EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

[Aptrgangr]

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.


Mr Miliband urged the EU to use "soft and hard power"


Miliband on the EU

He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability.
In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world.
It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism.
He said the EU must "keep our promises to Turkey", adding: "If we fail.... it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west.
"Beyond that we must keep the door open, retaining the incentive for change and the prospect of membership provides."
Mr Miliband made his address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where Baroness Thatcher delivered her famous warning against "some sort of identikit European personality" almost exactly two decades ago in September 1988.

US 'only superpower'
Mr Miliband said that speech had been "haunted by demons - a European superstate bringing in socialism by the back door".
But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower."

Instead he said the EU had the chance to be a "model power" which could develop shared values between countries.
"As a club that countries want to join, it can persuade countries to play by the rules, and set global standards. In the way it dispenses its responsibilities around the world, it can be a role model that others follow."

Extremism and insecurity
Mr Miliband said new threats, like protectionism, religious extremism, energy insecurity, rogue and failing states and climate change provided a new "raison d'etre" for the EU.
He outlined four principles for the "next generation" of Europe, for it to remain open to "trade, ideas and investment", to develop shared institutions to overcome religious and cultural divides, to prevent conflict by championing international law and human rights in and outside Europe, and to become a "low carbon power".
He said a successful EU must be prepared to "deploy soft and hard power to promote democracy and tackle conflict beyond its borders".

He said the goal "must be a multilateral free-trade zone around our periphery".
This would be a "version of the European Free Trade Association that could gradually bring the countries of the Mahgreb, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in line with the single market, not as an alternative to membership, but potentially as a step towards it".
And the EU should extend military support to places like Darfur, he argued, to help solve problems of unwanted migration.

'Embarrassing'
He also said European nations had to "improve their capabilities".
"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time," he said.
"European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there."
Long-term regulations were needed to phase out carbon emissions in key areas - by reducing vehicle emissions and work towards "a zero-emission vehicle standard across Europe".

He said that by 2020, all new coal-fired power stations must be fitted with "carbon capture and storage".
In a reference to the failed EU Constitution, he said: "The constitutional debate shows that people don't want major institutional upheaval. Unanimity is slow but it respects national identities."

But his Conservative counterpart William Hague said Mr Miliband and his colleagues were "ramming that constitution through under a new name and refusing to give voters a say at an election or a referendum" - a reference to the EU Reform treaty.
"The fact is that if the renamed constitution goes through we will have a more inward-looking Europe," said Mr Hague.
"The treaty's clauses will make the EU more protectionist and less competitive and give the EU more power to interfere with crucial areas like our criminal justice system."

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | EU \'should expand beyond Europe\'

[Kernunnos]

They are starting to play in the open now.

It is incredible to see how much uninformed are average people of this.

If the idea of an united Europe encompassing north Africa had just been hinted thirty years ago it would have been laughed out.

I bet they will succeed if a major event doesn't crash Europe.

[Marulus]

That is what the essence of the EU is. It is a power promoting globalist agenda and not any kind of union of European nations.

I hope this whorehouse of Brussels will cease to exist in foreseeable future.

[Carnyx]

I doubt it doesn't. Who will pay the bill when we are not here any more?

[Kernunnos]

David Miliband.

Son of a polish-jewish marxist theoretician.

All in the family, as usual.

What they didn't achieve with marxism they will achieve with EU.

The same disrespect for peoples continues untouched.

[Savorgnan]

I remember that when I was a kid, French Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen said that the EU's future was to be a sort of "union of the rest of the world"...

[IrishThirdPosition]

Milliband just wants to unleash Israel on the EU. These people are lunatics.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by IrishThirdPosition

Milliband just wants to unleash Israel on the EU. These people are lunatics.

Same stuff as said by Sarkozi, and in line with the Eurabia project, which is even more worrisome.

[Marulus]

Originally Posted by Breha

Same stuff as said by Sarkozi, and in line with the Eurabia project, which is even more worrisome.

It is not just Eurabia, but Jud-Euro-Arabia.

[NatVox]

Originally Posted by Breha

They are starting to play in the open now.

It is incredible to see how much uninformed are average people of this.

If the idea of an united Europe encompassing north Africa had just been hinted thirty years ago it would have been laughed out.

The idea was hinted back then.

Turkey applied for membership to the EEC back on April 1987. On July 1987, Morocco applied for membership too. Even if they were rejected back then, it is significant that they even dared to apply.

The EU-MEFTA (Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area) could well be a trojan horse.

Read this article and notice how "European" or "europeanness" is systematically equated with "western": Sunny, Modern, Morocco | Newsweek International | Newsweek.com

Also of interest: European Commission - enlargement - Accession criteria

[Almost a Christian]

Originally Posted by Breha

Same stuff as said by Sarkozi, and in line with the Eurabia project, which is even more worrisome.

There’s a new, unsettling consensus emerging between the constellation of slimey neocons that have risen in northern Europe..

[Errigal]

Originally Posted by Almost a Christian

There’s a new, unsettling consensus emerging between the constellation of slimey neocons that have risen in northern Europe..

Including East German educated Angela Merkel.

[NatVox]

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

It is more than just a suggestion:

Mediterranean Union: Peres views Sarkozy\'s suggestion positively (May 7, 2007)
Sarkozy\'s proposal for Mediterranean bloc makes waves (May 10, 2007)
Merkel rebuffs Sarkozy on Mediterranean Union plan (January 31, 2008)
Merkel, Sarkozy settle differences over Mediterranean union (March 4, 2008)
Merkel and Sarko Make Peace on Med Union (March 4, 2008)

[wilpuri]

He said the EU must "keep our promises to Turkey", adding: "If we fail.... it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west.

I think its far more dangerous to pretend that the divide does not exist by relying on the false prophecies of utopian, world-embracing ideologies.