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A thread to talk about news and politics affecting Europe as a whole, rather than just politics within specific European countries.

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    Original first post 
Spinned off from the British Politics Thread. Basically a thread where we talk about news and politics that affect Europe as a whole rather than certain countries in it.

Anyway BBC News section for Europe Based news.

Edited by Mrph1 on Jan 9th 2024 at 3:24:05 PM

FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#2201: Feb 15th 2016 at 2:52:18 PM

[up][up]Doesn't Bosnia have to worry about the Serbs breaking off?

Quag15 Since: Mar, 2012
#2202: Feb 15th 2016 at 4:49:27 PM

[up]Well, that and:

  • 45% unemployment (more or less);
  • practically no major reforms have been carried out (on politics, the economynote , law, and so forth);
  • the increasing emigration (70,000 people left the country last year - the population is 3,500,000 in total - also, most people there have at least one relative working abroad);
  • And other stuff I'm probably forgetting now.

It'll take quite some time for them to be accepted.

edited 15th Feb '16 4:50:22 PM by Quag15

Zarastro Since: Sep, 2010
#2203: Feb 15th 2016 at 5:21:41 PM

[up] It also (because of the reasons you named) an attractive target for IS recruitment.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jun/25/isis-targets-vulnerable-bosnia-for-recruitment-and-attack

I understand why Bosnia wants to join, but frankly the current situation of the EU forbids any further enlargement. We have already too many fragile member states as it is.

FieldMarshalFry Field Marshal of Cracked from World Internet War 1 Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Field Marshal of Cracked
#2204: Feb 15th 2016 at 6:25:30 PM

ugh, are the colonials spouting about their broken system being better than one designed to actually work again?

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FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#2205: Feb 15th 2016 at 6:42:26 PM

[up]?

If you mean me, then no. And I'd appreciate if you didn't refer to me as a "colonial". I wasn't one of your settlers, feringhee.

edited 15th Feb '16 6:42:53 PM by FFShinra

FieldMarshalFry Field Marshal of Cracked from World Internet War 1 Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Field Marshal of Cracked
#2206: Feb 15th 2016 at 6:43:38 PM

no, that colonial who calls himself "Jack"

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FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#2207: Feb 15th 2016 at 6:46:10 PM

Ah.

....Still, be careful who you refer to as colonial.

Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#2209: Feb 15th 2016 at 8:15:04 PM

Bosnia has a variety of issues, it's stable but it's not doing well, if nothing else it needs reform in that it needs the rollback of EU powers to continue, as curt,y the EU still has the ability to override any law, election or appointment in the country, until Dayton is finished being implemented Bosnia realy can't move on.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#2210: Feb 15th 2016 at 10:08:52 PM

The Guardian: Risk of EU breakup is real, Tusk warns ahead of crucial summit

Donald Tusk, the president of the European council, warned on Monday that positions were hardening on Britain’s future in Europe ahead of the crucial summit he will chair on Thursday and the risk of break-up was real.

David Cameron scrapped a debate at the European parliament on Tuesday and scheduled a meeting with Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European commission, amid fears that a proposed settlement geared to keeping the UK in the EU could unravel because of growing European objections to the concessions promised to Britain.

“This is a critical moment,” Tusk warned. “It is high time we started listening to each other’s arguments more than to our own. It is natural in negotiations that positions harden, as we get closer to crunch time. But the risk of break-up is real because this process is indeed very fragile. Handle with care. What is broken cannot be mended.”

The stark warning from the former Polish prime minister, who presides over the EU summit on Thursday and who has been charged with drafting the settlement rewriting the terms of Britain’s EU membership, came as east European leaders staged a mini-summit in Prague to hammer out a common position on the proposed British deal.

Bohuslav Sobotka, the Czech prime minister, who chaired the meeting of four central European countries – Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and the Czech Republic – said they had agreed a position but that he would not divulge it before informing Tusk.

Tusk is expected in Prague on Tuesday. “We will all have to decide together, and where we cannot and will not compromise on the fundamental freedoms and values,” Tusk said.

Cutting welfare benefits for east European workers in western Europe is the main sticking point threatening to wreck a putative deal negotiated since last July and fine-tuned over the past fortnight.

Analysis David Cameron stuck in middle as concern rises about UK deal across EU

Cameron’s central demands of freezing in-work benefits for four years for EU migrant workers in the UK and cutting child benefits for the same workers who leave their offspring at home have already been watered down in the draft agreement but remain unacceptable for the east Europeans.

They will accept the curbs, but only if they are limited to Britain and are not applied across the EU. This applies in particular to child benefits, which, at the moment, are not to be scrapped but indexed to east European levels.

The central European quartet will accept that for the sake of a deal with Cameron but do not want the UK special treatment broadened to apply uniformly across the EU. They also fear eventual knock-on effects in other areas of national social security systems in Europe.

It emerged that this is the key stumbling block for Cameron at the summit, although there are ample other issues still to be resolved.

“Indexation of child benefit will be at the core of the discussions” with Cameron on Tuesday, Juncker said.

The prime minister is likely to come under pressure to relinquish his child benefits gains for the sake of a deal on Thursday. To do so would invite howls of protest from dissidents within the Conservative party.

The prime minister needs to win over the leaders of the main groupings to persuade them not to veto any package of reforms agreed by national leaders. Downing Street has said that the government is seeking to secure an agreement that will be “legally binding” on the EU’s 28 leaders.

But EU leaders have no ability to bind the European parliament, which could block the secondary legislation that will be needed to restrict in-work benefits to EU migrants and to ensure that child benefit is paid at the rate of an EU migrant’s home country. Downing Street believes that a declaration by EU leaders, plus supportive statements from the main leaders in the European parliament, will make it difficult to unstitch a deal.

So, Britain leaving the EU could bring the whole lot down. It's notable of the role of the Eastern European four.

Keep Rolling On
Khudzlin Since: Nov, 2013
#2211: Feb 15th 2016 at 11:33:55 PM

[up] The UK has always held back from the European Union. It has all sorts of exceptions to EU rules. Seriously, no country could leave the EU with fewer consequences than the UK. But the flip side is, if the EU is so fragile that a not completely commited country leaving makes it crash down, it would be a good thing to disband it sooner rather than letting it fall apart later.

FluffyMcChicken My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare from where the floating lights gleam Since: Jun, 2014 Relationship Status: In another castle
My Hair Provides Affordable Healthcare
#2212: Feb 15th 2016 at 11:37:59 PM

[up] Twas' a noble experiment while it lasted?

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#2213: Feb 15th 2016 at 11:42:56 PM

Well, there goes Finland. We were already circling down the drain, but the EU breaking up will effectively fuck this place up.

Another reason to pick up drinking and kill myself.

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
Silasw A procrastination in of itself from A handcart to hell (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: And they all lived happily ever after <3
A procrastination in of itself
#2214: Feb 16th 2016 at 12:22:45 AM

The U.K. might not be fully committed but it's such a big player that its small commitments in ways mean more than the full commitments of other countries, remember, we're 15% of the EU's GDP, 20% of the military spending and provide around 10% of the EU's budget.

“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ Cyran
TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
#2215: Feb 16th 2016 at 12:24:26 AM

X-posting from Eastern Europe thread:

The conspiracy theorists who have taken over Poland

Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
FieldMarshalFry Field Marshal of Cracked from World Internet War 1 Since: Oct, 2015 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Field Marshal of Cracked
#2216: Feb 16th 2016 at 2:32:21 AM

oh fuck... how the hell can the Polish people vote for what are basically Nazi-lite? few countries suffered as badly as Poland under the Nazi's

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Krieger22 Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018 from Malaysia Since: Mar, 2014 Relationship Status: I'm in love with my car
Causing freakouts over sourcing since 2018
#2217: Feb 16th 2016 at 2:40:14 AM

Because they aren't Russians. Or "communists".

This in addition to the developments of recent years making the perfect backdrop for the resurgence of the Nazi(-lite)s. Because the solution to European Union overreach is fascism.

I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiot
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#2218: Feb 16th 2016 at 5:27:19 AM

>implying asking the Visegrad Four to take their fair share of refugees after years of prosperity bought by Euromonies is 'overreach'

If the EU is a vehicle for common solutions to common problems, then its worth doing. If its a source of post-Communist national welfare then it is not.

edited 16th Feb '16 5:29:15 AM by Achaemenid

Schild und Schwert der Partei
FFShinra Since: Jan, 2001
#2219: Feb 16th 2016 at 6:54:49 AM

Visegrad four can form their own union and take the Baltics with them. They're nothing but a liability.

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010
JackOLantern1337 Shameful Display from The Most Miserable Province in the Russian Empir Since: Aug, 2014 Relationship Status: 700 wives and 300 concubines
Shameful Display
#2221: Feb 17th 2016 at 5:28:25 AM

[up] Clearly he is an evil racist Zionist.

I Bring Doom,and a bit of gloom, but mostly gloom.
Achaemenid HGW XX/7 from Ruschestraße 103, Haus 1 Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Giving love a bad name
HGW XX/7
#2222: Feb 17th 2016 at 5:40:36 AM

Sweden really needs to deal with this. The hands-off approach to integration has patently failed.

Schild und Schwert der Partei
LogoP Party Crasher from the Land of Deep Blue Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: You can be my wingman any time
Party Crasher
#2223: Feb 17th 2016 at 5:53:30 AM

What they need to do is start deporting bigots.

It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
Khudzlin Since: Nov, 2013
#2224: Feb 17th 2016 at 6:12:20 AM

[up] Like that's going to end well...

TerminusEst from the Land of Winter and Stars Since: Feb, 2010

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