No. 207 October 4th 2019

A new EU Commissioner for space and defence.

The EU has created a new defence and space arm to help fund, develop and deploy armed forces. Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen named an ally of French President Emmanuel Macron for the role. Sylvie Goulard, who will be responsible for the new directorate general, as commissioner for industrial policy and, in what increasingly seems to be par for the course, she was interviewed by French police recently in a case involving misuse of EU funds. She currently risks being rejected by the EU Parliament after a brutal hearing that focused on these improprieties.

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Please join our protest.

Lunchtime: 13:00 on Tuesday 8th October outside Dáil Eireann, Kildare St.

The TDs have returned from their summer break and it is important to reassure those who rejected PESCO that there is still opposition and that it is consistent, just as it is equally important to show those who supported it that we haven’t gone away. Please join us. The EU and its embrace of the .

EU policy-makers see themselves as champions of the ‘defence industry’, and arms manufacturers and weapons-dealers have long held formal and informal seats at the decision-making table. The details and dealings of this cosy relationship are kept secret from the public, even as growing amounts of public money is given to the arms industry - money which could better serve social and environmental goals in Europe, and beyond.

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The EU Service (), should be seen as a sort of Erasmus but in the military/civilian field.

The EU Service (Army), should be seen as a sort of Erasmus but in the military/civilian field according to a recent paper from . It would offer to young people the possibility to discover different EU countries while engaging in Security and Defence activities. Again, as for the suggested National Conscription Model, European Service should offer three possibilities, namely “European Security and Defence Studies”, a “European Military Service” and the third option could be the already existing “European Voluntary Service”.

Here is the link to Part 4 of this paper which is the most interesting. Finabel is another of those EU – in - waiting!

The NATO School!

In response to a recent Dáil question, Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe stated the following in his reply: In addition to training provided in Ireland, the have ongoing opportunities to avail of training techniques and facilities available to other forces throughout Europe. They attend training courses run by the following organisations:-

- NATO School Oberammergau - Associated Centres of Excellence (COEs) - Partner Training and Education Centres (PTECs); and, The NATO School Oberammergau (NSO) conducts education and training in support of current and developing NATO operations, strategy, policy, doctrine and procedures. Here is the course catalogue in case you’re interested – there’s a broad range to choose from! As for CEOs and PTECs, any information would be appreciated.

Interestingly, it would seem that there was no response in the Dáil to this statement but it is indicative of how we are being dragged closer and closer to an EU Army that will constitute a pillar of NATO. The Eurogroup: a secret government within the EU!

The Eurogroup, the finance ministers of the euro zone states, is the body that takes the decisions in the policy areas of monetary union and regulation of the euro zone. Unbelievably, with such an important function, it is a purely informal body with no legal basis whatsoever. There are no rules of procedure and no minutes of meetings. The sovereign debt crisis in the southern euro states and Ireland several years ago turned it into an anti-democratic monster.

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An EU Empire!!!

Guy Verhofstadt who served as the Leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe(ALDE) from 2009 to 2019, and has served as an MEP from since 2009, has praised the new “world order” of “empires” during the recent Liberal Democrat conference. “The world order of tomorrow is not a world order based on nation-states, on countries — it’s a world order that is based on empires”, claimed the former prime minister of Belgium — which for its own part has a singularly unpleasant history as an imperial power. Fianna Fáil has been a member of ALDE since 2009 and can only be assumed to agree with its leader’s sentiments.

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Managing migration becomes a ‘way of life.’

When EU Commission President von der Leyen announced would become Vice President of the Commission for “Protecting Our European Way of Life,” there were puzzled faces all around. It means managing migration, Ms. von der Leyen clarified.

One critical way the EU has managed migration over the past five years, in a bid to stop thousands from arriving at its shores, has been paying and other countries to keep migrants away. Asked if she would renew the Turkey deal, which has cost the EU taxpayer a massive €6 billion, especially after noting that Turkey didn’t share EU values at another point in her presentation, von der Leyen sidestepped. “We will see,” she said.

EU Parliament propagates a travesty of history.

On September 18, the EU Parliament voted by 535 votes to 66 to support a resolution with the seemingly innocuous title, “On the Importance of European remembrance for the future of Europe.” Only the European United Left/Nordic Green Left voted against it.

The motion, largely sponsored by the conservative group, attempts to wholly rewrite the history of the Second World War. In the resolution, complete equivalence is drawn between Communism and Nazism. Both were equally to blame for the World War 2.

Read more here Neutrality and EU membership.

When we consider Irish neutrality, we must remember the provisions of the Lisbon Treaty. The main ones containing military measures are outlined below and lead to an inescapable conclusion; Ministers and the Taoiseach are talking rubbish when they talk about our continuing policy of neutrality and, if we are to re-establish our neutrality and avoid participation in and contributing to the creation of an EU Army under Franco-German control, we will have to leave the EU.

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The EU’s maritime reach and Ireland’s role.

The growing role of the as a maritime security provider not only in Europe, but further away, in the Indian ocean and Asia-Pacific was discussed recently by EU defense ministers in Helsinki..

Frederica Mogherini, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said the EU sees a growing role in maritime security not only in Europe, but further away, in the Indian ocean and Asia-Pacific. Perhaps that’s why the government has put out to tender a multi-role ship which will cost in excess of €0.25bn?

In reply to a Dáil question, the Taoiseach said: “The vessel will provide a flexible and adaptive capability for a wide range of maritime tasks both at home and overseas.” The ship can carry a battalion of soldiers and landing craft to put them ashore as well as helicopter support. It’s hardly intended for rescue missions off the coast of Donegal!

Read more here “Such a parcel of rogues” in a Commission?

On 26 September MEPs in the EU Parliament’s legal affairs committee agreed to block Commissioners-designate Laszlo Trocsanyi, from , and Rovana Plumb, from , from passing on to the hearings stage. This is the first time that MEPs had the power to block individual candidates but the next steps are unclear.

Many of the 26 commissioner candidates put forward by national governments and agreed to by President-elect Von der Leyen have caused concern. At least three are currently the focus of open investigations from police or anti-fraud bodies for misuse of public funds and corruption, and another has been shielded from investigations.

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Book review: A world safe for capitalism! The book, Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neo-Liberalism (Harvard University Press 2018) by historian Quinn Slobodian is likely to upset enthusiasts of the “liberal world order”.” Slobodian tells the story of how a small set of intellectuals in central Europe laid the ideological foundations of institutions such as the European Union and the World Trade Organization (WTO), commonly held up today as bulwarks of liberal .

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EuroCorps: an EU Army in waiting.

It is important at the outset to state that the is presently not established at the EU level under the Common Security and Defence Policy, CSDP). But, most importantly, EuroCorps and its assets may contribute in the implementation of the Common Security and Defence Policy when made available as a multinational force in accordance with Article 42.3 of the (TEU). So, when called upon, it could constitute an EU Army and a formidable one at that!

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The inception of the EU military – industrial complex.

On Jan. 17, 1961, in his final speech from the White House, President Dwight Eisenhower gave the American nation a dire warning about what he described as a threat to democratic government. He called it the military-industrial complex, a formidable union of defense contractors, government and the armed forces and warned that it would take resources from other areas -- such as building schools and hospitals.

Read more here What future for Irish Rail?

Ireland has been urged by the EU Commission to implement the Fourth Railway Package.

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