worst kept secret
Well you're the one bringing in "Irish drunken terrorists" 🤷♂️
WTF?
I get the feeling that every Ukrainian soldier is Azov. Despite numbering a few hundred to a thousand members the Russians are making it out like Azov is a huge army.
Tired, hungry and fed fear mongering propaganda whilst watching their comrades get picked off.
The Azov are scary according to this fellow https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1518643048753901568?s=20&t=jpXczfojcoNclDQ_ruESNw
Yeah, for a second I forgot what forum I was in and that one should expect posts from 13 year olds.
Documentary on Navalny tonight. 9pm BBC2
The EU has to stand on some sort of principle of collective consent. If it gets rid of vetoes and unanimous approval, it just gives plenty of ammo to those saying the EU is really just a couple of large European countries dictating terms to the rest, and it would bring the whole thing crashing down. Something that China and Russia would be rather interested in seeing happening.
I do think we will see a push for some internal EU reforms with the veto power and requirement for unanimous approval being curtailed if not eliminated altogether front and center I would think.
Well for one thing the poster never said that. And secondly the "Irish drunken terrorists" who famously invaded Poland during WW2 Thread is thataway afaik =>
A countries contribution to the EU budget is not calculated via it's GDP. It is based on a countries Gross National Income and a small part of each countries VAT collection as well as a few other sources.
Peak 80's! Memories of a fantastically wasted youth :D
Oh wow, "All Germans are Nazis" post, no, never had that one before, how original. Are all Irish drunken terrorists?
Yeah, I don't think that Ukraine should be allowed to join up too fast. Whatever can be done to deepen links between the EU and Ukraine like with the DCFTA in the meantime, though, but the EU needs to be careful when allowing countries to join that they're not going to tip the cultural and economic balance of the union that makes it permanently divided and fighting with itself and constantly putting out fires.
Yes I reread what I said there about Eastern European states and that was not well posted on my part. I think what we will find is yes some reluctance on the part of some Western European states and strong support from Eastern European states. Ultimately I think we will see Ukraine join the EU though it will not be a quick process. It will be over about a 10 year time scale IMHO so that the proper reforms, laws etc can be put in place.
As regards for the future of Eastern European states in the EU and your pessimism. Well nobody can tell for sure what the future holds. But I am maybe just being more optimistic but I think they just need time. We were an utter shambles socially and economically after we regained independence. By the time we joined the EU in 1973 we were still pretty backward economically and very repressive socially but over time we have done well overall.
I mentioned it once but I think I got away with it.
True. There's also a fairly big difference between bonafide refugees plus economic migrants transmigrating across 2 continents to get to a specific European country and ukrainian refugees forced by reason of the Russian invasion to flee their country to other European countries. Especially where the remaining options for Ukrainians are either staying where they are and potentially being murdered, raped, tortured by Putins thugs and / or being forcibly relocated to somewhere in Siberia.
Was your country invaded 5 years by the nazis?Did your grandfather execute nazis and collaborators after ww2 ended?
Did your grandfather fight against the nazis?
My grandfather did
Yes i know what a nazi is,but i was refering to ones closest to Hitler,that atleast had made a name for themselves
The higher Irish GDP may be due to leprechaun economics. The downside to that is we pay a higher net contribution to the EU. The plus side is we have a good rating from lenders so we can borrow and borrow
I am just very pessimistic perhaps. I don't believe Poland or Hungary will ever be net contributors. I don't believe they entered the eu in good faith. They seem to be interested in the financial benefits and none of the social responsibilities. Why will this change? I think that eastern block countries that have lived in a kind of quid pro quo culture for so long will find it hard to evolve to a true values driven society rather than pure transactional motives. Ok given enough time anything can change but like we are ready to take on another massive hugely traumatized country?
You said you disagreed with me on the opinions of eastern eu states but I didn't mention eastern states specifically, I feel like you might find western eu states that will hesitate to support further expansion and who regret the loss of the UK (even though they historically resent them and compete with them) , they know they have lost a social leader there in line with their western values.
Germany has long wanted to dominate Europe.
That resulted in two world wars, the second being particularly destructive and indeed vicious on a level never before seen in history.
You talk about a pacifist streak, but I would say it is more a control streak.
The great German statesmen who actually lived through the war and helped shape EEC, EU are now long gone to be replaced it seems by those willing to put their economy ahead of all else.
German drive to rule gave us two world wars, it latterly helped create the economic mess and ensuing fallout of the late 2000s, it helped create a glut of migrants into Europe all meant as cheap labour and when that didn't work out Germany demanded the rest of the EU pick up the pieces.
And now they are looking at seeing a European country fall into enslavement and fellow EU members be threatened so that their economy is guaranteed.
There is no way the great German leaders of the past firstly would have allowed Germany become so dependent on Russia and secondly they would have understood that for a united Europe to continue they must back their Eastern neighbours.
And I know people will come back and say Merkel saved the euro, but really was it all about saving German economic well being.
We hear people say she helped steer Europe through migrant crisis, but did she not help create it in the first place.
No, around 80% of Russian oil imports to Europe are delivered by tankers coming mainly from the Baltic.
I am not sure of they have a pacifist streak or more of a capitalist streak. Why defend anything when the Americans will do it for you?
Every wonder where that old stereotype of Germans leaving towels on sun-loungers started.
LOL. Reminds me of when I was in holidaying in Thailand a few years back and there were a lot of Russians at the resort I was at.
Was having a chat with the local barman minding the poolside bar whom made the comment to me 'Russians are the new Germans'.
Still holds true...
The main relevance of the Nazi past in relation to current German policy is that Germany now has a deeply pacifist streak, which might be welcome in normal times, but which is now manifesting itself as weakness. Using Nazi crimes to demonise present-day Germany is daft. There are ways you can criticise Germany with reference to the current situation, and not by indulging in a form of historical whataboutery.
Ohh matron, some Germans it seems don't like to be reminded of their past.
The past where they decided to engage in industrialised genocide.
We forget the past at our peril.
Ah fecking hell you never qualified that.
Also for the ones here who want to forget the past, it should be noted the Nazis just weren't Hitler and in his inner sanctum, nor the likes of just the SS and Gestapo.
Most of atrocities weren't even dreamt up by Hitler nor even Himmler or the likes of Heydrich, Eichmann, etc.
There were quite a lot of ordinary Germans quite happy to get down and dirty so to speak.
Of course after the war and up to this day it is played out that it was only some, it was only those awful SS, etc.
There were the good Germans like the much lauded von stauffenberg, who coincidently turned on Hitler when things were going wrong on the battlefield.
Ennis, Shannon you say.
Clare, enough said.
You do know that there are thick ignorant people everywhere, every country in the world.
It is something you can be guaranteed. Also you can meet nice people in most countries.
But I do acknowledge the Germans are known for forming orderly queues.
Hell the Germans even managed to organise quite a lot of them in Poland from 43 to 44.
BTW my point about treating most Germans of the 1940s as the enemy of right thinking people, of democracy holds today where we must think of the vast majority of Russians as our enemy.
Putin and his cronies on their own could not organise this, Putin and his cronies are not the ones actually doing the slaughtering of people and raping of women and girls in Ukraine.
Putin and his cronies are not the ones taking part in parades in European countries.
Putin and his cronies are being enabled and backed by a sizable chunk of Russians.
https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/rumours-intensify-vladimir-putins-health-26794323
I think we can all agree, Putin is on his last legs. How long more can he last? Stress, illness, heart trouble who knows what it is but he bought it all on himself. The sooner he is gone the better.
Well it took us 40 odd years of being an EU member to become a net contributor so I am sure it will take a fair while yet. I would disagree with you as regards to the opinions of other eastern European EU member states opinions about Ukraine. The Eastern European EU countries have largely supported Ukraine getting membership quickly. Now that is not going to happen but a normal lengthy accession process seems reasonable to me and I think that is what we will see. It will probably be about 10 years or so as it was with Poland after they applied before Ukraine officially becomes part of the EU but I do think that is what we will see.
As for the whole "with us or against us mentality" I think there is some justification for that in the here and now in the sense that IMHO what we are seeing is an existential threat not just to Ukraine but to democracy and free and open societies in general IMHO.
Fire - yes.
Impact on pipeline - no
Sorry about the sources, I just used two handy links to confirm the story, other sources have the same story.
None of which are credible.
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