Brexit: dearest English friends, thank you!
My heartfelt thanks to you, my English and Welsh friends. You have managed to resist all argumentations - from the rational to the apocalyptic - of those who backed ‘REMAIN’. You have chosen to disregard the risks of your glorious country exploding - the Scots and the Northern Irish, two of the remaining four countries of your Empire, having voted massively – and shamefully– in favour of the Union. You have risked dividing your society in the long term between, on the one hand, the young, educated urban youth who are massively in favour of ‘REMAIN’, and on the other hand the older, less-qualified country dwellers supporting ‘LEAVE’, resulting in what amounts to a long-lasting social fracture. An incredibly brave choice because it has politically devastated and will economically weaken your country, for which Europe will be eternally grateful to you.
This demonstrates your sense of sacrifice which has already benefited the continent on several occasions, for instance when you saved it from the grasp of Napoleon, and subsequently twice from German hegemony. You have finally come to the conclusion that the place of your island is not within the Union. Even if you were already well and truly ‘outside’ (budget, euro, Schengen, security and immigration policies, banking union, etc.), the mere fact that you were there was always enough to block all attempts at further integration - not only in fear of displeasing you - but because each time we had to create extra unnecessarily complex procedures to enable you to keep your ‘special status’. The result of this is that the reforms have always ended up, thanks to you, in making this very Union more and more unreadable in the eyes of its citizens and thereby distancing them from it. Once again, despite all our efforts you continued to consider this European Union ultra dogmatic and over-controlled : we were not fortunate enough to have experienced Thatcherism and we remained for the most part attached to the welfare state, state interventionism, regulated markets – all of which horrified you. We also had to accept a watering down of the vision of the founding nations and adoption of short-term policies which, in the end, please no one : Europe has accomplished the amazing feat of inventing regulatory ultraliberalism.
You witnessed the successive crises which have shaken the Union since 2008 and you understood that it was doomed to perish beneath its contradictions, its paralyses, its compromises and the mediocrity of its national leaders who encourage ever greater scepticism of a European project held responsible for all national issues. You have therefore decided to give us a monumental kick up the backside: if the shock of the departure of one of the four largest countries in the Union does not wake us up, if we do not mobilise ourselves in order to revitalise the construction of the European Union, which has ensured peace on our continent for 70 years, then we no longer deserve to exist. Your Churchillian gesture will go down in history! So you know what awaits you : after World War II you descended into such economic depression that the IMF had to come to your aid, almost as if you were like petty Greece! When you joined in 1973 your GDP was one of the lowest in the EEC, and this is why you adhered to a project you despised. If Churchill believed in the United States of Europe, it had to be with the United Kingdom occupying the role of super power and certainly not a simple member with no more importance than France!
As always, I am amazed by your sense of sacrifice and general interest. When I think what lies ahead of you, both in cutting the links between you and us (200 commercial deals safeguarded by the Union and which you will need to renegotiate, 80,000 pages of community based laws which you will need to sort through to avoid legal loopholes, the many transactions in euros which will desert you for the Continent) and your need to maintain access to the single market, in particular for your banks and financial services, I can only salute your courage! Ahead of you are years of uncertainty, torment and heartrending moments! I salute you, my English friends ! I hope we will be seen as worthy of your sacrifice! In any case, bonne chance for the lonely journey which awaits you!
http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/2016/06/26/brexit-dearest-english-friends-thank-you/
German, French ministers plan for 'strong Europe in uncertain world'
The foreign ministers of Germany and France have drawn up a nine-page document entitled "A strong Europe in a world of uncertainties" in which they propose common European security and migration policies and strengthened economic convergence.
Acknowledging that the European Union is "being severely put to the test", Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault said the bloc was challenged by a series of crises to its south and east while economic growth was on a slow recovery path. Work on the paper began before Britain voted on Thursday to quit the EU.
"Neither a simple call for more Europe nor a phase of mere reflection can be an adequate answer," Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Jean-Marc Ayrault said in the paper, a copy of which was seen by Reuters.
"To prevent the silent creeping erosion of our European project we have to be more focused on essentials and on meeting the concrete expectations of our citizens," they added.
The two ministers, whose countries are at the core of the EU, said it was important to recognize that member states had different appetites for deepening European integration.
"We have to find better ways of dealing with different levels of ambition so as to ensure that Europe delivers better on the expectations of all European citizens," they said.
To this end they proposed three initiatives:
1. A European Security Compact, under which:
- The EU should establish agreed strategic EU priorities for foreign and security policy and promote an integrated EU policy in these areas.
- Those EU member states willing to establish permanent structured cooperation in the field of defense should be able to do so in a flexible manner.
- If needed, EU member states should consider establishing standing maritime forces or acquiring EU-owned capabilities in other key areas.
2. A common European asylum and migration policy. The ministers said:
- We are determined that the EU should establish the world's first multinational border and coast guard.
- The EU must find a common answer to the rising number of migrants seeking to enter the EU for economic reasons.
- We will work to reduce push factors for irregular migration.
3. Fostering growth and completing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). The ministers said:
- To unlock growth and to increase the productivity of the European economy, a renewed effort for more investment, both private and public, is necessary.
- A deepening of EMU will not come as a big bang but as the result of a pragmatic and gradual evolution.
- An EMU fiscal capacity should start by 2018 at the latest to support investment in the member states most severely hit by the crisis.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-eu-germany-france-idUSKCN0ZC0BQ
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by uskok i ajduk Sun Jun 26, 2016 1:03 pm
Моје искуство са Бурундијем је показало да постоје те аутошовинистичке тенденције, али да се може разговарати, тј. није све тако црно како сам замишљао пре овог искуства.
i ne može da preuzima dodatne obaveze u EU, ali one do tada preuzete važe bar sledeće dve godine. Mogu da traju i duže ako se svi pregovarači sa tim slože. Ishod pregovora može da bude ili ostanak u Uniji ili sporazum o novom tipu odnosa ili prekid postojećih odnosa po isteku dve godine od početka secesije. Posle napuštanja EU, postupak eventualnog povratka je isti kao da se kreće sasvim iz početka.
