EU’s ‘Green Deal’ Going Down In Defeat
The European Union’s (EU) insane anti-pesticide and decarbonisation policies are being defeated, which is a good piece of news. However, as the next UN Climate Conference just concluded in Dubai, the myth of man-made Climate Change was not challenged as it was required.
Two pillars of Ursula von der Leyen’s Green Transition, the pesticide and packaging waste bills, were killed by the European Parliament on November 22, 2023. More than a miracle would be needed for the European Commission (EC) to come up with new bills to replace them, before its mandate expires.
The regulation aimed at reducing by half the use of pesticides by 2030, was totally rejected, a result welcomed by the EU farmers’ association COPACOGECA. In a statement posted on its website, the association writes that “MEPs sent a decisive message: the lack of dialogue, the imposition of objectives from above, the refusal to assess the impact and the lack of funding for agricultural proposals must end now.”
The packaging regulation, aimed at banning non-reusable packages, was watered down, with the new text putting the goal at cutting the amount of plastic packaging in Europe by 10% by 2030, 15% by 2035, and 20% by 2040. More importantly, certain measures, such as bans on unnecessary packaging and reuse targets, were removed. In addition, a new provision allows the EU countries to avoid the 2030 reuse targets for a specific packaging type if the recycling rate is over 85%. Some countries, such as Italy, already meet that target.
Team Ursula also suffered a big defeat in the Dutch elections. Former EC Vice President Frans Timmermans, touted as the brains of the Green Deal, was the main opponent of election winner Geert Wilders. Independent from Wilders’ unsavoury ideological views, the defeat of both Timmermans and the incumbent party candidate is just the latest manifestation of voters’ revolt against the globalist, unipolar and green paradigm.
Despite such clear signals, the ruling elites are clinging to their failed paradigm. An example of this is the Action Plan signed by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on November 22 in Berlin. The centrepiece of the plan is the construction of new gas and hydrogen pipelines between Italy and Germany, via Austria and/or Switzerland, and in particular through the Central-South Corridor, connecting to North Africa. The idea of having Africans produce hydrogen with solar panels to be exported to the EU is a failing proposition, both because of the costs of hydrogen and because African countries won’t fall again for such neo-colonialist schemes. Furthermore, the Europeans must know that their pipelines can be bombed by their allies…
‘Stop the Militarisation of Germany’
On October 29, 2023, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said that “Germany must be war-ready” with regards to Russia. His statement has triggered quite an uproar ever since. Although the German minister attempted to backtrack a bit, by claiming that he only meant “defence-ready”, it would be naive not to consider this as another phase change in Germany in the direction of a full militarisation. Indeed, just a few days later, Pistorius announced that military aid to Ukraine would be doubled in 2024.
However, even more indicative of the danger is a strategy paper published on November 17 by the German Foreign Policy Association (DGAP), the sister organisation of the American Council on Foreign Relations. Authors Christian Mölling and Torben Schütz have warned that NATO must be ready to fight a major war within five to nine years, and that the alliance is in a “race against time”, as Russia “represents the greatest and most-urgent threat to NATO countries”. They further stressed: “Once intensive fighting has ended in Ukraine, the regime in Moscow may need as little as six to 10 years to reconstitute its Armed Forces. Within that timeframe, Germany and NATO must enable their Armed Forces to deter and, if necessary, fight against Russia. Only then they will be in a position to reduce the risk of another war breaking out in Europe.” Read full article
Does that mean that, once again, German soldiers will be fighting a war against Russia, like 80 years ago? Do such experts really believe that the US would have the means to prevent defeat this time?
In any case, in what is likely to create great unease among some European neighbours, the authors support turning the German Armed Forces “into Europe’s strongest Army and the backbone of allied defence”, and making sure that “overall defence becomes a part of everyday life in politics, the economy and civil society”.
Helga Zepp-LaRouche has responded to the delusions of these self-proclaimed elite authors’ claim to represent, in a leaflet titled ‘No to the Militarization of Germany – Stop the Escalation to World War III!’, which was distributed at the Berlin anti-war rally on November 25. She blasted the type of “change of mentality in society” that the DGAP calls for, with its demands that Germany “take a quantum leap” in making the Bundeswehr the largest NATO force in Europe, in massively building up the German arms industry, and in preparing all sections of society to defend the country (including by having “a mandatory internship for all people aged 18 to 65 living in Germany to give them experience in areas relevant to total defence”).
Instead of such folly, which is certain to lead to catastrophe, Helga Zepp-LaRouche has proposed a “change of mentality” in a completely opposite direction. “We need a strong peace movement and sovereign citizens”, who ensure that their government will engage in cooperation with the Global South and “reject geopolitics once and for all”, she said.
The Executive Intelligence Review (EIR) Strategic Alert (Weekly Newsletter Volume 37, No. 48) first published this article on November 30, 2023.
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