When the EU picked a new Commission President six months ago, Jean-Claude Juncker was Angela Merkel's favorite for the job.
The last administration was known for keeping a low profile and quiet understatement that bordered on uncommunicative. When Juncker began, the press expected more bland statements.
When Juncker appeared before the press, holding hands with a leftist, Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras, of all people, there were gasps, laughter, and light applause. Holding hands? With Tsipras? What could it mean? They speculated for days.
Now, as Juncker's administration gets rolling, he comes out with this surprise. Only time will tell what it really means. There are some hints laying around, barely visible trough the permanent fog that has descended upon the United States.
The European Union needs its own army to face up to Russia and other threats, as well as to restore the bloc's standing around the world, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a German newspaper yesterday.
Arguing that NATO was not enough because not all members of the transatlantic defense alliance are in the EU, Juncker said a common EU army would send important signals to the world.
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Coinciding with Juncker's statement, EU Council President, Donald Tusk, met with President Obama in the White House. Tusk, a political leader from Poland, is the 'other' EU President. He represents a school of thought that remains popular in Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. They look at Russia and they see existential danger. (That feeling may be mutual. While US Progressives contort themselves to reach peculiar, unsustainable, and I suppose, uncomfortable positions, regarding that region, the Left of the Left in the EU is clear where it stands. It's not pro-anyone or anti-anyone. It's pro-Peace and Security.)
Tusk to Obama: Russia is trying to divide us
Council President Donald Tusk, who met Monday in Washington with US President Barack Obama, said that Russia is trying to divide EU member countries, and also divide the EU from the USA. |
Before the meeting, Tusk spoke to the press about the need for unity, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, and Ukraine.
There's more to the divide than Russia. When Tusk finished speaking, a reporter called out to the President: Can you comment on the Republican letter to Iran? Can you comment on that?
Do Americans even know that Donald Tusk witnessed rightwing extremists shitting all over their President in front of his eyes? The Council he heads, includes Germany, France, and the UK and they, too, are parties to the talks with Iran. The rightwing extremists really shit on all of them.
US rightwing extremists clashed with Angela Merkel at the Munich Security Conference
a month ago. Merkel opposes the export of arms to Ukraine. The problem isn't that they don't have arms. It's that they do. Europeans are very familiar with the American fantasy of good guys with guns. When you fill a land mass with weapons, the result is obvious. They fall into the wrong hands.
A delegation (Lindsey Graham, Bob Corker, Kelly Ayotte, Ted Cruz, Joni Ernst) headed by McCain insisted otherwise.
Vice-President Biden led the Democrats: (Chris Murphy, Sheldon Whitehouse, Jeanne Shaheen, Cory Booker.)
Merkel left the conference, shuttled to Moscow to meet Putin, then proceeded directly to DC where she briefed Obama at the White House.
The US media garbled the story so it came across as a clash between Obama and Merkel, and criticism for Obama for refusing to arm Ukraine. It was all mixed up.
If Americans can't see through the thick fog that has descended on their land, there's no fog in the EU and people there can see what's happening here very clearly.
I told you one year ago, March 12, 2014, right here at Daily Kos, that the European Parliament passed a bill, 544-78, calling for:
- an end to blanket mass surveillance by the NSA,
- Removal of data transfer provisions from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) free-trade deal with the US,
- Approval of TTIP conditioned upon the US fully respecting EU fundamental rights.
The US promised reform legislation, but it never came. Instead, the EU observed that the US Government filed a brief on Monday in the Second Circuit Court to compel Microsoft to turn over emails being held in a data storage center in Dublin, Ireland. Never mind whether an EU-person’s private data could be secured behind a wall in the EU, as suggested a year ago, if the US Court decides that the government’s warrant authority has extraterritorial reach.
The Investor/State Dispute Settlement provisions of TTIP would expedite the legal process for the US.
TTIP was already unpopular because the secrecy and lack of transparency about the negotiations aren’t acceptable in the EU. The negotiating texts were released one month ago. Germany and France co-signed each others' concerns about ISDS as a pair.
They also participate with the United Kingdom in the P5+1 nuclear non-proliferation negotiations with Iran. International cooperation of any kind, requires mutual trust.
There's an endless reservoir of good will for Americans in the EU. There has also been concern in recent years that rightwing extremism would become a danger. Instead of building trust, danger is becoming more apparent. The EU would be reluctant to meddle in US internal matters like rightwing extremism, as long as it remains internal. When it becomes a danger to them, and to the world, they will react. We're on the threshold of it now.
The Republicans' Dear Iran letter was a wake-up call. They played right into the hands of the very people they identify as a dangerous opponent.
I could see that there would be a separation between the EU and the US a year ago, unless trust was repaired and restored. This is just the beginning.