#eu membership

[workersolidarity]

🇭🇺🇺🇦 🚨

HUNGARY'S PRESIDENT, VIKTOR ORBAN CALLS UKRAINE "ONE OF THE MOST CORRUPT COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD" IN INTERVIEW

In an interview with French Magazine, La Pointe, Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban laughed off the idea of Ukraine joining the European Union, and called Ukraine "one of the most corrupt countries in the world."

Orban has been firm in his staunch opposition to Ukraine joining the European Union, calling the country "corrupt" just one week before European leaders are expected to make a decision on starting talks for ascension to the bloc.

"Hungary is a neighbor of Ukraine... we know exactly what is happening," Oban told French magazine La Pointe in an interview Friday.

“Ukraine is known to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world. It’s a joke! We cannot take the decision to start a process of accession negotiations."

Next week, EU leaders will gather in Brussells to discuss two major decisions on Ukraine; one to approve the decision to begin ascension talks with Kiev, and the second to release €50 Billion ($54 Billion) in aid to Ukraine.

However, these discussions are made more difficult by Orban's steadfast opposition to continued support for Ukraine, let alone talks for ascension to the European Union.

In his interview with La Pointe, Orban stood firm on these decisions, repeating his positions and defending his stance, calling the plan to begin ascension talks a "bad decision" and saying Ukraine wasn't ready to join the EU, despite the Commission's declaration otherwise.

According to Orban, the European Union needs to do a lot more "preparatory work" before the bloc will be ready to accept Ukraine.

One of Orban's most pressing concerns with regards to Ukraine has been his consistent opposition to allowing unfettered Ukrainian grain imports into the EU.

“If you allow this [Ukrainian] agriculture to enter the European agricultural system, it will destroy it the next day,” Orbán told Le Point. “Without transforming our farm subsidy system, we cannot let them in. The consequences will be terrible,”

Instead, Orban suggests a "strategic partnership treaty" to raise the level of EU-Ukraine cooperation without offering membership.

The Hungarian leader was recently invited to a dinner hosted by the French President Emmanuel Macron, where he tried, without luck, to convince Orban to change his stance on Ukraine.

But the Hungarian leader told La Pointe he “cannot give up [his] position” on Ukraine.

"My idea is to try to convince him to listen to my arguments,” Orbán said. “I am very interested in his opinion on the reasons that push France to act in this way.”

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

[trendynewsnow]

EU Agricultural Ministers Meeting: Focus on Ukraine's Agricultural Challenges and Trade Disputes

Key Diary Dates Monday, November 18: Ukrainian Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, Vitalii Koval, will participate in the EU Ministers for Agriculture and Fisheries Council meeting in Brussels. Tuesday, November 19: The European Court of Justice is set to hear a case initiated by the European Commission alongside 15 member states, challenging Hungary’s controversial Child Protection Law,…

[thoughtlessarse]

Few Europeans are in favour of their country leaving the EU or the eurozone, including voters for far-right parties, according to a survey published on Tuesday. The survey, which was carried out across all 27 EU Member States and the UK for the French think tank Foundation for Political Innovation by the Ipsos Institute, showed that only 13% of voters want their country to leave the EU. The countries with the highest proportion of voters wanting to leave the EU are Bulgaria (22%), Czechia (20%), Austria (19%) and France (18%). Conversely, only 3% of Portuguese and 5% of Lithuanians want to leave the EU. In Belgium, 11% of respondents want to reconsider their membership. For countries that have adopted the euro, only 8% want to return to their national currency. The highest figure is in Croatia (14%), the country to have most recently adopted the single currency, and the lowest is again in Portugal (3%). Among Belgians, 4% want to leave the single currency. […] Only 21% of EU citizens believe that the UK is “better off outside the EU”, while 77% are in favour of Brits returning to the bloc. 68% of British voters also wanted to return to the EU, Ipsos noted.

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It doesn't matter what far-right voters think, their leaders will do what they want, in this case the destabilisation and destruction of the EU.

[anyoneknowwhatbrexitmeans]

[timesofocean]

Thousands rally in Georgia to push government on EU membership

New Post has been published on https://www.timesofocean.com/rally-in-georgia-to-push-government-on-eu-membership/

Thousands rally in Georgia to push government on EU membership

Belgrade, Serbia (The Times Groupe) – The Georgian capital Tbilisi was filled with thousands of protesters calling on the government to maintain the country’s EU membership course. GEORGIA

On Sunday, demonstrators gathered outside the parliament and urged the government to implement the necessary reforms to integrate Georgia into the European Union.

A rally was organized by the United National Movement (UNM), the main opposition party founded by jailed ex-president Mikheil Saakashvili.

They chanted slogans for closer ties with the EU as they waved Georgian and EU flags.

As well as banners supporting Saakashvili, who is serving a six-year prison sentence for abuse of power, protesters also condemned Russia.

UNM opposition leaders accused the government of backsliding on democracy and acting under Russian influence.

As a result of not meeting the EU’s 12-point criteria, the government of Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili failed to secure Georgia’s EU candidate status last year.

After Ukraine applied for EU membership on Feb. 28, just four days after Russia launched its first attack, Georgia and Moldova applied on March 3 last year.

The EU Commission granted candidate status to Ukraine and Moldova on June 17, but said Georgia’s bid would be reassessed once it met the bloc’s criteria. Times of ocean TIBLISN

[freealba3]

Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI)

As part of the leadership election of the Scottish National party we are seeing a range of views and actions. The SNP leadership, have been trying to exclude the membership from the majority of the hustings by using small venues. It seems that the party grandees are trying to ensure that yousaf Hamza as the successor to Nicola Sturgeon. The vision he is espousing is so clearly the same as…

[head-post]

French strongly condemn Macron’s interview with The Economist

French President Emmanuel Macron gave an interview to The Economist, once again saying he did not rule out sending French troops to Ukraine, provoking criticism from France’s right-wing political forces.

Asked whether he was sticking to his words about possibly sending ground troops to Ukraine, Macron said:

“Absolutely. As I said, I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out.”

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, leader of the right-wing Debout la France (France Arise), commented on the French president’s words on his X:

“In The Economist, Emmanuel Macron continues his madness: he wants to send our children to Ukraine to die in a conflict that is not ours and which could end overnight if Western leaders so choose. Read more about my peace plan.”

In his peace plan, which was published back at the very beginning of the military conflict in 2022, Dupont-Aignan calls for a ceasefire on both sides, the establishment of a humanitarian and demilitarised zone in Ukraine, and the lifting of all sanctions at the end of the peace process.

Also on social media, Dupont-Aignan posted a video saying “Our children should not go to Ukraine to die! Emmanuel Macron’s madness will drag France into a conflict that is not its own. Peace is possible!”

Read more HERE

[tomorrowusa]

Roberta Metsola is president of the European Parliament. She has gone on record as favoring observer status for Ukraine and Moldova in the EU Parliament.

The EU last year designated Ukraine and Moldova as official candidate countries, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine. Since then, Metsola has been clamoring for official accession negotiations to begin this year. EU leaders are due to decide whether to formally open Ukraine and Moldova’s accession talks at a summit in December, once they’ve parsed a heavily anticipated report from the European Commission providing a status update on all countries still waiting in the EU’s wings. “Make no mistake: Politically if a country looks to Europe, then Europe should fling its doors wide open,” Metsola told POLITICO in an interview in her ninth-floor office at the Parliament in Brussels.

President Metsola has been a high profile supporter Ukraine for a while.

Metsola, who at 44 is the Parliament’s youngest president ever, was the first EU leader to visit Kyiv, meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on April 1 last year; a giant photo of the pair shaking hands now hangs on the esplanade in front of the Parliament in Brussels, a visual symbol of her championing the country in its war against Russia. “Enlargement has always been the European Union’s strongest geopolitical tool,” Metsola said.

The EU needs to play a greater role regarding Ukraine, it would be advantageous for both the EU and Ukraine. A belligerent and imperialistic Russia which is headed by an unhinged dictator requires a strong counterbalance in Europe.

[whentheynameyoujoy]

I’ll never get used to seeing tankies point to the peaceful dissolution of Czechoslovakia, a cynical marriage of convenience held together by duct-tape throughout its existence and missed by neither of the parties involved, as an example of post-soviet instability.

[notasapleasure]

A tale of two Georgias

Note: I wouldn't normally share subscriber-exclusive content from this news site, but I think Shota Kincha's opinions are too important to hide away in an exclusive email this time. If you're so minded, please consider supporting open journalism in the Caucasus anyway and sending some money OCMedia's way.

Highlighting is my own. Of course I support Georgia joining the EU, but absolutely not under conditions that ignore the recent rolling back of democratic freedoms.

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By Shota Kincha, for OC Media.

On Wednesday, Georgians celebrated a long-awaited recommendation from the European Commission for their nation’s candidacy for EU membership, leaving the country’s candidacy pending just final approval from the heads of EU member states in mid-December. But the Commission’s assessment of the government’s ‘progress’ seemed to be based on wishful thinking, rather than its actions. 

On denying Georgia the status last year, the European Commission outlined 12 ‘priorities’ Georgia would need to address for the decision to be reconsidered — preconditions that largely reflected the spirit of the April 2021 agreement brokered by European Council President Charles Michel between the government and opposition groups.

When the unforeseen possibility for Georgia to formally apply for membership presented itself in early 2022, Georgia’s leadership had already failed on some of the key components of the previous year’s accord. 

Instead of addressing the ‘perception of politicised justice,’ an apparent euphemism for the imprisonment of opposition leaders, most notably Nika Melia in early 2021, the Georgian court imprisoned another prominent government critic, Nika Gvaramia, only five weeks before the European Commission was due to assess Georgia’s readiness for EU membership candidacy.

Instead of the ambitious judicial reform promised in the 2021 Michel deal and mentioned in the EU’s ‘12 priorities’ last year, the ruling Georgian Dream party has continued to shield corrupt judicial officials with a stranglehold on Georgian courts, resulting in more politicised administrative fines and criminal cases against civil activists, political leaders, media managers, or youth with ‘confused orientation’ who risked their freedom to defend Georgia’s pro-Western choice on the streets.

In the run-up to the European Commission’s latest decision on Georgia, the government and security services run by oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili’s goons artificially created an anti-Western parliamentary group, gifted them private channel PosTV, and made violent extremist pro-Russian Alt Info immune to obstruction or challenge. 

If the last five years under Georgian Dream rule had been a steady decline in democratic freedoms, the government’s actions in the months since it applied to join the European Union — including their recent initiatives to clamp down on Georgia’s civil society and constrain protest — far surpassed any and all negative predictions.

But listening to President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, one could have assumed she was discussing an entirely different country. 

Despite Georgia’s government persecuting free media, parroting Russian propaganda against the West, refusing to undertake institutional reforms in a way that included other groups and stakeholders, and satisfying only three of the twelve conditions set last year, the European Commission complimented them with no substantial criticism.

I do not believe the EU should approve Georgian membership candidacy later this year, as the move looks set to validate and entrench the government’s precipitous lurch towards authoritarianism. 

The European Commission’s approach may be based on the belief that denying Georgia candidate status could lead to Georgians becoming disillusioned with the EU and the West. But Georgians have been staunchly pro-Western for decades, perhaps even centuries. 

The real danger to Georgians’ trust in the West comes from the West’s indifference to anti-democratic moves by Georgia’s government, which, if left unchecked, will continue to use state institutions to slowly but steadily shift popular mood and policies towards Russia. 

Even were we to allow that recommending EU candidacy status was a justified decision in Georgia’s best interests, doing so did not obligate the institution’s leaders to legitimise the country’s government in the way they did.

Listening to the widely televised announcement by the European Commission on Wednesday, Georgians could reasonably have concluded that democratic backsliding, state capture by big capital, and a politicised judiciary are consistent with Georgia’s pro-Western aspirations, or that related warnings from local activists and media have been baseless or overblown. 

The announcement could also have created the impression that the ruling party has been delivering on reforms demanded by the EU, a powerful notion less than a year before the country’s next general elections. 

The truth is, however, that in inviting Georgia to join the club while neglecting to call out the government’s shortcomings, the EU is playing a dangerous game, and one it has played before. The EU does not want another Orban, and the South Caucasus definitely does not need another Aliyev.

I may be wrong: perhaps granting Georgia candidate status will still be a wise choice on the EU’s part. But even in its recommendation, the European Commission could have sent a clear message that business as usual would no longer be tolerated. 

What Georgia’s leadership heard instead will become abundantly clear in the coming months. 

[kyreniacommentator]

Embargoed Newsletter July/August 2024

Embargoed Newsletter July/August 2024 We received a copy of the July/August 2024 Embargoed Newsletter and decided to share this here with our CyprusScene worldwide readers and followers to help promote the cause of the Turkish Cypriots who demanding justice and equality for the Turkish Republic Of Northern Cyprus.. Continue reading Embargoed Newsletter July/August 2024

[thecontainerstoreofficial]

the eu lithium mining in serbia is hypocritical and sickening. they box them out of membership for decades but are more than happy to plunder serbia’s resources at the expense of those who live there

[trendynewsnow]

Maia Sandu Wins Second Term in Moldova's Presidential Election Amid Claims of Interference

Moldova’s Presidential Election: A Victory for Maia Sandu Moldova’s incumbent president, Maia Sandu, has successfully secured a second term in a crucial presidential runoff, overcoming a formidable Russia-aligned challenger. The election was marked by significant claims of Russian interference, allegations of voter fraud, and reports of intimidation tactics aimed at the electorate. With nearly…

[thoughtlessarse]

Languages: Deutsch

Poland has invested €86 billion in the European Union project and gained €261 billion in the 20 years since it joined, according to data presented by Funds and Regional Policy Minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęczit at a press conference on Tuesday. Pełczyńska-Nałęcz presented the data the day before Poland celebrates the 20th anniversary of joining the EU. “To all those who say that we pay extra for the European Union: it is actually exactly the opposite,” the minister said. Poland received a total of €261 billion in transfers from the EU budget as of March 2024, including €165 billion under the cohesion policy, €11.4 billion from the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility, and €78 under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the minister added. Poland was long denied access to the EU’s recovery funds due to the European Commission’s concerns about the rule of law under the previous PiS (ECR) government. It was only after the current cabinet of Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented a reform plan to restore the independence of the country’s judiciary that the Commission lifted its hold.

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The EU is good at wealth redistribution to member countries. Unfortunately, once it reaches the members the wealth tends to benefit those who are already rich with the least need of it.

[i-am-aprl]

The US single-handedly blocked the UN from recognizing Palestine by vetoing a draft resolution in the Security Council that recommended that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the UN.” With 12 council members voting yes, a clear majority voted in favor; only the UK and Switzerland abstained.

Meanwhile, 139 of the 193 UN member states already recognize Palestine, virtually all of the world safe for the Global North and its closest allies.

Even in the EU, several countries are set to recognize Palestine soon. Since 2012, the Palestinians have been a non-member observer state to the UN, a de facto recognition of statehood granted by the UN General Assembly.

However, the Security Council and then at least two-thirds of the General Assembly must approve an application to become a full member of the world body.

The Palestinian push for full membership came six months into Israel’s devastating war of extermination against the Gaza Strip, and as Israel is expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which the UN already considers to be illegal.

[freealba3]

S.N.P. hypocracy

Since the Brexit referendum result, the Scottish government has made the case that the referendum took Scotland out of the EU against its will. Yet when the 2014 referendum was taking place, if the referendum had resulted in a Yes vote. Scotland would have left the EU. I think that the argument was that having been part of the EU their membership would be a forgone conclusion. Sadly they…