Brexit LIVE: ‘UK NOT READY for EU trade talks!’

The Aachen Treaty is a very important responds to Brexit.
It moves France and Germany in many sectors together, closer. That's why I say it is a must reed.
For example today was the first common session of the French/German Parliament Group.
In the future Germany and France have to put some beef on that contract.
Lots of work.
I have no problems that the French position in many things is different from the German. That is healthy, because it requires that each party has to sit down and educate itself in order to understand and find a common solution.
I like Macron, he is bolt, brings new ideas, fresh, well some are half cooked.
But that is ok. Open the window and get the stale air out of it.
Nothing wrong with that.
The counter part Germany is more careful, slow, deliberated, one very small step at a time.
That is good to. You can team up a race horse and a draft horse to plow the field. It works, have done it, in reality.

Todays politics, like arms trades, or joint ventures, they are weather, the Treaty of Aachen is Climate.

 

The EU has to make up its mind, who is she going to be.
Just a economical player, or will it take on a political and military role in the world to counter Russia, China and the US.
That is the real question the EU has to answer, over the next 5 years. Right now she is just a economical power house, which does not speak with one political voice.
Here we see the problem, Germany says France should give up its seat in the Security Counsel for a EU seat.
Its a huge matter of national pride. But if Macron wants his bolt ideas to come to fruition, he has to swallow this pride.
There is German politico who wants a European aircraft carrier. Yes sure that sounds silly, but think about it, honestly it is not that silly.
What Europe found out under the current US administration, you can not count on the US to be the military umbrella for ever.
I told that friends from Germany 7 years ago. They laughed

One should not underestimate the enormity of the EU experiment and how far it has come.
For me who grew up during its starting time, it is surprising that it even came to todays EU and how it has weathered the political and economical challenges.
Brexit needs to get out of the way, no matter what.
The EU is at a threshold and needs all its attention and energy focused on the next step.
Brexit has been a unifier, and that momentum needs to be used.

 

To be frank it actually is. Look at the UK with its aircraft carrier...these things do not operate without a vast array of support and protection vessels and by their very nature they are high valued targets and not easily hidden thus they are massively exposed. In any case one would have to question the purpose for having one....

Who do you think will take over that mantel of protection...in terms of countering the growing threats from the likes of China or Russia? What amused me was the situation in the Ukraine in that both EU and US sanctions apply following the annexation of the Crimea and the massively expensive backing of pro-Russian "rebels". Indeed the cost in terms of both lives and money is massive. These sanctions were imposed to try and impede the ability of Russia to prosecute of the conflict yet, those sanctions are being undermined and indeed by-passed by the Nord Stream II project. Also, the brokered agreement between Germany, France and Ukraine; The Minsk deal required Ukraine to grant sweeping autonomy to the rebel regions, effectively allowing them to run their own affairs. Russia seems to be coming out of this rather better than expected?

I agree and it has nothing really to do with Brexit which is just a sideshow as you say.

Indeed which is where I get concerned because of the competing pressures within the union on the direction of travel based on those pressures. I think Poland is going to be an interesting country to watch over the coming years.

 

None of which explains why Britain would be better off out than in.

 

everyone has their own take on why they answered the question posed....discussing reasons why certain people voted one way or the other has been junked by how the politicians have responded to the mandate.

 

There wasn't a mandate. Just a lot pf airy fairy promises that couldn't be delivered.

 

yes there was - a question was asked and answered and that gives a mandate i.e. authorisation was given by the people to parliament...??

and....?....isn't that the basis of politics?

 

To deliver on the promises.

No.

 

I admire your faith in politicians

 

I wish I could say I admired your faith in any leave organisations lies before the referendum, but that's impossible.

 

Yeah you remainers woz just like so liars too thought innit.. them Europe scum like are just like so scummy us brits like we ain’t fooled by there stoooopid lies to......scummy scum sucking euro scum bags.....

I think that about covers the requisite reading age

 

The aircraft carrier is at the present a rather stupid idea. But the basic idea to have common projects, stupid or not, is right.
The EU has to grow up, it has to provide its own mantel of protection. How much sense does it make to have 27 departments of defense and 27 armies.
No sense at all. What a waste.
Same for foreign affairs, 27 which do not pull in the same direction, or are game balls of the big 3.

North Stream is not just a German pipeline, its a European pipeline, because gas from it will be distributed all over Europe.
Sure the US hates it, it would rather have the Europeans buy LG from the US.
Does that brake the embargo, no. Energy products are not part of the embargo.
Does the embargo make sense no, but it is a proper response considering the Crimea and the excursion into Ukraine.
Does it work, no, it has not stopped Russia. Does it hurt Russia, yes, but any dictator ship does not care about it.
As long as they have oil and gas, they do not care.

Why is the UK unprepared. It had never a plan about Brexit, never thought it through. Very amateurish, childish, tantrum.
Can not even get a Brexit deal, which can get the approval of parliament. Wasted its time and energy and showed that it does not have the skilled personal to negotiate.
Brexit is the easy part, the real tough part will be a trade deal.
Those suckers are complicated and take years till signing and an army of experts, which the UK does not have, because it did not need them for 40 years.
The Eu took care of it.
But than the UK has aircraft carries and the EU has not, naturally has to buy a overpriced aircraft from the USA, can't built its own.

Poland ?
Not very interesting, they need EU money, depend on it, the current regime, any election can change it.
Big mouth and nothing behind it.

 

Well, it certainly sounds a lot like some of the Brexiteers I've heard.

Others are just totally misguided and ill-informed.

 

indeed unfortunately the issue is slightly more nuanced that a puerile anti-Europe rant

 

Makes one wonder why its actually being built when most of the Europe gas purchases are made on the spot market supplemented by Nord Stream I through the Austrian hubs.
The biggest advocate for the Nord II project is Gazprom but since Nord Stream I is a perfectly viable vehicle for the transmission one wonders at the economics of it? Could this be just to by-pass Ukraine and Poland of which Mr. Putin has many issues with?

That's an easy question to answer, because it was never supposed to happen!! Are you familiar with UK politics and the rivalries within the UK conservative party?

then one simply employs them like every other country including the EU (I understand Fratini Vergano are a prominent negotiator for the EU) - are you familiar with the law firms that handle trade and dispute negotiations? And yes that can take time to negotiate but that is dependent upon a pragmatic and dynamic stance between the agreement parties.

 

Why?

 

The high transfer fees for the Ukrainian and Polish pipeline segments make Nord Stream 2 a good investment. Not to mention the rotten status of the Ukrainian pipelines which endangers the reliability of natural gas imports for Western Europe.

Russia and the SU have always delivered and Germany has always payed, a good and reliable business connection. If someday Russia tries to blackmail Germany with a natural gas embargo they will fail. We have huge natural gas storages which can provide normal consumption for at least 3 months and old coal plants which are out of service but still maintained, which are supposed to be in service again in less than 3 weeks.

 

Naturally it is to by-pass Ukraine and Poland, such wonderful reliable countries and to increase capacity.
Everybody knows what the idiot Cameron did and why.
Sure simple employ them, why didn't the UK employ them for Brexit, would have been a piece of cacke.
Pragmatic, dynamic, you mean panic in the UK, getting a deal no matter what, because it needs to have a deal.

 

Read.

 

I could now let go of some real fireworks of arugments where the West behaved impudently against Russia ... and still behaves today. But let's leave that ...

This is a purely strategic issue, because about one third of natural gas imports into the EU come from Russia. Within the EU member states, this is distributed differently in terms of the share of Russian gas ... more than one third of the share, the other less.
So it is strategically important that the supply of Russian gas is ensured ... and that brings us to Ukraine! The wake-up call was the two previous host disputes between Ukraine and Russia, more precisely, the Russian state-owned Gazprom, because Ukraine did not want to pay and pay for its gas bill, and it also came up with counterclaims. Result: Russia just turns the gas tap on ... for what Russia has every right to do, because no money = no gas! ... but which then endangers gas supplies to the EU, because the pipelines are mostly from Russia through Ukraine! to EU
Simple solution: A pipeline is being built for bypassing the mad house, runningfrom Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany!

And the question, why not to Poland or through / in the Baltic States done by itself, if you look at Russia friendliness in the countries

And no ... the USA are not even an alternative here! A) more expensive than Russian gas, B) the current US President shows clearly that you can not trust him ... but Putin, because even if he is a dictator, his word he has always held in all these years!

I am ... and in our radio came from a comedian moderator of one station a funny proposal for your parliament to get a majority for anything at least: Make a vote about whether the EU may join the UK! ROFL ....

 

I have....some of it at least before I got bored with it...as I said life's too short, however,...so why? is if because of its dismal vagueness? Or lack of....well....anything meaningful?
It really is just an affirmation of how far apart the Franco-German relationship as moved and whilst kisses at signing ceremonies are rather cute unfortunately they are a bit meaningless. Recall that Macron came to power with a flurry of ambitions on how he would build up France as well as Europe and despite all the rhetoric, progress has been glacial to non-existent - in effect all his talk has basically come to nothing indeed, I see Aachen as some bastardised response to ineffective leadership. All talk no substance.

 

You know ... France and Germany are extremely close friends and are now closely connected. From the top up to the little man ... amazing for 2 countries that have been slaughtering each other for centuries in countless wars.

The problem is that both together can end up living well without the EU ... with or without BE-NE-LUX countries at their side ... but the EU crumbles immediately without these two!
And yet, both seek common consensus with other EU members, without threats and without playing the "wild man" ... in short, abuse their power position.

You know ... in some cases like this Orban in Hungary, I think it would be good if these two just would do that:
"Hey Viktor ... either you will immediately comply with your contractual EU obligations that Hungary has signed upon joining, or you will not get one cent more from the EU ... and if you don't, we will throw you out of the EU - end of all talks and negotiations with you. Do or Die!"

What do you mean, how fast Orban would cease to turn Hungary into a dictatorship and submit?

 

As I understand it most of the Gas comes from the North Sea and international spot markets as well as Norway anyway....following the Third Energy Package and the development of intra-European feeder lines intended to rationalize and prevent interuptions of supplies it sort of makes NS II a bit of a joke? Anyway I guess I'm missing something...

yeah....let's explore that myth for a second....
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-4828_en.htm

 

I don't wish to sound cynical but to be honest I find the Germany-France relationship as France making all the right political noises in order to keep Germany propping up an inefficient and ineffective French economy. France as a country is just a mangled mess of arcane industrial and legal practices supported by a ineffective government.

 

Germany can...France cannot