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EU watch

This all ties in very much with what proponents of Brexit were on about, on the global stage the EU being yesterday's news, stewing in its closed minded pot, failing to understand the dynamics of the world as it is evolving and being prepared to deal with it.

Little Europeaneers.

Yeah, rather sadly they've had a right little sulk...

The New York Times (@nytimes) Tweeted: Breaking News: France canceled a gala in Washington celebrating its U.S. alliance in protest over America’s deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines. Expressing fury over the Australia submarine deal, France cancels a gala celebrating relations with the U.S.

Which I rather doubt will have any positive impact.

The EU, or at an EU official, has been honking off to the hacks about how this shows that the UK is an unreliable partner etc... Not once have they reflected on why Australia was dissatisfied with the timescale slipping by year while the price doubled....
 
Yeah, rather sadly they've had a right little sulk...

The New York Times (@nytimes) Tweeted: Breaking News: France canceled a gala in Washington celebrating its U.S. alliance in protest over America’s deal to help Australia deploy nuclear-powered submarines. Expressing fury over the Australia submarine deal, France cancels a gala celebrating relations with the U.S.

Which I rather doubt will have any positive impact.

The EU, or at an EU official, has been honking off to the hacks about how this shows that the UK is an unreliable partner etc... Not once have they reflected on why Australia was dissatisfied with the timescale slipping by year while the price doubled....

They might learn that procuring from the British isn’t much better, we don’t have the most stellar record for good value and on-time delivery.
 
They might learn that procuring from the British isn’t much better, we don’t have the most stellar record for good value and on-time delivery.

In which case, should we not deliver (whatever it is that we end up agreeing to deliver), we've had a very clear signal as to how the Aussies will react...
 
Didn't realise that Switzerland recently cancelled a large order for Dassault Rafale fighter jets from France and instead snapped up a shed-load of F-35's instead.

Doesn't look good for Napoleon's ambitions to have La France back on the global stage...

Oh well, never mind, etc.
 
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Luke McGee (@lukemcgee) Tweeted: The UK, Aus, US deal has highlighted an uncomfortable reality for Brussels: for all its ambitions of being a major geopolitical force, it's just not taken seriously on defence or security. This means a major rethink might be in order for member states Analysis: America's deal with UK and Australia leaves France bruised and Europe in the cold on China

Reasonable thread here - the big takeaway is that there isn't an EU view, and there certainly isn't an EU member states view: it's 27 states with a mish mash of interests, fears, objectives and aspirations, many of which are diametrically opposed to those of other members states, and a central body/authority which itself is massively conflicted about what it wants.

Europe may have a phone number, but it doesn't have a message...
 
Stabbing friends in the back. Not much to celebrate.

It's an engineering project was was falling apart.

If the French government didn't notice how vocally unhappy the Australians have been for the last year or so they've been living in a cave.

Personally I think it was unnecessary needling to not give the French 24 hours notice that they would be publicly cancelling the contract, but that's the Australians business, not anyone elses.

The French are very happy to be forthright in pursuit of their arms deals - they have been happily honking off about disloyalty to European states who choose non-French weapon systems, they even threatened to pull out of the NATO Enhanced Forward Presence in Poland when Poland was deciding whether to buy F-35's, and they threw a strop when pretty much everyone, including Germany, decided to buy US P-8 ASW aircraft instead of a French PowerPoint presentation.

They're a big defence exporter - far larger than the UK - and they're a big player on the western stage. They'll get over it, and if not, well their current tantrum won't help persuade people that they are sensible partners.

The problem is probably Macron - he's got a big ego, see's himself as the big fromage on the European and world stage, and he now thinks that when he was berating Johnson at the G7 about how France was the big dog in the Pacific, Johnson was laughing at him behind a pasty...
 
Didn't realise that Switzerland recently cancelled a large order for Dassault Rafale fighter jets from France and instead snapped up a shed-load of F-35's instead.

Doesn't look good for Napoleon's ambitions to have La France back on the global stage...

Oh well, never mind, etc.

Switzerland never ordered Rafale. Gripen NG beat Rafale and Typhoon in the 2016 Swiss competition but it didn't pass the referendum.

F-35 beat Rafale, Typhoon and Super Horner in the 2019 Swiss competition. F-35 has never lost a competitive procurement competition.

Rafale has been a reasonable export success (India, Egypt, Qatar, Croatia and Greece) though nothing on the scale of the Mirage III or 2000.
 
Didn't realise that Switzerland recently cancelled a large order for Dassault Rafale fighter jets from France and instead snapped up a shed-load of F-35's instead.

Doesn't look good for Napoleon's ambitions to have La France back on the global stage...

Oh well, never mind, etc.
No, there were trials, Rafale was an option, F35 won.
 
Must be a stinging blow for France to be left out of an Indo-Pacific security pact while a country whose only Indo-Pacific territories are Pitcairn Island and the illegally held US bomber base/CIA black site Diego Garcia is included - what is the UK bringing to the table in this deal, moral support?
 
Must be a stinging blow for France to be left out of an Indo-Pacific security pact while a country whose only Indo-Pacific territories are Pitcairn Island and the illegally held US bomber base/CIA black site Diego Garcia is included - what is the UK bringing to the table in this deal, moral support?
France has of course tahiti and reunion in the i-p. But they are in American eyes cheese-eating surrender monkeys
 
France is seeking to enlist European Union support to delay a planned EU-Australia trade deal, as part of a plan to punish Australia for what it regards as serial deceit and subterfuge by Canberra before it cancelled the contract for 12 attack-class French submarines.
 
I suspect that had the UK declared its courts not to be bound by the EU, Brexit wouldn't have happened.
 
Quite clear, 27 vassal states.

Nah, 27 voting states, and an idiotic, deranged, lustful for power series of EU structures.

In principle, I agree with the EU - if you're a member of a club where you help set the rules (and yes, QMV can be problematic here...), then you obey the rules, or you leave the club.

With this idiotic, tone deaf statement/response, the EU move away from some very dodgy politics by the Polish government (though an elected government), and move it onto sovereignty - and you'd have to be pretty poor at reading a room to not be aware that in Poland, there are very hard, very clear, and relatively recent memories of sovereignty being something held by other states, not by Polish people - which, of course, is going to be massively weaponised by the PiS.

This, again, is one of those 'great at reading treaties, really crap at politics' things about the EU.

What will be interesting is the degree/nature of unease within member state capitals if the EU structures really push this in the tone deaf way they've done so far.
 
war of words between Von der Leyen and Polish PM Morawiecki heating up -- VdL saying things like “The European Commission is at the moment carefully assessing this judgement but I can already tell you today I am deeply concerned,” she said, adding: “We cannot and will not allow our common values to be put at risk.

 
war of words between Von der Leyen and Polish PM Morawiecki heating up -- VdL saying things like “The European Commission is at the moment carefully assessing this judgement but I can already tell you today I am deeply concerned,” she said, adding: “We cannot and will not allow our common values to be put at risk.

Its an interesting clash...Poland does really well out of the 'levelling up' of EU redistributive spending and Polish people know it, leading to the EU having a higher approval rating amongst Poles than any other EU country. Also where Poland was behind an iron curtain in living memory the notion of free movement is deeply embraced.
But thats public sentiment background...I cant see anything actually happening here beyond a war of words and perhaps some small sanctions...Law & Justice party remain with a big lead in polling and wont be getting booted out any time soon.
Its a contradiction of two political systems pulling in two directions at the same time whilst both having popular support
 
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Its an interesting clash...Poland does really well out of the 'levelling up' of EU redistributive spending and Polish people know it, leading to the EU having a higher approval rating amongst Poles than any other EU country. Also where Poland was behind an iron curtain in living memory the notion of free movement is deeply embraced.
But thats public sentiment background...I cant see anything actually happening here beyond a war of words and perhaps some small sanctions...Law & Justice party remain with a big lead in polling and wont be getting booted out any time soon.
Its a contradiction of two political systems pulling in two directions at the same time whilst both having popular support
Economically liberal/socially conservative innit.
 
EU parliament is suing the EU Commission for not withholding cash from the Polish people’s Covid recovery cos the Polish government feels their right to homophobia trumps EU law.

Oh the irony. Turns out that EU law is actually a good thing.

Meanwhile Boris tries to use Poland as an ally against that nasty EU.
 
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