Europe

[Blackadder1916]

You go, Greece …

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I was wondering what the connection of this Greek MEP's speech was to Carney's appearance at the EU Parliament and his speech. How did the PM's appearance "go south"?

Ms. Latinopoulou certainly does not hold back on her personal attack against Ms. von der Leyen or her opinion of EU policies, but what does that have to do with Mr. Carney? It does show, however, the unusual nature of debate/participation in the EU Parliament and does help me understand commentary (in UK media from several years ago) about Nigel Farage and his antics as an MEP. When I posted the clip yesterday from the casually dressed German MEP it was to demonstrate not just some of the welcoming Carney received but also to poke fun at what I would have considered a stereotypical German Green (or a party of similar stripe) right down to birkenstocks with socks. Mr. Boeselager (actually Freiherr von Boeselager, from the family after whom Boeselager Kaserne in Munster is named - they were involved in Hitler assassination plot) made his comments yesterday (3:02:11) as part of a long line responding to von der Leyen's address to the Parliament. Ms. Latinopoulou made her remarks about twenty minutes later (3:23:11) (there were a number of MEPs at the podium in between). Not many mentioned Carney or Canada in their one to two minute time limit. Carney didn't address the gathering until the following day (today?).

 

[mariomike]

‘Rome Taken!’: The Liberation of Rome, 1944

The Allied capture of Rome in June 1944 marked the fall of the first Axis capital but was ultimately overshadowed by the D-Day landings in Normandy.

www.nationalww2museum.org

Some books on the subject of the Allied Occupation of Italy in 1944 for readers who may be interested ,

Naples '44

The Skin

The Gallery" is about the same time and place . ( The Gallery is the partly damaged Galleria Umberto in the centre of Naples in 1944. )

 

[Halifax Tar]

You go, Greece …

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It shocks me how many Canadians are clamouring to be part of this.

Its a horrible idea, so yes I assume the LPC will want to run with it.

The EU haven't even fully ratified the CETA after 9 years.

It's going to happen. Not much we can do.

Make smart investment, hard times ahead.

 

[Brad Sallows]

What is it we need that existing trade agreements (and our exporters' voluntary compliance with EU trade regulations) don't already provide? Anything substantial? Anything at all?

It would be funny to have spent months loudly reasserting our sovereignty in response to Trump's idiocies, only to turn the situation into an excuse to cede some sovereignty to the EU (eg. how we manage our lands, waters, immigration, politics, finances, etc).

Maybe this was always the play. Trump's divisive foreign and economic policies created an obvious opportunity for people who have been wanting to throw in a few new extra international entanglements of their own. Some of them are bound to act.

 

[Czech_pivo]

What is it we need that existing trade agreements (and our exporters' voluntary compliance with EU trade regulations) don't already provide? Anything substantial? Anything at all?

It would be funny to have spent months loudly reasserting our sovereignty in response to Trump's idiocies, only to turn the situation into an excuse to cede some sovereignty to the EU (eg. how we manage our lands, waters, immigration, politics, finances, etc).

Maybe this was always the play. Trump's divisive foreign and economic policies created an obvious opportunity for people who have been wanting to throw in a few new extra international entanglements of their own. Some of them are bound to act.

The reality is 2 things - 1) We don't know at this time re the EU and; 2) If Trump hadn't gone after us, leaving us and the Mexicans alone, PP would have won the election and the whole EU question wouldn't even be on the agenda.

 

[Brad Sallows]

The reality is 2 things - 1) We don't know at this time re the EU and; 2) If Trump hadn't gone after us, leaving us and the Mexicans alone, PP would have won the election and the whole EU question wouldn't even be on the agenda.

Kind of odd to proclaim "the reality is" and then cite a hypothetical.

The "reality" is the situation we are in, and the proposals the GoC and EU have advanced.

"We wouldn't be here if..." is a deflection, and not useful.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Kind of odd to proclaim "the reality is" and then cite a hypothetical.

The "reality" is the situation we are in, and the proposals the GoC and EU have advanced.

"We wouldn't be here if..." is a deflection, and not useful.

So you think that if Trump hadn't gone after us the PP would not have won the election and Carney would be the PM?

 

[Brad Sallows]

So you think that if Trump hadn't gone after us the PP would not have won the election and Carney would be the PM?

Conceivably Trudeau was unpopular enough that Carney might have still made his move, dragging his European-influenced history and CV and connections with him. And that's still irrelevant to what "reality" is right now. "Why" the present is what it is, is at least a little bit interesting, but much more interesting is "why" suddenly the talk turned to some kind of junior EU membership. Apparently it blindsided a few Europeans as well. "Trial balloon", methinks, but I doubt it's a trial balloon without an agenda and some forethought behind it.

Europe isn't very well right now, trying to deal with the complications of Trump's trade incoherence, trade dependencies on Russia, large numbers of quarrelsome immigrants (some completely hostile), and a general realization of how much it has allowed itself to forget that there are people and countries hostile to Europe and European interests that are sitting astride their trade flows and exploiting liberal European ideas to make Europe less liberal.

 

[Genetk44]

What we do know is that without Trumps divisive and destructive foreign policy the economy and fuel prices and world trade routes wouldn’t be in the situation we find them in right now.

 

[Brad Sallows]

What we do know is that without Trumps divisive and destructive foreign policy the economy and fuel prices and world trade routes wouldn’t be in the situation we find them in right now.

Ye of little faith. When crises which create opportunities for change do not present themselves, governments find ways to create their own.

 

[Genetk44]

Ye of little faith. When crises which create opportunities for change do not present themselves, governments find ways to create their own.

I have plenty of faith. I’m quite comfortable with Carney as PM, I have faith that he is making and has made the right decisions up to this point and I have faith that we will have a chance to see and decide about any European association agreement before it might be implemented. Respectfully, I would suggest you and a few others on this board who constantly take a negative view of our present governments’ and Carneys performance in particular are the ones of little faith.

 

[Brad Sallows]

I have plenty of faith. I’m quite comfortable with Carney as PM, I have faith that he is making and has made the right decisions up to this point and I have faith that we will have a chance to see and decide about any European association agreement before it might be implemented. Respectfully, I would suggest you and a few others on this board who constantly take a negative view of our present governments’ and Carneys performance in particular are the ones of little faith.

His performance isn't the issue. His priors and ideologies are.

An eyebrow-raising topic like "EU associate membership" dropped into public discourse suddenly and without the least attempt to provide any specifics, followed immediately by expressed confusion and ignorance on the parts of people who hold positions in which they might reasonably expect to have had some prior involvement and notification, and attempts by some to walk it back, has the "code smell" of "trial balloon". The point of that gambit is to test public response: if favourable, proceed with maximal objectives; if unfavourable, retreat amid protestations that it wasn't meant to mean very much, and what is all the fuss about after all.

My chief gripe is the amount of federal spending (of borrowed money) proposed. About the people who yesterday were economic nationalists who didn't like foreigners buying parts of country and today have flipped to knitting their nose hairs to the government's butt, I can only laugh. Bilateral trade deficits mean little if anything, and those deficits are offset by capital flows, which include foreign direct investment - which wasn't always a bad thing yesterday, and isn't always a good thing today. Situations are relevant, and a lot of people are insufficiently skeptical.