Tag: European Union

Russia Says Security Guarantees For Ukraine Are A “Prologue To Third World War”

– September 14, 2022

There has been a lot of chatter about a third world war. In fact, Pope Francis has said twice now that the world is already in WW3 and Russia is now saying that security guarantees from NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) are a “prologue to a third world war.”

The Kremlin made the comments in response to requests from Ukraine to supply it with a “NATO-esque” bloc that can be called upon to immediately defend borders with Russia. This was proposed by a working group established by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The Kremlin’s reaction to Ukraine’s demand has been swift and fierce, with Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia Dmitry Medvedev warning that it is “really a prologue to the Third World War” if it gets enacted. He described a nuclear holocaust that would be the end result, according to the Odessa Journal. 

“Everything will flare up around them. Their people will seize grief to the fullest. Their earth will literally burn, and concrete will melt. We will also get a lot. It will be very bad for everyone,” Medvedev added.

Medvedev also warned the West against continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons. “If the pumping of the Kyiv regime with the most dangerous types of weapons continues, the military campaign will move to another level sooner or later. Visible boundaries and potential predictability of the parties’ actions to the conflict will disappear. It will follow its own military scenario, attracting new participants to it,” writes Medvedev.

Russia continues to punish the West, more specifically the European Union for the sanctions placed on it over the Ukraine “invasion.” Almost everything right now can be seen as instigation and ramping up of rhetoric. If it continues, it will explode in the third world war the ruling classes seem intent upon igniting.

https://www.shtfplan.com

EU plans Sept 30 summit to greenlight emergency energy plans

– September 13, 2022

European Union energy ministers will attempt to approve new bloc-wide measures to pull down soaring gas and power prices at an emergency summit on Sept. 30, after Brussels announces the proposals this week.

The European Commission is drafting a package of measures aimed at cushioning individuals and businesses from surging energy costs that are stoking record-high inflation, hampering industrial activity and inflicting sky-high bills upon households ahead of winter.

Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said on Tuesday EU countries’ energy ministers will hold an emergency summit, giving countries an opportunity to sign off on the EU proposals – and overcome the divisions between countries on the best way to tackle the crisis.

“On September 30, we will finish what we started last week,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said in a tweet, referring to a meeting where EU ministers debated the energy measures.

“I have just convened another extraordinary Energy Council to discuss the Commission’s proposals for dealing with high energy prices,” Sikela said.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen is expected to unveil the proposals in a speech on Wednesday – firing the starting gun on two weeks of intense negotiations, in which the EU’s 27 member countries will attempt to redraft the proposals into final laws that they can all approve.

A draft of the Commission proposals, seen by Reuters, would impose a cap on the revenues non-gas fuelled generators can make from selling their electricity, and force fossil fuel firms to share excess profits. Governments would be required to use the cash to help consumers and companies facing sky-high energy bills.

EU diplomats say there is broad support for the revenue cap for non-gas generators, as well as plans to impose electricity demand cuts. But countries are split over other ideas – including a gas price cap, which was not included in the draft Commission proposals.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk

Europe has now entered its worst drought in 500 years

– August 28, 2022

Europe is facing its worst drought in 500 years, with two-thirds of the continent under a “warning” or “alert,” a study by the European Commission has discovered.

Preliminary data from the European Drought Observatory found that 47% of Europe is under warning conditions, meaning the soil has a clear deficit of moisture. An additional 17% of the continent is in a state of alert, meaning vegetation is under stress.

Across Europe, hot, dry conditions have threatened livestock and increased crop failure. According to the report, grain yields are expected to fall 16% below the average for the past five years. Forecasts for soybean and sunflower yields are also set to fall by 15% and 12%, respectively.

“The severe drought affecting many regions of Europe since the beginning of the year has been further expanding and worsening as of early August,” the report said.

Countries along Europe’s Mediterranean coast, such as Italy, France, and Spain, are likely to see warmer and drier conditions until November. Mariya Gabriel, research commissioner for the European Union, said the ongoing heat waves and water shortages have created “unprecedented stress on water levels in the entire EU.”

Gabriel added: “We are currently noticing a wildfire season sensibly above the average and an important impact on crop production. Climate change is undoubtedly more noticeable every year.” The report also warned that most of Europe’s rivers have seen a drop in water level, with riverbeds in Germany and France drying up.

Sections of Germany’s River Rhine have completely dried up, disrupting shipping in the country’s most important inland waterway. German officials told CNN on Aug. 12 that levels of water in the river had fallen “exceptionally low.”

Receding water levels have uncovered artifacts from below the depths, including shipwrecks, world war relics and “hunger stones” — rocks placed throughout the centuries to mark water levels during historic droughts — inscribed with warnings to future generations. (Yahoo News)

https://endtimeheadlines.org

German Chancellor Demands Bigger EU, Less National Sovereignty for Members

Breitbart London – August 29, 2022

PRAGUE (AP) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Monday for a growing European Union to agree on a series of changes that would help it overcome internal divisions and stand up to external rivals such as Russia and China.

In a wide-ranging speech at Charles University in Prague, Scholz said the EU must make itself “fit” for future enlargement from 27 to 30 — or even 36 — nations by taking more decisions by majority vote, rather than requiring unanimity on all issues that has in the past allowed individual member states to veto key decisions.

“We have to remember that swearing allegiance to the principle of unanimity only works for as long as the pressure to act is low,” Scholz said, arguing that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was a wake-up call for the EU to change the way it takes decisions.

Scholz suggested allowing majority decisions on pressing issues such as sanctions or human rights policy, with those unwilling to explicitly back a vote having the option to abstain without blocking unanimity.

The German leader also backed calls to reconsider the composition of the European Parliament, which currently has 751 deputies, to prevent it becoming “bloated” through future expansion. A similar reform of the way each member state is represented in the bloc’s executive Commission could see commissioners share responsibility in certain areas, he said.

With Europe lagging behind global rivals when it comes to digitalization and space exploration, Scholz said the EU could become a global leader in the transition to a greener economy that would also help it become less dependent on foreign energy suppliers.

In his address, Scholz repeatedly cited the threat posed to the EU by Russia under its authoritarian president, warning that “any disunity among us, any weakness, is grist to (Vladimir) Putin´s mill.”

“We must close ranks, resolve old conflicts and find new solutions,” he said, noting that the bloc needs to overcome long-running tensions among its members on the issues of migration and fiscal policy.

https://www.breitbart.com

UN General Assembly moves closer to adopting resolution declaring abortion a ‘human right’

Samantha Kamman – August 24, 2022

Delegates at the United Nations General Assembly are finalizing negotiations on a resolution that would require all U.N. agencies to declare abortion a human right, reportedly due to pressure from the European Union and the Biden administration.

The resolution contains language about abortion that has reportedly been rejected in other resolutions over the past decade. As the Center for Family and Human Rights (C-Fam) earlier reported, it’s being considered for adoption by the end of the month.

According to C-Fam, the resolution declares that governments should secure “access to safe abortion” as a matter of policy and “ensure the promotion and protection of the human rights of all women and their sexual and reproductive health.”

Western countries backing the resolution reportedly forced the inclusion of this language. Although a Japanese diplomat leading the negotiations stated that delegations could not alter the language on abortion, it remained despite repeat objections, according to C-Fam.

The resolution’s language does not outright declare abortion an international human right and includes the caveat “where such services are permitted by law.”

“The European Union and the U.S. government are trying to undermine the long-standing consensus of the General Assembly that abortion is an issue that should be decided at the national level without external interference from the United Nations,” Stefano Gennarini, vice president for legal studies at C-Fam, said in an emailed statement to The Christian Post on Monday.

Gennarini said that both had done this “intermittently” for over 30 years, but he believes they have made it a priority now due to the U.S. Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade in June.

https://www.christianpost.com

Global Food Crisis: ‘Perfect Storm’ of World Hunger Thanks to the Ukraine Crisis and COVID Could Starve Millions

Peter Caddle – May 5, 2022

Millions are at risk of starvation thanks to COVID and the ongoing war in Ukraine, both of which have helped create a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

Experts have warned that millions of people across the world are on the brink of starvation thanks to a “perfect storm” of a global food crisis.

A report by the Global Network Against Food Crises — a multinational organisation founded by the European Union as well as various United Nations bodies — found that 2021 represented the worst year for world hunger, but that things could soon get a whole lot worse thanks to a wide variety of ongoing geopolitical problems.

According to the organisation’s annual Global Report on Food Crises, 193 million people face acute food insecurity in 2021, which they define as being in a state where a person’s food intake is so low as to put their lives or livelihoods in immediate danger.

By far the single largest cause of this food insecurity last year was conflict, while the issue of economic shocks and climate change came in as very distant second and third place causes respectively.

However, despite how bad things got last year, experts who participated in the creation and publication of the report now fear that things could get a whole lot worse in 2022 as a result of a wide number of ongoing crises.

“Acute hunger is soaring to unprecedented levels and the global situation just keeps on getting worse,” said David Beasley, a former Republican Party governor who now serves as the executive director of the World Food Programme.

“Conflict, the climate crisis, COVID-19 and surging food and fuel costs have created a perfect storm — and now we’ve got the war in Ukraine piling catastrophe on top of catastrophe,” he continued. “Millions of people in dozens of countries are being driven to the edge of starvation.”

https://www.breitbart.com

Oil Spikes After EU Says Russian Embargo ‘Imminent’ As Germany Drops Opposition

Tyler Durden – April 28, 2022

After throughout the whole month consistently rejecting a proposed European Union ban on Russian oil, but while also walking a delicate tightrope of opposing Putin’s demand of payments in rubles for Russian energy, Germany is now ready to pull the trigger on an embargo.

It’s another major Berlin U-turn happening in tandem with the decision to send heavy weapons to Ukraine. The Wall Street Journal is citing Berlin government officials who say “Germany is now ready to stop buying Russian oil.”

The WSJ underscores that this “clears the way” for a wider EU ban on Russian oil imports, given that Germany’s resistance was the chief holdout to imposing an embargo before this point.

Further the report indicates that an embargo now seen as “imminent” but it remains that no target date has been set yet, or at least hasn’t been disclosed publicly. While events earlier in the week made clear that this was coming, preparing markets, oil began surging on the news.

Which is not good news for President Biden as gas prices at the pump are already on the rise.

Germany appears to have lifted its objection based on prior negotiations to implement a phased-in Russian oil embargo, similar to the phased approach regarding the coal ban.

Additionally, other countries particularly in eastern Europe have lately appeared willing to step up in taking the pressure off Germany supply – for example Poland says it’s ready to supply a German refinery via Gdansk which is owned by Rosneft.

https://www.zerohedge.com

The U.S. Government Just Admitted That This Is A War That Will Determine Who Will Rule The New World Order

– February 24, 2022

We now have a war that the vast majority of us never wanted.  All of our lives are going to be turned upside down, the global economy is going to be absolutely eviscerated, and countless numbers of people are going to die.  I am very angry with Vladimir Putin and the Russians for launching a full-blown invasion, because it didn’t need to happen.  And I am also very angry with the Biden administration because it would have been so easy to find a diplomatic solution to this crisis.  Unfortunately, the time for diplomacy is now over and World War III has begun.

On Thursday, State Department spokesman Ned Price made a stunning admission regarding what this war is really all about.

According to Price, Russia and China “also want a world order”, but he warned that if they win their world order “would be profoundly illiberal”…

China has given “tacit approval” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, in the judgment of U.S. officials, as part of a joint effort to undermine the institutions that American and allied leaders established to minimize conflict in the decades following World War II.

“Russia and the PRC also want a world order,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Wednesday. “But this is an order that is and would be profoundly illiberal. … It is an order that is, in many ways, destructive rather than additive.”

It would take an entire book to unpack everything that Price said there.

First of all, by stating that Russia and China “also want a world order”, he was tacitly admitting that the United States and other western nations desire to have a “world order” of their own.

And he implied that what we are witnessing is a battle over who will ultimately run the “world order”.

http://endoftheamericandream.com

France’s Macron Calls For Abortion To Be Added To EU’s Fundamental Rights Charter

Cathy Burke – January 19, 2021

French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for abortion to be added to the European Union’s charter of fundamental rights.

Speaking to members of the European Parliament in Strasbourg in eastern France on Wednesday, Macron said the rights charter needed to be revised, the National Catholic Register (NCR) reported.

“We must update this charter to be more explicit on the recognition of the right to abortion or on the protection of the environment,” he said, according to NCR.

“Let us open up this debate freely with our fellow citizens … to breathe new life into the pillar of law that forges this Europe of strong values,” he said.

The European Union charter recognizes the right to life but does not mention abortion.

Macron made the appeal the day after the European Union’s law-making body elected the pro-life politician Roberta Metsola from Malta as its new president, the news outlet noted.

Metsola, at 43 the youngest-ever president of the European Parliament — told Euronews after her election that she would respect the assembly’s majority view in favor of abortion during her renewable term of 2 1/2 years.

“The position of the parliament is unambiguous and unequivocal, and that is also my position,” she said Tuesday, Catholic News Agency reported. “That is exactly what I will do throughout my mandate as president on this issue.”

According to NCR, the European Parliament voted last June in favor of a report describing abortion as “essential healthcare” and seeking to redefine conscientious objection as a “denial of medical care.”

The report also declared violations of “sexual and reproductive health and rights” are “a form of violence against women and girls.”

Most of the EU’s 27 member states permit abortion on demand or broad social grounds, except Malta and Poland, which have strong pro-life laws, NCR reported.

https://www.newsmax.com

Polish Deputy Prime Minister Accuses Germany of Using EU to Create ‘Fourth Reich’

Chris Tomlinson – December 26, 2021

Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński, leader of the country’s governing ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), has accused Germany of trying to create a “Fourth Reich” by pushing for a European Union federal state.

Mr Kaczyński made his comments this week during an interview with Polish media, explaining that the term “Fourth Reich” was not so much a reference to the Third Reich of National Socialist Germany as to the “First Reich” of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Polish conservative added that if his fellow countrymen were to agree to further federalisation of the European Union “we would be degraded in various ways” and said that such a change to the EU would amount to a “modern subjugation” of the Polish people, Kronen Zeitung reports.

The comments come after the new German left-green-liberal coalition government agreed to push for further federalisation of the European Union as part of the “traffic light coalition” deal that was agreed upon earlier this month.

Last week, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his first visit to Poland to meet with Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, with the latter noting his opposition to a centralised EU superstate and saying such a move would be “bureaucratic centralism” and adding that “Europe will be strong if it is a Europe of sovereign states.”

Scholz did, however, express support for Poland’s ongoing migrant crisis engineered by Belarus, with Scholz agreeing that it was a form of “hybrid warfare” during his visit.

“I described to the Chancellor the changed tactics that the [Alexander] Lukashenko regime is now using in this artificially triggered migration crisis, the use of people as living shields, as weapons,” Prime Minister Morawiecki said.

https://www.breitbart.com