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Frederiksen is left in name only. She doesn't deign to attend S&D meetings and she's made her disdain for Sanchez very clear. Sanchez is alone in the EU.

It's notable that when Belarus/Russia did this to Poland, other EU countries didn't respond by blaming Poland. They blamed Belarus/Russia. No mystery why Europe's governing conservatives are blaming the EU's only leftist prime minister.

Back in 2017 I wrote about the expectations European students wishing to study in the UK had about what would change with Brexit. What ended up happening was really a worst-case scenario at the time.

Brexit leaves EU students waryEU applications for British universities have slumped 7 percent following the country's decision to leave the EU, breaking 10 years of growth. They are expected to be down 57 percent in the aftermath ...www.dw.com

UK universities are fiercely resisting because they say they "depend on the cash to balance their books". But how can this be the case if they've only been getting this extra money for the past 5 years - and it's also caused a major drop-off of Europeans studying in the UK?

🧵...the EU has set the condition that EU students should go back to paying the domestic rate of £9,790 per year as they did before Brexit. Before 2021, only non-EU international students such as wealthy Americans paid the eye-watering tens-of-thousands pounds rates.

I'm so tired of EU national leaders talking out of two sides of their mouths - saying the EU should do more and be stronger and then refusing to give it the money and resources necessary to do so. Because they lack the political courage to be honest with citizens about why it is needed.

Northern leaders want to cut an EU budget already on a shoestringEU national leaders keep saying they want a union that “does more.” Then they show up in Brussels asking it to spend less.davekeating.substack.com

And remember, that's not even counting the civil servants who work for German states or cities. In the Netherlands (a unitary state), there's one civil servant for every 120 residents.

Merz is pitching a fit about the new 🇪🇺budget creating 2,500 more EU civil service jobs. There are a total of roughly 55,000 EU civil servants. The German federal government employs 527,000. So that's: 🇩🇪:1 federal employee for every 159 residents 🇪🇺:1 confederal employee for every 7,800 residents

For unitary states the contrast is even more striking. The Dutch national budget is 45% of 🇳🇱GDP - 45 times more than the EU. France's is 57% of 🇫🇷GDP.

The EU budget amounts to roughly 1% of 🇪🇺GDP. Germany's federal government alone (excluding the Länder state budgets) is 12% of 🇩🇪GDP. The US federal government budget (again, not including state budgets) is 22.8% of 🇺🇸GDP.

Northern leaders like Merz keep saying it can't be the case that member state budgets shrink while the confederal EU budget grows. But why? If they concede that in order for Europe to be sovereign the EU needs to be stronger, then some spending should transfer from national to European level.

"The 🇪🇺single market moves goods and capital across borders, but was never built for films." "European titles rarely secure theatrical release outside their home country, while American ones cross every EU border effortlessly, pre-sold by marketing budgets no national distributor can match."

The last census which was in 2011, it's probably higher now. www.censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.p...

I spoke about EU federalism, and how the story of India provides a valuable lesson to Europe on the choice between unity or vulnerable irrelevance, during my keynote address at the EESC summit in Bulgaria earlier this month.

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More here:

EU issues rash of anti-competition fines against US tech giantsThe Google, Meta and Apple fines are not, as claimed by US politicians, about censorship. But despite the small size of the punishments, Brussels is now bracing for US government retaliation tomorrow.davekeating.substack.com

"Google will pay the current fines out of petty cash — if anything, an incentive to find new ways to sidestep any form of competition. The Commission is damaging the competitiveness of the European economy. Daily penalty payments are now the only instrument left to enforce European law."

"...and bears no relation to the damage Google has done to the European economy." "According to media reports, the announcement of the fine had repeatedly been delayed for political reasons, including against the backdrop of threats of punitive tariffs from the US President."

Unfortunately that is not my experience when I talk to Germans, even outside the political bubble. The entire nation needs therapy, not just the political leaders.

As 🇪🇺President von der Leyen sabotages the 🇮🇱settlement trade ban proposal that national governments asked for, questions are again being asked about whether she acts in the European interest, or in the German interest. My piece from 2023:

The EU's very German presidentUrsula von der Leyen was once thought to be a shoe-in for a second term after next year's election. But for many, her behavior since 7 October has exposed the German bubble she's living in.open.substack.com

"A clear majority of EU governments - and citizens across the continent - want to end trade with illegal settlements today. Every single day Berlin continues its political obstruction, it forces European consumers to unwittingly finance an illegal occupation and war crimes in broad daylight.”