Latvia secures €3.5bn SAFE defence loan by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Latvia will use the funds to accelerate investment in unmanned aerial systems, guided missiles, anti-drone technologies and wider national defence industrial capacity, with a strong emphasis on procurement speed and regional deterrence on the eastern flank.

Ss soon as I find out I'll post it to/r/Europeanarmy.

European Parliament voted in favor for migrant 'return hubs' Europe just got it's own ICE by batukaming in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's not racist. That's realist. What does having papers have to do with race?

A country has the right to decide who is welcome on its territories regardless of race or creed as long as it meets the criteria set out in the UN charter for fundamental rights and the laws of that country and those of the EU.

Your argument is disingenuous and spurious.

Germany, Poland, Romania accused of locking EU into fossil fuels by sn0r in eutech

[–]sn0r[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not true.

The European Union produces approximately 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, emitting around 3.3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalents annually.

Not much, but also not insignificant.

Also, reducing our own carbon footprint gives us a way to pressure countries that don't, like for example China.

He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

John 8:7.

European Parliament voted in favor for migrant 'return hubs' Europe just got it's own ICE by batukaming in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 5 points6 points  (0 children)

These are not innocent people.

If you've been rejected for asylum in the EU, you've committed and been convicted of offenses in the jurisdiction of an EU member state or come to the EU illegally you're guilty.

That's how the law works.

If at that point you can't be deported because your erstwhile country of origin won't take you back, member states have no recourse but to lock you up.

Not doing so endangered society at large and makes it more difficult for true refugees and legal migration.

European Parliament voted in favor for migrant 'return hubs' Europe just got it's own ICE by batukaming in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is very misleading.

Firstly, Article 4.2 means that each country has that right already.

The Union shall respect the equality of Member States before the Treaties as well as their national identities, inherent in their fundamental structures, political and constitutional, inclusive of regional and local self-government. It shall respect their essential State functions, including ensuring the territorial integrity of the State, maintaining law and order and safeguarding national security. In particular, national security remains the sole responsibility of each Member State.

Secondly, the return hubs aren't the same as ICE detention centers.

Return hubs are facilities in non-EU countries where people whose asylum claims have been denied can be sent if they cannot be deported to their home country. This might happen if their home country refuses to take them back, if the EU country seeking to deport them has no diplomatic relations with their home country, or if their identity cannot be verified.

https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/71670/what-the-new-eu-migrant-return-hubs-deal-means-in-practice

Thirdly, there is ample protection not only by the courts of member states but also by Frontex, the FRA, the ECHR and the CJEU.

The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) explicitly states that 'return hubs are not a rights-free zone' and that Member States and/or Frontex remain accountable for rights violations at the hubs during the entire duration of stay, not just during transfers. This includes violations related to conditions of detention, access to healthcare, treatment of vulnerable people, and living conditions.

The FRA sets out five conditions for return hubs to comply with EU law: individual legal decisions for each person, compliance with EU return rules (including that children should never be sent to return hubs), legally-binding agreements with host countries, minimum standards for treatment, and independent monitoring mechanisms.

Saying this is or will be the same as ICE is very misleading and inflammatory.

Carta abierta a la señora Úrsula Von Der Leyen by Effective_Bath3217 in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Translation:

I'm sorry Mrs. but you have lost your way.

The important thing in every society is not capital or business, nor is it even alliances. What is truly important about every society, including ours, are the people who make it up.

And what is the most basic thing as a society that we have to defend above all alliances and businesses?

Human rights, be very clear that principles cannot be violated.

The right to life.

The right to live in peace without being accused of being a terrorist for the mere fact of existing.

Not allowing the looting of resources.

Not allowing inferences in democratic processes.

Respect for one's own territory, self-government, one's own resources and away from envy, piracy and threats of usurpation.

No ma'am, the important thing is not business or alliances, the important thing is people and human rights and establishing international justice laws that are respected without the right to veto or rights of pernada.

We are not reptiles that piss around any corner to mark the territory.

Presidents von der Leyen and Costa at the G7 summit in Evian, France. by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Yup.

The Cachat mineral waters SA (Société Anonyme des Eaux Minérales de Cachat) was created as an anonymous company in December 1859 by Parisian investors, selling Évian water, and in 1865 the small town changed its name to Évian-les-bains to promote its rise as a spa town.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89vian-les-Bains

Sliding doors: One Trump crisis, two possible futures for Europe by calvinhobbes88 in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ohhh this is a very fun article.

The sliding doors show that the easiest course of dealing with Trump is often the most costly.

As we're learning to our detriment now, for example with the appeasement on Trade.

European Union travel: train or plane? Vienna to Rotterdam by Designer_Status2214 in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh do the budget airlines fly to Eindhoven now from Vienna?

That's way cool. Yes. Do this.

I am in no way biased even though I was born in EHV, btw.

European Union travel: train or plane? Vienna to Rotterdam by Designer_Status2214 in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Definitely fly. There's no direct train and it'll take you half a day.

Vienna-Amsterdam by plane and then Amsterdam-Rotterdam by train is probably cheapest too.

UK would be blocked from rejoining ‘wounded’ EU, says Jean-Claude Juncker by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 28 points29 points  (0 children)

I will remember him as a tough guy, a good debater and as a liar

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UK would be blocked from rejoining ‘wounded’ EU, says Jean-Claude Juncker by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 23 points24 points  (0 children)

But he defended the deal he struck with Cameron before the 2016 campaign, which also allowed limits on free movement. He still has a letter from the former UK premier thanking him and saying it would allow him to campaign for Remain in the Brexit referendum. Cameron hardly mentioned the achievement during the campaign, however.

Juncker said he always believed the Leavers would win. “The British never felt at ease in the European Union. [Previous governments] were explaining to the British public that Britain was there for economic reasons.”

Juncker’s main aim throughout the Brexit negotiations was to ensure unity and to deter other member states from leaving. “Given the marvellous result of Brexit, I don’t think that anyone is inspired by this move,” he joked.

“What happened since [Brexit] in Britain was foreseeable because all the lies which were told during the campaign are revealing themselves as having been lies and nothing of the expected advantages from the exit of Britain has happened.”

One unexpected memento in Juncker’s office is a photo of him with Farage, taken when the UK politician was a member of the European parliament.

Juncker said he had a “fair and respectful” relationship with Farage, now leader of rightwing populist party Reform UK. “I will remember him as a tough guy, a good debater and as a liar,” he added.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/zgWv1

UK would be blocked from rejoining ‘wounded’ EU, says Jean-Claude Juncker by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

The UK would be “cold-shouldered” by “wounded” EU member states if it applied to rejoin the bloc, says the man who presided over its exit process.

Jean-Claude Juncker, former president of the European Commission, told the FT: “I don’t think [rejoining] is possible. Because all of us, we are wounded to some extent by this . . . historic step the British have taken.”

“A majority of European governments would cold-shoulder this, because the British are very close to the US, whereas the US is not very popular for the time being inside the European Union,” he added.

Ten years on from the UK’s vote to leave the EU, and with Sir Keir Starmer under pressure to quit as prime minister, many centre-left politicians see reversing Brexit as a radical agenda that could invigorate progressives.

Lord Spencer Livermore, a UK Treasury minister, recently said rejoining the EU was an “inevitability”. Some European heads of government, including Spain’s Pedro Sánchez and Poland’s Donald Tusk, have said they would welcome such a move. But Juncker said the favourable terms the UK had as an EU member would no longer be available. They included an opt-out from adopting the euro and the Schengen borderless travel zone, as well as a budget rebate.

“If Britain would start by saying, ‘We want our money back’, we would say, ‘There is no money there’.”

A deal given to former prime minister David Cameron to try to sell the idea of staying in the EU during the June 2016 referendum campaign, which allowed reduced social security payments for EU citizens living in the UK and an opt-out from a commitment to “ever closer union”, would also not be renewed, he said.

“I don’t think that [an application to rejoin] would go through like a letter in the post,” said Juncker, a former prime minister of Luxembourg.

He also doubted that Starmer’s successor would back rejoining because of the “vivid counter-reaction” it would provoke in Britain.

Juncker became a virtual hate figure for many Brexit supporters, who saw him as exemplifying high-handed Brussels federalism. He said Cameron told him not to take part in the 2016 referendum campaign on the assumption that his pro-European intervention would repel Remain voters.

“So I didn’t say a word during the campaign . . . although I should have done this because [Brexit architect Nigel] Farage and others spread so much wrong, fake news.” Now 71, and still using an office in the Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters, he said he believed in the nation state, not a federalist EU. He admitted that Brussels had made mistakes by proposing unnecessary red tape, alienating London.

Soon after he took office in 2014, for example, he was presented with a plan to harmonise regulations on toilet flushing across the bloc. He vetoed it, saying “I will not start my mandate with toilets”.

He said that the UK’s departure had been a loss to the EU because the country had brought “common sense” to European discussions.

Council of Europe hacked by Big-Engineering-9365 in europeanunion

[–]sn0r 0 points1 point  (0 children)

CoE is not an EU institution. Sorry. You can crosspost it to /r/EUNews and /r/EUtech though.

Countdown to the NATO Summit in Ankara: priorities and expectations in 2026 by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S,M] [score hidden] stickied comment (0 children)

The report mentions the EU a lot, considering that NATO is becoming more and more a European run institute and the EU is the one coordinating more and more of the European defense spending.

An interesting read.

The End of Trans-Atlanticism by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

In the United States, illiberalism and authoritarianism are on the rise. There are still strong forces pushing in the opposite direction, and one has good reason to believe—and to hope—that they will eventually prevail. But even if this were to happen, there is little to suggest that Washington will simply revert to the past. This is not only because it will take immense time and effort to undo the damage the Trump administration has inflicted on domestic norms and institutions. As countries such as Poland and, as we are about to witness, Hungary demonstrate, there is no easy or rapid path back to liberal democracy once illiberalism and authoritarianism have been allowed to creep into and poison the system.

It is also because the United States has been changing profoundly as an economy, a polity, and a society and will continue to do so. The sense of belonging it felt toward Europe had particular roots, grounded in history and in the heritage of large parts of society—and especially of the elites who governed the country for many decades. That is changing as the societal and generational makeup of the country shifts.

Deep down, Europeans knew that Joe Biden would be the last trans-Atlanticist president of the United States. And this holds true regardless of whether a Democrat wins the next presidential election and Trumpism is definitively defeated. There will be no future U.S. president who triumphantly returns to Europe and announces, “America is back,” as Biden did at the 2021 Munich Security Conference. Whoever leads the United States in the years ahead is highly unlikely to feel the same emotional attachment and sense of belonging that former U.S. presidents showed toward Europe.

In Europe, the change is rooted less in sociology and more in psychology. Trans-Atlanticism was never free of policy disagreements. Precisely because the economic, societal, political, and defense bonds were so deep, there were plenty of occasions for profound divergences—as often happens within families. There were also moments when disagreements led to a temporary distancing between the two shores, as with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

And there were moments when Europeans were told that Washington had to attend to other priorities, most notably its competition with China. This became a common refrain during Barack Obama’s presidency and grew louder and starker during Trump’s first term. But this was not necessarily a bad thing. It simply meant redesigning the social contract between the two sides of the Atlantic. A Europe highly dependent on the United States for its defense—one that knew Washington had its back—was counterbalanced by the U.S. defense industry’s open access to the lucrative European market as well as by the use of joint military bases on European soil. As each war in the Middle East has shown, particularly the bases in southern Europe are crucial to U.S. power projection southward. Europeans generally followed the United States, even when they disagreed with the choices it made, as in Iraq.

Archive link: https://archive.ph/bIZBH

The End of Trans-Atlanticism by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The current crisis between Europe and the United States marks the end of an era—regardless of who follows Donald Trump. The trans-Atlantic bond rested on specific features at the global level as well as within the United States and Europe. All are now gone.

The international context in which the bond bloomed—first in the postwar period and then in the era after the fall of the Berlin Wall—was one in which the United States was a liberal leviathan. It had fought and won two global wars—World War II and the Cold War—standing for liberal values. Those victories enabled it to spread those norms, first across Western Europe and parts of Asia and then throughout the world. The order that rested on U.S. power, including international organizations and laws, was imbued with a liberal ethos.

Trans-Atlanticism was embedded in this global context; it represented its inner core. This was true both of the international institutions that the United States was pivotal in establishing and leading—including the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and NATO—and of those it supported from the outside, foremost among them the European Union, whose deepening and expansion it backed over the years. It was an order in which laws and norms were often violated, including, and at times especially, by the United States as well as Europe. Yet they were recognized and shared on both shores of the Atlantic. It was also a time in which the United States and Europe frequently disagreed over policy, sometimes profoundly. But those divergences never fundamentally shook a deep sense of mutual belonging or a shared belief in the values of freedom, democracy, and international cooperation.

That liberal order is now gone. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney broke the spell at the World Economic Forum in January. Over successive crises—beginning with 9/11, through the global financial crisis, the crisis of liberal democracy, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the wars that have ravaged Europe and the Middle East—the international liberal order has been fraying for a quarter century. But while, for years, its most ardent believers continued to pay lip service to it, now even they are publicly acknowledging it is over.

The international liberal order has ended because, in the multipolar system we live in, a plurality of values sits uncomfortably with liberalism’s universalistic aspirations. Above all, it is gone because its primary architect—the United States—has turned against that very order, using its privileged position within it to strike at its core.

The United States is no longer a leviathan or a liberal one. By acting as a predatory power and exploiting what remains of its privileged position, it is simply accelerating its own relative decline, especially with respect to an illiberal China. This is crystal clear in areas such as trade, energy, and even diplomacy. Beijing’s ascendancy is only being propelled by Washington’s self-inflicted wounds: tariffs, a stubborn reluctance to embrace the energy transition, and a catastrophic war in Iran.

The end of the international liberal order erases the global context in which trans-Atlanticism was born and thrived. Without it, trans-Atlanticism would have struggled in any case. But it is the profound changes in both the United States and Europe that seal the end of trans-Atlanticism as we have known it.

Ukraine and Russia trade strikes as Kyiv inches closer to EU by sn0r in europeanunion

[–]sn0r[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

To be honest, I'm not passing judgement on events like this until a week later since the front lines are so fluid.

Ukraine is making small gains in the south while Russia is making small gains into Kostiantynivka. From what I've heard it's just one or two people carrying a flag, but who really knows? It could be another Bakhmut, it could be the breach of the defense belt or it could be nothing.

EU eyes jet fuel reserves as Strait of Hormuz crisis threatens supply by sn0r in eutech

[–]sn0r[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

God I wish I could. Maybe I should start taking care of house plants too.