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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Jan 21

Following his meeting with Antony Blinken in Geneva, Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov says the US has agreed to provide a written response to Russia’s request for an explanation on #NATO’s eastward expansion.

#Blinken giving his version of the meeting now: “We stand firmly with #Ukraine in support of its sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

He says he told Lavrov #NATO is prepared to address Russia’s security concerns “in a spirit of reciprocity”.

"Following the consultations we'll have in the coming days with #NATO partners, we anticipate we'll be able to share our concerns with Russia in more detail, and in writing, next week," says Blinken.

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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Jan 18

Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola has been elected, with 458 out of 690 votes, as the next president of the European Parliament.

"I want people to recapture a sense of beliefe and enthusiasm for our [European] project," she says, accepting the position.

"In the next years people across Europe will look to our institution for leadership & direction, while others will continue to test the limits of our democratic values and European principles. We must fight back against the anti-EU narrative that takes hold so easily and quickly"

"Disinformation and misinformation further amplified during the pandemic fuels easy cynicism and cheap solutions of nationalism, authoritarianism, protectionism, isolationism," says Metsola.

"These are a false illusion, offering no solutions."

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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Jan 17

There's been a lot of French media attention on the anti-abortion stance of Roberta Metsola, the centre-right Maltese MEP set to be voted European Parliament President tomorrow.

Here are 4 pieces of context I think are missing in the debate: (thread 1/7) elle.fr/Societe/News/R…

1) 'President' is a misnomer for this position. It's more like the Speaker of the House in the UK.

They chair debates and ceremonially represent the parliament to the other institutions. But the position comes with no real political power. (thread 2/7)

2) By agreement EP's 2 largest groups, centre-right EPP and centre-left S&D, split this position between them for the 5-year EP terms

David Sassoli from the left was president the past 2.5 years. Whoever the next president is, under the agreement it will be a conservative. (3/7)

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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Dec 14, 2021

@YlvaJohansson

EU home affairs commissioner @YlvaJohansson says today’s proposal to revise the Schengen border code is designed to provide countries alternatives to internal EU border checks, for instance through greater police cooperation.

From now on they’ll have to fully justify checks.

Member states will still be able to request 6-month derogations to Schengen rules against internal border checks, says the home affairs commissioner.

But more justification will be needed, and Commission can in theory reject.

Member states would be able to point to the ‘instrumentalisation of migration’ (as happened at 🇵🇱🇧🇾 border) as a reason for introducing internal border checks.

But, VP Schinas clarifies, only if the EU Council has declared such an emergency.

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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Dec 14, 2021

The European Commission will today propose a revision to the #Schengen Border Code - the system of passport-free travel within the EU.

We can expect some media coverage portraying this as an erosion of free movement. But that's missing the point. A thread (🧵1/7)

It's often been said that the euro currency was only done halfway: monetary union without fiscal union.

The Schengen code, developed at the same time, was also done only halfway: open internal borders without common management of external borders. (🧵2/7)

When people hear Schengen they first and foremost think of passport-free travel within the EU.

But the other part of the agreement, not very well followed through on, was the new common EU external border. (🧵3/7)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_…

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Dave Keating

@DaveKeating

Dec 14, 2021

Once Greece’s EU accession opposition over use of the name “Macedonia” was resolved, the country still had a problem because Bulgaria objects to the idea that there is a “Macedonian” language.

They say it is a dialect(s) of Bulgarian. But, a breakthrough: ft.com/content/0c7242…

Is Macedonian a language? Linguists are split. As the old saying goes, “a language is a dialect with an army”

But this is going to be a big issue in Western Balkan accession, with concerns over the same language being translated/interpreted multiple times en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political…

The argument is Austrian, Flemish, Luxembourgish or other dialects aren’t registered as official EU languages, so we shouldn’t be registering Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian & Montenegrin all separately. Same for Bulgarian/Macedonian.

Problem is, what do you call the language?

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