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European Union Tag

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 28, 2016 4 Comments
Austria is also in the midst of a presidential election and the subject of the migrant crisis is playing a significant role. The nation's conservative party is doing very well. BBC News reports:
Austria election: Far-right tops first round of presidential vote Austria's far-right Freedom Party candidate has come top in the first round of presidential elections, preliminary results show. Norbert Hofer has about 36% of the votes for the mostly ceremonial role - not enough to avoid a run-off in May. He is likely to face Alexander Van der Bellen, an independent contender backed by the Greens, who is polling 20%. For the first time since World War Two, the candidates from Austria's two main parties did not make it to the run-off.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 11, 2016 2 Comments
Last week, Kemberlee covered the Panama Papers scandal that is rocking much of the world, and there certainly has been a lot of buzz about the fact that few Americans, maybe only one, appear to have taken part in the tax evasion scheme run out of Panama.  In the wake of the revelations, Iceland's Prime Minister has resigned, and there are calls for David Cameron to do the same. The Guardian reports:
After a torrid week, which ended with calls from MPs for his resignation, Cameron aimed to move the focus to his party’s record as he launched the Conservative campaign for next month’s local elections. . . . . The prime minister was accused of misleading the public after he issued several statements before finally admitting he had benefited from his late father’s offshore investment fund Blairmore. The details of the fund were contained in documents leaked from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 03, 2016 7 Comments
In the wake of the EU deal to return refugees to Turkey en masse, Greece is preparing for further violence and protests. The Guardian reports:
The Greek government is bracing itself for violence ahead of the European Union implementing a landmark deal that, from Monday, will see Syrian refugees and migrants being deported back to Turkey en masse. Rioting and rebellion by thousands of entrapped refugees across Greece has triggered mounting fears in Athens over the practicality of enforcing an agreement already marred by growing concerns over its legality. Islands have become flashpoints, with as many as 800 people breaking out of a detention centre on Chios on Friday.
The Greek government is expecting more violent protests and riots as the implementation begins tomorrow.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 31, 2016 6 Comments
British intelligence agency MI5 is reportedly tracking up to 25 ISIS terror plots threatening to bring Brussels-style devastation on to British streets. Security forces have increased surveillance on as many as 50 Islamists believed to be planning eminent terror attacks in the country. Despite ramped up counter-terrorism measures, senior security officials fear that there might be other undetected sleeper cells in the country capable of carrying out terror attacks without prior warning. In a related development, British government has raised concerns over a potential attack on country's nuclear power plants. Officials warned that ISIS terrorists operating on British soil could try to get hold of nuclear material or carry out cyber-attacks on nuclear reactors.

Posted by Miriam Elman on March 10, 2016 7 Comments
Most people around the world firmly hold to the view that Israel’s residential housing communities built in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank are “illegal”. For years, this fictitious claim has fed a wild campaign of incitement and ‘lawfare’ against Israel, based on the myth that Jews have no legal right to live or make their homes on Palestinian-claimed lands in the West Bank. But the truth is that Israel isn’t an unlawful occupying power—certainly not according to any binding international laws. Now, Northwestern University Professor of Law Eugene Kontorovich, a leading expert in the fields of constitutional law, international law, and the intersection of law and economics, is on a speaking tour of universities and colleges to explain why. Eugene Kontorovich, headshot Below I summarize the legal case for Israel’s West Bank settlements according to Kontorovich. A 50 minute video of his remarks is also embedded.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 03, 2016 9 Comments
In the midst of the political circus, I missed this important testimony by the U.S.Commander of NATO about how ISIS has thoroughly infiltrated refugees, and how Russia is using the refugee crisis to undermine Europe. The Guardian reports:
Refugees from the Middle East and north Africa are “masking the movement” of terrorists and criminals, Nato’s top commander told Congress on Tuesday, despite the protests of human rights groups who say that refugees overwhelmingly have no ulterior motive but escape. In testimony to the Senate armed services committee, US general Philip Breedlove said that the Islamic State terror group is “spreading like a cancer” among refugees. The group’s members are “taking advantage of paths of least resistance, threatening European nations and our own”, he added. Breedlove also blamed Russia’s bombing campaign in Syria, in support of autocratic leader Bashar al-Assad, for having “wildly exacerbated the problem”.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 03, 2016 2 Comments
Amid renewed tensions between Iran and the Sunni Arab States, the six member Gulf Cooperation Council has declared Iranian-backed Hezbollah a terrorist organisation. Since 1980s, Iran has been exercising control over Lebanon through its proxy Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist military outfit. Tehran-funded Hezbollah does not only controls Lebanon but also carries out terrorist operations on behalf of its Iranian masters across the globe. Thousands of Hezbollah fighters are currently fighting alongside the Iranian Revolutionary Guard on behalf of Assad Regime in the Syrian civil war. The power vacuum created by President Obama’s hasty retreat from the Middle East has been rapidly filled by Iran and its proxies. Iranian expansion has now created an unbroken corridor of control extending from the Gulf of Persia to the Mediterranean coast of Lebanon. Flushed with fresh cash, thanks to Obama-Kerry Nuclear Deal that unlocked $100 billion in frozen funds, Iranian Regime is now capable of bankrolling its proxies throughout the Arab World.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 01, 2016 7 Comments
According to recent news reports, the Islamic State (Isis) in Iraq and Syria seems to have intensified its efforts to build a “dirty” bomb. The reports coming from Iraq indicate that the terrorist group might already be in the possession of required radioactive material. The material was reportedly stolen from an oil facility in southern Iraq and was part a monitoring system used to detect structural flaws in oil and gas pipelines. Reuters news agency writes:
Iraq is searching for "highly dangerous" radioactive material whose theft last year has raised fears among Iraqi officials that it could be used as a weapon if acquired by Islamic State. (...) The [UN nuclear watchdog] IAEA said the material is classed as a Category 2 radioactive source, meaning that if not managed properly it could cause permanent injury to a person in close proximity to it for minutes or hours, and could be fatal to someone exposed for a period of hours to days.
Radioactive material is often part of diagnostic tools used in medical treatments and industrial monitoring around the world. The same material however can be used by terrorists to make a “dirty” bomb capable of contaminating several city blocks, causing wide-scale fatal radiation sickness and financial losses worth billions.

Posted by Jonathan Levin on February 28, 2016 3 Comments
Apparently, some Brits, too, are fed up with the anti-Semitism permeating the halls of power in England. Last week, I wrote about recent instances of anti-Semitism on Britain's campuses and how it reflects attitudes among the political elite.  I didn't even mention Respect Party leader George Galloway because he is no longer a member of Parliament.  Galloway was MP from Bradford West from 2012-2015 until losing to the Labor candidate last year. But Galloway is back in the news.  He has joined with Nigel Farage and the UK Independence Party ("UKIP") in championing the upcoming referendum to withdraw from the European Union.  Shortened to "Brexit," the vote is set for June 23. Prof. Jacobson discussed Galloway's anti-Israel derangement last May.  He refuses even to speak with an Israeli: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ad-Mk4R7iQ

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.”
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