Tag: eu

Europe fails to reach deal on Ukraine, rearmament after emergency talks end without agreement

Europe remains divided on how to support Ukraine and shore up its defenses in the face of Russian aggression, as emergency summit talks ended without a consensus on Thursday.

A statement on Ukraine was signed by all but one of the 27 EU members with a lone country — believed to be Hungary — holding out.

As leaders pledged to ramp up defense spending, the main European powers couldn’t agree on what exactly that support for Ukraine might look like and how Europe should adapt to what many see as a new world order under President Trump.

“Europe is weak without the United States,” Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov told reporters on Thursday. He added that he hoped “the US remains committed to our collective security, which is based on shared values.”

However, there was a major point of contention between the European nations over the seizure of some $227 billion in frozen Russian central bank reserves that have been held in Europe’s financial system since the start of the Ukraine war.

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Romania – The first “post-election” democracy?

In December 2024, a Romanian court cancelled the second round of the planned Presidential election and annulled the completed first round, citing (totally theoretical) “Russian interference”.

This caused massive protests in Romania, as you can imagine. The first round had been won by right winger Călin Georgescu following a social media-based campaign, and he was predicted to quite easily win the second round as well.

The Romanian opposition – denied a likely victory – took their case to the European Court of Human Rights.

Then, earlier today, the ECHR threw the case out without even hearing it. Apparently, the Romanian courts were perfectly within their rights to simply indefinitely postpone their election on the basis of unproven allegations, and all those people who already voted and wanted to vote again can just go to hell.

This is the ECHR, which lectures the world on rights and democratic norms on the regular.

And everyone is apparently just fine with it. It’s crazy.

Imagine the outrage in the media if Putin or Trump had suddenly cancelled elections they looked like losing because “they weren’t going to be fair”.

Anyway, now Călin Georgescu has been arrested, and his supporters are taking to the streets, while  the Romanian government is set to crack down on “conspiracy theories” and other “misinformation”.

This anti-election narrative is growing outside of Romania too.

Ukraine, of course, hasn’t had any elections in years either. They also outlawed certain political parties, religions and television channels. Meanwhile, laundering billions of dollars/pounds/euros through the Ukrainian government to boost the bottom line of arms manufacturers is considered “defending democracy”.

Last month, former EU chairman Thierry Breton remarked that they had already had to cancel the Romanian elections, and might have to do the same in Germany. (As it happens the “right side” won in Germany, so I guess that election was fair).

To a smaller extent, nine local elections across the UK have been “postponed” for at least a year for unknown reasons.

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Europe Spent More on Russian Fuel in 2024 than Ukraine Aid

The European Union (EU) has been talking very tough about its unwavering and unlimited support for Ukraine since Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous visit to the White House, but data published by an independent research organization shows the EU spent more on Russian oil and gas in 2024 than it spent on Ukraine.

The Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), a group opposed to burning fossil fuels, calculated that European nations spent $23 billion buying Russian fuel in 2024, compared to $19.6 billion in foreign aid provided to Ukraine.

EU spending on Russian fuel was down six percent from the previous year, but this was largely due to falling prices, since the volume of Russian product imported by the EU was only down by one percent.

CREA also found Russian oil sales to China, India, and Turkey booming, although its total fossil fuel revenue of $254 billion was down three percent from 2023. Russia’s “shadow fleet” of some 558 tankers moved 167 million metric tons of oil in defiance of price caps.

“Despite a host of sanctions, Russian revenues in the third year have dropped by a mere 8% compared to the year prior to the invasion of Ukraine,” the report noted. Furthermore, the effect of sanctions appears to be diminishing, largely due to Russia’s skill at using its shadow fleet to evade price restrictions.

CREA recommended “tighter sanctions” against Russia that could “slash Kremlin revenues” by up to 20 percent – but those sanctions would require the EU to break its addiction to Russian fuel. European purchases have declined greatly since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, but Europe still provides roughly a quarter of Russia’s fossil fuel export revenue.

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Zelenskyy Caught Red-Handed Misleading the United States

In a bombshell revelation that shouldn’t surprise anyone paying attention to the Ukraine conflict, we now have evidence that President Zelenskyy has been misleading the United States about his dealings with our European allies. This deception runs deep, and President Trump is having none of it.

Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer dropped this truth bomb during a recent Newsmax interview, revealing that a “battle of dueling narratives” exists between the White House and Ukraine over a minerals deal.

During the interview, Shaffer revealed that mere days before Trump’s inauguration, “the British signed an agreement with Ukraine to have exclusive rights to those [mineral rights] deals.”

“You can go check it out,” he said. “This is on the British UK website. It talks about this 100-year Ukraine and the U.K. signed a 100-year deal over security guarantees and economic development.”

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Europe is Falling & Needs War with Russia

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with a new warning about war coming to Europe.  You may have seen the heated exchange between President Trump and President Zelensky of Ukraine on Friday.  If not, you should.  Some of the Trump highlights are:  “President Zelensky is not ready for peace. . . (Zelensky is) gambling with WWIII, and You either make a deal or we are out.”  It looks like Zelensky intentionally started a fight with Trump in the White House.  It also looks like every country in Europe is backing more war in Ukraine. And now, there is renewed talk of an EU army.  Armstrong says, “Why?  Because they all are facing the collapse of the European Union.  The debt is just unbelievable.  They never consolidated.  Between Covid, Climate Change and sanctions on Russia, the German economy has shrunk . . . 3% to 5%.  The economic growth (of the EU) is appalling.  Europe is falling, and this is why they need war.  So, they are backing Zelensky.”

In a new report released yesterday, Armstrong lays out the case why war in Europe is coming and coming soon.  Armstrong points out, “In this report, I gathered a bunch of headlines:  London Financial Times, what’s the headline?  ‘America is Now the Enemy of the West.’ This is why Trump is saying ‘We are out.’  Zelensky has admitted that 58% of the $350 billion the US gave him is missing.  You cut the funding, and you are going to find out the truth.  Trump should cut every single penny.  Bring it all out.  Zelensky is counting on Europe to replace the United States.  This is why he’s so arrogant. . . . Trump should get the hell out of NATO–ASAP.”

So, why are all these reports coming out in the last few months about gold coming to America from Europe?  Armstrong says, “Last week, I was on the phone, and I can’t tell you how much, but when you are about to go into war, capital moves. . . . Right now, I am concerned from about May 15th on. . . . Our computer (Socrates) says Europe is going into war, and I put it into this report, Europe will lose. . . . This is why the gold is coming to America.”

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EU/NATO Keeps Poking the Bear, Still Wants Troops in Ukraine

UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer is looking to pitch the plan to Donald Trump, masking it under the “readiness to deploy British troops as a security guarantee for a free, sovereign and democratic Ukraine”. However, as Moscow is perfectly clear that it won’t tolerate any NATO occupation forces, this proposal makes no sense – unless Starmer is trying everything in his power to sabotage an actual peace deal, just like Boris Johnson did back in 2022.

As the strategic irrelevance of the dying European Union becomes more evident with every passing day, the troubled bloc is desperate to remain relevant, posing as a “great power”. This is rather amusing to Russia, China and now even the United States under Donald Trump. All three superpowers realize that Europe’s place in the geopolitical constellation of global powers is that of a highly dysfunctional second-rate player with little actual leverage over anything (including its own fate).

Several countries in Eastern Europe (particularly Hungary and Slovakia) are refusing to bow down to the diktat of the bureaucratic dictatorship in Brussels, choosing to align themselves with the new Trump administration. Thus, it’s pretty clear that the EU cannot even control its Eastern European members which were never meant to be more than second or even third-class (neo)colonies.

The only regional power outside of the troubled bloc that supports it is the endemically (and pathologically) Russophobic United Kingdom. Namely, London is terrified of seeing Moscow reclaim strong positions in Europe, so it wants to make sure that the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict continues for as long as possible. It did something similar in former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world, including in Ukraine itself even before 2014.

The former colonial superpower has always been adamant that wars between tellurocracies are a must if thalassocraies are to survive, which is why it invested so much of its power projection into pushing countries like Germany against Russia, including during both world wars. The concept remains unchanged to this day, which explains the UK’s obsession with Russia.

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Why EU Persists in War It’s Lost

Why is the EU being seemingly insane to pursue a war that is clearly decidedly lost, a destiny it has no ability to alter now that the conflict’s #1 instigator is calling it quits, since for the Outlaw US Empire to continue would mean the need to confront Russia directly with forces and arms proven incapable of doing the job? We know the EU was told to “Fuck Off!” by Nuland just before the coup, but European actors still had a role to play, and they did so in their refusal to honor he deal signed by them 24 hours before. Then of course we had major EU actors again refusing to honor international law with the Minsk Agreements, the plan to agree then to dishonor was confessed which cost the lives of thousands. We well know the Outlaw US Empire’s role, but what of the EU? Did it have its own plan while sharing the Outlaw US Empire’s goal of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia? I his SCF article today, ‘Baltic/Black Sea power games and red lines intersect in a “strange war.”’ Pepe Escobar provides his hypothesis based on his own investigations plus a critical article by Ilya Fabrichnikov, a member of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, that he says is a shortened version of the original which he didn’t link to and I couldn’t find. However, that shortened version was linked, “Make Europe Great Again,” published by Kommersant on 20 February, which is in Russian naturally. I won’t reproduce Pepe’s essay, but what follows in the translation of Ilya’s article…

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‘Inhumane, Reckless’: Critics Weigh in on Europe’s Approval of Self-amplifying COVID mRNA Vaccines

Europe has approved a self-amplifying mRNA COVID-19 vaccine for ages 18 and up. The move drew criticism from scientists, who cited several concerns, including high rates of serious side effects among clinical trial participants and no long-term safety data.

The European Commission, the European Union’s primary executive body, on Feb. 14, granted marketing authorization for ARCT-154 — marketed as KOSTAIVE — a vaccine manufactured by CSL and Arcturus Therapeutics.

Japanese regulators were the first to approve the ARCT-154 shot, which the country made available for the 2024-25 season to people 65 and over, and 60- to 64-year-olds with severe underlying conditions.

Self-amplifying mRNA vaccines are similar to synthetic mRNA vaccines in that they both contain foreign mRNA that the body’s cells translate into a protein. However, unlike synthetic mRNA vaccines, self-amplifying vaccines also contain an enzyme that instructs the body on how to make more mRNA.

“What makes self-amplifying mRNA technology so worrisome, is that the mRNA will perpetuate indefinitely,” said Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist at Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

Jablonowski explained that with the traditional COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, “at least there is some solace in knowing the original mRNA will break down and stop production of the spike proteins.”

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Trump Is Right to Play Hardball with Europe

The rhetoric of European leaders in response to Vice President J.D. Vance’s statements at the Munich Security Conference has been a mix of genuine fear and false bravado. They are terrified about the prospect of the U.S. rethinking its lopsided trade relationship with Europe and abandoning its commitment to provide for Europe’s defense. At the same time, they have flirted with treating the U.S. as just another nation, as if Europe has the economic heft and military potential to assert itself as an autonomous geopolitical power center. The Trump administration’s response to this alleged confidence has been clear: Go ahead and try. 

After all, the 47th president’s first several weeks in office have showcased the effective use of tariffs as statecraft, with Trump getting concessions from Mexico and Canada on fentanyl and border security. Next up on the docket is a reported 10 percent levy on all exports coming from the European Union. This coincides with the EU’s commitment to ramp up sanctions against Russia later this month. Aluminum, fertilizer, and a number of other products will now be restricted, along with a host of additional sanctions on Russia’s shadow oil tanker fleet. The likely effect will be to raise prices even higher as agricultural costs increase and European industry is further strangled amid efforts to keep Russian energy out.

Europe appears to be at the crossroads of practical reality and ideological principle. The commitment of the political class to punish Russia for invading Ukraine no matter the cost is being rejected at the ballot box as populist parties win elections across the continent. In reaction to the rising tide of populism, the EU leadership is mulling a mechanism for outright rejecting election results they deem illegitimate. The blacklisting of certain populist parties in order to bar them from participating in governing coalitions is sure to further inflame political tensions. Vance, in his Munich speech, drew attention to this exact issue.

But in reality, it is the Trump administration’s America First agenda that can restore some balance to the European continent. This may sound like a paradox to those at the Munich conference who were so incensed about Vance’s chastisement of their liberal internationalist orthodoxy—a chastisement that equally applies to the U.S. ruling class as well, as evidenced by the recent revelations into the deep rot at USAID. Prioritizing the U.S. national interest by ensuring fair trading practices and more reciprocal relationships with European countries will not only serve America well, but will also help to strengthen the U.S. geopolitical position in Europe and the world more broadly.

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EU To Send More Military Aid To Ukraine, More Sanctions Against Russia, Denmark Say ‘Peace More Dangerous Than War’, Zelenskiy ‘Very Angry With Trump Team

Europe tries to rally around Ukraine as EU diplomats and officials flock to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Zelenskiy.

The Financial Times reports that Zelenskiy was ‘very angry’ during recent meetings with the Trump team and was shouting under Trump pressure.

Meanwhile, according to estimates from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), The Continent purchased more Russian hydrocarbons last year than aid was sent to Ukraine, highlighting European hypocrisy.

Europe will not send ‘peacekeepers’ to Ukraine said Kaja Kallas, the head of European diplomacy. “In order to send peacekeepers, you first need peace,” she declared.

Ukrainian Official Olesky Aresovych said on his X account that a new Ukrainian Recovery Fund will soon be announced totaling $1T, with 40% coming from the U.S., 40% from Russia, and 20% from China and Gulf States. The official said $350B in frozen Russia assets will be added.

The E.U. doesn’t like ‘Russian narratives’ coming from the United States.

Russia said it sees no reason to begin talks with Europe.

Former British PM Boris Johnson said reports of him pushing to start the war in Ukraine are untrue.

Danish PM Mette Frederkisen said there is a threat that peace in Ukraine could be more dangerous than the current war.

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