World

EU member states can leave, but can the bloc kick one of them out?

Published

3 years ago

April 8, 2022

EU member states can leave, but can the bloc kick one of them out?

Over the previous few years, Brussels has launched punitive proceedings towards Poland and Hungary for rule of legislation breaches and it’s now on the point of use a brand new mechanism to withhold funds. But when these fail to rein them in, might the European Union ever kick a member state out?

The brief reply is: no. The lengthy reply is: it might take years of haggling after which most likely fail.

The reason being fairly easy: The EU merely by no means deliberate for that risk.

“Legally talking, we do not have the equipment to expel a member state — in contrast to the Council of Europe, as an example, the place Russia was expelled a number of weeks in the past,” Adam Lazowski, a professor of EU legislation on the College of Westminster, defined to Euronews.

From six to 27

The EU, as most officers like to stress, was born as a peace challenge because the Outdated Continent tried to rise from the ashes left behind by World Warfare II.

The concept then was that by creating deeper financial ties between nations, they might suppose twice about future conflicts. And thus the European Coal and Metal Group (ECC) was born in 1952 with Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg as its founding members.

Speedy financial growth within the Sixties, the autumn of autocratic regimes in Spain, Greece and Portugal within the Nineteen Seventies, robust societal modifications triggered by the 1968 protests, financial downturns such because the 1973 oil disaster and the collapse of communism have all remodeled the Group of six right into a Union of 27 now not pushed solely by financial considerations, however democratic values as nicely.

It’s now been 9 years since the newest enlargement — the final nation to affix was Croatia in 2013 — and in reality, since then, the EU received smaller.

The UK triggered Article 50 of the Treaty of the EU in March 2017, 9 months after its voters backed withdrawing from the bloc and beginning a tumultuous two-year negotiation countdown that has had a chilling impact on EU-UK relations with many essential points nonetheless left unresolved.

However Brexit was not the one massive political shift skilled bloc-wide throughout the 2010s. The last decade was additionally characterised by the rise and strengthening of right-wing populist events that spewed anti-bloc rhetoric.

Unanimity rule curtails Brussels

These embrace Fidesz in Hungary and the Legislation and Justice (PiS) get together in Poland, which have been repeatedly dragged to the courts by Brussels over reforms they’ve undertaken curbing the independence of the judiciary in addition to the media and civil society and the rights of migrants, girls, and minorities.

Europe’s high court docket invariably sided with the EU Fee, whose function is to be the guardian of the treaties and the union’s legal guidelines, however on the bottom, nothing a lot has modified.

Exasperated, MEPs launched Article 7 proceedings towards Poland and Hungary in September 2018. This process — also known as the “nuclear choice” — opens the door to punitive measures together with a suspension of voting rights on the Council degree.

But it surely has been stalled ever since. The issue is that shifting ahead requires a unanimous vote from leaders and as Viktor Orban confirmed on Wednesday following his reelection for a fourth consecutive time period, “with the Polish, we’re in a mutual defensive alliance”.

“We won’t permit one another to be excluded from European decision-making,” he added.

Nonetheless exasperated, MEPs pushed for the creation of one other punitive instrument, which ultimately led to the creation of the rule of legislation conditionality mechanism, which was lastly endorsed in February 2022 by Europe’s high court docket, permitting for EU funds to be withheld from member states in the event that they backslide on the rule of legislation.

European Fee head Ursula von der Leyen introduced on Tuesday that she plans for the mechanism to be triggered towards Hungary shortly.

It’s nonetheless unclear what standards might be used and the way a lot funds could possibly be withheld because the mechanism was watered down from the preliminary proposal as Hungary and Poland threatened to veto the EU price range over it.

‘The EU must say no’

Moreover, authorities in each nations have made thinly-veiled references to a potential ‘Polexit’ or ‘Huxit’ in a bid to up the stress on the bloc, nonetheless reeling from the impression the divorce with the UK has had and continues to have.

Nonetheless, such eventualities are unlikely.

“The entire operation of the Orban regime — which is constructed on the strategic corruption and abuse of EU funds — this political system just isn’t operational exterior the EU,” Daniel Hegedus, a visiting fellow on the German Marshall Fund of the US, a suppose tank, flagged to Euronews.

Zsolt Enyedi, a professor and senior researcher on the Central European College’s Democracy Institute, concurred: “I don’t suppose Orban will ever voluntarily go away the EU primarily due to monetary causes.”

“However I believe he can create a scenario when the EU could have no selection however to expel Hungary,” he added. “Lots of the score businesses that monitor high quality of democracy contemplate Hungary to be a non-democracy, they usually do that due to numerous information on the bottom.”

“If Orban continues down this highway, there might be a degree the place it is going to be blatantly apparent that we’ve got a Putin-style — though not violent however when it comes to ideology and mentality — regime inside the EU after which the EU must say no to this,” he argued.

‘Lots of naiveté’

But, there isn’t any such current clause or article within the treaties as a result of “the EU is predicated on the rule of legislation and the presumption that each one member states adjust to its key parts,” Lazowski stated.

“It was loads of naivete to imagine that pre-accession coverage can do miracles after which reforms are set in stone. However as we have witnessed in Hungary, and particularly in Poland, issues can unravel very, in a short time,” he added.

Concretely, if Brussels wished to go down that path, it might most likely must demand a proper treaty revision so as to add such a process.

Article 50 as an example, was labored into the Treaty of Lisbon that was adopted in 2007 and got here into drive in December 2009. Work for the treaty revision began as early as 2001.

After which, as soon as revised, the treaty must be backed unanimously by member states, which governments within the EU’s crosshairs would little doubt reject anyway.

“It was actually naive to not embrace such a process as we’ve got in Council of Europe — Article 8 of the Statute of Council of Europe, which allowed [it] to kick Russia out within the matter of a month or lower than a month from the invasion,” Lazowski acknowledged.

What voters need

Finally, for Brussels the best-case situation could be for voters to kick these governments to the curb by electing extra pro-EU, liberal politicians, thus precluding the necessity to kick member states out.

Von der Leyen’s announcement about triggering the rule of legislation mechanism towards Hungary got here two days after elections had been held within the jap European nation, suggesting Brussels might need hoped for a unique final result that will have nullified the necessity to launch punitive measures.

But, whereas Hungary and Poland have confirmed that dismantling rule of legislation safeguards will be completed with lightning pace, the reverse just isn’t essentially true.

Within the case of Hungary, the place opposition events banded collectively to current an anti-Orban entrance, breaking down Fidesz’s legacy will doubtless show tough.

“Throughout the previous few years, the foundations and rules had been modified in such a means that nearly all decision-makers — those that rule over the judiciary, prosecution, the election fee, media, sport, leisure, universities, and any sector of life you possibly can consider — have workplaces that final eight, 10, 12 years or generally for all times,” Enyedi flagged.

“So the brand new authorities won’t be able to take away these individuals. These individuals will hold deciding what issues,” and proceed to “do what Orban needs,” he stated.

Click to comment

World

Trump's family circle has a different look as he returns to the White House

Published

6 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Trump's family circle has a different look as he returns to the White House

WASHINGTON (AP) — When Donald Trump returns to the White House on Monday, his family circle will look a little different than it did when he first arrived eight years ago.

His youngest son, Barron, was in fifth grade back then. He’s now a college freshman who towers over his 6-foot-plus (1.8-meter-plus) dad. Granddaughter Kai, who was 9 in 2017, is now an aspiring social media influencer and impressive golfer. Grandson Joseph, who posed in Trump’s lap with a Lego model of the White House last time, is 11 now.

The most prominent relatives in Trump’s political sphere, daughter Ivanka and her husband, Jared, are in Florida this time around after working in his first administration.

Family members can provide presidents with a ready source of moral and sounding-board support, companionship and even relief from the world’s problems. Not to mention creating headaches for the president at times, too.

“Family can do things that other people can’t, and they can be trusted in a way that other people also can’t,” said Tevi Troy, a former George W. Bush administration official and author of several books about the presidency. “Everyone needs someone they can talk to late at night when you let your hair down, so to speak.”

The president-elect has five children — three of whom are married — from his marriages to Ivana Trump, Marla Maples and current wife Melania Trump. He has 10 grandkids, with an 11th on the way.

A look at Trump’s family circle, then and now:

Former first lady Melania Trump speaks at a campaign rally, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

His wife:

THEN: She spent the opening months of Trump’s term at the family’s Manhattan penthouse so that 11-year-old Barron wouldn’t have to switch schools in the middle of the year. After moving to the White House, she traveled around the United States and to other countries, alone and with Trump, partly to promote her “Be Best” children’s initiative while fiercely guarding her privacy.

NOW: She avoided active campaigning during Trump’s 2024 run, limiting her public appearances to key moments, such as the campaign’s launch, the Republican National Convention and election night. She released a self-titled memoir late last year and will be the subject of a documentary distributed by Amazon Prime Video that is expected to be released later this year. While some doubt that Trump’s 54-year-old wife will spend much time at the White House, she said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” that she has already packed and picked out the furniture she wants to take to the executive mansion.

Donald Trump Jr. attends a rally for his father, Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump, at Madison Square Garden, Oct. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

THEN: Trump’s eldest son, now 46, campaigned for his father in 2016 and 2020.

NOW: Trump Jr.’s influence has grown to the point that he lobbied his father to choose close friend JD Vance for vice president. He also pushed for former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the president-elect’s picks for director of national intelligence and health and human services, respectively. Trump Jr. helps run the family real estate business and is an honorary chairman of Trump’s transition. He has a podcast and has said his role is to prevent “bad actors” from getting into the administration. He recently flew on his father’s airplane to Greenland; the president-elect has expressed a desire to take control of the mineral-rich Danish territory.

Trump Jr. has five children — or “smurfs,” as he sometimes refers to them — with his former wife, Vanessa Trump. They are Kai Madison, 17; Donald John III, 15; Tristan Milos, 13; Spencer Frederick, 12; and Chloe Sophia Trump, 10.

Ivanka Trump exits the courtroom for a lunch break during a civil fraud trial against her father, former President Donald Trump, at New York Supreme Court, Nov. 8, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)

THEN: Ivanka, 43, campaigned for her father in 2016 and moved her family from New York City to Washington to work in his White House as a senior adviser. She was on the campaign trail in 2020, too, but she and her family moved to Florida and retreated from the spotlight after his loss.

NOW: As Trump geared up for the 2024 run, Ivanka announced that she loved and supported him but was getting out of politics to focus on her husband and their three kids. She did, however, join her father and other family members on election night and when he rang the bell at the New York Stock Exchange in early December after Time magazine named him Person of the Year. She told “The Skinny Confidential” podcast that this time around she just wanted to “show up for him as a daughter” and be there to watch a movie or a sports game.

Ivanka and her husband have three children: Arabella Rose, 13; Joseph Frederick, 11; and Theodore James Kushner, 8.

Eric Trump appears in the spin room after a presidential debate, Sept. 10, 2024, in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

THEN: The 40-year-old helped run the family business and participated in his father’s campaigns.

NOW: Eric is also an honorary chair of the transition and a close adviser to his father. But he continues to focus more on running the family business. In September, he and his brother started a crypto platform called World Liberty Financial, and their father helped launch it in an interview on the X social media platform.”

Eric and his wife, Lara, have two children: Eric Luke, 7, and Carolina Dorothy Trump, 5.

Tiffany Trump and her husband, Michael Boulos, listen as Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally at Williams Arena at Mignes Coliseum, Oct. 21, 2024, in Greenville, N.C. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)

THEN: Trump’s daughter with second wife Marla Maples was 23 and a recent University of Pennsylvania graduate who kept a low profile when Trump was first elected.

NOW: She was more present in the 2024 campaign but still largely avoids the spotlight. Tiffany, 31, and her husband, Michael Boulos, are expecting their first child this year. Boulos is a businessman who traveled with Trump in the final stretch of the campaign. His father is Massad Boulos, a Lebanese American businessman who helped Trump with the influential Arab American community in the swing state of Michigan. Trump has named Massad Boulos to be a senior adviser on Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

Barron Trump stands on the South Lawn of the White House on the fourth day of the Republican National Convention in Washington, Aug. 27, 2020. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

THEN: At the start of Trump’s first term, Barron and his mother stayed at the family’s Trump Tower penthouse in Manhattan so he could finish his school year. When they got to Washington, his soccer net appeared in what’s known as the first lady’s garden.
NOW: Barron, 18, is a freshman New York University business student. His parents and Trump campaign officials credit him for recommending podcasts popular with young men that the president-elect appeared on during the campaign. Barron will have a bedroom in the White House, Melania Trump said on “Fox & Friends.”
“I’m very proud of him, about his knowledge, even about politics and giving an advice to his father,” his mother said on the program. “He brought in so many young people. He knows his generation.”
Advertisement

Republican National Committee Co-Chair Lara Trump walks onstage at a campaign event for Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, in Monroe, N.C., Oct. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Nell Redmond, File)

Advertisement

Other family members in the spotlight:Lara Trump

THEN: Trump’s daughter-in-law, 42, campaigned for him during all his runs. After Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, she considered running for a U.S. Senate seat from her home state of North Carolina but ultimately decided against it. She became a Fox News commentator.

NOW: As Trump revved up his 2024 campaign, he installed his daughter-in-law as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, where she was a TV-ready advocate overseeing fundraising, voter outreach and the party’s “election integrity” initiative. She stepped down from the RNC after the election and removed her name from consideration as a possible successor to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Trump’s choice for secretary of state.

Lara Trump is passionate about fitness and has her own line of activewear. She also has explored a side venture as a singer and has released some songs. Daughter Carolina is named after her home state.

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are seen during the final day of the Republican National Convention, July 18, 2024, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

THEN: Kushner, 44, was also a key figure in Trump’s 2016 campaign. He joined his wife in the White House as a senior adviser, a role that included working on U.S. policy toward Israel and the broader Middle East.

NOW: Kushner has stepped out of the political spotlight — but his father could soon step in. Trump announced after the election that he intends to nominate Charles Kushner, a real estate developer, to be U.S. ambassador to France. The elder Kushner was pardoned by Trump in December 2020 after he pleaded guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign contributions.

Kai Trump

THEN: Kai was in elementary school when her grandfather became president.

NOW: Donald Trump Jr.’s 17-year-old granddaughter is an aspiring social media influencer. Her behind-the-scenes video from election night garnered 3.7 million views on YouTube. Other posts related to her grandfather have been watched millions more times on TikTok. Kai delivered her first public speech at the Republican convention and is an avid golfer who sometimes plays with her grandfather.

“If I’m not on his team, he’ll try to get inside of my head, and he’s always surprised that I don’t let him get to me,” she said at the convention. “But I have to remind him, I’m a Trump, too.”

Arabella Kushner

THEN: Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s daughter was 6 when her grandfather showed China’s Xi Jinping a video of her, in a traditional Chinese dress, belting out Chinese-language songs.

“It’s very good, right? She’s very smart,” Trump said. Xi responded that Arabella was her grandfather’s “little angel” and a “messenger of China-U.S. relations.”

NOW: Arabella is 13 and enjoys singing, playing the piano, horseback riding and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, according to a social media post from her mother.

___

Gomez Licon reported from West Palm Beach, Florida.

World

Exploring Greenland's majestic history as President-elect Trump shines spotlight on island nation

Published

6 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Exploring Greenland's majestic history as President-elect Trump shines spotlight on island nation

Join Fox News for access to this content

Plus special access to select articles and other premium content with your account – free of charge.

By entering your email and pushing continue, you are agreeing to Fox News’ Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which includes our Notice of Financial Incentive.

Please enter a valid email address.

Before President-elect Trump took a shine to it, Greenland was already on the radar of the cruise ship industry with many vessels choosing picturesque Greenlandic towns for their ports of call.

Cruise ship passengers take photos of fjords in Greenland (Danuta Hamlin)

One of the ports is Qaqortoq, the largest town in southern Greenland.

Qaqortoq means “white” in the Greenlandic language. (Danuta Hamlin)

Sailing from Iceland, the ship followed in the footsteps of Eric the Red, a Norseman who settled this area in 982. As Eric was exiled from Iceland, he made his home here and called it Greenland.

Some 80% of the island is covered by icecap and the remaining parts do not appear very green either.

‘MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN’: TRUMP’S HOUSE GOP ALLIES UNVEIL BILL TO AUTHORIZE COUNTRY’S PURCHASE

Majestic shores of Greenland (Danuta Hamlin)

According to some historians, Eric the Red came up with the name simply for promotional purposes.

He set out to attract more settlers from Iceland and advertised the island as a green land. Some experts say that Greenland could have been warmer at the time, but starting in the 15th century it experienced what is known as “The Little Ice Age.”

Children in Nanortalik, Greenland. (Danuta Hamlin)

Life in Greenland became too harsh for Europeans. But the native population of the Island found ways to persevere.

Julianehåb River runs through the center of Qaqortoq, Greenland. (Danuta Hamlin)

Nestled in the midst of a scenic fjord system, with a creek cascading across the town, and snow capping the mountain peaks even in the spring, Qaqortoq is a fascinating place to explore.

RUSSIA MONITORING TRUMP’S ‘DRAMATIC’ COMMENTS ON GREENLAND ACQUISITION

Qaqortoq is the fourth-largest town in Greenland. (Danuta Hamlin)

Building highways in Greenland is expensive, therefore Qaqortoq is not connected by road to any other town or village. However, when the weather is warmer, the region provides ample opportunities for nature hikes, kayaking and fishing.

Qaqortoq Greenland (Danuta Hamlin)

The town was founded in 1775, as a trade colony, by Norwegian explorer Anders Olsen. With a population of just a little over 3,000, it offers a glimpse of Greenlandic life, Viking history and Nordic-inspired architecture.

The hills are peppered with colorful houses, creating a delightful contrast with the severe peaks of the surrounding fjords.

A street sign in Greenland. Greenlandic is an Eskimo–Aleut language with about 57,000 speakers. (Danuta Hamlin)

Greenland is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark, but the official language is Greenlandic. It’s a polysynthetic language which means that, technically, there is no limit to the length of a Greenlandic word.

Deciphering local signs can be fun and challenging at the same time.

Stone & Man, an open-air art project in Qaqortoq, Greenland, featuring rock carvings and sculptures (Danuta Hamlin)

TRUMP ESCALATES PLANS TO ACQUIRE GREENLAND AFTER RESIDENT PLEADS: ‘DENMARK’S USING US’

Although trees are not easy to find, the area is full of all kinds of rocks and boulders. Some of them were turned into carvings of faces and whales, in a tribute called “Stone & Man.” This open-air gallery is the work of local Qaqortoq artist Aka Høegh.

Mindebrønden fountain is the older of the only two public fountains in Greenland. (Danuta Hamlin)

Qaqortoq boasts the oldest fountain in the country – Mindebrønden – Memorial Fountain. The fountain was completed in 1932 and is turned off during the winter months.

A fish market in Qaqortoq. Seal meat is a key ingredient in Greenland’s national dish, Suaasat. (Danuta Hamlin)

The town’s fish market sells whatever has been caught on a given day by local fishermen. It could be fish, or it could be whale meat, or perhaps a seal.

Qaqortoq is, after all, a fisherman’s town and seafood plays a vital part in Greenland’s diet.

Nanortalik is a village on Nanortalik Island, with some 1,072 inhabitants. (Danuta Hamlin)

The official religion of Greenland is Evangelical Lutheranism. In another port of call, a village called Nanortalik, members of the local congregation welcomed tourists with a musical performance.

Nanortalik choir singing outdoors in Greenland in 2018. (Danuta Hamlin)

CLICK TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Nanortalik means the “Place of Polar Bears”. No bears, however, were spotted loitering around the village.

Nanortalik’s old colonial port area is an open-air museum. (Danuta Hamlin)

Greenland is the world’s largest island – a treat for any tourist adventuresome enough to venture there.

Cruise ship passengers take photos of fjords in Greenland (Danuta Hamlin)

The author recently took a cruise to Greenland.

World

Brussels, my love? NATO's warning: we're not at war, and not at peace

Published

7 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

Brussels, my love? NATO's warning: we're not at war, and not at peace

In this edition, we hear how Austria is on the cusp of crowning a far-right leader, and examine NATO chief Mark Rutte’s plans to mend relations with the EU.

Our guests this week include Austrian socialist MEP Andreas Schieder, Marta Mucznik, EU senior analyst with the International Crisis Group and Riho Terras, Estonian MEP with the European People’s Party.

The panel reflect on the first visit this week by NATO’s new Secretary General to the European Parliament.

Mark Rutte, who was Dutch Prime Minister for years, is courting EU institutions and political parties as he seeks to improve relations and boost defence investment. Riho Terras, a former army general, applauds his ambition.

“If Putin wins in Ukraine, then we will have 40 million angry Ukrainians against us and pretty soon we will face the same threat”, said Terras, adding that Kyiv is as close to Berlin as it is to Tallinn.

The panel also took a deep dive into Austrian politics, which, five months after elections, are in a mess. After Karl Nehammer resigned earlier this month, far-right firebrand Herbert Kickl, known for his anti-EU, anti-NATO, xenophobic views, looks set to become chancellor, with his party dominating a coalition with the centre-right Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP).

Andreas Schieder, who was involved in the initial coalition negotiations, blamed ÖVP for cosying up to the far right, and that the truth about the dire state of Austrian finances only came out after the elections.

“Conservatives always say the others are guilty, that we have now to accept the extreme right”, Schieder said.

Finally, the panel discussed media trends for 2025 and the dwindling trust in mainstream news sources.

Marta Mucznik said she could never replace her TV or newspaper.

“Social media will never replace traditional, conventional media … It provides no context, it proliferates fake news,” she said. “It’s propaganda, it’s not information.”

Watch ‘Brussels, my love?’ in the player above.