BERLIN/WASHINGTON (Own report) – Recent media reports have, for the first time, disclosed US American interference in German business deals with recalcitrant countries. US authorities intervene directly, if German companies carry out financial transactions, for example, with Iran. Repeatedly, Washington has successfully blocked business deals – even though they had been legal in Germany – and had the respective employees and board members fired from their jobs, using the justification that (German) companies with sites in the USA are subject to US law. This also applies to bilateral US sanctions imposed, for example, on Iran. This means that Washington actually succeeds in transposing US domestic law onto other countries, including Germany. The most recent example: Washington is considering a veto on a Chinese company’s taking over Aixtron, a German chip equipment manufacturer. President Obama is expected to announce his decision today, Friday. These US-practices have been disclosed at a time of political transition, as Berlin is reinforcing its efforts to create an EU armed forces, to achieve “strategic autonomy” and become a world power. This arrogant US interference in the German-European economy is a taboo that cannot be tolerated on the road toward the long anticipated “superpower Europe.”
WASHINGTON/BERLIN (Own report) – Foreign policy experts are calling for the EU’s concerted effort in opposition to a future USA governed by Donald Trump. According to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a unified European stance is necessary to increase “leverage” over Washington. If the US President-elect ignores Europe’s interests, Europe should consider going its own way in global policies, writes a German author in the leading US foreign policy periodical. It may be necessary “to consider whether to develop a European nuclear umbrella.” These demands began to be heard after liberal Western media and members of the foreign policy establishment had declared Merkel the new “leader of the free world,” and characterized outgoing US President Barack Obama’s visit to Germany as “passing the baton” to Berlin. The Federal Republic of Germany is setting out to take on “America’s status as torchbearer of liberal democracy.” “It is befitting for Merkel to speak in the name of what we have been calling the West, for the past seven decades,” according to the business press. Journalists describe the predominant attitude in Berlin already as being “the guardians of the international post-war order.” Continue reading →
BERLIN/BRUSSELS (Own report) – European Commission President Jean Claude Juncker, taking up an old German demand, calls for the creation of an EU Army. Having its own armed forces would give the EU greater influence in global politics, according to Juncker, and it would particularly help the EU demonstrate more determination in relationship to Moscow. The German chancellor had called for an EU Army already years ago. The German Social Democrats (SPD) have been repeating that the EU not only needs combat troops but also its own military academy and a permanent military headquarters. Berlin has already begun expanding the Bundeswehr’s cooperation with units from several other countries, including the Netherlands and Poland – quasi establishing an EU Army from the ground up. For Germany, the creation of a common military force would be highly advantageous, because Berlin could play a predominant role in military questions, as it has in the imposition of austerity dictates during the Euro crisis. An EU Army would also increase German influence in relationship to the USA and NATO.
Global Geopolitics 