Tag: Europe

40 Per Cent of Italians Want to Leave The Euro and the European Union

Chris Tomlinson  – April 24, 2020

Italian anger at the European Union continues to remain high as a poll released this week shows four in ten would like their country to leave both the euro currency and the political bloc.

The Bidimedia poll showed that while 6.1 per cent said they wanted only to leave the EU and 7.1 per cent said they only wanted to leave the euro, 40 per cent said they back pulling out of both institutions. Meanwhile, 41.7 per cent of Italians prefer to remain in both, Il Giornale reports.

The vast majority of Italians, some 59.9 per cent, said they were against the use of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), an EU bailout fund that could loan the country money and has been proposed as a way to combat the effects of the Wuhan coronavirus.

Use of the ESM had also been suggested last December but was heavily rejected by populist Italian Senator Matteo Salvini who said it “would sanction a sale of unbalanced national sovereignty” and claimed that Germany and its banks would be the real beneficiary.

Earlier this month, members of the Five Star Movement, who form the current Italian ruling coalition with the leftist Democratic Party, threatened to bring down Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government if the ESM were used.

“I am saying this clearly: if the government has said yes to the ESM, this majority will no longer have my vote,” Five Star Movement Senator Mario Michele Giarrusso said.

Confidence in Prime Minister Conte is also wavering, with the Bidimedia poll showing 43.9 per cent of Italians have no confidence and 11.8 per cent have little confidence in his leadership.

https://www.breitbart.com

Dutch Supreme Court rules doctors can euthanize dementia patients

Christine Rousselle – April 22, 2020

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 22, 2020 / 01:30 pm MT (CNA).- The Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled on Tuesday, April 21, that it is lawful for doctors to euthanize patients with severe dementia, provided that the patient had expressed a desire to be euthanized while still legally capable of doing so.

Lower courts had previously ruled that a doctor had not acted improperly when he euthanized a 74-year-old woman with advanced dementia, even though the woman had to be repeatedly sedated and physically restrained during the procedure. The case was sent to the Supreme Court for further clarification of the country’s euthanasia law, which permits doctors to kill patients considered to be in “unbearable suffering.”

Per Dutch law, euthanasia is only legal for those with dementia if they had written or discussed an advanced directive with their doctor.

“For some people, the prospect of ever suffering from dementia may be sufficient reason to make an advance directive (living will). This can either be drawn up independently or discussed first with the family doctor. A physician can perform euthanasia on a patient with dementia only if such a directive exists, if statutory care is taken and if, in his opinion, the patient is experiencing unbearable suffering with no prospect of improvement,” says the Dutch government’s website.

The woman who resisted her euthanization had written an advanced directive four years prior, requesting the procedure in lieu of being put in a nursing home. In the directive, she had said she wished to “be able to decide while still in my senses and when I think the time is right.”

Prosecutors argued that her attempt to fight off the doctor indicated that she could have changed her mind, but was unable to verbally communicate.

Dr. Charles Camosy, a professor at Fordham University and bioethicist, told CNA that the supreme court decision is part of a legal “slippery slope” in the Netherlands on euthanasia. Camosy said that patients with conditions including mental deterioration will be at the heart of future debate.

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com

After Coronavirus Response Failures, Almost Half of Italians Want to Leave the EU

Chris Tomlinson – April 14, 2020

A Tecnè poll has revealed that Italians are becoming more and more critical of the European Union, with 49 per cent saying they want Italy out.

Just 51 per cent of the Italian public said they want to remain in the EU, which has been widely criticised across the country for lack of solidarity with Italy since the start of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.

The poll is a far cry from previous surveys, according to newspaper Il Giornale, which cited a November 2018 study which showed consensus was far more favourable to the European Union, saying opposition to an Italian exit has fallen by 20 per cent in two years.

The EU reaction to the Italian coronavirus outbreak, which has led to the deaths of more than 20,000 people across the country so far, led to some Italians burning EU flags on social media and Italian politicians taking down EU flags from offices and public spaces in protest.

The reaction from Italians led European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen to issue an apology earlier this month that was published by newspaper La Repubblica.

“It must be acknowledged that in the first days of the crisis, faced with the need for a common European response, too many have thought only of the problems of their own homes,” she said and added: “They did not realise that we can defeat this pandemic only together, as a Union. It was malicious behaviour and could have been avoided.”

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte later issued a warning to the EU saying that the political bloc may collapse if other member states do not act with solidarity and help countries most affected by coronavirus.

https://www.breitbart.com

‘Risk of Failure Real’: Italy’s PM Giuseppe Conte Warns Coronavirus Could Bring About EU’s Downfall

Sputnik News – April 9, 2020

As Europe has become the epicentre of the coronavirus epidemic, with almost 700,000 confirmed cases, and Italy particularly hard-hit, the pandemic has become a stress-test for EU unity, as stark differences have thwarted an agreement on more support for coronavirus-hit economies, with talks suspended.

Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has warned that the European Union risks failing amid the coronavirus global pandemic, reported the BBC.

According to Conte, the EU must “rise to the challenge” of what he referred to as “the biggest test since the Second World War” and take concerted efforts to extend much-needed aid to the countries that were worst hit by the spread of the COVID-19 respiratory virus.

The Italian Prime Minister insisted that Europe’s leaders were “facing an appointment with history”.

“If we do not seize the opportunity to put new life into the European project, the risk of failure is real,” said Conte.

As the infection rate in Italy shows signs of decelerating, and the death toll gradually starting to diminish, Giuseppe Conte warned viewers  against lowering their guard and emphasised that the national lockdown could only be eased slowly.

https://sputniknews.com

European leaders warn coronavirus could lead to the breakup of their union

Loveday Morris, Michael Birnbaum – April 1, 2020

BERLIN —The coronavirus pandemic, with its simultaneous health and economic crises, is

deepening fault lines within Europe in a way some leaders fear could prove to be a final reckoning.

The cohesion of the European Union had been battered by Brexit, bruised by the political fallout from the 2015 migration surge and the 2008 financial crisis, and challenged by rising autocracy in the east that runs contrary to the professed ideals of the European project.

Now, if Europe’s leaders cannot chart a more united course, the project lies in what one of its architects described this week as “mortal danger.”

In the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, the response among European Union member states showed that national interests trump more-altruistic European ideals. Border restrictions were reimposed haphazardly, and Germany and France threw up export bans on medical equipment such as masks and ventilators, even as Italy clamored for assistance.

Quick to capitalize were the propaganda machines of Russia and China. Moscow and Beijing have swept in with much-trumpeted — if sometimes defective — medical aid, pushing a savior narrative and providing fodder for the region’s Euroskeptics.

E.U. countries have begun to coordinate their efforts to procure supplies, and they have sent more aid to hard-hit Italy than China has. But the past week has seen a reemergence of a north-south rift over how to handle the economic response. The union is also being pulled east and west, as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has used emergency powers to effectively suspend democracy, riding roughshod over Europe’s basic principles of the rule of law.

Collectively, these tensions could overwhelm the alliance.

https://www.msn.com

Do or Die: There’s Only One Way for the EU to Avoid Breakup Amid COVID-19 Recession

Sputnik News – April 3, 2020

Twelve years after the 2008 global economic crisis the future of the European bloc is in question again as the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed deep internal divisions at a time when a common solution is needed, economic observers say, predicting the potential demise of the EU.

On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron warned EU member states that the coronavirus crisis may shatter the pillars of the bloc and bring an end to the no-border Schengen Zone unless the countries in the union demonstrate solidarity.

“What’s at stake is the survival of the European project”, Macron told his fellow EU leaders during a conference call on 26 March. “The risk we are facing is the death of Schengen”.

On 17 March, European leaders announced that they had agreed to shut the EU’s external borders down for 30 days in a bid to slow the coronavirus spread. However, 14 of the bloc’s 27 members have closed their internal borders either completely or partially thus throwing the EU no-border concept into question.

Likewise, EU member states have failed to reach a compromise on debt-sharing amid the COVID-19-driven economic slowdown. Nine EU countries, namely, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, and Slovenia are urging the union to issue so-called “corona bonds”, i.e. a common debt instrument aimed at raising funds on the market. The so-called “Frugal Four” – Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, and Finland  are resisting the measure.

Observers are sounding the alarm over the unfolding split within the Eurozone, suggesting that though the 2008 financial crisis fell short of axing the bloc’s common currency the coronavirus crisis might end with the breakup of the EU.

https://sputniknews.com

‘Assisted suicide an NHS moneysaver’, ‘disturbing’ report says

Christian Insitute – March 18, 2020

Academics in Scotland have been criticised for suggesting that legalising assisted suicide would financially benefit the NHS.

Ethicist Dr David Shaw and healthcare economist Professor Alec Morton say it would be “irresponsible not to consider” the economic costs of denying assisted suicide.

Dr Gordon Macdonald, Chief Executive of Care Not Killing, called the report “highly disturbing”.

Dr Macdonald said: “Very quickly the argument moves from that of personal autonomy to doctors and nurses making value judgments about the quality of other people’s lives while seeking to save money and tackle so-called ‘bed blocking’ in health services.”

He cited the situation in the US states of Oregon and Washington, where “a majority of those ending their lives cite fear of being a burden on their families and finances.

“We have also seen cancer patients denied life-saving and life-extending treatments due to their cost but offered the drugs to end their lives”.

The study claimed legalization would be positive, as helping some patients to kill themselves would free up resources for other patients.

The researchers also said the controversial practice should be legalized because where patients die naturally, their organs deteriorate and are less likely to be viable for transplant.

In the Netherlands and Belgium it is already possible for organs to be donated following an assisted suicide.

https://www.christian.org.uk

Europe Under Siege

Bruce Bawer – March 10, 2020

In 1683 a massive army of the Ottoman Empire laid siege to the Christian city of Vienna. After two months, an allied force that consisted of men from all over the Holy Roman Empire and from other central European states, including Hungary, and that was led by John III Sobieski, the King of Poland and Lithuania, turned the Ottoman soldiers back, preventing the potential Islamization of the continent.

In recent days, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of the Ottoman Empire’s successor state, Turkey, has unleashed thousands of Muslims, mostly young males of military age, upon the European Union, today’s not-so-holy but increasingly imperial reincarnation of the Holy Roman Empire. More specifically, Erdogan, in violation of an agreement with the EU that netted him billions, has allowed – and encouraged – these people, who have been routinely described in the Western media as “refugees” and “migrants,” to storm the border separating his country from the EU’s southeasternmost satrapy, Greece. Indeed, he’s lent them active support, providing many of them with free transport to the border, which they’ve attacked with rocks, “makeshift battering rams,” and tear-gas canisters (supplied by Ergodan) while setting fires and shouting “Allahu akbar!” Photos taken at the border underscore just how perverse it is to call these thugs “refugees” or “migrants.”

Seems like old times. What’s different this time around is that whereas seventeenth-century Europeans understood that they were confronting, in the Islamic invaders of their day, an existential threat to their way of life, many of their descendants don’t seem to have a clue about what they’re dealing with. On Tuesday of last week, and again on Saturday, thousands of Germans, rallying in Berlin and other cities, demanded that the “migrants” on the Greek borders be allowed to pour into the continent and to find their way to Germany, if they wish, so that they can help form “a solidarity society” in which there will be “no more suffering.”

https://www.frontpagemag.com

‘Can No Longer Afford NATO?’ Twitter Aboil as Johnson Vows Historic Overhaul of Post-Brexit Defence

Sputnik News – February 26, 2020

Boris Johnson has ordered a major overhaul of Britain’s defence sector as part of a government review to determine the county’s post-Brexit course and ensure the nation is prepared for any potential threats, the BBC reported.

For the first time in decades, it will also cover the UK’s overseas operations, including aid cash.

Whitehall hopes insights from internal and external experts will challenge “traditional Whitehall assumptions”, regarding the diplomatic service, use of technology, tackling organized crime, etc.

Announcing the review, Boris said last night: “We must do more to adapt. We will be judged by how we respond to the opportunities ahead”, noting the UK could not “rest on our laurels”.

“As the world changes we must move with it – harnessing new technologies and ways of thinking to ensure British foreign policy is rooted firmly in our national interests, now and in the decades ahead”, the prime minister explained.

The government says it is set to “utilise expertise from both inside and outside government for the review, ensuring the UK’s best foreign policy minds are feeding into its conclusions and offering constructive challenges to traditional Whitehall assumptions and thinking”.

The UK’s last comprehensive security and defence review was completed in late 2015, before Britain voted to leave the EU. The new one, first announced by Johnson during his election as the “biggest since the Cold War” is expected to be outlined in a formal statement later on.

https://sputniknews.com

‘Dominoes to Start Toppling’: Ex-Brexit Party MEP ‘Foretells’ Next Country to Leave EU

Sputnik News – February 16, 2020

Following the UK’s official exit from the EU on 31 January, all eyes currently are on Britain’s efforts to clinch new trade deals with other countries as well as the bloc during an 11-month transition period.

Former Brexit Party MEP Martin Daubney has claimed that proof of successful life post-Brexit may prod the EU’s “dominoes to topple”, making other bloc members officially announce their bids to withdraw from the organisation.

In an interview with the Daily Express on Sunday, Daubney referred to his brief stint in the European Parliament, during which he heard increasing anti-EU sentiments among a whole array of member states which are now “watching what happens next.”

“It’s amazing how many friends we’ve made. We’ve not been these renegades, we’ve got a lot of mates from the German, the Polish. They’ve been giving us a standing ovation when we put our flags on our desks, standing up for the national flag. Make no mistake, eurosceptics are watching what happens next”, he said.

Daubney asserted in this context that it will be Germany that may become next member to exit from the EU if Britain provides it with “evidence” of success outside the bloc.

“If we can forge it on our own, we can go ahead and strike out and become a huge international force without the EU”, he said, adding that the Germans, who “like evidence” may follow suit.

“When they see the evidence that you can stand outside the EU, I think the dominoes are going to start toppling. We’re the first to go, we’re not the last”, Daubney claimed.

https://sputniknews.com