EU - what's next?

No Country wrote:

ontheotherhand wrote:To je koncept u kojem Nemačka i Francuska rajhuju a ostali im slugeranišu?

Ето како виртуелно дружење са Филипом и Зуперишком узима свој данак.

Nova predsednica Evropske komisije (EK) Ursula fon der Lajen je izjavila da nije pristalica Evropske unije "u više brzina".

Washington is hopeful that European Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen can inject new life into deadlocked transatlantic trade talks, U.S. President Donald Trump's man in Brussels said Thursday.

However, the U.S. administration remains ready to impose auto tariffs, or other actions, with "immediate financial consequences" for the EU if there is no progress in negotiations, or if countries like France and Britain progress with digital services tax plans, U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland told POLITICO.

Speaking of von der Leyen, Sondland said: "I’m very optimistic about her leadership and about her willingness to engage constructively with the United States."

He said her planned inauguration in November was "a golden opportunity for the U.S. and the EU to re-engage, where folks do not have to be fixed in old positions and trying to save face, but they can essentially start with a new, clean sheet of paper."
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Sondland said he is hopeful that von der Leyen would have the "willingness to move the agenda forward in a reasonable period of time," but he also stressed there must be "some inclusion" of agricultural products.

"It doesn’t have to be an enormous amount at the beginning," he said. "It can ramp up over time. But the door has to be cracked open to agriculture. Because no deal is going to get through Congress without that."

Sondland also warned von der Leyen not to try to delay trade discussions — something he accused the Commission's current leadership of doing.

The ambassador said he believes "more strongly now than ever" that Trump would be reelected in 2020 and remain in office for another four years. "That’s a long time in which to be at an impasse [on trade talks], particularly when the U.S. will not tolerate an impasse indefinitely," he said.

He cautioned that the U.S. administration has "a whole bunch of different tools," including car tariffs, at its disposal "to encourage seriousness" in trade discussions and to "protect and defend our economic security."

Trump declared in May that imports of autos and certain auto parts from the EU and Japan "threaten to impair the national security of the United States," and instructed his Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to address this threat in trade talks with those countries during the following six months.

That deadline runs out in mid-November, shortly after von der Leyen takes office.

The EU's Malmström said last week that it is "frankly quite offensive" for the U.S. to classify European car and car part imports as a threat to national security.

Yet Sondland warned that Europe should get ready for "less whining, more action" from the U.S. side. "Those actions will have immediate financial consequences for our friends in Europe," he said.

His comments on U.S. "actions" also referred to a digital services tax adopted by France last week. Washington also last week launched an investigation against Paris under Section 301 of the U.S. Trade Act of 1974, which gives the administration broad discretion to impose retaliatory tariffs in response to foreign trade practices that impede U.S. exports.
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https://www.politico.eu/pro/donald-trump-trade-europe-us-ambassador-gordon-sondland-calls-on-ursula-von-der-leyen-to-restart-trade-talks/

https://www.ft.com/content/ef20122e-ae2f-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2?desktop=true&segmentId=d8d3e364-5197-20eb-17cf-2437841d178a


France and Germany adopt ‘invest but verify’ mantra in Russia

The two countries doing most business in Moscow have led much of the west’s condemnation

Henry Foy in Moscow 7 HOURS AGO

An old Russian proverb brought into western popular culture by US President Ronald Reagan, “trust but verify” became synonymous with the pragmatic but uneasy relations between Moscow and the west during the Cold War.

In today’s relationship, after five years of EU and US sanctions, geopolitical tensions and allegations of Russian malfeasance from election meddling to assassination attempts, some western countries are quietly adopting a similar mantra despite the negative mood music.

While pro-Russia rhetoric and calls to lift sanctions emanating from governments in places such as Hungary and Italy regularly make headlines, data show that the countries doing most business with Moscow are the two that have led much of the west’s condemnation: Germany and France.

German corporates invested more than €3.3bn in Russia last year, the highest level for a decade and surpassing volumes seen before Moscow’s 2014 invasion of Crimea, according to data from the Russia-German Chamber of Commerce. The total trade volume between the countries rose an annual 8 per cent to €61.9bn, with growth on both sides.

It’s a similar story with France: bilateral trade with Russia rose 11 per cent to $17bn last year. French companies have about $20bn of investment in Russia at present.

This spring, a month before president Vladimir Putin opened a new Mercedes-Benz factory outside Moscow, French energy company Total finalised a deal to acquire a 10 per cent stake in a $21bn Russian Arctic gas project. It already owns 20 per cent of a neighbouring gas project worth $28bn.

French and German groups Engie, Uniper and Wintershall are each paying €950m to help Kremlin-controlled Gazprom build the Nord Stream 2 offshore gas pipeline between Russia and Germany that is threatened by US sanctions.

None of these investments at present contravene the letter of the law, or in fact, sanction regulations that in many cases Berlin and Paris have been instrumental in drawing up and subsequently upholding.

But the strengthening business ties illustrate that Berlin and Paris have adopted a two-track approach to Moscow: sticking to the hard lines in the political sphere in a bid to keep Russia in check, while encouraging friendly corporate relationships.

Yet some in the diplomatic community — and especially those from countries where trade with Russia has plummeted because of the sanctions — privately gripe at what they see as double standards from two of the most powerful countries in Europe.

Many point to the contrast between French businesses like Total, Auchan and Air Liquide pouring money into the country and the case of Philippe Delpal, a French private equity executive who has been held in a Moscow jail for more than five months on charges brought by a politically-connected Russian businessman.

“It is about pragmatism, not appeasement,” said a senior French official in Moscow. “You work with the Russians as much as you can, without compromising your position on critical issues.”

Business certainly appears to keeps diplomatic doors open, too, in a city where access to those at the top means everything.

Rüdiger von Fritsch, who stepped down as Germany’s ambassador to Moscow last month, spent his entire posting vigorously demanding sanctions remain in place. Yet on his way out, Mr Putin granted him a one-on-one meeting, a very rare gesture seldom extended to diplomats.

But it is undeniable that increased interest in Russia from German and French business is both good for the country’s struggling economy, and for Mr Putin, who continually remarks on how much European businesses have lost out because of the sanctions agreed by their capitals.

“We know that businesses in the UK . . . want to work with us, they are working with us and intend to continue doing so. And we support this intent,” Mr Putin told the FT last month.

Describing the attempted assassination of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal in the UK last year as “a fuss . . . not worth five kopecks”, the president argued: “These spy scandals made our relations reach a deadlock so we could not develop our ties normally and support business people.”

A pro-business overture to former prime minister Theresa May at last month’s G20 failed to convince her that sanctions could be eased for the sake of British businesses who may be willing to take the risks that an investment in Russia entails. 

For many, trust is still a long way off.

Some commentators have tried to explain the sudden rise of populist movements by suggesting that we are living through democracy’s ‘midlife crisis’, a period of political angst that will give way to acceptance. Others claim that we have advanced to a ‘post-democratic’ era, in which the institutions of democracy have exhausted their use completely.


The politics of the European Union, however, look increasingly pre-democratic. In this new Ancien Régime – much as in the old one – officials condemn petty theft while absolving themselves of more serious crimes. Countries that wish to join the EU are instructed to scrub their institutions of corruption before they can even be considered for accession. Without the slightest hesitation, however, the EU now promotes candidates with a clear record of kickbacks and other dirty deals, as long as they are already senior members of the political class.


For European progressives, these appointments at least have the benefit of clarifying the stakes. Populism might have been a convenient bugbear to European leaders in a time of acute crisis fighting. That time is over. Sovereign indifference now seems to hold sway. A coherent strategy is required to match this pre-democratic moment, one that focuses first and foremost on re-opening channels of citizen representation. Because when it comes to the EU, nothing is more revolutionary than asking for a little democratic reform.

wrote:Kako će biti kickass posete i ta neka javna komunikacija ako ova Plenkijeva Dubravka postane novi Hahn, hahah.

Gargantua wrote:inače, sada već bivši komesarijat za migracije se sada zove "za zaštitu evropskog načina života"