Technically from the EU27 only Germany, Austria, Italy, Czechia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria are the ones actually dependent on Russian Gas (6 out of 27 nations). It's important to not generalize.
Also most of the EU's protectionism is around making sure we have a Farming sector for food security and Food standards for Food Safety. I don't have any issue with being 'protected' from clorinated chicken.
On military spending all EU countries spend at least half of the target 2% of GDP from Nato, only Luxembourg is below that.
In comparison the US spends about 7% of GDP but let's not be naive that this is very much catalyzed by Military Industrial complex lobbying rather than some deep desire of preserving world order.
How does this sound: "Of our 12 year-olds tested, at least half are reading at grade level!"
One percent of GDP is a lot.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-m...
I think this wins the Copium Award for the month.
And Switzerland. Switzerland is not a member of the EU but is Europe, and its economy (and culture) is strongly interconnected with the EU.
[0] https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-military-superpower-p...
And Poland’s complaining too about the prices of Norwegian gas. Turns out the government forgot to negotiate long-term contracts and they have to pay market prices.
W.r.t. Norwegian gas, yes, I recall several months ago, the Polish prime minister did indeed criticize Norway, but I thought we were talking about new EU criticism of the US? In another comment, I did explicitly refrain from commenting on price gouging surrounding gas as I don't know to what degree that is occurring (my original post was specifically related to defense, which perhaps was not clear except by implication given the link).
Germany/Poland were all pro-american, so it's wrong to say "and pursued energy policy that made them extremely reliant on known bad actor Russia, all while poopoo-ing the US", do you know how Poland hates Russia?
"neglected their military funding" is also wrong, that was an american wish, the "Demilitarization of Europe" [1]
Europe is in this mess because of the US, and their multiple global trade sanctions which have prevented the EU from multiplying their source of supply and policies that forced the demilitarization of Europe, we also see the continuation of it nowadays with them sending all of their ammunitions to Ukraine
And it's not just with natural gas but also uranium and lithium, US/AUS companies busy in Spain mining their resources for example [2]
The multiple suspicious NGOs against nuclear energy in Europe are also something interesting ;)
[1] - http://www.klauslarres.org/articles-1991-2015.html
[2] - https://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/articles/entry...
>While Gates never outlined what he actually meant by “demilitarization”, the U.S. Department of Defense and most analysts use the phrase when referring to the European countries’ tendency to reduce the size of their armies, navies and air force personnel and delay updating their military hardware. However, European “demilitarization” also includes the cultural reorientation of most EU nations away from militarization and an overly international activism. Thus European “demilitarization” is also a matter of attitude rather than merely a question of expenditure on military forces and hardware.
There's some academic smoke-blowing for you. But let's make it simple: 2% of GDP to be spent on defense. They've agreed to do it, but until Ukraine they just refused. Was there some help from the US that they were missing?
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2022/07/20/how-european-c...
Oh look, here's Germany coming in at 1%:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293562/expenditure-on-m...
What do you mean? please go straight to the point
> But let's make it simple: 2% of GDP to be spent on defense. They've agreed to do it, but until Ukraine they just refused. Was there some help from the US that they were missing?
The US wants Europe to fund NATO, not to become a sovereign military super power, and even less an independent economy that commerce with Russia/China
That's what i mean by demilitarization of Europe, you are not militarized if you do not defend your sovereignty, you are a vassal who protects the interest of an Empire that is not yours
https://i.imgur.com/FBysSrf.png you see right, that's the US
They agreed to help fund NATO, which is defending them against Russia. Then they reneged. What is this analysis missing?
Obviously the US wants a Europe not dominated by Russia. So should you.
The US should have been happy for Europe
Who said buying Russian oil was bad?
Why the US can dictate what the EU should/shouldn't do?
I thought they were sovereign
I can't follow your statements here
> Obviously the US wants a Europe not dominated by Russia. So should you.
Wrong, the US wants a weak Europe that it can dominate, just like they want a weak Russia, a weak China and a weak Middle East
As for me, i wan't nothing but apocalypse, so you are far off in your expectation
Maybe you would have been (or actually were) happier in the old East Germany.
Whether i live on mars or not doesn't change the facts on the planet earth
Russia has neither the military or the political clout of the USSR. NATO would have probably already been dismantled, if that wouldn't sink the US military-industrial complex.
If not for its post-Soviet utility in the Balkans and elsewhere; its been more active in the post-Soviet period than during the Cold War.
Btw, it's not simple like the way you talk "bad actor Russia". They all come with bad and good things, depends on the perspective. And they all have their own benefits and intends.
Politics is very complicated, isn't it?
> So to be clear, Europe has pursued its own protectionist economic policies for decades, neglected their military funding, and pursued energy policy that made them extremely reliant on known bad actor Russia, all while poopoo-ing the US, and now that the chickens are coming home to roost they are blaming the US for it?
In other words, Europe and Russia both had gains for a long time. Now the dreams have crashed.
But you see, this is part of my disappointment with European decision makers. Yeah, great, Europe "profited" in a financial and standards of living sense. But what these people seem to miss (but the Americans and Russians know very well) is that there's a harder tier of power above finance, which is military power. Sure, it's great having good GDP, but if your neighbor has more tanks and resents you because 50% of their population wants to be you[1] then your savings and finance don't matter much. Unless big brother America comes to the rescue, as they're doing, at which point parent's comment has a lot of truth in it...
[1] 50% is made up, but it's a lot.
Russia's neighbors like the Baltics + Poland + Finland have been warning Germany and France about all of this for decades, and their domestic energy and military policies have taken all of this into account. The EU center of power is shifting towards these countries as a result.
So, maybe be a little bit embarrassed if you're German or French but only a little :)
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/BUSINESS/10/03/russia.yukos/
It seems to me that the U.S. wanted to be "extremely reliant on known bad actor Russia". Is Nord Stream perhaps sour grapes for the U.S.?
Certainly it would be worse if that deal (and other deals following) had gone through.
It would not have been a 100% dependency, but neither is Nord Stream for Germany.
Europe has historically been relying on North Africa for gas since a long time.