{"id":19974,"date":"2016-04-15T12:45:16","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T17:45:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19974"},"modified":"2016-04-15T12:46:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T17:46:00","slug":"its-gotten-so-bad-in-europe-even-eurocrats-begin-to-worry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19974","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Gotten So Bad in Europe, Even Eurocrats Begin to Worry"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wolfstreet.com\/2016\/04\/14\/eu-breakup-brexit-fears-so-bad-even-eurocrats-worry\/\">It\u2019s Gotten So Bad in Europe, Even Eurocrats Begin to Worry<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>You know that things are bad when even the firmest believers begin questioning their faith. That\u2019s what\u2019s starting to happen in Europe, where the EU faces a dizzying constellation of threats and challenges and even the staunchest of eurocrats are beginning to express doubts.<\/p>\n<p>Many people have lost trust in \u201centire institutions, whether national or European,\u201d laments European Parliament Chief Martin Schulz. In an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.faz.net\/aktuell\/politik\/europaeische-union\/martin-schulz-sieht-bedrohung-durch-europafeindliche-bewegungen-14173019.html\" target=\"_blank\">interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine<\/a>,\u00a0he warned over a possible \u201cimplosion of the EU\u201d due to the blossoming Euroskeptic movements in member states.<\/p>\n<p>The main reason for Schulz\u2019s gloomy disposition is the Dutch referendum vote last week against an EU-Ukraine trade agreement. It was the third referendum in a row that has gone against the EU\u2019s interests, following Greece\u2019s rejection last summer of the Troika\u2019s latest plan and Denmark\u2019s decision earlier this year not to seek closer security cooperation with Brussels.<\/p>\n<p>In time-honored fashion, the EU\u2019s response was to carry on regardless, announcing that it will shortly propose granting visa-free travel to Ukrainians despite the outcome of the Dutch referendum. In January, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-dutch-ukraine-vote-idUSKCN0UN0HR20160109\" target=\"_blank\">warned<\/a>\u00a0that if the Dutch voted NO, it could spark a \u201cbig constitutional crisis\u201d; now, it\u2019s as if it never happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt may look as if we\u2019re ignoring the Dutch voters, but we have to keep our word to Ukraine, which has met the conditions (for visa-free travel),\u201d a Commission source said. It\u2019s a risky strategy:<\/p>\n<p>Large ranks of Dutch people are already deeply frustrated with the EU and their numbers are growing as fears about high immigration, slow growth and economic insecurity have risen. This is the second time in a decade that Brussels has ridden roughshod over the wishes of a majority of Dutch voters, who will have the perfect opportunity to express their dissatisfaction in national elections next year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It\u2019s Gotten So Bad in Europe, Even Eurocrats Begin to Worry You know that things are bad when even the firmest believers begin questioning their faith. That\u2019s what\u2019s starting to happen in Europe, where the EU faces a dizzying constellation of threats and challenges and even the staunchest of eurocrats are beginning to express doubts. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5660,13319,13496,281,284,10971,4255],"class_list":["post-19974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","tag-don-quijones","tag-dutch-referendum","tag-eurocrats","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-martin-schulz","tag-wolfstreet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19974"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19976,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19974\/revisions\/19976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}