EU budget could be spent developing arms for Saudi Arabia

In what has been described as a departure from the EU's founding purpose, a new 'European Defence Fund' could be used to develop weapons for authoritarian regimes

A new, centralised EU fund for defence could be spent on developing weapons for authoritarian regimes, prompting tens of thousands of people to sign a petition against its creation.

The budget for the ‘European Defence Fund’ was approved in Brussels on Thursday, meaning arms companies will receive money to develop weapons directly from the European Union, in a significant departure from the EU’s founding mission as a preserver of peace.

Countries contributing to the fund, which will is currently only at trial stage, but may eventually hold billions of euros, would be able to offset their contributions against their overall payments to the EU budget.

But the proposals also recommend a lifting of a ban on the EU using its budget to pay for research and development into military technology, an undertaking that national armed forces have previously done by themselves. It means that military hardware developed in collaboration between different EU states could then be sold to other regimes with dubious human rights records.

64,000 people have signed a petition against the fund, which says that ‘The goal of these subsidies is to preserve the competitiveness of the arms industry and its capacity to export abroad, including to countries contributing to instability and taking part in deadly conflicts.’

According to Andrew Smith from pressure group Campaign Against the Arms Trade:

"The EU was founded as a peace project and that's what it should be. It should not be using public money to fund research for those that profit from war and conflict. This proposal could mean taking funds from other projects for something that would only benefit arms companies. When taken alongside the move towards a shared defence fund it is clear that we are seeing a consious militarisation of Europe.”

“Earlier this year the European Parliament voted to support an arms embargo against Saudi Arabia, now it must stand up against public funding for the kind of companies that are profiting from the bombing. The EU should be working for peaceful solutions to conflict, not handling over millions of pounds to arms companies."

Leading EU figures believe a centralised defence fund and pooled spending on development will improve Europe’s security. On launching the proposals, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “To guarantee our collective security, we must invest in the common development of technologies and equipment of strategic importance – from land, air, sea and space capabilities to cyber security. It requires more cooperation between Member States and greater pooling of national resources. If Europe does not take care of its own security, nobody else will do it for us. A strong, competitive and innovative defence industrial base is what will give us strategic autonomy."

The EU has previously deployed peacekeeping forces before, and also coordinated a militarised response to piracy in Somalia.

A spokesperson for the EU Commission said: “There is nothing new in EU defence cooperation, it makes sense to work together more closely and the objective is precisely to help preserve peace, not only in Europe and its neighbourhood but far beyond.”

Source:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-budget-could-be-spent-developing-arms-for-saudi-arabia-a7450271.html

Comments

Operation Mindfuck: The origins of the Illuminati conspiracy fraud and how it became popular in our times

From the new documentary Can 't Get You Out of My Head by Adam Curtis globinfo freexchange The first settlers had come from Europe to America to flee from the corruption of power in the Old World. But although they had got away from the old power, they hadn't got away from their suspicious minds, and alone, out in the vast wilderness of the new America, that led them to imagining dark, hidden conspiracies in their own government, far away in Washington. One of the first of these, in the early 19th century, said that a secret group from Europe, called the Bavarian Illuminati, were running a giant conspiracy in America to destroy the new democracy. In reality, the Illuminati had been a utopian movement who wanted to replace religion with reason. But instead, they now became the first of a series of frightening suspicions that fed off the isolation of the settlers in the New World. One night (in 1958, somewhere in the vicinity of Whittier, Califo...

US Warships Under Fire: Iran Hits Back & Blasts UAE

MintPress News "PROJECT FREEDOM." Trump calls it humanitarian aid. We call it what he already admitted it is: piracy. On Friday, Trump boasted that US forces seizing Iranian ships and oil were "sort of like pirates, but we are not playing games." By Sunday, he had rebranded the blockade as "Project Freedom"—a military escort operation to guide ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, that operation went live: 15,000 US troops, guided-missile destroyers, and over 100 aircraft are enforcing American "freedom" at gunpoint. Let's be clear: Washington didn't enter the Strait to defend commerce. It entered to monopolize commerce—to maintain imperial control over the world's oil arteries and strangle Iran's economy. Iran knows this. That's why closing the Strait and establishing its own transit protocols remains its strongest card in the fight for self-determination. When Trump confessed to piracy, he wasn't joking. He was c...

“Russia & China Preparing For War With The US!”

The Jimmy Dore Show Colonel Douglas Macgregor explains that as a result of recent military conflicts, Russia, China, and Iran have become allies, and that Beijing and Moscow have concluded that "if we let Iran fail, we're next on the menu" from what he describes as a "rogue state led by a rogue personality," meaning they will intervene to prevent Iran's collapse if the US threatens it. He tells Jimmy Dore that Putin called Trump for an hour and a half to make it clear that a military campaign in Iran would not succeed and would make the situation much worse, offering to store Iran's enriched uranium as a diplomatic gesture. Macgregor warns that if the US restarts the war, China could send 40 or 50 surface combatants and submarines to the Indian Ocean, and Russia could fly MiG-31s into Iranian airspace — not to provoke a direct confrontation but to "make a point." He concludes that the British Empire overreached and overextended with World War...

How 'Liberal' Media Sold You Mass Murder & Genocide

Secular Talk

Russia & China Now OPENLY Backing Iran!

The Jimmy Dore Show

A response to misinformation on Nicaragua: it was a coup, not a ‘massacre’

There is so much misinformation in mainstream corporate media about recent events in Nicaragua that it is a pity that Mary Ellsberg’s article for Pulse has added to it with a seemingly leftish critique. Ellsberg claims that recent articles, including from this website, often “ paint a picture of the crisis in Nicaragua that is dangerously misleading. ” Unfortunately, her own article does just that. It looks at the situation entirely from the perspective of those opposing Daniel Ortega’s government while whitewashing their malevolent behavior and downplaying the levels of US support they have relied on. Her piece is an incomplete depiction of what is happening on the ground, ignoring many salient facts that have come to light and which have been outdated by recent events. The following is a brief response to Ellsberg’s main points from someone who lives in Nicaragua and has observed the situation directly and intimately: https://grayzoneproject.com/2018/08/15/a-res...

Billionaires are social distancing in super yachts as tens of millions lose jobs

Everyday, it becomes clearer: the COVID-19 pandemic is hitting poor, working, and marginalized communities the hardest. Millions of workers – especially low-wage retail, food service, hospitality, and care workers – have faced the terrible choice daily between going to work and risking their health, or staying home and risking their paychecks. Many other workers don’t even have that choice, with around 30 million people in the US filing for unemployment in the past six weeks. But billionaires don’t face these same problems. As tens of millions have lost their jobs over the past two months, billionaire wealth soared by a whopping $282 billion between March 18 and April 10, according to a new study from the Institute for Policy Studies. And while finding enough space to wait out the pandemic is something many struggle with, billionaires have been escaping to their second (or third, or fourth) homes to ride it out in luxury – all while they position themselves to ...

Οι ιδιώτες 'επενδυτές' ως η μόνη επιλογή για ανάκαμψη: άλλο ένα παραμύθι του νεοφιλελέ κατεστημένου

Άλλη μια 'ιερή αγελάδα' της νεοφιλελεύθερης χούντας που κανείς δεν επιτρέπεται ούτε καν να διανοηθεί να αμφισβητήσει του system failure Το Ελληνικό πείραμα διανύει ήδη τον έβδομο χρόνο του με την οικονομία ρημαγμένη και κανένα σημάδι ανάκαμψης στον ορίζοντα. Εκτός από την απόλυτη αποτυχία των νεοφιλελεύθερων πολιτικών που επιβλήθηκαν στην Ελλάδα από την Τρόικα της καταστροφής, έχει ενδιαφέρον κανείς να εξετάσει και τον τρόπο που τα νεοφιλελεύθερα αφηγήματα έχουν επηρεάσει σε μεγάλο βαθμό την κοινή γνώμη, με αποτέλεσμα να καταλήγουν αναπόσπαστο κομμάτι ενός στρεβλού ορθολογισμού μέσα στις κοινωνίες. Η διαδικασία αυτή γίνεται με όχημα, κυρίως, την προπαγάνδα και την πλύση εγκεφάλου από τα ΜΜΕ και το πολιτικό κατεστημένο. Ένα από τα κεντρικά κλισέ των φερέφωνων του νεοφιλελευθερισμού στην Ελλάδα και αλλού αφορά την απόλυτη αναγκαιότητα των ιδιωτών 'επενδυτών' για την ανάκαμψη της οικονομίας. Τα ιδιωτικά κυρίαρχα μίντια και το πολιτικό κατεστημένο κατ...

From Moscow to Beijing: Eye on good neighbors with deep people-to-people ties

CGTN Russian President Vladimir Putin has wrapped up his state visit to China. The bilateral meeting in Beijing has led to the extension of the 25-year-long Treaty of Good-Neighborliness and Friendly Cooperation, with high political mutual trust the backbone. Meanwhile, China and Russia issued a joint statement on promoting a multipolar world and a new type of international relations. What does the China-Russia relationship seriously mean to the two countries and to the world?

Iran’s Secret Weapon: The Undersea Cables That Could Shake the Global Economy

GVS Deep Dive Iran’s pressure over the Strait of Hormuz may no longer be limited to oil tankers, naval routes, and energy prices. New reports suggest Tehran is considering control over undersea internet cables passing through Hormuz, potentially requiring permits, fees, Iranian law, and Iranian companies for repair and maintenance. This video breaks down why the Strait of Hormuz is not only an oil chokepoint, but also a digital chokepoint connecting Europe, the Gulf, and Asia. Beneath the waters that carry global energy flows are fiber-optic cables carrying banking data, cloud services, AI traffic, telecom networks, financial messaging, and e-commerce. If Iran turns Hormuz into a digital leverage point, the consequences could reach far beyond the Gulf.

the unbalanced evolution of homo sapiens

Search This Blog