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GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Apr 6, CMC The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) hailed its ongoing relationship with the European Union (EU) and that it was looking forward to building on such a relationship.

Guyanas President David Granger, who is also the current CARICOM Chairman, told a ceremony marking the 60thanniversary of the treaty establishing the European Economic Community (ECC) on Wednesday night, that the goals of his country as well as the region were international peace and economic integration.

He said these goals were shared by the European Union, and were the basis upon which the signing of the Treaty of Rome, occurred 60 years ago.

The Caribbean today, like Europe 60 years ago, yearns for peace. The Caribbean seeks international peace, which is characterised by a dignified and secure life for our peoples. It seeks economic progress, which is undergirded by special consideration to the needs and vulnerabilities of small-island developing and low-lying coastal states such as Guyana, Granger said.

He said the goals were also the foundation that have resulted in Caribbean being part of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP), entering into mutually beneficial, preferential agreements with Europe.

The Caribbean, as party to successive Lom conventions and signatories to the Cotonou Agreement, looks forward to building on four decades of ACP-EU relations, he said.

The 79-member ACP Group and European countries have been in a comprehensive and structured partnership since 1975 and the current 20-year Cotonou Treaty, which covers trade, development cooperation and political dialogue between the two parties, ends in 2020.

The ACP Group has already indicated that it intends to speak with one voice when it negotiates a major partnership framework with the European Union.

Granger told the ceremony that it was the Treaty of Rome that inaugurated a programme of economic integration, which allowed the European Union to become a formidable economic community, accounting for 20 per cent of global exports and with over 62 percent of its trade being intra-regional.

The Treaty of Rome was inspired by the philosophy of promoting peace through economic integration. Two World Wars in the first half of the twentieth century had taken a terrible toll on Europe.

The scars of the Second World War were still visible in 1957, 12 years after it had ended. The Treaty of Rome was signed by six states, which were encouraged by the experience of the European Coal and Steel Community signed, six years earlier. They were convinced that peace and economic progress could be secured best through deeper economic integration, Granger said.

He said that the treaty served as part of the post-war era of economic integration, preceding the establishment of the Latin America Free Trade Association (1960), Central American Common Market (1960), the Caribbean Free Trade Association (1965), and the Caribbean Community (1973).

Economic integration was increasing its impetus and impact in other parts of the world. Europe was not alone. The Treaty of Rome has bequeathed a legacy of sustained peace over the past 60 years. The vision of the Treatys architects has been vindicated, Granger said.

The EU Ambassador to Guyana, Jernej Videtic said that the founding members signed the treaty having been inspired by a dream of a peaceful, common future of European integration.

He said that discussions on ACP-EU relations beyond 2020 are ongoing, and that these discussions must take place in a transparent manner, in an atmosphere of partnership and cooperation.

It is of course of major importance to Guyana and other Caribbean countries that these discussions proceed, especially in view of the challenges facing the region and indeed the wider world, Ambassador Videtic said, pledging that the European Union will continue to be a strong and constant partner of Guyana and the Caribbean Community.

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CARICOM hails relationship with European Union - Antigua Observer

The 28 Ambassadors--carrying their demarche between their tails - should be sent packing to Europe for a period of reflection and introspection

Ambassadors to Israel representing 28 European Union States (EU) behaved most undiplomatically in ambushing the recently appointed Director of Israels Foreign Ministry and former Ambassador to Australia - Yuval Rotem - at a meet and greet function Rotem had organised at the Dan Hotel in Tel Aviv last week.

Instead of the pleasant banter over drinks and canapes usually associated with such events on the diplomatic cocktail circuit - the function erupted into an explosive EU protest against Israels plans to evict Arab squatters from 42 structures that had been illegally erected between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem at the strategically narrowest point in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) known as E1.

Lars Faarburg-Andersen - the EU Ambassador to Israeltook the opportunity to read out to Rotem the following one-page document which had been approved by the EU political-security committee - in which all 28 member states are represented.

This gauche and uncivilised behaviour was certainly uncalled for and not conduct that one would ever expect to come from refined and cultured Europeans.

Reading this carefully-crafted statement at the function was a cavalier action aggravating the already strained relationship between the EU and Israel following the EUs introduction on 11 November 2015 of labelling requirements for goods produced in Judea and Samaria entering Europe.

The statement revealingly exposes the hypocrisy of the EU for the following reasons:

This is not the first occasion the EU has sought to impose itself in Area C by supporting illegal Arab building activities where it has no legal right to be present or involved.

On 13 December 2016 the EU Representative and the EU Heads of Mission in Jerusalem and Ramallah issued a statement acknowledging that humanitarian structures provided by the EU and EU Member States in 2016 worth approximately EUR 536,000 had been either destroyed or confiscated.

The EU then claimed that its activities were humanitarian and carried out in full accordance with International Humanitarian Law - with the sole aim of providing humanitarian support to the most vulnerable population.

Yet this pious claim has exploded in its face with its own admission in the demarche that:

The EU and EU member States are united in the view that Area C is of critical importance for the viability of a future Palestinian State

What the EU has really been doing under the guise of humanitarian aid is financing illegal Arab structures designed to create irreversible facts on the ground favouring the claims of the Palestine Liberation Organisation over the national and security interests of Israel. The EU has been outed engaging in such reprehensible actions tainted by illegality outside diplomatic norms.

Israels response to this unprecedented ambush and illegal misconduct has been remarkably restrained.

Avivit Bar-Ilan director of the Israel Foreign Ministrys European Union Department has told EU Deputy Ambassador to Israel Mark Gallagher:

In Israel, illegal construction is dealt with according to the law.

Bar-Ilan wryly observed:

There are 32 humanitarian crises around the world, but the European Union opts to deal disproportionately only with what happens in Area C, which undoubtedly isnt in a humanitarian crisis,

The 28 Ambassadorscarrying their demarche between their tails - should be sent packing to Europe for a period of reflection and introspection.

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European Union Declares Diplomatic War on Israel - Canada Free Press

Jean-Marc Ayrault, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Development, will take part in the Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region on April 5.

This conference, co-chaired by the EU, the UN, Germany, Kuwait, Norway, Qatar and the United Kingdom, follows on from the conference in London on February 4, 2016, on the international response to the consequences of the Syrian crisis, notably in order to help the Syrian population and the countries that are hosting Syrian refugees.

While chemical weapons have again been used in Syria, Jean-Marc Ayrault will deliver a warning message and call for mobilization. He will reaffirm that the international community must remain mobilized in the face of the tragic situation in Syria after six years of war: more than 300,000 people dead, 5 million refugees, and 6 million displaced persons, an upsurge in violence by the regime and the blocking of humanitarian assistance.

Jean-Marc Ayrault will underscore the urgent need to implement a political transition in Syria, based on UNSCR 2254 and the Geneva Communiqu. This is the goal of the negotiations under UN auspices, which should swiftly resume in Geneva. Without a genuine transition, European involvement in the reconstruction of Syria will be impossible.

Jean-Marc Ayrault will reaffirm Frances commitment to supporting the Syrian people and Syrias neighboring countries, especially Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey.

Read more here:
European Union Syria Brussels Conference on Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region (5 April 2017) - France Diplomatie (press release)

PARIS When France sneezes, Europe catches pneumonia.

Rarely have the French faced a starker choice of European futures than in this years presidential election, where theyll vote for bye-bye European Union or back to a Europe of Nations or even fast forward to a more integrated Union.

If the opinion polls are accurate and fickle voters, angry with the political class, dont change their minds at the ballot box, the second-round runoff on May 7 is likely to pit anti-EU nationalist Marine Le Pen against pro-EU centrist Emmanuel Macron. Still in contention in the first round on April 24 are conservative Gaullist Franois Fillon and evergreen leftist Jean-Luc Mlenchon.

Le Pen has promised to take France out of the euro and the Schengen open-border zone, reintroduce the franc and reimpose border controls and trade barriers, and has said she will call a referendum on leaving the European Union altogether within six months if the bloc isnt receptive to her proposals for a radical treaty renegotiation.

It is no exaggeration to say that a Le Pen victory could deal a fatal blow to the eurozone and the EU, which can survive a Brexit but would be mortally wounded by a Frexit. Germanys federal election on September 24 matters too, but isless uncertain the German vote is bound to produce another coalition led by one or the other pro-European mainstream party. For now, all eyes are on Paris.

Europe is locking us up, Europe is forbidding us, Europe is bullying us Marine Le Pen

France, unlike Britain which joined the EU late and was always semi-detached has been a central pillar of European construction from the outset. Its passions and tantrums have dictated the tempo and shape of integration.

From the failure of the European Defense Community to the Treaty of Rome, from De Gaulles vetoes of Britains first membership bids to the empty chair crisis and the Luxembourg compromise; from the creation of the European Monetary System and the euro to the rise and fall of the proposed European constitution, the European project has advanced or retreated at Frances pace.

The result of the May 7 vote, and of subsequent parliamentary elections in June, will determine whether the EU is plunged into existential crisis or given a new lease of life with the prospect of a Franco-German grand bargain to deepen European economic, monetary and defense cooperation.

Neither French front-runner can necessarily count on a parliamentary majority to implement their program and their promises may well be tempered by the influence of the political and business establishment.

Franois Fillon speaks during a press conference at his headquarters in Paris | Yoan Valat/EPA

Yet in the wake of Britains vote to leave the EU and the election of Donald Trump in the United States, the choice between isolationism and internationalism, between a closed, protectionist, angry France and an open, economically liberalizing, optimistic one is a litmus test that will shape Europes future for years to come.

Europe is locking us up, Europe is forbidding us, Europe is bullying us, Le Pen declared during a television debate among the main candidates last month. I dont aspire to administer what would have become a mere region of the European Union. I dont wish to be vice chancellor to [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel.

Aware that her plan for an economic and monetary leap into the unknown scares the middle-class voters she needs to win over to reach 50 percent in the runoff, Le Pen has kept quiet about leaving the euro, seeking, instead, to project a reassuring Im-on-your-side image and appear stateswoman-like by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin or addressing the parliament in Chad.

Perhaps surprisingly, given the current grumpy, Euroskeptical mood in France, polls predict the most pro-European candidate, 39-year-old favorite Macron, has the best chance of beating the far-right leader in the runoff. This despite his avowed support for pooling more sovereignty in the eurozone and building a European defense union in close partnership with Germany.

In one of the rare dramatic exchanges in this weeks marathon TV debate among the 11 candidates, he accused Le Pen of proposing economic war.

Macron, who was top economic adviser and then economy minister under Socialist President Franois Hollande before resigning last year, is the only candidate who has promised to adhere to Frances much-neglected European obligation to bring its budget deficit below 3 percent of gross domestic product. His commitment to fiscal responsibility and economic reform, and his sudden rise to front-runner, won him an audience with Merkel last month after the center-right German chancellor had declined to make time for him probably out of tribal loyalty to her French conservative allies when he visited Berlin in January.

The leader of the grassroots movement En Marche is taking political risks not only by embracing more ambitious European integration but also by hailing Merkels decision to welcome roughly 1 million refugees and migrants in the summer of 2015 as a move that saved Europes collective dignity. Merkels open-door policy has been widely criticized in France, where Hollande accepted EUs mandated quota of refugees as quietly and unenthusiastically as possible and was relieved when it turned out that few refugees came.

French presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mlenchon | Franois Nascimbeni/AFP via Getty Images

Macron is backed by federalists including liberal MEP Sylvie Goulard, who accompanied him to Germany, and former Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit. He chose Berlins Humboldt University, where former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer called for a European federation in a celebrated speech in 2000, to issue his own call for a eurozone budget with a borrowing capacity to fund public investment and help protect countries hit by economic shocks, as well as a European defense fund to finance military research and joint arms procurement.

The third man in the race, Fillon, offers a more sovereignty-focused approach to the EU, saying in Tuesdays debate, Its time for France to take back the controls of the European Union.

But, dogged by successive scandals for using taxpayers money to employ family members as political aides, Fillon has struggled to gain traction with his vision of a more inter-governmental Europe of nation states.

Fillon has vowed to shrink the regulatory intrusion of the European Commission and put a directorate of national leaders in charge of the eurozone, taking fiscal supervision away from the EU executive. He backs a powerful Franco-German axis because without a strong entente between our two countries, there would be no Europe, and our continent would be open to the Americans, the Russians, the Chinese.

Firebrand leftist orator Mlenchon has said he would demand a complete negotiation of the EU treaties to put an end to fiscal austerity.

Merkel has been publicly reserved about Fillon especially since the scandal broke, the day after his visit to Berlin, an occasion he used to criticize her immigration policy. A German source said the chancellor was impressed by the determination he expressed to roll back the frontiers of the state and face down the trade unions but was aware of the resistance to reform in France.

Meanwhile, the champions of the divided French left with little to no chance of surviving the first round of elections vie with utopian visions of a reinvented free-lunch socialist Europe.

Firebrand leftist orator Mlenchon has said he would demand a complete negotiation of the EU treaties to put an end to fiscal austerity, make the European Central Bank print money to fund investment and write off government debt, and impose a European protectionism of solidarity to shield jobs. Asked how he would convince other Europeans, notably the Germans, to accept such change, he told an audience this week, We can afford to create a balance of forces and threaten to walk out, because we are not [Prime Minister Alexis] Tsipras Greece, we are France.

Ultimately, the European future that emerges from Frances ballot boxes may hinge above all on the next presidents ability to revive the economy with reforms that restore a more balanced partnership with Germany.

Paul Taylor writes POLITICOs Europe At Large.

Excerpt from:
As goes France, so goes the EU - POLITICO.eu

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The two nations have ignored Brussels insistence that they take migrants presently residing in great numbers in Italy and Greece. Public opinion in Hungary and Poland is also strongly against being forced to accept thousands of migrants from non-European cultures.

Polands conservative Law and Justice Party (Prawo i Sprawiedliwo PiS) swept to victory in 2015, partly due to voter anger over the previous government agreeing to take migrants under the quota system.

In Hungary, Prime Minister Viktor Orbn has been a vocal opponent of the scheme from its conception, asserting that forcing member countries to take a compulsory quota of migrants is unlawful and will spread terrorism around Europe.

Later this year, the two countries will be given an ultimatum and have to decide whether they are willing to maintain an anti-mass migration stances if it puts their membership of the EU at threat, a senior diplomatic source from one of the blocs six founding member states told The Times.

The source said: They will have to make a choice: are they in the European system or not? You cannot blackmail the EU, unity has a price.

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) is expected to hold a hearing on the legality of migrant quotas in the coming weeks, with a judgement widely expected to be in favour of the scheme likely by the end of the year.

We are confident that the ECJ will confirm validation, the source said. Then they must abide by the decision. If they dont then they will face consequences, both financial and political. No more opt-outs. There is no more one foot in and one foot out. We are going to be very tough on this.

Hungary challenged the court, insisting that it is culturally and constitutionally unreasonable to impose asylum seekers on unwilling member states.

In December, referring to policies of importing large numbers of people from the third world, Orbn stated that Hungary and other countries in Central Europe have had the opportunity to learn from Western Europes mistakes.

Hungary is a stable island in the turbulent western world because the people were consulted on their opinions here, and we defended the country against illegal immigration.

In 2015, when European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans demandedEastern and Central EU nations undergo similar demographic transitions as in Western Europe, Hungary was singled out for special mention.

Any society, anywhere in the world, will be diverse in the future thats the future of the world, Timmermans said. So [Central European countries] will have to get used to that. They need political leaders who have the courage to explain that to their population instead of playing into the fears as Ive seen Mr Orbn doing in the last couple of months.

Breitbart London reported that the European Union is to open asylum processing centres in west Africa and countries on the southern shore of the Mediterranean because the continent needs six million migrants, the European Commissioner for Migration Dimitris Avramopoulos said last month.

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European Union Tells Hungary and Poland To Accept Mass Migration Or Leave - Breitbart News