EU’s latest: Globalism, Biden, ‘Climate Change’, slush fund, China, Iran, silencing dissent
EU’s Foreign & Defence Secretary talks a load of “bulos” to EU parliament
Montage © Brexit Facts4EU.Org
UK’s decision to have independent foreign and defence policy is clearly vindicated
Yesterday two of the EU’s numerous Vice-Presidents made a joint statement welcoming Joe Biden’s commitment that the United States will re-join the ‘Paris Agreement on climate change’.
- “looking forward to having the United States again at our side…”
- “combat the climate crisis…”
- “combining all our forces…”
- “collective global responsibility…”
- “increase global ambition…”
[The full statement is here.]
President Trump had of course withdrawn the US from the Paris Agreement, but one of the new US president’s first acts was to announce the reversal of that decision. The UK is still currently a signatory.
‘Climate change’ is of course only one part of the globalist agenda of the EU and the new US president. The previous day (Tues 19 Jan 2021) one of these EU VPs also made a speech and answered questions at a session of the EU Parliament. The VP in question the EU’s de facto Foreign & Defence Secretary, Josep Borrell.
Theresa May and her Remainer Civil Servants wanted to sign up to what follows
Below Facts4EU.Org summarises the topics covered by this unelected but very powerful EU Commission technocrat. We show how the UK would not be able to pursue policies in its own interests if it had signed up to the EU’s foreign and defence policies, as Theresa May and her Remainer team were desperate to do.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
The speech by Senor Borrell covered three reports by the EU Parliament on:-
- The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP)
- The EU’s Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP)
- The EU’s Human Rights and Democracy policies
The full speech is here. Below are some extracts for our readers, from a long speech.
On globalism and President Biden
“First, all reports stress that this year 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated political trends and revealed the weaknesses in global - and European - governance.”
“We have been fighting for multilateralism, the rules-based order, for global solidarity, as the only sustainable way out of the crisis, when others have been pushing narrow, nationalist agendas.”
“With tomorrow’s inauguration, the Biden administration will hopefully be finishing with the ‘governing by tweeting’, offering another approach and trying to make multilateralism great again. It will require closer cooperation between the European Union and the United States at least on three key areas: climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, and regulating big technological platforms, among others.”
Other Continents and Countries
“Africa remains a top priority for us. … We have been supporting Africa, but we need to do more together. The debt-relief initiative is very much important.”
“On Asia… we overcame the difficulties related to palm oil and now we have become strategic partners with these countries. This is going to give us a solid basis to improve our influence in a region where there is a growing request and a growing demand for EU presence.”
“On China… We cannot expect China to stop being China. We have to engage with China on global challenges such as climate change, COVID-19 and debt relief. No one can talk about debt relief today in the world without taking into account the fact that China has become the biggest creditor of emerging countries.”
“On the wider neighbourhood, Western Balkans, Eastern Mediterranean, North Africa and the Sahel, Belarus has been the most important issue on our agenda.”
“On Russia and Turkey… tomorrow I will have a long meeting with the Foreign Affairs Minister of Turkey. We are going to engage on trying to look for a better understanding.”
“On the United Kingdom, the new Trade and Cooperation Agreement, to be ratified by this House, will provide the basis for a new start. Then, we will have to deal with our friends and neighbours as a third country of the European Union.”
Non-Geographical Issues – Controlling Free Speech
“Let us go to the horizontal issues - the issues that go beyond the geographical approaches.”
“The first one is disinformation. More and more, disinformation plays a crucial role. Disinformation has always existed. In Spain, before we talked about fake news we called it “bulos”. “Bulo” is something that is not true, everybody tells it, and in the end everybody believes it. It changes mentalities, it changes the perception. It has always existed. The problem today is the incredible power that social networks give to disinformation. The amplification of any “bulo”, of any fake news. If people believe that their election has been stolen, true or not, it does not matter. They believe it and they act accordingly with it. The assault on the Capitol is a good example of this combination of disinformation plus the power of social networks on disseminating it.”
“I would like to stress the importance of the Strategic Communication Division [StratComm] in the European External Action Service to fight disinformation and the support that this Parliament has given to the StratComm services. I think that in cooperation with Member States, we have to do more and to counter any threats, especially related to elections interference.”
Non-Geographical Issues – the ‘EU Army’
“On the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP), I would like to commend our colleagues in our 17 missions and operations for delivering on their mandates in this difficult situation. … You have helped navigate this Common Foreign and Security Policy budget to a safe harbour during 2020, as well as the Multiannual Financial Framework.”
“Particularly important is the political agreement reached on the European Peace Facility (EPF): €5 billion over seven years. It will make our CSDP more effective and respond better to our partners’ needs.”
[NOTE: Facts4EU.Org will be covering this new €5bn fund in a separate report.]
“Member States always have a war ship somewhere. Not all of them at the same time in the same place, but look at any geographical position and you will find that at certain point of time there are some war ships from some Member State. Why do not we coordinate their presence and make all of them together an EU presence through coordinating the presence of the Member States? We are going to launch a first pilot initiative in the Gulf of Guinea next week.”
“Our partnership with NATO remains strong but we need to strengthen our role in security and defence. … Now we are building on a threat analysis, conducted for the first time at the European Union level, the so-called Strategic Compass.”
“There are 26 out of 46 PESCO projects that will deliver results by 2025, but I think that PESCO projects have to be much more operational, focusing less on capabilities and more on operability.”
Non-Geographical Issues – ‘Human Rights’
“Finally, the area of human rights. I think there is one achievement that we should mention, it is the EU Global Human Rights Sanctions Regime. … We launched this initiative in December 2019 …If there is a tool, it has to be used. If you keep the tool in the toolbox, it is useless.”
“When people say ‘What are you doing? What do you do?’ Please give this kind of answer. We have been supporting 45,000 human rights defenders financially along the last five years.”
“Through the implementation of the third Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy, we will increase our resilience even more. We have approved the European Democracy Action Plan …The important thing is action.”
Closing Remarks
“This year will be a year of recovery, hope and delivery. We have demonstrated the added value of the European Union in 2020. The Union is more cohesive, it is much more difficult to doubt the utility of the European Union after the pandemic because the answer of the European Union … has been impressive, both internally and externally. Be it on the pandemic or in the wider set of challenges that we are facing.”
Link to the video: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-200950
Observations
What does all this mean and why does it matter?
We would suggest that the overriding conclusion to be drawn from Senor Borrell’s wide-ranging speech is that there are now few areas of normal national government business into which the EU is not poking its nose. This is a quasi-supranational government (unelected by any popular mandate) with a globalist agenda, delighted that a new US president with an equally globalist agenda is now in the White House.
‘Climate change’ and the EU’s ‘European [sic] Green Deal’ is the no.1 priority of the von der Leyen Commission. It will consume almost one-third of the EU’s new trillion euro budget.
Naturally the EU is thrilled that one of President Biden’s first decisions was to re-join the Paris Agreement on climate change. The UK is of course still a signatory to this Agreement – something which is highly unlikely to change while a green activist is living with the Prime Minister in No.10 Downing Street.
This is all happening right now - and it's worse than you know
There is a great deal more we would like to report on, arising from Senor Borrell's speech. One item we shall definitely cover will be an off-the-books military fund of €5bn euros which has now been approved and will be administered by Senor Burrell.
We would also like to cover the EU's deeply worrying encroachment on freedom of expression and action. These and many other serious issues are developing before our eyes.
Deutschland uber alles?
Regarding the countries specifically mentioned by Senor Borrell, Russia was name-checked but he said absolutely nothing about it. Russia is the EU’s largest neighbour and the list of its human rights abuses, lack of democratic process, and its annexation of large parts of European territory might have been thought worthy of mention.
Perhaps the fact that Germany is relying on Russia to complete its gas pipeline to supply German industry and homes with power made Senor Borrell decide not to say anything about Russia.
Similarly, it seems that the EU is now very willing to engage with China, despite the well-documented and widespread concerns on so many levels – defence, security, data protection, foreign interference, human rights abuses, to say nothing of the China virus which has decimated life for billions of people. We are sure that the fact that the industrial giants of the EU's paymasters - Germany - are anxious to increase their exports to China, does not figure in the EU Commission's thinking...
Meanwhile, the EU is very anxious to stop British lorry drivers from taking a ham sandwich with them on their journeys into the EU, and even more anxious to ensure that no British products may be exported into the EU or its new satellite colony (Northern Ireland) without every conceivable piece of paperwork having every i dotted and t crossed.
Strange priorities, these EU-wallahs….
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[ Sources: EU Parliament | EU External Action Service (EEAS) ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thur 21 Jan 2021
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