Islamist-rooted A.K.P. fielded enough votes to return the Turkish government to single-party rule and continue their push to drastically alter the Turkish constitution to be more receptive to executive-centered rule. From the New York Times:
“There is a president with de facto power in the country, not a symbolic one,” Mr. Erdogan told the crowd in his hometown, the Black Sea city of Rize. “The president should conduct his duties for the nation directly, but within his authority. Whether one accepts it or not, Turkey’s administrative system has changed. Now, what should be done is update this de facto situation in the legal framework of the Constitution.”
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