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Posted by DanielS on Saturday, 21 July 2018 05:33.
Putting an end to three decades spent of looking almost exclusively towards the West.
The Three Seas Initiative, a super Visegrád-Group?
Visigrad Post, “The Three Seas Initiative, a new forum of cooperation of twelve Central European countries countervailing the Berlin-Brussels-Paris Axis?”, 13 July 2018:
Talks on regional pipelines at Regional Forum of Three Seas Initiative, 3 July 2018, Rzeszów, Poland. Photo: Olivier Bault.
By Olivier Bault.
Originally published in French on Réinformation TV.
Poland, Rzeszów – The first Forum of the Regions of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) took place on July 3, in Rzeszów, Poland. This initiative has been started in 2015 by the Polish President Andrzej Duda and the Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The 3SI groups twelve Central European countries between the Baltic Sea, the Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea: the three Baltic States, the four ones of the Visegrád-Group (V4) as well as Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria. This meeting aimed to transform this simple intergovernmental cooperation into a border crossing cooperation between the regions concerned by the Three Seas Initiative. Another dimension was then also announced by the President of the Polish Sejm (parliament) with the project of a parliamentary assembly of the Three Seas that could extend beyond the 12 3SI countries by also attracting countries that are not members of the UE, beginning with Ukraine and Moldova.
The Polish president quotes the French Robert Schuman in order to justify the Three Seas Initiative
In its current form, the 3SI is first of all an economic cooperation framework with concrete projects. Because, as the Polish president Andrzej Duda said, quoting the French Robert Schuman when he came to greet the participants from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia: “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.” Furthermore, Duda emphasized that the Three Seas Initiative had also a political and social dimension, that is particularly important at a moment when the European Union is losing touch with its fundamental principles. Considered by the participating countries as complementary structure and not as a concurrence to the EU, this platform of regional cooperation might potentially – with its 120 millions inhabitants – rebalance the West-East relationship within the 28, and soon 27 members of the Union.
Putting an end to three decades spent of looking almost exclusively towards the West
While they represent 22 % of the EU population, they only produce 10 % of its wealth, as the economic catch up that began after the fall of Communism (except for Austria) is far away from being achieved. And the first goal of the Three Seas Initiative is to develop the energetic and transport infrastructures along the North-South axis and to develop trade on this same axis after thee decades of a development that was principally in a East-West direction. In the domain of energy, the Polish and Lithuanian gas terminals will be connected in the middle term with the Croatian gas terminal on the Adriatic.
This aspect does particularly interest the United States, with which Poland has just signed two very big contracts for the delivery of gas after 2022, after expiration of the contract binding it with the Russian company Gazprom. Not all countries of the Three Seas Initiative wish, like Poland, to stop buying Russian gas but they all support the diversification that the construction of these new gas pipelines will lead to, as there are also important gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea and the planned Baltic Pipe will also allow to deliver Norwegian gas to the region. For the President of the Polish gas company PGNiG (Polish Petroleum Mining and Gas Industry), who was present at the Forum of the Regions of the Three Seas Initiative, the development of connections between the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic is a concurrence to the alliance between the German and Russian companies concerned by the Nord Stream pipeline.
Another project that is being achieved within the 3SI is the Via Carpatia, which includes a motorway and expressway network that will lead from Klaipėda in Lithuania to Thessaloniki in Greece along the Eastern side of the European Union. There are also some long-term projects for creating railway and waterway transport axes, as today in Central Europe, these are all the transport infrastructures that are less developed on a North-South direction than on the East-West one. It might also be discussed in the future – the question has been arisen at the Forum of the Regions of the Three Seas Initiative – to develop direct exchanges for media information for the Central European societies to avoid being informed of what happens at their neighbours’ through the ideological filter of the press agencies and the Western European mainstream media, as it is unfortunately the case nowadays.
The Three Seas Initiative, a super Visegrád-Group?
After the fall of the Berlin wall, the satellite countries of the USSR in Europe fixed their eyes towards the West for a long time and neglected the relationships between each other. Today, with the identity and society crisis that Western Europe is going through, but also with the awareness of an economic relationship where the former communist countries got themselves being dominated, there is a great temptation to meet up with the other Central European countries to speak, when possible, with a single voice in Brussels. That is already done with success by the four countries of the Visegrád-Group (Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary). The Three Seas Initiative could allow twelve countries to make it the same way.
Translated from French by the Visegrád Post.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 18 July 2018 18:00.
Prometheus unbound. Orban cracks down on immigration (AP) Photo: AP/Press Association Images
ITV Report, “Hungary to pull out of UN accord on migration”, 18 July 2018:
Hungary’s foreign minister said his country will pull out of a United Nations accord on migration to be adopted in December because it goes against his country’s security interests.
Foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the final draft of which was released last week, also goes against common sense.
He added that Hungary has doubts about the accord’s non-binding status.
Under Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was elected in April to his third consecutive term, Hungary has adopted strict anti-migration measures and made it very difficult for refugees to obtain asylum.
The UN document is a “non-legally binding, co-operative framework” meant to foster “international co-operation among all relevant actors on migration, acknowledging that no state can address migration alone, and upholds the sovereignty of states and their obligations under international law”.
On Thursday 28 and Friday 29 of June the leaders of the 28 Member States of the European Union met in Brussels for a summit to discuss in particular migration policy at a European scale. A summit that has brought some progress but which is not a decisive victory for anyone, even if the V4 can celebrate having imposed its themes and some of its solutions, as well as having overcome the domination of the immigrationist paradigm.
Belgium, Brussels – Once again, the European Union seems to be paralyzed. The leaders of the 28 EU Member States, however, all wanted to move the debate on the migration issue forward, and the discussions dragged on late into the night. Nothing helps, the migration issue is not settled, and no idea is unanimous.
The Hungarian Prime Minister represented the Visegrád countries during the V4-France meeting preceding the summit, in order to negotiate with Emmanuel Macron. The immigrationist governments, like those of the French Republic or Germany, have agreed to abandon the idea of mandatory quotas for all, which is already a great victory for Viktor Orbán and V4. For the strong man of Budapest, who announced on his arrival in Brussels his willingness to put an end to massive and uncontrolled immigration to Europe and initiate remigration, the summit can not however be seen as a total victory.
Certainly, the EU is starting to be in tune with the solution proposed by the V4 three years ago, namely the setting up of refugee camps outside the EU borders – to make the registration of applications and to distinguish refugees from cheaters and economic migrants – and Frontex control over the Mediterranean Sea. But if we do not know the exact content of the negotiations, we understand that each side had to make concessions.
Quotas will only apply to Member States wishing to participate in the relocation of immigrants, but those who oppose it may well be required to participate more heavily in the funding of protection structures. Frontex should indeed significantly increase its workforce in the coming years, and that will have a cost. Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini announced that Slovakia was volunteering to temporarily accommodate 1,200 migrants to relieve neighboring countries – referring to Austria. He insisted, however, that every migrant should be accepted by the government, and that none of them could enter and stay in Slovakia without prior government control and acceptance.
No details on the technical solutions: the EU is talking about increasing aid to the countries of origin of the migrants, but the population of these countries is expected to double by 2050. And what about the migrants which will be refused in the registration camps? Many questions still arise.
A concrete progress for the Visegrád group, certainly because of the Italian pressure on the issue, is that NGOs should now stop picking up in the Libyan territorial waters migrants on smugglers’ ships, and let the Libyan coastguard do their work. This should considerably dry up the massive influx of illegal immigrants into Italy, and therefore into Europe.
So if the V4 has managed to establish itself as a key and influential trading partner, it has not – yet? – obtained total gain of cause. The fight within the EU on the migration issue has not been resolved this week.
Euractiv, “EU summit approves tortured conclusions on migration after sleepless night”, 29 June 2018:
EU leaders reached a much-needed deal on steps to tackle migration after resolving a bitter row with Italy’s inexperienced prime minister. Extended talks lasted through the night and only wrapped up on Friday morning (29 June).
Europe’s leaders got the bitter taste of what anti-system diplomacy, or creative disruption means. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who heads Italy’s month-old populist and anti-immigration government, took the entire summit as hostage.
Conte blocked the summit conclusions in a bid to get his reluctant counterparts to share responsibility for asylum seekers landing on Italian shores.
A summit ending without conclusions would have been a political disaster with unpredictable negative consequences for the EU bloc, so the stakes were high
A relieved Merkel in backround as an agitated Conte gets a pat on the back from Tusk and Macron
Disruptive diplomacy
Former law professor Conte, until recently a virtual political unknown, came to Brussels emboldened by the announcement of an upcoming visit to Washington to visit US President Donald Trump, who has hailed Rome’s tough stance, and who himself blocked the conclusions of a recent G7 leaders meeting on trade.
The summit which is expected to end today by noon, was called the “mother of all summits”, in particular because of the potential impact on the political future of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is wrestling to preserve her fragile government at home.
“Europe has many challenges but migration could end up determining Europe’s destiny,” Merkel told German lawmakers hours ahead of the summit.
There are very few migrants arriving in Germany recently but Merkel’s conservative CSU ally warned it would send back migrants who reach the German border after having registered in other EU states.
Such a move could see a domino effect of re-introduction of internal borders and the collapse of the Schengen area.
In contrast, Italy is actually under migratory pressure from the Central Mediterranean route with significant numbers of arrivals salvaged at sea and brought to its ports. Since the new government took over, Italy has refused to let several migrant rescue boats dock at Italian ports, reopening EU divisions.
“Italy does not need more words, but concrete actions,” Conte told reporters as he arrived at the summit, adding that if EU leaders did not offer more help “we will not have shared conclusions”. Italy wants the responsibility for migrants on ships arriving on its shores to be shared out across the 28-nation European Union.
Drama at summit
European Council spokesman Preben Aamann said that after several hours of talks, conclusions on all issues from the summit – which is also dealing with trade and defence in addition to the core subject of migration – had been blocked.
“Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed,” an Italian source added.
Other sources said the other 27 EU leaders were “astonished” and unhappy over Italy hardening its position and that “it was a very virulent discussion and everyone jumped on the Italian”.
The ‘mother of all summits’ wrapped up earlier. Check out how it all unfolded here. It was all supposed to be about unity but there wasn’t even a family photo, in what seems like a new tradition.
Jean-Claude Juncker was in full House of Cards mode about his upcoming trip to Washington to try and avert an all-out trade war. Conclusions on the eurozone were, as expected, the bare minimum.
Brexit barely got a mention, except on “insufficient progress”. Emmanuel Macron has lost patience and wants a final withdrawal deal done by the autumn. British actor and repentant Leave voter Danny Dyer summed up ex-PM David Cameron’s role in one moment of genius.
One overlooked result of the summit was an agreement between the Baltics, Poland and the Commission on decoupling Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania from Russia’s power grid and sphere of influence.
Euractiv, “EU, Baltics, Poland target Russia grid separation by 2025”, 29 June 2018:
The Baltic nations, Poland and the European Commission agreed Thursday (28 June) on a roadmap to synchronise the region’s electricity network with the rest of continental Europe’s by 2025 and end their reliance on the Russian grid.
The leaders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and the European Commission all signed up to a political agreement during a special ceremony on the sidelines of the ongoing European Council summit.
According to the roadmap, the deadline for concluding the synchronisation of the Baltic grid is set for 2025, using an existing electricity interconnector between Poland and Lithuania, as well as a planned undersea cable.
The latter project will only be undertaken if results of a study by the European Network of Transmission System Operators (ENTSO-E) show that it guarantees energy security, security of supply and if costs are within reason. Results due in September.
Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker said that “since the beginning of our mandate, my Commission has been committed to having full integration of the Baltic states’ grids with the rest of Europe”.
Energy Union boss Maroš Šefčovič called the deal “solidarity at its best“, adding that the project will “cost us a lot from the European budget”, through the Connecting Europe Facility.
Poland’s role in the preliminary deal is crucial as it will act as the primary link between the Baltics and the rest of Europe. In March, the three countries revealed they would not support any EU sanctions against Warsaw as part of the ongoing rule of law spat with Brussels.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L-R), Estonian Prime Minister Juris Ratas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Latvia’s Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis during Prime Ministers Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers with Polish counterpart in Vilnius, Lithuania 9 Mar 2018. [EPA-EFE]
Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia have confirmed that they are against imposing EU sanctions on Poland for alleged breaches to the rule of law. EURACTIV Poland reports.
Thursday’s agreement was long overdue, after disputes about how best to cut ties with the Russian-Belorussian network stood in the way of any progress.
Estonia and Latvia initially both favoured setting up a second alternating current (AC) connection with Poland to complement the existing LitPol link but Lithuania and Poland did not support that idea, despite studies showing that two AC connections would be best.
Sure, “Whites should be strictly against ‘Hispanics’ and ‘Hispanics’ should be against Whites”, while “black Americans are ‘really ok’...they just need to get back to the days where the black father headed the family with authority”.... if you listen to right wing fools like Dr. Dupe and have the capacity to nerd-rationalize your way around the racial reality, you might even buy that.
In fact, when choosing sides in a friend enemy distinction between so called “Hispanics” and blacks, i.e., regarding whom to form coalitions with, there is no question; and if the Hispanics are truly wise, they will side in coalition with White groups and Asians against blacks, YKW and Muslims.
It won’t be easy to form this coalition, perhaps some form of coordination will have to suffice for now ..the negotiation of coalition with White Hispanics should be easier, of course, except for our dumb White right wing American element, which virtually sees people who don’t have blue eyes and blonde hair as non-White, but White Left Ethnonationalism should reach out to build coalitions with “la Raza”, or some facsimile thereof, not only the ones who are primarily White, but also the ones who are part White and part Indian and ones that are primarily Amerindian.
We have to convince them that the issue of “Hispanics” and Whites is one of negotiation and coordination - critically, of carrying capacity of the nations and resources; and in defense against YKW and Islam and blacks -
The later group of which they are notoriously good at defending themselves against in a perennial fight of theirs; against blacks who would stay on their turf. That defense can help us sort out, and with coordination, achieve separatism from blacks and those “Hispanics” who are significantly black…..
Sooner or later “Hispanics”, not being so flighty and disposed to take recourse in nerd-dome and “intellectual rationalizations” as Whites do, realize that it is absolutely necessary to fight for their women, their people and turf against blacks, to discriminate against them. And they are correct about that. The problem is not that “blacks used to be ok when they were not misled by Jewry” as Dr. Dupe alleges. This their nature, this is reality.
So, when it comes to that fight, we should say, ‘go La Raza Unita!’ or whatever potentially White allied “Hispanic” group is defending their women and themselves against blacks.
Furthermore, they won’t be shedding too many tears about historical Jewish victimhood, nor see much common ground with Israel. La Raza was founded in wise skepticism of Jewry.
Of course WN should go with the angle that it was the prerogative of the restaurateur to discriminate and throw her out as a matter of private business/property and freedom of association. This can begin to challenge the (((64 Civil Rights Act))) which violates the capacity (of Whites, anyway) to discriminate on behalf of their private property, business and prerogative of association.
Telegraph, “Restaurant owner who asked Sarah Sanders to leave says she was taking moral stand against Donald Trump”, 24 June 2018:
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, was refused service at a restaurant on Friday, sparking angry accusations that Donald Trump’s aides are the target of liberal “bigotry”.
Mrs Sanders said she had been asked to leave by the owner of the Red Hen, about three hours drive outside Washington.
The story was confirmed by the restaurant’s owner who said she felt she had to take a stand against for “honesty” and “compassion”.
Mrs Sanders wrote on Twitter: “I was told by the owner of Red Hen in Lexington, Virginia to leave because I work for the president and I politely left.
“Her (the owner’s) actions say far more about her than about me. I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”
The confrontation comes at a particularly tense time in American politics, with protests growing over the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border policy that has separated children from parents. It follows months and years of growing polarisation in American politics - the cause and effect of Mr Trump’s rise to power.
Republicans lost no time in accusing liberals of policing restaurants.
Mrs Sanders’ father Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential candidate, said: “Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington, Virginia. Or you can ask for the ‘Hate Plate’. And appetisers are ‘small plates for small minds’.”
Earlier in the week, Mr Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, cut short a dinner at a Mexican restaurant after protesters shouted “Shame!” until she left.
The Red Hen Credit: Daniel Lin
Mrs Sanders’ treatment at the restaurant created a social media commotion with people on both sides weighing in.
On Yelp, a reviewer of the restaurant wrote: “Don’t eat here if you’re a Republican, wearing a MAGA hat or a patriot.”
But other reviewers supported the restaurant owner’s actions.
Both sides of the debate have been leaving comments on the restaurant’s social media sites Credit: Daniel Lin/AP
One said: “12/10 would recommend. Bonus: this place is run by management who stuck up for their beliefs and who are true Americans.” The restaurant was in the town of Lexington, population 7,000, which voted heavily against Mr Trump.
Stephanie Wilkinson, co-owner of the tiny 26-seat eaterie, said she was at home when staff called to tell her Mrs Sanders was dining and she went to see.
She told the Washington Post: “I’m not a huge fan of confrontation. I have a business, and I want the business to thrive.
“But this feels like the moment in our democracy when people have to make uncomfortable actions and decisions to uphold their morals.”
When she got there Mrs Sanders, her husband and several others had cheese boards in front of them.
Ms Wilkinson consulted her staff who had all seen Mrs Sander defending the separation of illegal immigrant families at the border. The staff said they wanted Mrs Sanders to leave.
Ms Wilkinson said she went to Mrs Sanders, told her she was the owner, and asked her on to the patio “for a word”.
She said: “I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation. I said ‘I’d like to ask you to leave’.”
Mrs Sanders was polite and said simply: “That’s fine. I’ll go.”
Her party followed her out, offering to pay, but were told they did not need to.
Someone claiming to be a member of the waiting staff posted details of the incident on social media, including a memo about Mrs Sanders being 86ed - slang for ejecting someone.
The details were forwarded in a tweet by Brennan Gilmore, the executive director of environmental group Clean Virginia.
Prometheus unbound. Orban cracks down on immigration (AP) Photo: AP/Press Association Images
Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaité during the signing ceremony with Commission boss Jean-Claude Juncker. [European Commission]
A relieved Merkel in backround as an agitated Conte gets a pat on the back from Tusk and Macron
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L-R), Estonian Prime Minister Juris Ratas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Saulius Skvernelis, Latvia’s Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis during Prime Ministers Council of the Baltic Council of Ministers with Polish counterpart in Vilnius, Lithuania 9 Mar 2018. [EPA-EFE]
