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The EU claimed at the outbreak of the Bosnian civil war in 1991 that 'The hour of Europe has come'. Jacques Poos, who held the rotating presidency of the EU at the time boasted the EU would stop the war in Bosnia. Four years later, the EU had still done nothing, 250,000 Bosnians were dead or displaced, and it took the Americans to put it right.
The EU claimed at the outbreak of the Bosnian civil war in 1991 that 'The hour of Europe has come'. Jacques Poos, who held the rotating presidency of the EU at the time boasted the EU would stop the war in Bosnia. Four years later, the EU had still done nothing, 250,000 Bosnians were dead or displaced, and it took the Americans to put it right.
• The EU sold Gaddafi's Libya around
€300 million worth of arms and arms licenses over a 5 year period before his
overthrow. The Guardian has a very revealing exposé of this. Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/01/eu-arms-exports-libya
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Interesting
that this was the same Gaddafi's Libya they said in a joint statement from Van
Rompuy and Barroso was one of 'repression and despotism'. Source: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/en/ec/125447.pdf
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How
EU 'peace keepers' in the Congo during Operation Artemis were accused of
torture. Heavily armed Europeans torturing Africans isn't exactly peaceful. Source:
http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,3223692,00.html
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The
EU is a major arms dealer on the world market, making over $400 billion. The
liberal New York Times has called the EU hypocritical. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/06/world/europe/06iht-letter06.html?_r=1&
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Somali piracy. In the 1990s, EU fishing
fleets destroyed the fish stocks off the Horn of Africa. As a result, desperate
former fishermen in Somalia resorted to piracy. The African Prospects Magazine
estimates that EU fleets stole five times the commercial value of fish from
Somali waters that Somali receives in foreign aid each year. The destruction of
the Somali coastal economy has bred piracy and violence. http://www.ukipmeps.org/news_622_Farage-Colonialism-by-fishing-boat-rather-than-gunboat.html
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Now piracy off the Horn of Africa is
one of the most serious challenges to global security. It has been estimated
that it costs the global economy $8 BILLION a year. Around 80% of these costs
are born by commercial shipping firms, who have to pay much higher insurance
premiums, pay for armed guards on board and put extra fuel in their boats so
they can pass through danger spots quicker. http://rt.com/business/news/somalia-piracy-cost-report-877/
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The Nobel Peace Prize has an
interesting list of former nominees. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin was nominated
twice in 1945 and 1948. The first nomination was on the grounds he was going to
help end World War 2, and thus create peace. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/shortfacts.html
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One former winner is Yasser Arafat who
won it in 1993. Arafat is on record as saying "Peace for us means the destruction of Israel. We are
preparing for an all-out war, a war which will last for generations". http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/y/yasser_arafat.html#S0YXEqrEFeL18leQ.99
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Norway
refused twice to join the EU, in two separate referendums.
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Barack
Obama was given the prize just two months into office. He beat Morgan
Tsvanagarai to the prize, who had bravely faced down Mugabe for years in
Zimbabwe. Obama went on to expand the war in Afghanistan and backed NATO
attacks on Libya.
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What
will the EU do with the prize money? Will it donate some to the EU mechanism
for stability? Maybe the EU will give some of the prize money to Spain, which
is now so poor thanks to the Euro, that the Red Cross are handing out food parcels. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2215479/Red-Cross-urges-Spanish-donate-money-food-parcels-to-countrymen-2-3-million-deemed-extremely-vulnerable.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
