European Union

Here’s what would happen if Canada joined the European Union

In the face of uncertainty about Canada’s relationship with the United States, some have been proposing an alternative path: backing away from the Americans a bit and joining the European Union.

The 27-state economic and political group includes a variety of countries with which Canada already has close economic, historic and political ties, including France and Germany. Notably, however, the United Kingdom, the country to which Canada perhaps owes its largest debt, left the EU in 2020.

The EU is more anti-democratic, more corrupt, woke and crazy than the Liberal government. Hard as that may be to believe.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada, European Union

What Is Really Destroying Europe? The EU.

The founding idea of the European Union was to build, through shared prosperity, solidarity and a sense of shared destiny among the nations of Europe. That was why three communities were formed: the economy, coal and steel, and nuclear energy. Until around 2000, in terms of growth and innovation, the European economy, year in, year out, was on par with the American one.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union

Trump says EU tariffs will ‘definitely happen’

Donald Trump has threatened to widen the scope of his trade tariffs, repeating his warning that the European Union – and potentially the UK – will face levies, even as he conceded that Americans could bear some of the economic brunt of a nascent global trade war.

It comes as Trump’s tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, announced on Saturday, sparked retaliation from all three countries. Mexico and Canada have vowed levies of their own while China and Canada are seeking legal challenges.

Trump said on Sunday night that new tariffs on the EU will “definitely happen”, repeating previous complaints about the large US trade deficit with the bloc and his desire for Europe to import more American cars and agricultural products.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, USA

Why Europe fears free speech

A war of repression is under way

We all know the old joke: when a European referendum delivers the “wrong” outcome, the country votes again until they get it “right”. The EU thought this would be the case after Brexit. But so far, no one’s laughing.

If anything, things have got worse. Take Romania, which recently cancelled its presidential election when Călin Georgescu, leader of a nationalist Right coalition, won the first round. Thierry Breton, former French European Commissioner, revealed the EU’s mindset during a damning recent TV interview. “We did it in Romania and we will obviously do it in Germany if necessary,” he said. In other words, if you can’t beat the far-Right, ban them.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Freedom of speech

EU Globalist Explicitly Threatens To Cancel German Election Result If Right Wing AfD Wins

Former French European Commissioner Thierry Breton has essentially openly confessed that the West stole the Romanian election and stands ready to do it again in Germany if deemed necessary.

“We did it in Romania, and we will do it in Germany if necessary,” a translation from the French of Breton’s recent appearance in European media said. Early last month a top Romanian court simply annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election in order to create what amounted to a ‘do over’ election.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Germany, Germany - AfD party

American Free Speech vs. European Censorship

The European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA) obliges US social media platforms to take a whole arsenal of preventive and repressive measures, basically to prevent the sharing of information that displeases the European Commission. The new US administration will not tolerate levying fines of tens of billions of dollars on major US technology companies by a European Union that is drifting towards authoritarianism and is at the same time more dependent than ever on American power.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Freedom of speech, USA

The U.S. and Europe May Be Headed for a Divorce

Among the more childishly enjoyable fruits of Donald Trump’s election victory has been watching the spectacular gymnastic contortions of political leaders in Europe, where I have spent time recently, as they try to reconcile their previously expressed revulsion toward him with the political reality of his renewed status as the most powerful man on the planet.

Gold medal for the back flip with full twist and 180-degree turn goes to David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, who congratulated Mr. Trump and said he looked forward to finding “common ground” with the newly re-elected president. “I felt in my bones that there could be a Trump presidency,” he cheerily told the BBC the day after the election.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, President Trump

European Union Is Funding Iranian Aggression

The Iranian regime, largely thanks to the backing of a powerful ally, the European Union, has managed to sustain and even increase its revenue streams.

The continued funding of Iran’s regime by the EU is crucial in bolstering Iran’s ability to attack its neighbors and US troops in the region, both directly and through its proxies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Houthis — and to accelerate enriching uranium to complete its nuclear weapons program.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, Iran

Europe Between Hope and Fear

The results of this month’s European Parliament elections have prompted two reactions from political analysts in the old continent.

One reaction could be described as the ostrich option, burying one’s head in the sand and praying that the storm will blow over. The other could be labeled apocalyptic, pointing at the four terrible horsemen riding across the horizon.

The ostrich party points out that despite the successes scored by radical right parties, the next European Parliament will still be dominated by right-of-center and social-democratic outfits stuck in the past and determined to maintain the status quo.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union

Time to retire the ‘far right’ slur

Millions of Europeans have not suddenly turned into fascists. We need a new political language.

As the EU establishment struggles to make sense of last week’s revolt in the European elections, one thing is clear: our outdated vocabulary is not up to the task of describing today’s political landscape.

Gains for France’s National Rally, Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy and the Alternative for Germany (AfD) have been described as a ‘far-right surge’ in newspapers and TV reports, not just across Europe but around the world. Even before the election results came in, labels like far right and extreme right were bouncing off commentators’ keyboards. All agree that the far right is on the rise and ordinary people need to worry. This is Europe’s ‘Trump moment’, explained Politico. Some go further. Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is described as ‘neo-fascist’, while academics calmly ask if the AfD is the new Nazi Party. ‘Fascism has arrived’, declared French author Emilia Roig when the election results became clear. Yet with almost a quarter of Europe’s voters having backed a party branded ‘far right’, it is worth asking how accurate this label is and what purpose it now serves.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Elites vs. Populists", "extremists", "far right", Europe, European Union

Don’t Blame the Russians When Europe Votes Right

An Afghan knifeman tried to assassinate a leading anti-Islamist campaigner at a rally in the German city of Mannheim on Friday, and murdered a young policeman in the attack. The stabbing, carried out by a failed asylum-seeker who had been living in Germany illegally for years, was a searing indictment of successive German governments’ mass migration policies.

A week before the elections to the European Parliament, this attempted assassination of a critic of political Islam provided a graphic illustration of why support for the right-wing, anti-migration Alternative fur Deutschland (AfD) has soared in recent times.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union

Should the U.S. and Europe go their separate ways?

Since at least as far back as 1917, when the U.S. unwisely intervened in World War I to rescue the Western Allies, the major European nations have grown accustomed to American largesse. Americans have played the role of overindulgent parents, and the Europeans have responded as would entitled children who both demand handouts and then resent the parents who supply them.

A large proportion of Europeans have negative opinions of the U.S. They consider us arrogant and selfish. As a result, we have been labeled as “the Ugly Americans” for decades.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEurope, European Union, USA

Is the EU dropping Net Zero?

Answers to Mrs. Hitler

Right-wing parties have cottoned on to voter rejection of green policies

In hindsight, 2024 may well be remembered as the year of the Great Reversal on EU climate policy. That many of the most ambitious emissions goals will not be achievable has been common knowledge for a while now, but until recently the policies themselves had not been questioned. There was a widespread consensus that the European Union was in position to be a global leader for emissions reductions and the green transition away from fossil fuels.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Net-Zero Tyranny", European Union

“You’re Big Brother:” EU Parliament Votes To Make Hate Speech an EU Crime

Sparking intense criticism from conservatives, the left-leaning majority of the European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for the extension of the EU crime list to include hate speech and hate crimes, which would allow the European Commission to introduce binding minimum penalties for all member states.

The vote, that took place on Thursday, January 18th, passed with 397 for and 121 against, with only 26 abstentions—the latter mainly coming from a handful of dissident leftists concerned that the law may be used to silence anti-Israel voices. As always, only the two conservative blocs, ECR and ID, voted against it while all leftist parties and the center-right EPP supported the report.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inEuropean Union, hate crimes, Hate Speech