Do We Trust #39;Em? The European Union to Have Their Own Army? | Trifecta
A proposal suggests that the European Union should have their own army. But, really...should they? Check in with Bill, Scott, and Steve, to find out.
By: PJ Media
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Do We Trust 'Em? The European Union to Have Their Own Army? | Trifecta - Video
The European Union will have own army?
The president of European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker declared that the European Union needs to create own unified army as the instrument of upholding of interests of Europe. His words...
By: PravdaTV
The European Union should pool its military resources to create an EU army in response to the rising threat from Russia, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, has said.
Juncker told German newspaperWelt am Sonntag yesterday (8 March) that such a force would not challenge the role of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Instead, he said, it would complement NATO. He pointed out that not all EU member states are members of NATO and the alliance includes countries that are not in the EU. Turkey, a NATO member, has cultivated closer ties with Russia in recent years.
A common army among the Europeans would convey to Russia that we are serious about defending the values of the European Union, Juncker told the newspaper, adding that it would also result in more efficient military spending. Such an army would help us design a common foreign and security policy.
The idea of an EU army has long been championed by France, which is not a full member of NATO. Germany has also been supportive. Following Junckers comments, Ursula von der Leyen, Germanys defence minister, welcomed the idea. Our future as Europeans will at some point be with a European army, she told German radio.
However, the concept has been strongly opposed by the United Kingdom, and Junckers comments have set off a firestorm in British media.
This is not the first time that Juncker has supported the idea of an EU army, but it is the first time he has mentioned the subject since he became president of the European Commission in November of last year. During the European election campaign in May last year, when he was a candidate to become Commission president, he said that that EU will need its own army in the very long run because we have to be credible when it comes to foreign policy.
A spokesperson for Juncker said today that Juncker has been making his position on an EU army clear for some time, adding that Commission studies have shown that pooling EU military resources could result in savings of up to 120 billion a year. The treaty provides a legal basis for pooling and sharing resource, so this is an area that Juncker would like to see progressing, he said. He pointed out that Juncker has appointed Michel Barnier, the former commissioner from France, as his special adviser on defence issues.
The European Council summit in June, which will be devoted to defence issues, will discuss the idea of pooling military resources, he said.
Although Juncker has expressed his desire for an EU army in the past, his direct comments over the weekend attracted much attention in the British media. The idea of an EU army islikely to feature prominently in the debate on the UKs futuremembershipof the EU.
Geoffrey Van Orden, a British Conservative MEP, told the Guardian newspaper that Juncker was living in a fantasy world.
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Juncker calls for an EU army
By Carolyn Cohn
EDINBURGH (Reuters) - The European Union is expected to make clearing of interest rate swaps mandatory from later this year, the bloc's securities market watchdog said on Thursday.
The 28-country bloc is rolling out rules to make derivatives safer and more transparent after their opacity exacerbated the 2007-09 financial crisis.
Mandating clearing of interest rate swaps (IRS), which account for 80 percent of the world's $690 trillion (459 trillion pounds) derivatives market, means they would have to pass through a third party which guarantees the completion of the trade even if one side goes broke.
Steven Maijoor, chairman of the European Securities and Markets Authority, told a pensions conference that the watchdog had completed an analysis of the interest rate swaps market and had recommended that the European Commission endorses mandatory clearing.
"I would hope before the end of the year they will start to apply a central clearing obligation," Maijoor said. "This upcoming central clearing obligation should result in a significant reduction of systemic risk in Europe."
Mandatory clearing of IRS would be phased in for different users, with pension funds coming under the net in 2017. Pension funds use interest rate swaps to cover risks from unexpected shifts in interest rates hitting their investments.
Maijoor told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that credit default swap indices would be next in line for mandatory clearing, most likely in 2016.
Hans Hoogervorst, chair of the International Accounting Standards Board, who was speaking on the same panel, said mandatory central clearing was long overdue.
"Moving to central clearing has been one of the right responses to the crisis ... it's a mistake we didn't do it sooner," he told a Q&A session.
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EU watchdog expects mandatory rate swaps clearing later in 2015
Friday, 06 March 2015 16:38
RIGA: The European Union must engage with average Russians, especially youth, to improve relations that are at their worst since the Cold War, the bloc's foreign policy chief said Friday.
"We have to engage with the people of Russia starting from the young people...to encourage them to see the European Union with their own eyes and build contacts across Europe," Federica Mogherini said in the Latvian capital Riga.
"We cannot lose generations of young Russians," she said, speaking to parliamentarians from across the EU who are there to discuss common foreign, security and defence policy.
Tensions between the West and Russia spiralled to their worst since the end of the Cold War after Moscow annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula last year.
"The European Union has never and will never seek confrontation with Russia," Mogherini said, adding that it was "not in the European Union DNA to seek confrontation".
Last year, the EU and US imposed sanctions primarily targeting senior officials in President Vladimir Putin's administration amid fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian government forces in the eastern regions of Ukraine bordering Russia.
Mogherini was upbeat about the sputtering so-called Minsk II ceasefire between the warring sides that the EU and Russia brokered last month.
"So far the ceasefire has been starting -- not perfect -- with some violations still, and I discussed that with Ukrainian President (Petro) Poroshenko last night," Mogherini said.
"But for sure the trend is a positive one, even if not perfect at all and we know that very well," she said, adding that another wave of sanctions against Moscow was always an option should the ceasefire fail.
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EU must 'engage' with average Russians: Mogherini