Maybe I'm missing something. There was a referendum but I don't see a proposed expansion discussed, just an internal reorganisation of meps 'with an eye to expansion'. Nothing specific about any expansion.
I wouldnt call passing that treaty as an explicit mandate for the 2004 expansion but I guess it could be buried in some documents somewhere
More than Ireland
Russia showing signs of either stupidity or desperation - analyst
Were I some EU overlord, I would never have let Ireland in and in the current circumstances, I'd kick this bunch of cute hoors out. VRT, a Pharmaceuticals blockade, local councils allowed to pursue a locals only planning regime that thumbs it's nose ot the EU free movement principles, engineering the worlds largest tax avoidance industry enabling the US to bleed the EU dry, and at the same time an unbelievably inefficient farm sector that sucked off the EU teat for decades.
Question is what will #putin choose: less fires in #Russia or less attacks on #Ukraine ?
*fewer :p
It's a very perhaps British view of the EU (IMO), "what's in it for me here" and quid pro quo type stuff put at the very top of the agenda.
I agree on the Polish/Hungarian backsliding, but this (the inability to tackle it well after accession) is related to deficiencies in the mechanics of the EU. If they met the accession criteria and the public in those countries wanted to join they were welcome. As regards Brexit (and also your oppoosition to the EU expansion), ironically the UK afair was one country very in favour of more members added to the EU as quickly as possible, even regularly pushing about Turkey's membership (because the US wanted this, I think).
The UK opened itself up completely to free movement for all the new members (like Poland) without any transition/adjustment periods. They decided to do that themeslves. This was stupid and had predictible results IMO (since they were the only large and wealthy country in the EU that did it).
The next two weeks are crucial
Did the BBC do a ninja edit? "US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Ukraine is failing in its war aims while Ukraine is succeeding."
Thing is by the time we find out if an EMP burst is effective or otherwise, it might just be too late or not 🤔
Interesting US paper on possible threat here
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/AD1124730.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjk5emX-K73AhWoQUEAHSXdBjcQFnoECBoQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3XTiRWkzyvPD0mTdiS0SLI
Ahh, was probably the misogyny towards female MPs that was kicking off yesterday after a Daily M*** article.
They always are.
No still there
@8.56 am
Heres the relevant section from the link above
"It's been a week since the start of Russia's all-out drive began to conquer and occupy eastern Ukraine - so are the Kremlin's forces anywhere near a breakthrough?
Professor Phillips O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme the Russian army isn't what many believed it would be - steamrollering its way through Ukraine.
"Actually it's hardly advanced at all," he says. "They've suffered so many losses in the Kyiv campaign and others... and it's not fighting particularly intelligently as far as we can tell."
He also makes the point that human beings are "not just programmable machines". "These soldiers that were taken out of Kyiv were defeated soldiers - they'd seen and they had committed war crimes, they had seen people die, they were exhausted, their equipment had gone."
The fact the Russians aren't letting them rest, he continues, "is a sign of either stupidity or desperation".
O'Brien also says the drip feeding of forces into action as they come available means the front line might not move very quickly.
"The Ukrainian's problem will be, can they drive the Russians back? The Russians still have a lot of heavy artillery and they've got some modern weaponry, and the Ukrainians are a lighter army. So it might not be so easy...
The Ukrainian's problem will be, can they drive the Russians back? The Russians still have a lot of heavy artillery and they've got some modern weaponry, and the Ukrainians are a lighter army. So it might not be so easy...
"This Russian army will be gone in say two months... So if you're going to switch to a long war where Russia fights a long war of occupation in Ukraine, they're going to need a new army. And it's going to be a conscription army."
This Russian army will be gone in say two months... So if you're going to switch to a long war where Russia fights a long war of occupation in Ukraine, they're going to need a new army. And it's going to be a conscription army."
"In February 2003 the Treaty of Nice came into force. The main purpose of the Treaty was to facilitate the major EU enlargement (10 new states) which was to follow."
Everyone who voted in both Irish referenda fully understood that the Treaty would allow the ten new states to be admitted. This wasn't even seen as remotely controversial - all of the arguments in the two referendum campaigns were about things like Irish neutrality and voting rights at the EU.
One thing that most people underestimated was the absolute corruption and inefficacy of the Putin regime. We're finding out now that although large in size, it's a second or third rate army - the corruption and criminality of the regime and Putin has fed into the army itself, making it a toothless tiger.
It's hilarious that they try and depict Ukraine as a bandit country full of terrorists, when the Ukrainians have in fact been ultra professional in battle, whilst the Russians themselves have been a ramshackle bunch, poorly led, low on morale, resorting to looting, raping and murders etc.
Aiming for the double-whammy
"Ukraine is failing in its war aims"
Germanys refusal to put in place economic sanctions on Russia remains in stark contrast to the massive economic sanctions that Germanys bond holders via the ECB imposed on many smaller EU countries during the last economic crash. Looks like the criticism of Germanys current stance is not going away.
Germany’s refusal to quickly sanction Russian oil and gas exports, on which its industries and households remain heavily dependent, has provoked fierce criticism from western partners, not least Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy. The influential American commentator Paul Krugman harshly accused Germany of acting as “Putin’s enabler” and being “complicit in mass murder”.
OK not sure where you're seeing that 🤔
Only relevant sections from the link are
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says Russia is failing in its war aims, while Ukrainians are standing strong. He was speaking in Poland after a trip to Kyiv on Sunday - the first such US visit since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion in February
Blinken adds that Russia continues to try to brutalise parts of Ukraine, but Ukrainians are standing strong. He also says Moscow is failing in its war aims while Ukraine is succeeding.
This is just nonsense. Not approving of eu accession = approval of Russian aggression in your world. It's a very simple place.
And sometimes its exactly what it looks like.
Looks like another jet shot down near Kharkiv
Love it !
Possible joint statement: "While we each see ourselves as a single digit facing East, we see ourselves jointly as a pair of fingers facing East"
I've seen less directly confirmed video lately but Ukraine's claims of downing stuff seems to be continuing apace.
Kind of like like Russia is stabbing itself too.
With protectors like the Russians who needs enemies. Surely, the "Russians" in these areas must be thinking they just might have made a boo boo.
I don't expect anyone will be trying to evacuate at this stage. It would actually do the Russians a favour if they let everyone leave so that they can claim the city (what's left of it) in it entirety. But no doubt the announcement is in poor faith anyway.
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/e050b53be62f0ae2404c620976170938.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w0.vanillicon.com/v2/05bfdb0bc9f81b358ccf2f55186422bb.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://w2.vanillicon.com/v2/282101dc2976956f9dfc87f7a2ef2413.svg)
![Photo of [Deleted User]](https://we.vanillicon.com/v2/eedacf599b4135dfd56d6fdbddcbd867.svg)