N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
Recently, Josep Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Policy, called on EU member states to allow naval vessels to patrol between China and Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait, because our economic interests -computer chips from Taiwan – must be protected.
Of course, it is normal for the EU to look after its own interests and to realise that power is not a dirty word. But that doesn’t mean the EU has to run after the US and to be military active on the other side of the world, risking being drawn into a war between the US and China, which will serve US interests not European interests. It seems that in Europe only French President Emmanuel Macron sees that risk.
We see the same EU mentality change with regard to the war in Ukraine. There is an arms race between Brussels and Washington: who can send the most weapons?
The European Commission has a plan to increase the capacity for ammunition producing to 1 million a year, to arm Ukraine and refill its own stocks. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Council President Charles Michel have used the war to make the EU closer.
Backed by the media, they conduct emopolitics to stir up emotions, so that more and more weapons can be sent, cynically co-coordinated by the European Peace Facility.
In a short time, the EU has moved from soft to hard, far from the sober middle ground.
