Category: European Union
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Sunday, May 17, 2015
UK Election Result Strikes Another Blow Against EU / Politics / European Union
By: MISES
Ryan W. McMaken writes: With the victory of the Conservatives in last week’s British election, the future of both the European Union and the United Kingdom looks more doubtful. Newly re-elected Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, in order to please anti-EU constituents who were essential to his re-election, promised a referendum on EU membership by 2017, although it could come sooner than that.
At the same time, the promised referendum is again inflaming secessionist sentiment among Scottish nationalists and separatists who wish to remain a part of the EU.
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Tuesday, May 05, 2015
How the UK Election Represents the State of Europe / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
By George Friedman: The United Kingdom is going to the polls on Thursday. Elections electrify the countries in which they are held, but in most cases they make little difference. In this case, the election is a bit more important. Whether Labour or the Tories win makes some difference, but not all that much. What makes this election significant is that in Scotland, 45 percent of the public voted recently to leave the United Kingdom. This has been dismissed as an oddity by all well-grounded observers. However, for unsophisticated viewers like myself, the fact that 45 percent of Scotland was prepared to secede was an extraordinary event.
Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Greek Crisis and Southern Europe Immigrant situation / Politics / European Union
By: Submissions
luciano malocco writes: Europe is facing a crisis. Well actually Europe is facing two and both of them are of their own making and almost as serious as each other. The news that nearly 1000 illegals from Libya died over the weekend making the treacherous journey from North Africa to the Italian coastline should shock nobody. This is the result of a disastrous policy by the West namely the US to destabilise not only Libya but also Tunisia, Egypt and previously Iraq. It was called the Arab Spring back in 2011 when the region which was filled with hope for better times to come and a fairer way of life, while Western commentators spoke of bringing democracy to the people of these countries. It was sold to the Western population as the Arab people standing up to their cruel authoritarian rulers to demand something that we here in the West take for granted, Democracy.
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Monday, March 09, 2015
EU Warmongers Juncker Requests Creation of European Army / Politics / European Union
By: Mike_Shedlock
Warmongers United
European discussion of Russia has gone from dumb to dumber.
Of course, the highly regarded "Warmongers United Think Tank" (WUTT) would dispute that. "Warmongers United" believes more armies, more missiles and more fighting are precisely the right thing to do.
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Sunday, March 08, 2015
Europe, The Morally Bankrupt Union / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The European Union is busy accomplishing something truly extraordinary: it is fast becoming such a spectacular failure that people don’t even recognize it as one. People have no idea, they just think: this can’t possibly be true, and they continue with their day. They should think again. Because the Grand European Failure is bound to lead to real life consequences soon, and they’ll be devastating. The union that was supposed to put an end to all fighting across the continent, is about to be the fuse that sets off a range of battles.
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
The European Union, Nationalism and the Crisis of Europe / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
Last week, I wrote about the crisis of Islamic radicalism and the problem of European nationalism. This week's events give me the opportunity to address the question of European nationalism again, this time from the standpoint of the European Union and the European Central Bank, using a term that only an economist could invent: "quantitative easing."
European media has been flooded for the past week with leaks about the European Central Bank's forthcoming plan to stimulate the faltering European economy by implementing quantitative easing. First carried by Der Spiegel and then picked up by other media, the story has not been denied by anyone at the bank nor any senior European official. We can therefore call this an official leak, because it lets everyone know what is coming before an official announcement is made later in the week.
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
Paris - Setting Aside Emotion and Seeking Reason, A War Between Two Worlds / Politics / European Union
By: John_Mauldin
The terrorist attacks in Paris have fixated the world’s attention on the contrast between competing worldviews and what constitutes acceptable behavior in modern society. What are the principles by which society should be organized and run? Who gets to set those rules, and to what standards should others who do not believe in them be held?
While at their core these are philosophical questions, the way we answer those questions can have profound economic consequences. They are especially important to understand in the context of Europe. For today’s Outside the Box reading, I think we should look at two essays by old friends to OTB, Charles Gave and George Friedman.
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Thursday, January 15, 2015
Europe Rediscovers Nationalism / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
In his latest novel, French writer Michel Houellebecq presents a controversial situation: The year is 2022, and France has become an Islamicized country where universities have to teach the Koran, women have to wear the veil and polygamy is legal. The book, which created a stir in France, went on sale Jan. 7. That day, a group of terrorists killed 12 people at the headquarters of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Also on Jan. 7, German Chancellor Angela Merkel met British Prime Minister David Cameron in London. Although the formal reason for the meeting was to discuss the upcoming G-7 summit, the two leaders also discussed Cameron's proposals to limit migration in Europe. Finally, a much less publicized event took place in Germany that day: A group of politicians from the Euroskeptic Alternative for Germany party met with members of Pegida, the anti-Islam protest group that has staged large protests in Dresden and minor protests in other German cities.
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Tuesday, December 09, 2014
Seeking the Future of Europe in the Ancient Hanseatic League / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
Mark Fleming-Williams writes: A bargain, forged in the fires of 2012's economic emergency, has defined the European Union for the past two years. It was an agreement made between two sides that can be defined in several terms — the center and the periphery, the north and the south, the producers and the consumers — but essentially one side, led by Germany, provided finance, while the other, fronted by Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece, promised change. In order to gauge this arrangement's chances of ultimately succeeding, it is important to understand what Germany was hoping to achieve with its conditional financing. The answer to that question lies in Germany's own history.
Thursday, December 04, 2014
Europe: When the Unthinkable Becomes Possible / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
Europe's economic crisis is slowly but steadily eroding the political systems of many countries on the Continent. New actors are emerging and threatening the supremacy of the traditional players. Alliances and events that seemed impossible only a few years ago are now being openly discussed across Europe. On Dec. 3, for example, Sweden announced it would hold early elections, partially because of political moves from the far right. In Spain, the ruling center-right party is openly discussing the possibility of entering an alliance with its traditional center-left rivals to prevent a protest party from taking over. Key members of the European Union, including Sweden, Spain, the United Kingdom and possibly Greece, will hold elections in 2015. In most cases, these countries will see outcomes nobody would have thought possible in 2008.
Thursday, November 06, 2014
Europe is Overcrowded with People and Nations / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
Adriano Bosoni writes: Europe is overcrowded with people and with nations. Six decades ago, the need to suppress the dangerous forces of nationalism led to the unprecedented political, economic and social experiment now known as the European Union. The hundreds of thousands of EU citizens working across the Continent and the lack of border controls between member states show that the experiment has been successful in many ways. However, rising nationalism, pervasively high unemployment and a growing sense of frustration with governing elites also highlight the serious limitations of the European project. Over the past 12 months, I have traveled extensively throughout Europe, observing firsthand how the global economic crisis is reawakening dormant trends along the Continent's traditional fault lines.
Saturday, October 25, 2014
Europe Union, or The 28 Stooges / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
Europe is fast turning into a freak comedy show. Very fast. Or maybe we should say it’s always been one, and it’s just that the Larry, Curly and Moe moves are only now coming out in droves. Or maybe, what do I know, we’re just starting to understand how much talent for farce and slapstick the boys from Brussels have always had.
Friday, September 19, 2014
The Geopolitical Situation of Europe / Politics / European Union
By: Submissions
Claudio Grass writes: Prof. Dr. Albert A. Stahel, a renowned political economist and honorary professor of strategic studies at the University of Zurich, is writing about the actual conflict herds in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Claudio Grass of Global Gold in Switzerland (www.globalgold.ch) asked him to share his view on the role of regional powers and the interests at stake for Russia and the United States, as well as the potential implications the actions of those stakeholders will have on Europe over the coming years.
Monday, September 08, 2014
Please Scotland, Blow Up The European Union / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
You know they’re desperate when they play the royal card and announce a new baby on the way. Britain, and especially Downing Street 10, got a huge scare last week when a poll showed the Scottish independence movement is now favorite to win the September 18 referendum. It’s not entirely clear, but I don’t think Cameron and his crew would be able to stay on if Scotland secedes from the UK.
Monday, September 01, 2014
The Ultimate Demise Of The Euro Union / Economics / European Union
By: I_M_Vronsky
The European Union (EU) was created by the Maastricht Treaty on November 1st 1993. It is a political and economic union between European countries which makes its own policies concerning the members’ economies, societies, laws and to some extent security. To some, the EU is an overblown bureaucracy which drains money…and compromises the power of sovereign states. For others, the EU is the best way to meet challenges smaller nations might struggle with – such as economic growth or negotiations with larger nations – and worth surrendering some sovereignty to achieve. Despite many years of integration, opposition remains strong.
Sunday, August 31, 2014
Small Man Europe Is Now In “Effective State Of War” With Russia / Politics / European Union
By: Andrew_McKillop
According to Some Interested Parties
These are easy to identify. Among them we can note David Cameron's UK, Hollande's France, Tusk's Poland and the president of formerly Soviet Lithuania, Dalia Grybauskaite who has said, August 30, that Moscow was “effectively in a state of war against Europe”. All of these EU28 leaders who at present do not include Angela Merkel amongst them, are not only calling for more sanctions against Russia, but in some cases also for larger supplies of military aid to the Kiev government.
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
European Union Fools Paradise / Politics / European Union
By: Pravda
Smoke of wood stoves rises over cities of Greece, Spain suffers from youth unemployment, Germany raises retirement age to 76 years, whereas in the heart of London, people gather to protest against austerity measures. Who benefits from multiplying the poor in Europe? Has the tale of good European life been destroyed?
"In winter you can heat your house with gasoline-powered radiators, - a real estate agent in Cyprus told Pravda.Ru. - But we, for example, have a big house, and gasoline is expensive. So we installed a wood-burning oven, a pot-belly stove."
Tuesday, June 03, 2014
Geopolitical Journey, European Borderlands Part 2 / Politics / European Union
By: STRATFOR
George Friedman writes: A borderland is a region where history is constant: Everything is in flux. The countries we are visiting on this trip (Turkey, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine and Poland) occupy the borderland between Islam, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity. Roman Catholic Hapsburg Austria struggled with the Islamic Ottoman Empire for centuries, with the Ottomans extending northwest until a climactic battle in Vienna in 1683. Beginning in the 18th century, Orthodox Russia expanded from the east, through Belarus and Ukraine. For more than two centuries, the belt of countries stretching from the Baltic to the Black seas was the borderland over which three empires fought.
Friday, May 30, 2014
EU Elections Disenfranchised Protest Vote at Creeping Loss of Freedom / Politics / European Union
By: Ty_Andros
This past week was action packed and the smoke signals have come at us in a fast and furious manner. The biggest headline came from the EU parliamentary elections where a good portion of the disenfranchised sent an unambiguous message of protest of central governments and their socialist masters. The people are WAKING UP to the creeping loss of freedom and destruction of the economic future by Brussels and their handmaidens in capitols throughout the Eurozone. Let's take a look at the growing march against CREEPING socialism and totalitarianism on the continent:
Monday, May 26, 2014
The Absurd Bizarro That is Europe / Politics / European Union
By: Raul_I_Meijer
The headlines speak of an earthquake. But just about absolutely everyone who’s been shaken manages to declare victory, including incumbents who have lost, which is the majority of them, in some cases painfully. And European stocks are rising too, in some cases to all time highs. It all adds up to a perfect illustration of the absurd bizarro Europe has become.