European Union, member states and Agencies

John Fedup

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
SolarisKenzo said:
How will this be fund?
Many doubts...
www.euractiv.com

European Commission mulls new European Defence Act before end of year

The European Commission plans to propose a new 'European Defence Production Act' to boost the bloc's defence industrial base, from research to joint procurement, to help EU member states better face future crises.
www.euractiv.com www.euractiv.com
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As per the article, the Ukraine war has illustrated the need for large stocks of traditional ammo like 155 mm shells. The continuous use of tube artillery also means producing new barrels and the same applies to tanks. A European HIMARS complete with a range of suitable missiles should be undertaken. This basic essential kit is something that certainly should be funded NOW. At some point Europe can expect to see Chinese kit coming to Russia along with support for expansion of Russian production. If Europe can’t manage the above, they should begin a massive training program for Russian language studies (maybe add Mandarin as well). The US is looking towards Asia-Pacific and Europe is becoming a distant second priority.
 
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swerve

Super Moderator
SAAB has tied up with Boeing, Nammo & Nordic Shelter to produce the GL-SDB, an SDB launched by an M26 rocket. There's a massive stockpile of M26 rockets at the moment. It strikes me that it's probably possible to do the same with the MBDA Smartglider Light. It's very close in size & weight to the SDB. SMARTGLIDER | Air Dominance, TACTICAL STRIKE | MBDA
 
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SolarisKenzo

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John Fedup said:
As per the article, the Ukraine war has illustrated the need for large stocks of traditional ammo like 155 mm shells. The continuous use of tube artillery also means producing new barrels and the same applies to tanks. A European HIMARS complete with a range of suitable missiles should be undertaken. This basic essential kit is something that certainly should be funded NOW. At some point Europe can expect to see Chinese kit coming to Russia along with support for expansion of Russian production. If Europe can’t manage the above, they should begin a massive training program for Russian language studies (maybe add Mandarin as well). The US is looking towards Asia-Pacific and Europe is becoming a distant second priority.
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A new 155mm design and a new modular MLRS multi-caliber are both part of the 2023 EDF programs.

defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu

European Defence Fund (EDF) - Official Webpage of the European Commission.

European Defence Fund (EDF) - Official Webpage of the European Commission.
defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu
 
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SolarisKenzo

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Tomorrow President VdL will hold the annual SOTEU speech.
Every public network and television, together with most of EU media will live-broadcast the speech.

www.euractiv.com

SOTEU: Little new policy but plenty of politics ahead of von der Leyen's key speech

The text of Ursula von der Leyen’s last State of the Union speech before next June’s European elections is one of the best-kept secrets in Brussels. However, little of the policy content will come as a big surprise: Migration control and the implementation of the Green Deal will likely be at its...
www.euractiv.com www.euractiv.com

It is arguably the most important moment of the year of the EU.
 
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SolarisKenzo

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The EU Parliament presented a proposal for the amendament of Treaties.
You can read it here if you are interested.

Here the SOTEU 2023 official page:
state-of-the-union.ec.europa.eu

State of the Union

In her yearly State of the Union speech, the President of the European Commission takes stock of the achievements of the European Union and outlines the priorities for the year to come.
state-of-the-union.ec.europa.eu state-of-the-union.ec.europa.eu
 
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SolarisKenzo

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European Parliament approved with vast majority the MFA ( Media Freedom Act ).
The new regulation will give more powers to Bruxelles and prevent member states from manipulating medias for political reasons.
The use of spyware will be allowed if the Media is suspected, by a court or an EU-Agency like EPPO or EUROPOL, to be involved in terrorism, foreign disinformation and other serious crimes.

 
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SolarisKenzo

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Europe was unfortunately hit by a terrorist attack a few hours ago.
2 people dead, the police confirmed the terrorist is linked to an Islamic group.

www.euronews.com

Police in Belgium say two people killed in a shooting in Brussels

The shooting comes at a time of increased vigilance linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has heightened tension in several European nations.
www.euronews.com www.euronews.com

www.euractiv.com

Two dead in Brussels terrorist attack with gunman at large

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - An unidentified shooter killed two people near the centre of Brussels on Monday evening (16 October), in what Belgian officials condemned as a 'terrorist attack', prompting the country to raise its terror threat level to 4, the highest since 2016.
www.euractiv.com www.euractiv.com

Talks were already happening in Bruxelles about giving green light to the member states and the EU agencies to do a mass screening of all the possible radicalized migrants.
Laws are already very strict in Europe and many muslims are under control of the police thanks to emergency laws approved after the Paris Bataclan attacks.
EU member states makes vast use of spying devices and softwares on those people.
This attack will only speed that up.
 
V

Volkodav

The Bunker Group
Verified Defense Pro
Meriv90 said:
www.reuters.com

Australia, EU say trade deal likely years away after rejecting terms

Australia has rejected European Union proposals for a free trade agreement, and a deal is now unlikely to be reached for several years, Australian government ministers said on Monday.
www.reuters.com www.reuters.com

I think it is relevant considering the AUKUS deal. Wondering how much of the theorized 100bln benefits is on Australian side and how much on EU side
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Previously the free trade agreements Australia went into were at the expense of our manufacturing, science and technology, and primarily intended to remove barriers for our primary industries.
 
John Fedup

John Fedup

The Bunker Group
By no means an expert on FTAs but it seems to me agriculture is often an obstacle. What is surprising is agriculture as a percentage of GDP is around 2% for Canada, Europe, Australia, and the USA. It appears farmers can pressure pollies effectively.
 
M

Meriv90

Active Member
Let me show you where EU budget goes.

33% of the budget of the union goes towards the CAP, Common agriculture policy.


The EU’s 2021-2027 long-term budget and NextGenerationEU - Publications Office of the EU

Details of the publication
op.europa.eu op.europa.eu

When we got German potatoes or French onions in Africa, killing their local economy thanks to Eu dumping, we cannot complain about being flooded by migrants when we don't let not even their agriculture to develop.

I'm half Bolivian, it was the same when the USA financed the removal of coca leaf fields but then our products, our fruits would meet tariffs in the US when we tried to export.

IMHO EU should cut hugely on the CAP and use that money towards foreign policy (meaning also military) yes becoming more dependent on South America and Africa but at the same time building the tools to manage that relationship in order to keep the food safety of the union.

Depending more on Brazil food or Australian minerals, but being able to send carrier groups in case of need.
 
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swerve

Super Moderator
Without the CAP, European countries subsidised agriculture heavily. The UK did before it joined the EEC/EU, Norway & Switzerland do, & IIRC one reason why neither has joined the EU is that the EU doesn't allow subsidies as lavish as theirs. . . . Even agricultural exporters subsidise farmers, often to produce surpluses which are hard to get rid of. The USA, for example, heavily subsidises maize production, resulting in a vast quantity of corn syrup being produced & being very cheap, used lavishly.

That doesn't mean I agree with the CAP or the production subsidies elsewhere. They're expensive, & often produce horrible effects. But the EU is neither uniquely guilty nor (in proportion to its size & wealth) the worst offender. It's a general problem, & criticism should be general.
 
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SolarisKenzo

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Ananda

Ananda

The Bunker Group
www.theguardian.com

Geert Wilders: the Dutch far-right figurehead sending a chill across Europe

After 20 years as a political outlier, the leader of the Netherlands’ anti-immigration Freedom party is closer to power than ever before
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

This is quite an upset from my understanding (talking to couple of Dutch colleagues). However this trend going to the right seems gaining momentum in some Euro Zone nations. Personally I never seen Wilders as big political figures before. For Indonesian, he's known as Dutch Politicians that has colonial attitude behavior to Indonesia.

Still this trend as my Dutch colleagues implies, rise not only from Immigration issue, but also economics priorities. The war in Ukraine can also be a factor as some in Right wing see Euro should not spend more money to keep propping up Ukraine.

Anyway Wilders not only have historical rethorics against Immigration, Islam, but also EU. Will trend against Brussels bureaucrats that come in Hungary, now going to be Implified in Western part of Euro Zone? After all Amsterdam only stone away from Brussels.
 
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SolarisKenzo

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Ananda said:
www.theguardian.com

Geert Wilders: the Dutch far-right figurehead sending a chill across Europe

After 20 years as a political outlier, the leader of the Netherlands’ anti-immigration Freedom party is closer to power than ever before
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com

This is quite an upset from my understanding (talking to couple of Dutch colleagues). However this trend going to the right seems gaining momentum in some Euro Zone nations. Personally I never seen Wilders as big political figures before. For Indonesian, he's known as Dutch Politicians that has colonial attitude behavior to Indonesia.

Still this trend as my Dutch colleagues implies, rise not only from Immigration issue, but also economics priorities. The war in Ukraine can also be a factor as some in Right wing see Euro should not spend more money to keep propping up Ukraine.

Anyway Wilders not only have historical rethorics against Immigration, Islam, but also EU. Will trend against Brussels bureaucrats that come in Hungary, now going to be Implified in Western part of Euro Zone? After all Amsterdam only stone away from Brussels.
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This is to be seen as anti-islamic vote.
The EU is not a matter of discussion in any member state, what I mean is that no one is going to interfere with the EU institutions apart from small situations (like Hungary with economic assistance for Ukraine, Poland regarding some rule-of-law matters, etc etc).
There is of course the danger that these people will slow down the EU integration process, and thats a fact and from my point of view a very important and difficult one, but the EU itself is a very solid thing also amongst europeans.

Good results from right wing parties are to be seen mostly from an anti-islamic and anti-immigrants perspective.
Europe is very different from the US, for example, but in many ways immigrants live way better in America.
It is extremely difficult for an immigrant to get citizenship and the vast majority are employed in very poor jobs (garbage collectors, waiters, dishwashers, bricklayers,...)

While skin color is not very important for europeans, you must always remember that Europe is an historically christian continent and muslim are seen with great distrust.
Islamic terrorism is taken extremely seriously and the 2015 Paris attacks and 2016 Berlin/Munich attacks are still huge here and have since then created a very tough life for muslims.
Police in Europe is known to be extremely careful when using force and barely kills anyone in the entire continent during a whole year.
This does not apply to islamic terrorists, they are usually killed without hesitation.

Also, I can give as a European, a view regarding the colonialist attitude you talk about.
I am of course not aware of what the situation is in Indonesia, but colonialism is absolutely irrelevant here, we dont even talk about it at all.
Europe still owns a lot of overseas territories and we really dont bother about former colonies.
It was what it was, europeans stopped even thiking about colonialism a long time ago.

Overseas Countries and Territories

Thirteen Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) are associated with the European Union.
www.eeas.europa.eu www.eeas.europa.eu

1700729405956.png

I dont think Wilders is a colonialist, he's probably more of a racist than everything.
 
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Ananda

Ananda

The Bunker Group
SolarisKenzo said:
Good results from right wing parties are to be seen mostly from an anti-islamic and anti-immigrants perspective.
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Wilders anti Immigration and Muslims is widely expected and known. However when I talk with my colleagues, we talk mostly on market perspective. Wilders also playing well into anti EU integration campaign.

SolarisKenzo said:
There is of course the danger that these people will slow down the EU integration process, and thats a fact and from my point of view a very important and difficult one, but the EU itself is a very solid thing also amongst europeans.
Click to expand...
Personally I'm more interested on this Right Wing Trend effect toward the EU matter. Cause from what I gather from my Euro Desks Colleagues, matter of taking back financial and fiscal sovereignty from EU increasing become beacon to the right wing trend. Some even more so then usual anti immigration and anti Muslim stance.

Anything that can disrupt market and economic policies is more matter in my opinion. On matter of Immigration, as an Asian I can't talk or even put criticism on Euro zone Immigration policies. Asian as whole are more stringent on Immigration policies.

Immigration always related to laborers shortages. Japan and ROK begin to open more on foreign labor mostly due to demographic changes. Mostly the foreign laborers come from SEA where Japan and ROK companies also open industrial and businesses facilities. Many the laborers ussualy back to home countries after several years, some back to Japan and ROK companies in their respective countries. Thus illegal immigration ussualy less then problem so far. So situation bit different then with Euro zone. I suspect the issue is always back to where Euro zone wants to source their own labors from now on.

SolarisKenzo said:
am of course not aware of what the situation is in Indonesia, but colonialism is absolutely irrelevant here, we dont even talk about it at all.
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Well when I put Wilders known in Indonesian have colonial attitudes, more to his perspective toward any issue with Indonesia. He is more behaving like he has moral high ground on lecturing Indonesian. Just like old time colonial masters. Perhaps related to some of his ancestors come from Dutch East Indies. He's perhaps still has some grudges to Indonesian that dare to break up and dissolve Dutch East Indies.
 
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