The secretive Bilderberg Group is set to discuss plans to implement an Internet ID to eviscerate anonymity on the web as well as a global tax on financial transactions and air travel, according to an inside source who spoke to Infowars.

The clandestine organization is set to begin its annual meeting tomorrow at the Taschenbergpalais Kempinski hotel in Dresden, Germany.

According to our source, the creation of a virtual passport that web users will need to obtain before they can use many Internet services is high on the agenda.

The Internet ID will be justified under the guise of “cybersecurity” and creating a convenient method for citizens to access government services, but free speech advocates will view the proposal with deep suspicion as it would threaten online anonymity and possibly chill dissent.

Services such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter could also use the online passport to revoke posting permission if a user violates terms of agreement, another obvious threat to the free flow of information that has made the web what it is today.

As we reported last week, a project by the European Union Commission which is being spearheaded by former communist official Andrus Ansip is pushing an Internet ID system that will track what people buy and what they say online.

Last year, it also emerged that the Communist Chinese government was involved in setting up a huge “social credit” database that would rank citizens based on their “trustworthiness.” A pilot project called Sesame Credit, run by Chinese corporate giant Alibaba, is already monitoring social media activity to give citizens a social credit score based on their buying history and, according to come critics, their political views.

Bilderberg globalists are also set to re-invigorate momentum behind another long term goal – a global tax system presided over by the UN.

Efforts to introduce a global tax, which Bilderberg has attempted in the past, will be focused around three possibilities – a tax on oil at the well-head, a supplementary charge for international financial transactions, and a green tax on all air and sea travel.

The Panama Papers will also be cited as a reason to impose the global tax on large corporations, although the costs will inevitably be passed on to the public. The first incarnation of the project will take the form of a “global body on tax cooperation,” which will be overseen by the United Nations.

The tax will be sold to the public as a means of addressing environmental concerns and helping destitute people in the third world, although whether those reasons are enough to convince anyone remains to be seen.

The topic of Brexit – Britain’s vote to leave the European Union – will also be a key focal point of Bilderberg’s discussions.

Specifically, Bilderberg will explore what options it has should the ‘leave’ camp emerge victorious. The European Union has previously quashed national referendums on further EU political integration by either changing the name and making citizens vote again, or simply ignoring their vote altogether.

Infowars reporters will be in Dresden all week covering the Bilderberg conference.

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At his deceased 19 year-old daughters’ eulogy, Dr. Clemens Ladenburger, a lawyer for the European Commission, was asking for donations to be made to Bangladesh.

The prime suspect in the raping and drowning of his daughter is a “17 year-old” Afghan man, who illegally came into Europe in 2015. Apparently even Afghanistan didn’t want him, as he was expelled from the country, or so he claims.

Ladenburger’s daughter, Maria, who was a medical student in Freiburg, Germany, was bicycling home from a university party on the night of October 16th.

The next morning her body was found in a nearby river. She had been raped and then drowned in the river.

The Afghan suspect was linked to the crime scene after strands from a black scarf and the scarf itself was found nearby. He was spotted on camera in the area at the time, wearing a black scarf.

The doctors weren’t sure if she died from internally bleeding from the rape or the drowning/choking.

The migrant pleaded guilty to the attack and will be sentenced next year.

If you think he learned to be more cautious, you are wrong. At her funeral in Brussels, Belgium, her father solicited donations for two charities, one for Muslims in Bangladesh, the other for local Muslim refugee illegals inside Germany.

“Instead of flowers, we ask for a donation towards the educational work of the church in Bangladesh.” the eulogy says.

Poor girl… what a sick disgusting father she had… Not even now will he wake up and understand what caused her death in the first place. Now if this guy isn’t the true definition of a cuck then who is?

If the EU cares so much about the environment, they why aren’t they banning oil-based fuel and forcefully adopt water-based engines?? Because they don’t care! They couldn’t give a small tiny piece of sh*t about the environment or about YOU, the citizen! Basically its all about 2 things: making billions in taxes and destroying our industry while helping the third world, so they can “equalize” us and bring us to their level. They are trying to move our factories to places like China, India, Bangladesh, etc. They want a globalist united world… they can only achieve that if all countries look the same and earn the same wages. So that’s exactly what they are trying to do. Take the example of cigarettes. A pack of cigarettes, no matter what brand, would never come anywhere near 1 Euro as the production cost. Despite that, you buy a pack of cigarettes for 5-8 Euros depending on the brand. Where do you think the rest of the money goes? To British American Tobacco? Philip Morris?? NOPE! They go to the governments in taxes. Again, its all about the freaking money! We either need to CHANGE the EU into a nationalist block, or END it altogether and get it over with!

The European Commission has started legal action against Germany, Britain and five other countries for failing to police vehicle emissions regulations, according to EU sources.

The step reportedly followed signs of suspicious behavior in the industry after the Volkswagen cheating scandal. Brussels is not satisfied with how bloc members responded to diesel vehicles flouting pollution limits.

According to EU officials, several European countries tried to protect car manufacturers from sanctions similar to those faced by Volkswagen after the carmaker was caught using software to cheat emissions tests in the US.

The automotive industry is critical for the bloc, as it employs nearly 12 million people. The potential fines for breaking car emission rules could have a grave effect on the countries’ economies.

Diesel engines power half the vehicles in Europe. Nitrous oxide pollution from them causes respiratory illness and the premature death of 72,000 people annually, according to data from the European Environmental Agency.

According to EU sources familiar with the matter, the Commission has found that countries failed to set fines to deter rule-breaking or penalize carmakers for breaching the law or cooperate with its demands for information.

The UK and Germany face cases concerning the testing and approval of new models produced by Volkswagen, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. “This is not the end; just the first wave of action,” they added.

The measure is the first step in infringement procedures that allow the EU to take action against its member states for failing to apply the common law. The members are given two months to respond, and if they are not able to satisfy the Commission within the period, the EU can take the issue to the European Courts.

Under current EU law, newly produced vehicles are approved by national regulators. The governments are empowered to revoke those licenses or impose penalties, although the vehicles can be sold all over the EU.

No country has penalized the vehicles it previously licensed in spite of probes revealing the use of defeat devices in Germany, Britain, Italy and France.

The manufacturers argue that the use of defeat devices complies with an exemption that allows protecting the engine where needed. Some national watchdogs say that the vagueness of EU law allows for the loophole.

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has called on Brussels to protect Europe’s borders from illegal immigration in the wake of the deadly terrorist attack in Berlin, but European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker prefers to rely on European values.

“It is unprecedented that, in the heart of Europe, Christians were murdered at Christmas,” Orban who is now nick named the European Trump said in an interview with Hungarian online newspaper veol.hu.

A 24-year-old Tunisian, Anis Amri, drove a truck into Christmas market stalls next to Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church at Breitscheidplatz in a December 19 terrorist attack that left 12 people dead and 56 others injured.

The Islamic State terror group (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) claimed responsibility for the attack and later released a video of the suspect pledging allegiance to their leader.

“It’s clear that, in the case of migration, nothing can remain the way it was before. Brussels needs to change, migrants who entered Europe illegally must be deported, the borders need to be protected and the inflow of migrants has to be eliminated,” Orban said.

Amri arrived in Europe for the first time on a refugee raft that landed on the island of Lampedusa in 2011. He told police he was a minor, though he was 19 at that time, and was assigned to a foster home and school in Catania. Italy provides unaccompanied migrant minors with protection and benefits. Armi behaved aggressively in his new home and eventually tried to set fire to his school. He was arrested for the arson attack in 2011, the same year he had arrived, and was sentenced to four years behind bars.

He was released in 2015 and was supposed to be deported, but Tunisian authorities refused to take him back.

Unable to go home, Amri went to Germany in July of 2015 and applied for asylum in April of 2016, registering at different refugee centers and using a number of fake names. In July, Amri was caught with fake Italian ID documents in a routine check on a coach in Friedrichshafen. He was then moved to a prison in Ravensburg, but was soon released again.

German intelligence had been tracking him until the authorities called off the surveillance in September.

Orban said that the Berlin attack has once again proved that the integration of non-European migrants into Europe has “obviously been a failure.”

The PM said that, as a result,

“This shakes the confidence and self-esteem of the Western world. The economic slowdown, crime, terrorism, migration, indecision and insincere speech all adds up, and Western leaders won’t provide the answers,” Orban added.

Looking to 2017, Orban wished that more Western capitals would “revolt” against the political status quo and overthrow leaders “who refused to listen to the people” by political means.

“A year ago, no one would have believed that the UK would withdraw from the European Union (EU), or that Americans would reject the Clinton clan,” the prime minister noted. “This will continue in 2017, which will be the year of revolt for European democracy.”

At the same time, President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has defended the EU’s open door policies.

“Terror only takes us if we allow it,” Jean-Claude Juncker told German Funke Mediengruppe this weekend. It “would be wrong to put all refugees under suspicion.”

Declaring that “the basic values for which the European Union stands remain unchanged,” Juncker said that the EU “must offer refuge to people who flee from war zones and from terror.”

“Our values, our way of living together in freedom, coexistence and openness are the best weapons against terror,” he added.

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Greece will cease taking back refugees under the controversial Dublin Regulation, as the country’s limited capacities to host people are already on the brink of collapse, the Greek migration minister announced in an interview.

As the European Commission pressures Athens to re-implement the Dublin Regulation – stipulating that refugees can be returned to the first EU state they arrived in – the Greek migration minister told Spiegel his country is not in a position to do so. The agreement was put on hold for Greece back in 2011 over problems in the country’s asylum system.

“Greece is already shouldering a heavy burden,” Ioannis Mouzalas, the migration minister, said.

“We accommodate 60,000 refugees… and it would be a mistake to make Greece’s burden heavier by the revival of the Dublin agreement,” he said, also adding that Germany, the primary destination for most refugees, “wants countries where refugees arrive first to bear a large portion of the burden.”

Under the Dublin Regulation, the European state where the asylum-seeker first arrives in the EU is responsible for examining an asylum claim. Refugees are fingerprinted in their first country of arrival to ensure irrefutable evidence of their entry.

However, rights groups warn that imminent transfers from other EU countries back to Greece in line with the regulations are likely to cause more refugees than ever to go underground in western European countries, as many are desperate to stay there because of family links or successful attempts to start a new life. The scheme also adds even greater pressure to existing refugee facilities in Greece and beyond.

Asked if Athens is ruling out implementation of the Dublin Regulation, Mouzalas answered in the affirmative, adding, “I want the Germans to understand that this is not because of political or ideological reasons, or failure to appreciate Germany’s assistance.”

“Greece simply has no capacities to cope with additional arrival of refugees,” he said. “We’ve just pulled ourselves together, so please, don’t make us falter again.”

At this stage, Mouzalas said, Greece is ready to accommodate only a small number of refugees as a symbolic gesture, showing “that we’re not opposed to the Dublin agreement.” Greece “reached its limits” and “we can’t bring in a single refugee,” he reaffirmed, appealing “to the common sense of Europe.”

Two years after the heavy influx of refugees into Europe, thousands of people still remain stranded on several Greek islands, including the island of Lesbos, which has seen numerous demonstrations involving migrants and local activists opposed to the poor living conditions and treatment of refugees.

Earlier in March, several rights groups, including HRW and Oxfam, urged the Greek parliament in an open letter not to stick to the EU’s proposals, which would complicate removing refugees from overcrowded islands to mainland Europe.

The EU proposal “would mean that significantly larger numbers of people would be required to remain on the islands for prolonged periods of time to go through admissibility procedures that have proven slow,” the open letter warned.

“We fear that this would have negative impacts on the safety and wellbeing of vulnerable asylum seekers while putting further undue pressure on the islands’ population causing additional overcrowding.”

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European Union (EU) boss Jean-Claude Juncker has called on his colleagues to make sure the UK does not get the same benefits as the remaining 27 members after Brexit.

The European Commission president warned the UK that it cannot have its cake and eat it.

In a display of how he wants Brexit negotiations to go ahead, Mr Juncker urged his fellow commissioners to ensure Britain does not get a better deal than the rest of the EU.

In an ominous warning to the UK, he said: “A third country cannot have the same benefits as a member states.

“This parliament must and will ensure this reality is fully upheld over the course of the next two years.”

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The European Union has set aside an additional €90 million (US $95 million) to a €120 million (US $127 million) project which will provide food, healthcare, and “assistance to, and protection of, migrants and refugees at disembarkation points” in Libya.

According to a press release issued by the European Commission—the EU’s executive body—the additional €90 million will be used for the “protection of migrants and improved migration management in Libya.”

High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini was quoted as saying that “Libya and the Libyans have been and stay a top priority [for the EU].

“We are working to promote a political solution to the Libyan crisis and to support the Libyan authorities on the many challenges they have to face, including the managing of the migration flows,” Mogherini said, omitting to add that it was the EU’s military campaign against the Gadhafi government which caused the crisis in the first place.

“As the first donor for Libya, we already are providing a sizeable package of support worth €120 million to assist the authorities and the population,” she continued.

“We are addressing the appalling situation the migrants stranded in Libya face, together with international organizations such as IOM and UNHCR.

“The additional €90 million we adopt today are aimed at protecting and assisting migrants in the country, and the people who host them.”

The Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said in the press release that by “supporting actions in Libya, today’s newly adopted program will address the needs of the migrants and contribute to a better management of migration flows.”

The statement also effectively admitted that the Third World invaders who claim to be refugees are all utterly bogus. The admission was contained in the detailed explanation of the new assistance program, which said that money was also being set aside to facilitate the “voluntary return of migrants from Libya to their countries of origin.”

To this end, the EU estimates that “voluntary humanitarian returns and reintegration of migrants to their countries of origin” aims to help 15,000 such invaders go home—a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands who are pouring into Libya to swindle their way into Europe.

However, the main thrust of the program remains helping the invaders in Libya—which will have the effect of encouraging the invasion, not deterring it.

According to the EU statement, €48 million has been set aside for “assistance to, and protection of, migrants and refugees at disembarkation points, in detention centers and urban settings (e.g. primary healthcare, psychological first aid, identification of vulnerable persons — including children — access to food and non-food items).”

In addition, the EU cash—raised of course from the taxpayers in member states—will provide for the “creation of ‘Safe Spaces’ as alternatives to detention (shelters providing 24/7 care and specialized services); assistance to migrants on the move in the form of information on viable options (including returns), and risks of irregular migration as well as food and non-food items; collection and analysis of data on mixed migration flows, routes, and trends through a ‘Displacement Tracking Mechanism’ which will help better understand the migration dynamics.”

Another €42 million has been set aside for “socioeconomic development at municipal level and local governance” in Libya, with the aim of “strengthening [the] capacities of local authorities to provide services and foster local development and stability, through provision and access to quality services for Libyans and migrants (including health facilities and education and rehabilitation of local infrastructures for example) and through local economic development and access to job opportunities (including through safe income for migrants and host communities in the South where smuggling and trafficking provide major revenues).”

The program will be implemented through five partners: 1) the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2) the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 3) the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 4) the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and 5) the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

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The European Union has set aside an additional €90 million (US $95 million) to a €120 million (US $127 million) project which will provide food, healthcare, and “assistance to, and protection of, migrants and refugees at disembarkation points” in Libya.

According to a press release issued by the European Commission—the EU’s executive body—the additional €90 million will be used for the “protection of migrants and improved migration management in Libya.”

High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini was quoted as saying that “Libya and the Libyans have been and stay a top priority [for the EU].

“We are working to promote a political solution to the Libyan crisis and to support the Libyan authorities on the many challenges they have to face, including the managing of the migration flows,” Mogherini said, omitting to add that it was the EU’s military campaign against the Gadhafi government which caused the crisis in the first place.

“As the first donor for Libya, we already are providing a sizeable package of support worth €120 million to assist the authorities and the population,” she continued.

“We are addressing the appalling situation the migrants stranded in Libya face, together with international organizations such as IOM and UNHCR.

“The additional €90 million we adopt today are aimed at protecting and assisting migrants in the country, and the people who host them.”

The Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, said in the press release that by “supporting actions in Libya, today’s newly adopted program will address the needs of the migrants and contribute to a better management of migration flows.”

The statement also effectively admitted that the Third World invaders who claim to be refugees are all utterly bogus. The admission was contained in the detailed explanation of the new assistance program, which said that money was also being set aside to facilitate the “voluntary return of migrants from Libya to their countries of origin.”

To this end, the EU estimates that “voluntary humanitarian returns and reintegration of migrants to their countries of origin” aims to help 15,000 such invaders go home—a tiny drop in the ocean compared to the hundreds of thousands who are pouring into Libya to swindle their way into Europe.

However, the main thrust of the program remains helping the invaders in Libya—which will have the effect of encouraging the invasion, not deterring it.

According to the EU statement, €48 million has been set aside for “assistance to, and protection of, migrants and refugees at disembarkation points, in detention centers and urban settings (e.g. primary healthcare, psychological first aid, identification of vulnerable persons — including children — access to food and non-food items).”

In addition, the EU cash—raised of course from the taxpayers in member states—will provide for the “creation of ‘Safe Spaces’ as alternatives to detention (shelters providing 24/7 care and specialized services); assistance to migrants on the move in the form of information on viable options (including returns), and risks of irregular migration as well as food and non-food items; collection and analysis of data on mixed migration flows, routes, and trends through a ‘Displacement Tracking Mechanism’ which will help better understand the migration dynamics.”

Another €42 million has been set aside for “socioeconomic development at municipal level and local governance” in Libya, with the aim of “strengthening [the] capacities of local authorities to provide services and foster local development and stability, through provision and access to quality services for Libyans and migrants (including health facilities and education and rehabilitation of local infrastructures for example) and through local economic development and access to job opportunities (including through safe income for migrants and host communities in the South where smuggling and trafficking provide major revenues).”

The program will be implemented through five partners: 1) the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 2) the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), 3) the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), 4) the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and 5) the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GIZ).

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A disturbing new animated propaganda film sponsored by the European Commission, is depicting the EU as an ugly social justice warrior “fairy godmother” with leftist hipster glasses, flying Muslim migrants on a magic carpet to Western Europe because Eastern Europe is “racist” for refusing take them in.

For starters, this video is completely bizarre. It is blatant propaganda. It plays out like a dystopian nightmare more than the wonderful, near-future utopia the EU clearly wants it to appear to be.

The video is by Européens Sans Frontières (Europeans Without Borders) and is titled “Eurodame, Help!” and was funded by the European Commission, the French government, as well as third-party groups like the Fondation Hippocrène.

Fondation Hippocrène has a history of financing projects in cooperation with George Soros’ Open Society Foundations.

The video begins focusing on a migrant and his headscarf-wearing wife and their children who fly, via carpet accompanied by the EU’s magical fairy godmother, to Eastern Europe where they are yelled at by a crowd of racist, white men. The EU fairy tries to talk some sense into the Eastern Europeans but instead takes the migrants to Western Europe where everyone is loving and open to their cities being burned and destroyed by Muslim immigrants. The video is truly a cringe fest.

You can watch the full video below and read a scene-by-scene summary at Breitbart:

Européens Sans Frontières is sponsored by the European Commission, therefore you can safely treat this video as if it came directly from the EU itself. Among other sponsors, Orange, one of the larges mobile phone network providers in Europe, has also sponsored this video. Make sure you cancel your Orange contract if you have one. You can go to T-Mobile, Vodafone, until they do such a horrible brainwashing video.

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The Polish government has told the European Union that they will not take in any of the “redistributed” nonwhites pretending to be refugees from Greece or Italy as that plan only aggravates the invasion problem and does not solve it.

Reacting to the EU’s threat last week that Poland—and Hungary—would face unspecified sanctions unless they agreed to take part in the “redistribution” of the fake refugees arriving in Italy and Greece, Polish Justice Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told a news conference in Brussels that his country’s “position is consistent and clear—we oppose relocation.”

Speaking after a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers, Blaszczak said that the redistribution arrangement “does not only fail to solve the migration problem, it aggravates it. It encourages more waves of migrants from Africa and Asia to come, which also provides a big source of income for smugglers and people traffickers.”

He went on to cite nonwhite terrorist attacks in France, Belgium, and Germany since late 2015 in which fake refugees had taken a leading role.
Under a plan agreed in 2015, the European Commission has demanded of EU member states that they all admit a quota from a total of 160,000 nonwhite invaders “stuck” in Italy and Greece.

Poland and Hungary alone have refused to admit any, citing security concerns and announcing their opposition to the mass Third World invasion of Europe.

Last week, the European Commission said it would decide next month on possible legal action against Poland and Hungary over the migration issue.

The process will likely end up in court and entail financial penalties in the form of the withdrawal of EU subsidies.

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European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker has stated that Donald Trump’s efforts to “untie” America from “international connections” make it hard for Europe to stay on good terms with Washington, pushing the EU “closer” to China.

“Now that there are signs that the US wants to untie itself from international connections, the relationship with China is becoming more and more important,” Juncker told Politico on Thursday, a day before the EU-China summit.

“I am not very happy with the idea that we might now work even more closely with China than we are able to do with the Americans,” he said just hours before Trump was expected to announce his decision to pull the US out of the 2015 Paris accord on climate change.

“This does not fit into my old worldview.”

Juncker said on Thursday in Berlin he hoped Washington would stick with the Paris accord, adding that it’s impossible to pull out of the agreement “overnight.”

Juncker described recent “statements of the American president” as “partly worrying.”

“We must continue the conversation with the new administration, despite all the difficulties. The annoyance of the moment must not detract from the necessity of a permanent dialogue with the United States,” he told Politico.

“We must try to keep the transatlantic relationship in a good condition,” he added.

Juncker said he had held his own in talks with Trump, noting that “a Luxembourger is not afraid of an American.”

Trump raised many eyebrows on Thursday when he decided to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate change, causing an outcry from Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, who signed the landmark deal.

Kevin Lewis, Obama’s spokesman, released a statement, criticizing the decision as a job killer.

“The nations that remain in the Paris Agreement will be the nations that reap the benefits in jobs and industries created,” Obama said in the statement. “I believe the United States of America should be at the front of the pack.”

US Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York), called the decision a “devastating failure of historic proportions.”

The head of the European Commission told German Bild am Sonntag newspaper last month that EU-US relations are at historic lows because of the policies of the new Republican president.

Interactions between the US and Europe “have entered a sort of a [period of] estrangement,” Juncker told the newspaper.

The European Commission president slammed Trump’s approach to relations with Europe as ridiculous. The fact that Trump welcomes Brexit and urges other states to follow suit shows that he has “an uncanny approach” towards relations with the EU, he said, adding, that this situation “requires intensive negotiations.”

Both China and the EU are sending the world a clear signal that there can be “no backsliding” on the Paris climate pact, Juncker said Friday as he opened trade and climate talks with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Brussels.

“Our joint leadership provides business, investors and researchers both in Europe and China and throughout the world the certainty they need to build a global low carbon economy,” Juncker said, as quoted by AFP.

“And it makes a statement to the world: there is no reverse gear to the energy transition, there is no backsliding on the Paris agreement,” Juncker said.

The Chinese premier also highlighted the importance of upholding rules.

“In this world we will be in a jungle without rules. China always upholds multilateral rules, including WTO rules,” he said.

European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said Trump’s “announcement [to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement] has galvanized us rather than weakened us, and this vacuum will be filled by new broad committed leadership.”

“Europe and its strong partners all around the world are ready to lead the way,” the Spaniard said in a statement on the eve of the summit.

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Last week, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on Turkey, which called on the European Union members and the European Commission to immediately suspend the talks concerning Ankara’s admission to the bloc unless the Turkish government makes appropriate changes to the recent constitutional reform.

Over the recent months, relations between Ankara and Brussels have soured, mostly due to the outcome of the recent constitutional referendum in Turkey. The vote granted the current Turkish president increased power.

According to the resolution, the constitutional changes proposed by the reform “do not respect the fundamental principles of the separation of powers, do not provide for sufficient checks and balances and are not in line with the Copenhagen criteria.”

The EU has also been concerned over Ankara’s suggestion to reintroduce the death penalty. In May, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that if Turkey reintroduced capital punishment, it would mean the end of the country’s talks on accession.

Moreover, the resolution condemned the measures imposed by Ankara after last year’s coup attempt, including mass arrests and a crackdown on media.

Turkey’s admission to the European Union is a very complicated issue and it is premature to discuss it now, according to Dutch political analyst Nureddin al Omrani.

“It will be difficult to discuss Turkey’s admission to the EU for at least several more years,” al Omrani told Sputnik Turkey.

Commenting on the main obstacles Turkey is facing on its path to the EU, the analyst said that there are some principal issues concerning democracy and human rights, which are a priority for Brussels.

“The members of the EU are united by the spirit of the agreements which are in the basis of the bloc. However, Ankara’s stance on the death penalty and human rights is far from that spirit,” al Omrani pointed out.

“In one of his speeches, Erdogan said Europeans ‘will not walk safely’ on the streets [if Brussels keeps its current attitude towards Turkey]. Such statements raise concerns over Turkey’s foreign policy. How could we discuss the admission of a country the leader of which threatens other countries?” al Omrani argued.

On Friday, the Dutch government said it would not welcome Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes’s visit to the Netherlands for a ceremony among Turkish expatriates to commemorate the anniversary of last year’s failed coup attempt.

According to the analyst, the Dutch government “just could not let that happen.”

“We shouldn’t forget that currently there is a crisis between Turkey and the Netherlands. Ankara continues to make critical remarks about the Dutch government. In turn, Dutch politicians believe that visits by Turkish officials will threaten the security of Dutch residents. Just imagine – a Turkish minister wants to come to the Netherlands to speak before Turkish expatriates during an illegal rally,” al Omrani said.

The analyst added the Turkish government “should learn a lesson” from the current situation and Turks living in the Netherlands should respect its law and try to integrate in the society.

Meanwhile, a rally commemorating the victims of the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey will be held in Brussels on Wednesday. The meeting was organized by the Turkish ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş is expected to attend the event.

A coup was attempted in Turkey on July 15, 2016, by a faction within the Turkish military. The coup was foiled by forces loyal to the government. Ankara has claimed that the coup leaders were linked to the Gülen movement, considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, and were allegedly led by Fethullah Gülen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania.

According to Tancrède Josseran, an analyst at the Institute for Strategy and Conflicts (ISC), the Turkish government uses the inconsistency of European policymakers in order to promote Erdogan’s ideas among the Turkish diaspora.

“The goal of this meeting is clear. The goal is to confront Europeans with their own principles. Ankara wants the EU to feel guilty over its reserved reaction to the coup attempt. At the same time, Turkey is promoting its agenda, saying that the West is to blame for the coup,” Josseran told Sputnik France.

According to the expert, the Turkish government wants to strengthen its influence on the Turkish diaspora in Europe.

“The AKP wants to unite several million Turks living in Europe around the idea of allegiance to Turkey. The idea is simple – being loyal to Turkey means being loyal to Erdogan and vice versa,” Josseran said.

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Poland’s Minister of Justice delivered a scathing response to European Union bureaucrats who are attempting to bully the staunchly anti-migrant country as the battle over ‘refugee resettlement’ quotas rages on.

Zbiegniew Ziobro directed his comments at Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission, who has established himself as one of the EU’s most aggressive attack dogs against a growing list of member states who oppose the migrant schemes.

“We all know from school, in history class, that the Netherlands has a long experience in colonialism, but bad habits must be stamped out,” said Ziobro, correlating Timmermans’ Dutch roots to his penchant for imperious interventionism. “I’d like to ask Mr. Timmermans to stop speaking with such insolence and arrogance about Poland, and to Poles, and to the Polish authorities because we deserve respect.”

“We expect and demand respect.”

Polish nationalists and Euroskeptics have taken up the refrain of “Hands off Poland,” and rumblings of #Polexit grow louder by the day.

🆘‼️😎👍 #Poland – Polish Patriots protest against external influence: "#Merkel, #Soros and Co. – Hands off Poland." pic.twitter.com/rQCJ1sb9IV

— Onlinemagazin (@OnlineMagazin) July 28, 2017

The Polish government is in the midst of procedures to reshape elements of its judicial system, but the EU has threatened to punish the country severely if they follow through, accusing Warsaw of creating a “systematic threat to the rule of law in Poland” and possibly ‘breaching fundamental human rights.’

The reforms are aimed at dismantling a “privileged caste” of left-wing activist lawyers and judges, obligating ‘Christian values’ to be considered in Supreme Court rulings, and shaking up the entire judiciary by dismissing many sitting judges while also re-structuring how they are appointed.

Prominent Polish parliamentarian and former prime minister, Jarosław Kaczyński, a trained lawyer, asserts that Poland’s court system is still a “stronghold of post-communists.”

“We will swiftly prepare infringement procedures for breach of EU law, also to be launched next week,” European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans has declared in response. “The option of triggering Article 7 of the Treaty was part of the discussion and it should come as no surprise to anyone that, given the latest developments, we are coming very close to triggering Article 7.”

“Our hand is still extended to the Polish authorities for dialogue. But dialogue must be aimed at redressing the situation. And dialogue, if it happens or not, will not stop the Commission from taking any measures it deems necessary in this framework.”

Poland has strong allies in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia – and likely even the White House, as President Trump recently delivered an earthshaking speech in Warsaw that put globalists on edge.

“You stood in solidarity against oppression, against a lawless secret police, and against a cruel and wicked system that impoverished your cities and your souls – and you won,” said Trump. “Poland prevailed. Poland will always prevail.”

“A strong Poland is a blessing to the nations of Europe, and they know that. A strong Europe is a blessing to the West, and to the world.”

Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has warned that the EU is targeting Poland as a warning to all others who might follow their lead in standing up to the tyrannical superstate.

“The main target of the inquisition, the example of national governance to be weakened, destroyed and broken is Poland,” Orban said. “Hungary will use every legal possibility in the European Union to be in solidarity with the Poles.”

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Migrants from Somalia and North Africa have been identified as the likely perpetrators of terrorist attacks in Canada and France, which were carried out just after the European Union Commission announced plans to import 50,000 more African migrants in the coming months.

Additionally, both suspects – one of whom is now deceased – were ‘known’ to local authorities after run-ins with the law.

In Edmonton, Canada, a Somali asylum seeker, Abdulahi Hasan Sharif, is now in custody, suspected of carrying out one or more terror attacks, and stabbing a fallen police officer whom he had struck with a car before temporarily escaping. An ISIS battle flag was found inside the vehicle.

A former colleague had reported Sharif to authorities over concerns about his ‘incoherent rants’ about his ‘genocidal beliefs.’

“The co-worker said Sharif would play broadcasts in Arabic while they worked at the construction site. When Sharif started talking to him about his hatred of Shiite Muslims and support for well-known ISIS leaders, the co-worker decided he needed to do something, he said,” reports CBC. “RCMP said Sunday that Sharif was interviewed by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team in 2015.”

“But there was ‘insufficient evidence’ to make an arrest and the suspect was deemed ‘not a threat.’”

In Marseille, France, female cousins were stabbed to death by a man screaming “Allahu Ackbar” at the Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles train station on Sunday.

Sources have informed the Daily Mail that the murderer was an illegal immigrant “of either Algerian or Tunisian origin.”

The suspect, who was gunned down at the scene as his victims lay bleeding out on the sidewalk, had been arrested just a day before in Lyon, France, for shoplifting.

Despite being in the country illegally, and despite also being connected with drug-related offenses, he was released by authorities who were also aware that he had reportedly used as many as eight false identities.

“Instead they let him go, and the next they heard about him was in connection with a double murder,” a source told the Mail. “Forensic evidence has linked him with the incidents in Marseille and in Lyon, but his actual name and other details remain in dispute.”

“He was known to police for his links to drug-related crimes, but had used up to eight identities over the past few months.”

ISIS has claimed responsibility for the Marseille killings.

On Wednesday, just days before these attacks, the European Union Commission unveiled the latest expansion in their ‘refugee resettlement’ agenda – a plan to formally import 50,000 more Africans over the next two years at a cost of over half a billion US dollars.

“Europe has to show that it is ready to share responsibility with third countries, notably in Africa,” EU Migration Commissioner, Dmitri Avramopoulos said in comments to the press. “People who are in genuine need of protection should not risk their lives or depend on smugglers.”

“We need to open real alternatives to taking perilous irregular journeys,” he added. “Investing in more legal pathways, both for protection but also for study or work, is therefore essential.”

Crime reports out of Germany this year revealed that migrants account for nearly half of all offenses in Berlin alone, and that ‘asylum seekers’ commit violent crimes at a rate 15 times higher than German citizens.

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The standoff between George Soros and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is raging on: The European Commission has recently issued yet another ultimatum to Budapest over the country’s nongovernmental organization and education laws, which are allegedly targeting Soros’s entities in Hungary. The country’s ruling Fidesz party strikes back.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban appears to be the last obstacle in the way of George Soros’s plan to “reconstruct” Europe, experts say.

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that the European Commission (EC) increased legal action against Budapest over “restrictions on foreign funding,” which are “likely to affect civil society groups funded by the billionaire investor George Soros.” According to the official statement, EC reserves the right to “refer the case to the Court of Justice of the EU.”

Hungarian NGO Law ‘Targeting George Soros’

A Hungarian law passed in June 2017 stipulates that nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), which receive more than 24,000 euros a year from abroad should provide a list of their external sponsors and undergo a special registration as “organizations benefiting from foreign financing.”

According to the Hungarian prime minister, the legislation is aimed at targeting money laundering and terrorism funding. However, The Atlantic writes that “the law is… widely seen as targeting George Soros” in the first place.

The recent conflict between Orban and the Hungarian-born American magnate has been gaining pace since April 2017, when new educational legislation posing a challenge to the Soros-founded Central European University (CEU) in Hungary was inked by President Janos Ader.

The law requires foreign accredited universities to provide educational services in the countries of their origin and bans them from awarding Hungarian diplomas in the absence of an agreement between Hungary and a country of accreditation.

Although the CEU is accredited in the United States it does not provide any educational services there. Besides, there is no legally binding bilateral agreement between Budapest and Washington, as required by the new law.

In the eyes of the European Commission the NGO and education laws contradict the bloc’s democratic principles. Thus, in July 2017 the EU issued a one-month ultimatum to Hungary, threatening Budapest with possible sanctions in court.

2015 ‘Soros Plan’: Flooding Europe With Migrants

However, there is yet another “apple of discord” between the Hungarian government on the one side and the influential American billionaire and his EU allies on the other.

The country’s ruling Fidesz party has recently launched a “national consultation” on the so-called “Soros plan” allegedly aimed at flooding Europe with migrants. The national consultations have been held in Hungary since 2011: The country’s government sends questionnaires seeking to determine the popular opinion on the most burning issues.

“The European Commission stops just short of saying that they carry out the Soros plan… but all their steps and ideas with regard to migration point in this direction,” Fidesz’s vice chairman Lajos Kosa said as quoted by Reuters.

The statement apparently came as a response to the September ruling by the European Court of Justice, which rejected Slovakia and Hungary’s complaints against the EU refugee quota plan. Earlier, Budapest and Bratislava appealed to the bloc’s top court to reconsider Brussels’ decision to share out 120,000 asylum seekers across the union.

Speaking about the “Soros plan” the Hungarian ruling party refers to the billionaire’s article “Rebuilding the Asylum System” published on September 26, 2015, during the peak of the migrant crisis on the old continent.

In his op-ed Soros outlined what he called “a comprehensive plan,” which envisaged that the EU had to accept “at least a million asylum-seekers annually for the foreseeable future” and “share the burden fairly.”

The billionaire insisted that “the EU should provide €15,000 ($16,800) per asylum-seeker for each of the first two years to help cover housing, health care, and education costs” and offer “adequate funding to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey to support the 4 million refugees currently living in those countries.”

In the end of his article Soros lambasted Viktor Orban’s approach to the refugee crisis, claiming that the Hungarian prime minister’s vision “subordinates the human rights of asylum-seekers and migrants to the security of borders” and thus “threatens to divide and destroy the EU.”

Why Viktor Orban’s Positions Remain Strong

Despite the attacks from Brussels and the American billionaire, Viktor Orban’s political positions remain strong “because he acts as an active champion of national interests on the issue of migration,” Alexander Stykalin, a researcher at the Institute of Slavic and Balkan Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) told RT.

According to the Russian academic, “if there were elections in the country, [Orban] would most likely win again.”

For her part, Russian political analyst Anna Aryamova pointed out that Orban’s concerns about the migration problem are quite justified: “This mass migration spells danger for European countries, [in particular] for their economy and social sphere.”

She explained that “thus Europe is paying for the aggressive US policy” in the Middle East and North Africa. The migrant flow from the countries destabilized by Washington plays into America’s hand, according to the political analyst: The tension simmering in the wartorn regions is being exported to Europe, not the US.

“Soros’s [Open Society] Foundations is a global project that is seeking to influence global political processes,” Aryamova told RT. “Apart from this fund, there are many American organizations operating in Europe, but Soros is managing the largest financial flows and therefore he is attracting the most attention.”

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Relations between Europe and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which have carried out several bailout programs together, may change dramatically as the eurozone intends to replace the fund’s presence in bailouts.

The European Commission plans to give more responsibility to the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) which helps eurozone countries to borrow money. The ESM will monitor and enforce compliance with bailout programs while continuing to disburse funds.

“The euro area is more resilient now than in years past… I believe the ESM should now progressively graduate into a European Monetary Fund which, however, must be firmly anchored in the European Union’s rules and competences,” Jean-Claude Juncker, European Commission president, told lawmakers in September.

Analysts say by creating its own IMF the eurozone will deepen links within the union and thereby become more resilient to financial shocks. The move would also make Europe independent from the IMF each time a euro currency country needs financial rescue.

The eurozone wants to build up its own “firefighter” for potential future sovereign crises, chief economist at ING, Carsten Brzeski told CNBC.

“An EMF (European Monetary Fund) would also leave eurozone problems to be solved by the eurozone and not by outsiders,” he said.

The ESM could act as a fiscal authority on the countries of the euro, experts claim. Given the fact it will be inter-governmental and free from political interference, the fund could be the answer to Germany’s call to see European fiscal rules applied effectively, they add.

“They worry the commission is likely to be unwilling to push member states hard enough when they break the rules. The EMF would be less afraid of being unpopular and so more willing to impose discipline,” said Erik Jones, professor of European studies at John Hopkins University.

The eurozone and the IMF had significant policy differences during the Greek crisis and are still at loggerheads over the issue. The IMF urged European creditors to “be far more specific” in their commitment to a debt relief package for cash-strapped Greece while some eurozone governments wanted the fund to participate in the country’s third bailout for credibility reasons.

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The European Union has triggered Article 7 against Poland, a procedure that could result in sanctions targeting Warsaw. The EU says Poland has violated democratic values with proposed judiciary reform.

The European Union’s executive body triggered Article 7 of the EU treaty, branded the “nuclear option,” against Poland on Wednesday. It has been triggered for the first time since the foundation of the bloc.

The unprecedented measure was taken amid two-year tensions between the EU and Poland over the latter’s judicial reforms. The bloc is concerned over “a serious breach of the rule of law” in the country, saying the reforms resulted in “the absence of judicial independence.”

“It is up to Poland to identify its own model for its justice system, but it should do so in a way that respects the rule of law,” it said in a statement.

Brussels gave Warsaw three months to address EU concerns, promising to reconsider the decision if Polish authorities “implement the recommended actions.”

The first vice-president of the European Commission said that Warsaw had left it “no choice,” adding that the bloc still hopes to engage in “a more fruitful dialogue.”

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that the country is “as devoted to the rule of law as the rest of the EU,” and called on the EU partners for open and honest dialogue.

“I believe that Poland’s sovereignty and the idea of United Europe can be reconciled,” Morawiecki tweeted.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro told Polish state news agency PAP that he is puzzled over the “politically motivated” decision, stressing Warsaw strictly adheres to EU laws.

The first step towards stripping Poland of its voting rights comes amid an ongoing dispute between Brussels and Warsaw. The EU says 13 reforms adopted by Poland in the space of two years have affected “the entire structure of the justice system” and enabled the executive and legislative branches “to politically interfere” with the judicial one.

Earlier this year, protests erupted over the efforts to change the judiciary system. Opposition parties, rights groups, judges’ lobbies, the Council of Europe, the EU Commission, and European countries including Germany and France also said the proposed changes would erode judicial independence by bringing the courts under the direct control of the government.

Poland and the EU have also clashed over migration, as Warsaw has refused to accept migrants as part of a quota system devised during the European refugee crisis. Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo said in November that the decision has resulted in her country being seen as “a country free of terrorism.”

Member states need unity to implement the sanctions, which have already been opposed by Hungary, who promised to veto any such move. Budapest has its own dispute with Brussels over migrant issues, with its PM Viktor Orban being one of the most vocal critics of mandatory migrant quotas. He has warned that quotas would result in “tens of millions” of migrants flocking to Europe.

On Wednesday, following the Article 7 announecment, the spokeswoman for the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party said that the EU’s actions could be related to Warsaw’s opposition to accepting Muslim refugees, according to Reuters.

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Poland’s new premier meets with Hungary’s Viktor Orban in Budapest on Wednesday (3 January) in a show of solidarity against EU criticism of their countries’ joint backtracking on democratic values and the rule of law.

It will be Mateusz Morawiecki’s first official bilateral visit since taking office last month.

Morawiecki holds talks with his Hungarian counterpart after the European Commission launched an unprecedented Article 7 sanctions procedure against Poland in December following Warsaw’s failure to address the EU’s concerns over its controversial overhaul of the judicial system that threatens to put the courts under political control.

Orban has already vowed to veto any possible sanctions – for instance the suspension of voting rights – against Poland which requires unanimity among EU member states.

Orban called the procedure against Poland “deeply unfair and unjust”.

“It must be made clear to the EU that it is pointless even to start a procedure against Poland as there is no chance of seeing it through, because Hungary will be there and form an insurmountable road block,” he said in a radio interview in December.

The meeting of the two prime ministers is seen as an act of defiance against the EU and Brussels, which both conservative-nationalist governments view as infringing their sovereignty, and endangering Europe’s Christian traditions with its overly liberal policies.

Poland and Hungary, along with the Czech Republic, have refused to take in asylum seekers despite an EU decision in 2015 to do so, and as a result the EU commission has referred the countries to the EU’s top court in December.

The commission has also taken Budapest to court over Hungary’s laws on NGOs and on higher education that target the university in Budapest founded by US financier George Soros, whom the Hungarian government has launched a propaganda campaign against.

The two right-wing governments have so far refused to back down in the face of criticism from the EU.

The EU has struggled for years to temper Orban, who has cracked down on media freedom and the rule of law in Hungary, and is set to win a third consecutive term in office this spring.

With the EU short on tools to reign in governments that challenge common decisions and core values, there is increasing talk of linking EU funds to the respect of the rule of law , an idea supported by both heavyweights in the EU, Germany and France.

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Peter Sutherland, the notorious mass migration and multiculturalism campaigner dubbed the ‘father of globalisation’ and a Bilderberg Group attendee, has finally died.

Sutherland, 71, was a key player on a host of globalist bodies and multinational corporations, including the European Commission, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Goldman Sachs, throughout his life.

As the United Nations Special Representative for Migration and non-executive chairman of Goldman Sachs International in 2012, he infamously remarked that the European Union should “be doing its best to undermine” the sense of national “homogeneity” in Britain and Europe, in order to pave the way for “multicultural states”.

“The United States, or Australia and New Zealand, are migrant societies and therefore they accommodate more readily those from other backgrounds than we do ourselves, who still nurse a sense of our homogeneity and difference from others,” he told the House of Lords.

“And that’s precisely what the European Union, in my view, should be doing its best to undermine.”

The Ireland-born globalist argued that the supposed threat of an ageing population was the “key argument … for the development of multicultural states”, and that the EU should push mass migration “however difficult it may be to explain this to the citizens”.

Sutherland had previously served on the bloc’s unelected executive as European Commissioner for Competition from 1985 to 1989.

Sutherland is a celebrated figure among neoliberals and hardline free traders for his work presiding over the Uruguay Round negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), the predecessor to the WTO.

This saw tariffs on agriculture, textiles, services, and so on reduced, and new rules on international arbitration and intellectual property introduced.

Corporates and idealistic free marketeers were overjoyed, with figures like the pioneering Brexit campaigner Sir James Goldsmith serving as lonely voices for economic nationalism.

The GATT did increase economic activity worldwide, and the European Commission took the unusual step of personally rebuking Sir James, asserting that “all economic activity is productive” — regardless of the impact of mass outsourcing of industry and manufacturing to sweatshop economies on working-class communities.

The entrepreneur disagreed, complaining that the “politicians and technocrats who govern us … concentrate their political, economic and social programmes on initiatives whose principal purpose is to make GNP grow quantitatively, without regard to its impact on society”.

Sir James further observed that globalists like Sutherland seemed unable “to distinguish between a nation and a commercial enterprise”.

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The European Commission has heavily criticized seven EU states for their aggressive tax policies. EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici has pointed the finger at Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta and the Netherlands, arguing that they offer complex tax schemes to help international companies avoid high taxes.

Lode Vanoost, political analyst and former deputy speaker of the Belgian parliament, speaking to the Sputnik Radio said:

“When we talk about fiscal policies within the EU you have to make prior remarks. First of all, the EU has always had their own tax havens within the EU itself, they were never touched upon, the Duchy of Luxemburg, Monaco and Liechtenstein, but those things have always been tolerated for good reason by the people that matter on the top. Secondly, the US always imposed tax policies on African countries in trade agreements that were detrimental to the interests of the African people. Thirdly, these kind of policies that we’re going to discuss, they do benefit certain people, certain companies, certain elites, they do not at all benefit the ordinary EU citizens in Brussels or in Amsterdam or other cities. What’s going on now is not actually something new. The thing is that with these kind of policies that EU still takes, it works if only they do it, if only a few, as soon as they all start doing it, then it becomes counter-productive and that’s exactly why the European Commission has started to criticize them, because if so many EU countries are going to do it then, of course, it’s going to be detrimental to big economic interests.”

Sputnik: Interestingly enough there are the increased tensions between Hungary and EU over the migration issue and the rule of law, what consequences can this have on the already strained relationship between Brussels and Budapest?

Lode Vanoost: Apart from the issue now, the new controversy over fiscal policy that, among other countries, Hungary is applying, this is going to exacerbate the situation even more.

What we have here is a government and I’m not saying the people, but the government that is really putting the whole idea of European unity in jeopardy. What they are doing is clearly anti the rest of Europe, I mean not just because of what they do, I don’t know what this is going to be in the short-term, this is going to certainly make the situation even worse, absolutely.

How this is going to turn out in the long-term that remains to be seen. If we look at the results of elections in Italy now, for example, it is going to get worse, this is the whole idea of European unification is going.

Sputnik: Now Ireland is also on the list, how will it affect relations between the two sides amid ongoing Brexit?

Lode Vanoost: Ireland has for a certain time been a so-called economic because of its fiscal policies attracting foreign companies, but this was not something that was good for the Irish people, ordinary people, but for certain companies, certain big companies that benefited a lot and now this bubble has exploded. The thing is, of course, what it is going to mean, that there going to be, like they call nowadays, a hard border between the North and the rest of Ireland.

If you look at how the Brexit negotiations are going with the present government in London, this is really unseen territory in diplomatic history. I mean, here we have a government that is leading a club and saying we will set the terms, things do not work out that way, the terms are being set by Brussels. There are so elements here that every decent so-called expert, as in backers, has to say we don’t know what’s going to happen next, and this is not good, of course, absolutely not good, it could take a turn for the worse. This could mean the end of the whole idea of the European Union.

Sputnik: Is it likely that the European Commission will issue some sort of a blacklist for EU countries, similar to the one it published recently on countries avoiding EU standards on tax transperency?

Lode Vanoost: They might, but I don’t think so. First of all, this so-called blacklist of other countries is already so weak and so thinned out that it doesn’t mean a thing.

Sputnik: The EU has not previously screened it’s member states as they were deemed to be in line with EU standards and regulations against tax avoidance, again do you think this could possibly change in the future?

Lode Vanoost: I don’t think that with the present political constellation of the European Commission and other European institutions things are going to change for the better, on the contrary, things are going to get worse.

Sputnik: Since publishing the list, the EU has since removed some jurisdictions and is poised to shrink it even more. This move has caused critics to urge the EU to publish how it determines which country should go on the list and why, do you think we’ll see such requirements in the near future?

Lode Vanoost: Personally I do not think so, because there are too many inner contradictions in such a move. On the one hand, there are economic interests that now are saying that this is not good, on the other hand, there are a lot of important economic interests who want to maintain these fiscal paradises, these tax havens as they call them, so there are contradictory interests there. So my guess is, it’s going to be some watered down thing that looks quite strong in wording, but in practice means nothing.

Sputnik: Speaking in general to what extent can the current situation deepen the divide among the EU member states?

Loode Vanoost: My personal opinion is that the only way to keep the European harmony or what’s left of it, is that the EU has to become a social union and not an economic union. In order to change that the European institutions have to change themselves from within, and that’s not going to happen as long as we have these governments who push for neo-liberal policies. Some analysts that this swing to the right is a reaction to the migration policies, I’m not denying that it might play a role in that, but if you talk to people and ask them what they all share — is an uncertainty.

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