FOLLOWING THE EUROPEAN UNION

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nimh already has a thread in place to discuss how the EU should be governored. For those of us who want to develop a base line of knowledge re the EU, I am establishing this thread. I and others will post current news items; hopefully, those of you with with experience will feel free to interpret and/or explain the significance of said event.

nimh's thread:
How should the EU be governed? Eur Council vs Eur Commission

RECENT ARTICLES:
Draft of European Union's Constitution Wins General Support

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EU will fork out millions to keep out illegals

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JUNE 21, 2003
EU will fork out millions to keep out illegals
Leaders agree to spend more money to protect borders but reject proposal to set up 'safe areas' in hot spots

PORTO CARRAS (Greece) - European Union (EU) leaders have agreed to spend more money to protect the bloc's expanding external frontiers against illegal immigrants.

But, kicking off a three-day summit on Thursday, they declined to back a controversial British plan to set up safe areas for refugees in regions of conflict.

EU steps up pressure on Hamas

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Saturday, 21 June , 2003, 04:30

Porto Carras (Greece): The European Union bluntly told the militant Palestinian group Hamas Friday to agree a ceasefire in the Middle East or risk measures to cut off its financial support.

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France rejects EU farm reform plan as "unacceptable"

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PORTO CARRAS, Greece, June 20 (AFP) - French President Jacques Chirac said on Friday that France will not accept the European Commission's latest proposals to reform the European Union's farm subsidy system.
"France is quite ready to discuss this but the current Commission proposals are not acceptable and will not be accepted by France," Chirac told reporters at an EU summit here.

"That would mean that every one would have to change position, including the Agriculture commissioner," Franz Fischler who has said he wants the subsidy system reformed by the end of next month.

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Being slow to comprehend, I noted these initial items are duplicates of Walter's thread. That wasn't my intention. I will continue to add reports in the next few weeks; hopefully, some of them will touch on other topics.

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EU Reassures Western Balkans, Urges Reforms

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Sat June 21, 2003 07:19 AM ET

By Julijana Mojsilovic and Shaban Buza
PORTO CARRAS, Greece (Reuters) - Western Balkan countries won assurances from the European Union on Saturday that they would one day join its ranks, but they face a long hard slog in meeting membership standards.

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It seems to me, from an outsider, that when a biggie country like France opposes EU resolutions, it shows how fragile the EU really is. When the EU expands to 25 countries, that multiplies the problems ten-fold. What will benefit the majority will not always be agreeable; that will create more problems than it solves. c.i.

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cicerone imposter wrote:

What will benefit the majority will not always be agreeable; that will create more problems than it solves. c.i.

Very true, c.i., but unitil now, no better political instrument than democracy was invented and/or worked sufficiently:wink: .

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Can't argue with that, Walter. Wink

c.i.

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We touched on this in the Frenchmen thread, but does the French president represent the thinking of the French people?

I applaud the EU countries for organizing, but I'm sure such historically independent countries must knock heads a lot.

Walter, how has your thread progressed? Can you provide some links to selected sections?

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Not PC to say this but I can hardly wait to see it blow up in a cloud of nationalistic wrangling.

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au,
Why?

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Why because the self righteous Europeans who have for the last 1000 years starting with crusades have marred the landscape with war, killing, hatred, religious persecution and have exploited the peoples of Africa, the Americas, Asia and the middle east and fowled everything else they have touched now seemed to have found the "religion" figuratively speaking. It will never happen.

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oops, au.

I thought until now that you live in a country with quite some citizens of European decedent, use a European language, have (kind of) European culture ... .

Mapleleaf

The mentioned thread wasn't created/started by me, but by nimh. The last response was three weeks ago.
(An aside: any thread with a European focussed theme dies out soon Sad

)

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Walter Hinteler

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I thought until now that you live in a country with quite some citizens of European decedent, use a European language, have (kind of) European culture ...

.

True. Walter but having become a melting pot have been able to overcome that handicap and rid ourselves of the ills of Europe. Never forget why most of us or our ancestors came to the states.

I read in an article that Americans are less and less identifying with the land of their origin. Why because of the mix.
My granchildren for instance are Russian,Polish, German, English and about 12 generation American. They certainly do not concider themselves anything but Americans and neither do I.

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au

You certainly are right, and the couple of US-Americans trying to find their history might truely be a minority.

(Besides, I'm a German living in Europe myself and not trying to find out, why my ancestors came the long way from Scandinavia or different parts 2000 years ago :wink: )

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Quote:

The European Union bluntly told the militant Palestinian group Hamas Friday to agree a ceasefire in the Middle East or risk measures to cut off its financial support.
"The Union demands that Hamas and other groups declare immediately a ceasefire and halt all terrorist activity," EU leaders said in a final statement at their summit meeting in a Greek beach resort.

"The council is urgently examining the case for wider action against Hamas fund raising," they said.

I am happy that the European Union takes part in pressure efforts on the Hamas terrorists, but I have one question: why have not they cut its fundraising yet? Or they realized that Hamas was a terrorist organization only yesterday?

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steissd

Could you give a source for the funds from EU for the Hamas?
That would be completely illegal! (Hamas and Islamic Jihad are "terrorist networks" in all the EU countries since 2001.)

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The source appeared above in the quoted article. Europeans threaten to cut off financial support to Hamas. If they have done it before, they would be unable to threaten to do this now. I do not think that Hamas got funding from any of the European governments (even French), but the conclusions that can be made automatically, imply that no serious measures were taken to prevent terrorists' fundraising on the territory of EU.

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Because

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"The council is urgently examining the case for wider action against Hamas fund raising,"

you get automatically that the EU is giving financial support to Hamas?

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EU is not giving and was not (on governmental level), but the measures that were taken to prevent private fundraising seem to be insufficient. Just think about the European threat to cut such money source: if it did not exist up to date, how was it possible to threaten to put end to it? One more thing: if Hamas complies with demands to cease fire (and any ceasefire is an interim solution by definition; only peace treaty refers to something permanent), does this mean that the fundraising will continue without any problems? If it will, Hamas will be able to recover from damages caused by Israeli actions and resume terror war...
I only hope that this was merely clumsy wording, and not a principal approach.

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EU and US set for extradition deal over terrorism

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By Judy Dempsey and George Parker in Thessaloniki
Published: June 22 2003 17:58 | Last Updated: June 22 2003 17:58

The European Union and US are expected to sign an extradition and judicial co-operation agreement at this week's summit in Washington, their first since the end of the war against Iraq.

The agreements, designed to improve security in the fight against terrorism, could signal the start of rebuilding a transatlantic relationship that was deeply damaged during the US-led war on Iraq.

"These are more than goodwill accords," said an EU diplomat. "They are about how the US and the Europeans can work together on several issues."

EU member states, however, accepted the extradition agreement only on condition they received guarantees that none of their citizens would be subject to the death penalty.

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