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October 7, 2022 - 10:40am
Emmanuel Macron’s new European Political Community, bringing together the EU27 plus a host of EU candidate countries and non-EU states including Britain, attracted its fair share of criticism well before its first meeting at Prague Castle yesterday. Many derided it as a mere “talking shop” without any real significance.
Such criticisms were strange because if there’s one thing Europe needs right now, it’s more talking. The platform is intended to “create a space for open dialogue,” said the Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala. From divisions on the economic crisis and Russia sanctions to various national disputes impeding the EU’s glacial expansion plans, the new platform showed promise as a place where disagreements could be talked through.
Dialogue is also sorely needed between Britain and Europe, so Liz Truss’s attendance lent the European Political Community a major credibility boost. Although some commentators feared that Britain would try to “dominate” proceedings, the summit appears to have been a success in strengthening British-European ties, with Macron heralding a “new phase” in post-Brexit relations.
And the day wasn’t without other promising developments. A meeting between Turkish President Recep Erdoğan and the leaders of warring Armenia and Azerbaijan was seen as a major breakthrough in the conflict between the latter two countries.
But the summit also revealed just how fraught European diplomacy has become. It was considered an achievement just to get the leaders together for a “family photo”. No national flags were displayed to avoid inflaming disputes over territory and sovereignty, and there was no formal written outcome. Even the seating plans forced hours of tense negotiations between diplomats.
More importantly, the summit undermined its own intentions for “open dialogue” from the get-go. Czech PM Fiala and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz bizarrely suggested that just getting all of the leaders together in one place was in itself some kind of collective rebuke to Putin. Scholz said that “everyone gathered here knows that the Russian attack on Ukraine is a brutal violation of the security and peace order,” while Fiala said “we all know in our hearts that Ukraine will win because the truth is on its side,” following a speech via video link from Volodymyr Zelensky.
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SubscribeSanctions are always imposed by the US on countries with which it is in dispute and naturally the sanctions are reciprocated. How does this affect our businesses – for example fish exports to Russia and luxury items not available there? Do these businesses receive compensation or do they just have to bear the burden? I have always wanted to know!.
My guess is McDonalds got $10 for every one sanctions caused it to lose. The North Sea trawler deck hand gets nothing but huge inflation wrecking his life.
This entire Plandemic and War are entirely to take all the wealth from the working people – asset strip them, take all their savings and plunder their pensions. That is what they get -Broke-. Huge global Corporations? They get Billions, in fact they get all the $Billions plundered off the working and savers, so you do not have to lose sleep over them.
”Many derided it as a mere “talking shop” without any real significance.Such criticisms were strange because if there’s one thing Europe needs right now, it’s more talking.”
No its not – they need to shut up. Bunch of Globalist puppets dancing on their string as Gates and the WGO pulled their covid strings – and again as Biden and Boris pulled the Neo-Con War strungs and made them dance about like drunken fools…. (naturally Biden and Boris are just the Globalist WEF sock puppets with Schwab and Gates hands up their backsides.)
Early days. It’s a good idea. The madman in the East puts all our little W European bickering in the tuppeny-hapenny place; time to grow up. Let the integrationists have the “ever closer” EU, and let the sovereigntists (who feel they are already close enough, thanks v much) have this informal forum. The choice should not be between a full-fat EU on the one hand and not talking to each other at all on the other hand. Sensible approach.
Which of them do you mean –
The US/CIA vassal or the other one?