After a certain point the sanity of Palantir's leadership does matter to the national security of the UK and other European states buying its software

„Wir brauchen einen Plan B“. Litauens Regierungschefin in aller Klarheit über die Notwendigkeit, Europa als Verteidigungsunion zu stärken, falls Plan A („starke Nato“) kollabiert. Sie ist Rutte Lichtjahre voraus.

Personally, I think it's a good thing if commissioners become more political and Europarties are also visible in national electoral campaigns. After all, it tells you something about the EPP (and Janša in particular) that they are happy to campaign side by side with an ECR commissioner.

Required watching for the EU bubble - investigative format "ARD Monitor" has done a research on the omnibus vote in the European Parliament and the origins of majority of the centre-right EPP with the far-right groups last November:

Maybe not my place to comment on US Dems' political strategy, but: If you let Trump attack democracy un-impeached because you prefer to talk about "kitchen table issues", it will be difficult to make your voters go on a general strike if one of these attacks might affect your own seat in Congress.

"At the EU level, politics is extremely complex and there is no single way to have impact. If you are someone who is not following politics very closely, there isn't a simple solution to make a large difference." - #ActEU Scientific Advisor @manuelmueller.foederalist.eu (@fiia.fi) /19

Ein Eishockey-Fan, wie nett! Und zum Tanken fährt er nach Polen, na, machen wir das nicht alle, bei den heutigen Preisen? Da sagen die Medien immer, der wäre so schlimm, dabei ist der doch auch nur ein ganz normaler Mensch wie du und ich! Und als nächstes dann wohl die Homestory "Höckes Hunde" 🤦

On my way to the #ActEU final conference in Brussels tomorrow. @tepsa.bsky.social

"In moments of democratic crisis, politics is a search for the right movement, not the right maneuver. Playing defense forfeits the moral clarity and collective purpose that have sustained successful anti-authoritarian movements worldwide." Very good read, not only for US Democrats!

Selvyyden vuoksi: jos Suomi käsittelee EU:n puolustusta "anna minulle enemmän rahaa" -kysymyksenä, se todennäköisesti vähentää muiden jäsenvaltioiden halukkuutta lisätä merkittävästi EU:n puolustusmenoja. Mikä olisi ongelma, koska EU:n puolustustarpeet ovat tietenkin suuret.

Ei ole järkevää sanoa, että Suomen pitäisi saada enemmän rahaa EU:n puolustusmenoista vuodesta 2028 lähtien, koska Suomen työttömyys on korkea nyt. Joko kannatetaan EU-työttömyysturvaa (joka toimisi silloin, kun sitä tarvitaan) tai ei. Näiden asioiden ja aikataulujen sekoittaminen ei auta asiaa.

And just to be clear: If Finland treats EU defence as a "give more money to me" issue, this will likely make other member states less ready to significantly increase EU defence spending. Which would be a problem because of, you know, EU defence needs.

It doesn't make much sense to say that Finland should get more EU defence spending money from 2028 because Finnish unemployment is high right now. You either support an EU unemployment scheme (which would work when it's needed) or you don't. Mixing up these issues and time frames doesn't help.

Die Arbeitslosigkeit in #Finnland steigt rapide. Eine europäische Arbeitslosenversicherung könnte jetzt helfen – wenn sie nicht während der Eurokrise verhindert worden wäre. Das Land bezahlt den Preis für einen Mangel an transnationaler Solidarität. Von MANUEL MÜLLER

My new blog post (based on today's guest comment in @hs.fi) about how a European unemployment insurance scheme could help #Finland now.

"Jos eurooppalainen työttömyysturvajärjestelmä olisi käytössä, Suomi hyötyisi siitä nyt merkittävästi. Suomi maksaa siitä, että torjui aiemmin suuremman eurooppalaisen solidaarisuuden." Uusi vieraskynäni @hs.fi:ssä:

It's a good thing that Weber is putting EU reform on the agenda again. But with so many sensible reform proposals waiting for implementation, why focus on the merger of the two presidencies? It's one of the least useful reform ideas going around, as I argued in this blog post in 2021 (in German).

Ohne AfD-Verbot muss man davon ausgehen, dass irgendwann die AfD in Deutschland regieren könnte. Wenn Dobrindt jetzt "für den Kampf gegen Linksextremismus aufrüsten" will, ist also immer mitzudenken, dass dieses Arsenal neuer Polizeibefugnisse auch mal einer AfD-Regierung zur Verfügung stehen wird.

🌍👋 re:constitution is now also here - a programme dedicated to strengthening democracy and the rule of law in Europe.

This is the most important election in Europe in a decade. Hungary is a competitive authoritarian state, not a democracy, so it’s an uphill fight to keep the vote clean. All eyes on Hungary April 12 so Orban can’t steal the election.

None that I know of. Working on a better tool currently to analyse EP voting data from @howtheyvote.eu for EU-Analytics, and in 2196 votes since 2019 yesterday's vote on Mercosur was the single vote where the majority did not include at least one of EPP, S&D or Renew.

The #Mercosur vote in the EP has been one of the rare cases in which a majority within each of EPP, S&D, and RE voted against the proposal, yet it was still passed.

This. In Davos, Trump said that he won't use force, but he also reiterated that he wants to buy Greenland. Once he realises that he still won't be able to buy it, will he simply give up? Or will he throw a tantrum and threaten to use force again? We should know by now that he can't be trusted.

Does this future deal include the TATO Peace Prize?

For some maybe-not-so-accidental reason, the EU is both the only large power that does not want to annex any of its neighbours and the only one that some of its neighbours would actually like to join. (Let's wait and see about Iceland.)

If there's one thing you can learn from German history, it's that silence is complicity. #Trump

Funny cause it’s true. But I’m quoting because the longer the absurd idea of the US taking Greenland festers in public discourse, the more it’ll be normalized like this. It lowers the likelihood Trump would be stopped before attempting it. Imo, that’s the risk of a European/NATO persuasion strategy

If European rearmament takes place in a purely national framework (or in flexible intergovernmental "Coalitions of the Willing"), there is a serious risk that this is the future we're heading towards. If there has ever been a time for Europe to go supranational in defence policy, it's now.

"Donald J. Trump shall serve as inaugural Chairman of the Board of Peace […] The Chairman shall at all times designate a successor […] Replacement of the Chairman may occur only following voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity […]" A hereditary global monarchy!

The first test is even a US constitutional one. The text of the document claims its setting up an international organization - can this be done under an executive only agreement or does Trump need the advice and consent of the Senate?

The fact that the US seems institutionally unable to impeach this guy is becoming extremely damning. He's clearly unwell.

Mal abgesehen von dem eklatanten Mangel an menschlichem Mitgefühl ist diese Maßnahme auch sicherheitspolitisch irrwitzig. Die Bundesregierung sendet ein Signal aus, dass man auf deutsche Zusagen nicht vertrauen kann. Dadurch wird Deutschland bei künftigen Einsätzen weniger Unterstützer:innen haben.

Dear @euractiv.com and @en.afp.com, this article would be *so much* easier to understand if (a) in addition to adjectives like "far-right", "liberal" etc., you also mentioned the party names, (b) gave a brief explanation as to why the candidate of the biggest governing party got such a bad result.

Has it occurred to anyone that we could just rename NATO as TATO ("Trump Atlantic Treaty Organisation"), award Trump the TATO PEACE PRIZE for his efforts to create this new alliance, STRONGEST OF THE WORLD, and be done with all this (at least for another 1-2 weeks, until he talks to Putin again)? 🙃

While some in Europe still wonder whether Trump's US would honour Art. 5 of the NATO treaty, he is arguably breaking Art. 2 with little regard by employing conflict in international economic policy to blackmail allies:

If you’re not going to be a decent person now, what chance do u have if the Fourth Reich comes

This is exactly right. A world in which "the strong" take what they want is not a safe world, even for the strong themselves. In Hobbesian terms, it creates a "war of every man against every man" in which life is "nasty, brutish & short". Hence Hobbes' "first law of nature" is to escape that world

According to Miller, a militarily superior aggressor could just conquer and annex any territory because the other country was "unable to defend it". That's just "might makes right". Ithas nothing to do with international law.

The institution that is best legitimised to act on behalf of all EU states and citizens is the Commission. Unfortunately, without EU treaty reform, it is more likely that there will be a fragmented intergovernmental "coalitions of the willing" environment, with 🇩🇪🇫🇷(🇬🇧) exercising a (weak) leadership.

Whil I wouldn't go as far as to say that moderate conservatism will "largely disappear", I do agree that both the level of support for the far right and the degree to which the former centre-right has shifted to the right are generally underestimated in our political discourse. 1/

A reminder of what a pathetic but dangerous bully Trump is - and why the UK and EU need to stand up to him

We're well into the vibe shift from "Germany is too weak because it doesn't spend enough on defence" to "Germany is too strong because it spends so much on defence"

"Eine breit angelegte Abschiebepolitik ist ein Signal der Abschottung. (...) Wer versucht, Deutschland weniger attraktiv zu machen, trifft am Ende vor allem die qualifizierte Zuwanderung und schadet dem Standort." Wieder einmal eine sehr lesenswerte Kolumne von @mfratzscher.bsky.social:

Suomi mainittu (sata vuotta sitten)!

Currently, 🔵EPP is leading the polls in 12 EU member states, followed by: 🟤PfE and 🔴S&D (4 each), ⚫ECR (3), 🟡RE (2), 🟠ESN and 🟣Left (1 each). The 🟢Greens/EFA are close second in one member state (Denmark). #EPseatprojection

Die erste #EPsitzprojektion des Jahres ist da!

The new #EPseatprojection is out!

Eine Rolle spielen hier sicher: - absoluter vs relativer Wohlstand (wahrgenommene Ungerechtigkeiten, Statusfrage) - (erwartete) Entwicklung des Wohlstands: Zukunffshoffnung oder Abstiegssorge - Gefühl, dass der Staat "sich kümmert" (Ausbau oder Abbau von sozialem Netz/öffentlichen Dienstleistungen)

This is part of the bigger problem of the EU's "perfect bicameralism", where every meaningful decision requires the support of both EP and Council, and the latter is usually the more difficult one because of its increased (qualified) majority requirements. It makes every vote less meaningful.