ანუ რა ხდება ეუროპაში ? სეზონი II

[Freeman]

ოლიფა მესამედ დაიბარეს პოტომაკზე, მონ ძიე, მთლად წავიდა ხელიდან 

[Freeman]

ნოქ ნოქ, ჰუზ ზე? ითს ანქლ სემ, ოუფენ ზი ფაქინგ დორ, სმოლის 

Austria, though, has not yet gone through a fundamental rethink. Yes, it did sign onto the European Union’s sanctions against Russia and its financial aid regime in support of Ukraine, but it has opted out of any military participation, citing its constitutionally anchored “permanent neutrality” — a stance that is no longer feasible.

Austria has neither exported weapons to Ukraine — even though it has 56 aging Leopard 2 tanks ripe for donation — nor has it participated in training Ukrainian forces. Imports of Russian gas are approaching pre-war levels, with 71 percent of Austria’s gas coming from Russia in December. And major Austrian companies like Raiffeisen Bank International and wood manufacturers Kronospan and EGGER remain active in Russia despite sanctions.

.....

It’s as though the clocks in Austria stopped dead on February 24, 2022. 

Last year, over two-thirds of Austrian exports were sent to fellow EU member countries, and the country’s economic reach into Central and Eastern Europe is both broad and deep. You can’t visit Romania or the Western Balkans, for example, without falling over branches of Raiffeisen or Erste Bank, or without filling your car at an OMV gas station. 

It’s time to accept that Austria’s neutrality-linked independent foreign policy went the way of Kreisky when he left office in 1983. And the fact that the U.N. and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, among others, call Vienna home is the legacy of a bygone era. Were Kreisky alive today, perhaps he would have sought to negotiate a Black Sea grain deal, but that role was played by Turkey — not Austria.

Today, on almost all nonmilitary matters, Austria’s foreign policy is the EU’s common foreign policy. The country is totally enmeshed in the Continent’s political and economic structures — but its Euro-Atlantic integration remains only half complete. 

For Austria, neutrality has become an excuse to sit on its hands and do nothing while NATO supplies Ukraine’s military. The view that it can survive as a neutral country, balancing the interests of Russia and the West, while also being part of the West is no longer morally or politically tenable.

 

Austria should accept responsibility and join the NATO alliance. 

https://www.politico.eu/article/austria-its-time-to-join-nato-russias-invasion-ukraine-leopard-2-tanks-gas-membership-raiffeisen-bank-kronospan-and-egger/amp/

[Freeman]

რა ამბებია, მონ ძიე )) 

European defence is not about declaring that we have an EU army, Czech President-elect Petr Pavel said, suggesting that even French President Emmanuel Macron changed his mind and admitted the need to strengthen the European pillar of NATO instead of creating a joint EU army.

“European defence – I spoke about this in Munich with President Macron – is not about declaring that we have a European army or EU army,” Pavel told a small group of EU stakeholders and journalists – including EURACTIV Czechia – in Prague.

“There has already been a big shift by President Macron – from the European army, he was talking about years ago, against the backdrop of NATO’s brain-deadness, to now saying we need to build European defence based on the European pillar of NATO, which I applaud. It is a reasonable shift,” Pavel said.

Still, in speeches he delivered before meeting with Pavel, the French president stressed Europe’s need for a NATO-independent command.

“If tomorrow a major partner has to look elsewhere, we must be able to act with the Europeans inside or outside NATO and, if necessary, to ensure the command capabilities that will allow us to carry out a large-scale operation together,” Macron told the armed forces on 20 January.

However, EURACTIV was informed that for France, it is important to keep its military equipment and technologies interoperable with those of the US, which means that NATO is a crucial element for France despite previous comments by Macron.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/czech-president-eu-army-no-longer-in-macrons-mind/

 

[Freeman]

Can Britain and France put their differences behind them?

Rishi Sunak’s meeting with Emmanuel Macron could signal a new period for cross-channel relations

Six months ago, during her campaign to lead the Tory party, Liz Truss claimed not to know whether Emmanuel Macron was a “friend or foe”. Her successor as prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has no such qualms. On March 10th he will lead an eager pack of ministers up the steps into the Elysée Palace in Paris for a summit with the French president and government. With a freshly negotiated eu deal on Northern Ireland in his pocket, Mr Sunak will be hoping that this unlocks more from the French. That may be harder than he thinks.

https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/03/02/can-britain-and-france-put-their-differences-behind-them

 

[Freeman]

დიზაზტეღ 

https://www.ft.com/content/ef04638d-e4b6-4bcc-86c9-fac2cc04d198

 

Joe Biden teaches the EU a lesson or two on big state ‘dirigisme’

 

In case you haven’t noticed, an incredibly bold experiment in social media dirigisme takes place not in France, to which it belongs linguistically and spiritually, but in the land of the free.

The Frenchwoman who writes these lines admits to having been flabbergasted by the conditions, unveiled this week, attached to 39 billion dollars of subsidies and loans in the US Chips Act, which aims to encourage the development of an entire ecosystem of manufacturing semi- drivers in America.

What U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has described is a sweeping attempt to change employer behavior, not just in the area of industrial and financial strategy — chipmakers must agree not to expand into China for a decade and refraining from share buybacks – but also in how they treat their staff.

Among some of the most striking features — and after the administration had to scale back its child care legislative plans — companies applying for the funds will have to demonstrate that they will provide “affordable, accessible child care services.” , reliable and of high quality”.

Childcare must be within reach of low- and middle-income households,” the documentation states, “be located in a convenient location with hours that meet the needs of workers, provide workers with the assurance that they will not won’t need to take time off work for unexpected childcare issues. , and provide a safe and healthy environment in which families can trust.

In the United States, companies have so far refrained from complaining publicly about these provisions, but they have not gone unnoticed.

“Affordable child care is an admirable goal, but it has nothing to do with semiconductors,” tweeted Steven Rattner, former auto industry adviser to Barack Obama. “If we want the CHIPS Act to work, it cannot be used as a mule for unrelated political priorities.”

Economist JJoseph Stiglitz expressed a more positive opinion. “Labour shortage is a significant challenge in our economy, especially in high-tech industries. The provision that companies receiving CHIPS money provide childcare services to workers is an important element,” he said. “We need a market economy that not only reflects values, but encourages and develops those values from the start.”

In Europe, the initiative will be followed closely. “They’re using industrial policy to advance social policies,” said Shahin Vallée, a former European adviser to Emmanuel Macron and now a senior fellow at DGAP, the German Council on Foreign Relations. “There has been a profound ideological shift in the United States, and in Europe we still haven’t adapted to it.”

Statist Charles de Gaulle would also have been jealous of Joe Biden’s industrialist voluntarism: Basically, where there is a will, there is a way. The Chip Act, combined with the Cut Inflation Act and its $369 billion in grants, loans and tax credits for the deployment of renewable energy and clean technology, are the most important in reviving industrial policy in the Western capitalist world since the aftermath of the Second World War. 

This radical change has deeply destabilized European businesses and policymakers, triggering an overhaul of industrial policy at European and national levels and spurring attempts by Brussels to relax rules on state aid and national subsidies.

European business leaders, who complain that the EU is all about sticks and not enough carrots, have called for similar incentives in the form of direct funding and tax credits. But they would surely be less inclined towards the important conditions that the United States has also attached.

As one French government official put it emphatically, “If we did that in France, we would be called communists.

[Seth]

@Freeman

სოფლელები ერთდროულად ძირავენ მაოს და ბებერლენდს. დიდი ალბათობით, ოლაფს ოფერს გაუკეთებენ ჩაბმაზე.

ხოლო დარჩენილ ბებრებს გადაწყვეტილება ექნებათ მისაღები.

[Freeman]

10 minutes წინ, Seth said:

@Freeman

სოფლელები ერთდროულად ძირავენ მაოს და ბებერლენდს. დიდი ალბათობით, ოლაფს ოფერს გაუკეთებენ ჩაბმაზე.

ხოლო დარჩენილ ბებრებს გადაწყვეტილება ექნებათ მისაღები.

იშვიათად ხდება ხოლმე ასეთი საინფორმაციო ნიაღვარი, იმჰო.

ფაქტია, მაგრად თუხთუხებს კულისებს მიღმა ))

[Seth]

5 minutes წინ, Freeman said:

იშვიათად ხდება ხოლმე ასეთი საინფორმაციო ნიაღვარი, იმჰო.

ამ ომმა და მისმა მიზეზებმა მთლიანად შეცვალა ვითარება.

სოფლელებმა იციან რომ თუ არ იმოქმედეს არსებული წესრიგი შეიცვლება. ამას ვუყურებთ ახლა რეალში.