The EU Commission President has a lot to teach Leo Varadkar about blarney

EU’s propaganda reaches biblical proportions as €7.5bn miraculously becomes €1,000bn

Exactly who is stumping up the cash for the EU’s massive €1 trillion “Green Deal”?

Yesterday at Dublin Castle, the Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar hosted new EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, for speeches about Ireland, Brexit, and the EU’s new €1 TRILLION “European Green Deal”.

Frau von der Leyen had something to say about all three topics, as well as making some extraordinary assertions about the EU’s role in the Good Friday Agreement and about the EU actually increasing national sovereignty.

What is the EU Commission’s new “Green Deal”?

On Tuesday the EU Commission launched its funding plans for its new “European Green Deal” in a blaze of publicity. Numerous Commissioners were wheeled out for statements and press conferences.

“The plan that we present today, to mobilize at least €1 trillion, will show the direction and unleash a green investment wave,” said Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

EU Commission answers the question: “What is the European Green Deal?”

“The European Green Deal is about improving the well-being of people. Making Europe climate-neutral and protecting our natural habitat will be good for people, planet and economy. No one will be left behind.”

This ‘Green Deal’ is the top priority of the new EU Commission. Its new President, Frau von der Leyen, actually announced this in the summer of last year, before the rest of her Commission had even been appointed. Given that this is a policy, it is perhaps surprising that it was an unelected bureaucrat - and not the 28 political leaders of the EU countries – who set this as the principal objective of the Commission for the next five years.

The EU’s funding for its new ‘Green Deal’ – an invisible (greenhouse) gas?

The Commission has provided a great deal of talk about its new ‘Green Deal’. The overriding message is that this is a €1 TRILLION EU initiative.

Delving into the detail, however, a different reality emerges.

The simple fact is that the Commission is proposing to spend only €7.5 billion in extra funding over the next seven years – and that is only if this extra EU budget is approved by the EU Council. The Council of 27 national leaders is still a long way from approving the overall budget proposal put forward by Jean-Claude Juncker for the next seven years, let alone agreeing to extra funding.

EU Budget Commissioner admits funding at end of press conference

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

“Fresh money is €7.5 billion, full stop.”

- Admitted by Johannes Kahn, EU Budget Commissioner, Strasbourg, 14 Jan 2020

€7.5 billion is less than 1% of the total amount of €1 TRILLION ‘Green Deal’ which the Commission is now talking about each day.

So where is the remaining 99% of funding going to come from?

A portion of the money will come from EU budgets supposed to be used for other things. For example, national governments will be expected to use monies they receive under the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, European Agricultural Guarantee Fund, European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund, Horizon Europe and Life funds.

The rest of the funding is expected to come from the European Investment Bank, taxpayers in each country, and private investment companies.

The EU Commission is proposing to provide only 0.75% of the new funding for its No.1 priority policy.

Ireland – EU Commission President teaches Leo Varadkar a thing or two about blarney

On top of talking about her new ‘Green Deal’ in Ireland yesterday, Frau von der Leyen found time for some comments on the Good Friday Agreement, on Brexit, and on the EU and national sovereignty.

Bizarre statements from the new EU Commission President

“Your membership of the European Union paved the way to the Good Friday Agreement… And when Brexit put the Good Friday Agreement under threat, the European Union stood firmly on the side of peace.”

“Today we hear sometimes that the European Union takes national sovereignty away from Member States. The opposite is the case. And this is a good example here: the three years since the Brexit referendum demonstrate that.”

- EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Dublin, 15 Jan 2020

Observations

When it comes to the EU’s new ‘Green Deal’, the EU Commission has excelled itself. Over the years the Brexit Facts4EU.Org team has become used to seeing increasingly outlandish propaganda from Brussels, but the announcements in recent days must surely take “le biscuit”.

Not since the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5,000 at Bethsaida 2,000 years ago with five loaves and two fishes has so much been created out of so little.

In essence, the EU Commission is re-badging a large part of the EU budget (supposed to be for other things) and allocating it to the new ‘Green Deal’ policy. The Commission then expects national governments to cough up billions from taxpayer funds, it expects the European Central Bank to become the European Green Bank, and it expects private investment funds to make up the rest – no doubt with massive incentives.

The EU Commission President’s comments in Ireland

The EU was not involved in negotiating the Good Friday Agreement. At best it could be said that it had observer status. For Frau von der Leyen to suggest that Ireland’s “membership of the European Union paved the way to the Good Friday Agreement” is astonishing.

On the issue of sovereignty, it gets worse. It is a matter of incontrovertible fact that the EU has steadily removed entire areas of policy and governance from the national governments of its members. Some have become ‘shared competences’ and significant areas have become ‘sole competences’ of the EU Commission.

For example, trade policy is the sole competence of the EU Commission, which is why the UK is now finally able to look forward to doing its own trade deals around the world and setting its own tariffs. Thanks to Brexit.

How any rational person can try to argue that the EU actually gives more national sovereignty to its member states, rather than removing it year after year, is simply breathtaking.

If a group like ours does not show up this propaganda, distortion, Orwellian group-think, and outright lying for what it is, what will become of the mass of once-proud European nations on our doorstep? And will we still be leaving our young generation with the idea that they have lost out due to Brexit?

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[ Sources: EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thur 16 Jan 2020

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Reader Comments 12

1. Paul A , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 08:56:

It's entirely predictable that the letters in 'EU Commission President Von der Leyen' can be rearranged as 'another unelected lying thieving eureaucrat'.
Yet more evidence that the UK is best off out of the EUSSR.

2. Linda, Wiltshire , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 09:13:

I'm interested in readers' opinions: Why was Ursula von der Leyen dressed in full green yesterday?
1. To promote her 'Green Deal'
2. To suck up to the Irish
3. For camouflage

3. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 09:29:

Ursula von der Leyen is certainly having her Alice in Wonderland moments telling her fairy stories (commonly known as porkies). There are certainly more honest details of the Belfast Agreement available for the reading.
Some member States are suspicious of the recycling from other funds, such as agriculture.
Some quotes from the European Parliament
Johan Van Overtveldt (ECR, Belgium), chair of the budgets committee, also pointed to the lack of clarity about where some of the money will come from. “We are in favour of a circular economy but against the ‘recycling of funding and money’. We are not in favour of financial adventures.”
“It’s not quite clear where the resources are going to come from,” said Gianantonio Da Re (ID, Italy). “The criteria for beneficiaries and how the funds are going to be distributed also have to be resolved.”
Siegfried Mureșan (EPP, Romania) called for ensuring that there is enough resources to alleviate the effects of transition. “It also should not affect existing policies - neither cohesion nor agriculture nor research and innovation. It’s an additional priority and should be financed on top.”
“We need to look at the need for fresh funding to underpin this social and ecological transformation,” said Iratxe García Pérez (S&D, Spain). She wants at least 30% of the EU’s next long-term budget to be dedicated to tackling climate change.
Poland has so far refused to sign on, worried about the economic and social costs involved.
“This is our pledge of solidarity and fairness,” said Frans Timmermans
“The workers losing their jobs should be helped for re-skilling. There will be support for new infrastructure, job-seeking assistance, investment in new productive activities. And the regions where existing activities will cease will also need to be regenerated," said a senior commission official, who was not authorized to speak publicly as a matter of practice.
Did the UK ever regenerate it coal mining areas?

4. Concerned , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 09:31:

Linda (2) Probably a bit of both 1 and 2. Of course there is no crisis. Bureaucrats and increasingly politicians like to manufacture crisises, they then under cover of said crisis, make changes and do things that otherwise in a democracy would never be done. Just look at the way the UK entered the EEC under Heath. Look at everything said about all the following treaties, all lies. They knew what the end game was to be after the second world war and onwards.
I have waited 47 years for this to happen that Britain left the EEC/EU and now we are days away....... and the 'Lards' still would like to scupper leaving........
When history is written this will go down as the madness period of our history. A time when the politicians were mostly against the nation - yet nothing happens! No one is arrested for treason or similar offences against the nation. We live in unbelievable times.

5. uk steve , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 10:02:

The ONLY way to save the planet is according to the Europrats and degenerate left is :-
1 surrender democracy
2 surrender free speech
3 forget justice
4 accept the inequality known as equality !!
no wonder these VILE people are showing up for what they are

6. Sydney Ashurst , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 15:59:

Eire is going to the polls on 8th of February, has Varadkar and Coveney's hard line support for Brussels against Brexit jeopardized their remaining in Government.
In a statement posted to his Twitter account, the Taoiseach wrote: “The next phase of Brexit will be just as tough as the last.
“Securing a good trade deal between the EU and the UK will be vital to protect our jobs and economy.
Britain is the second biggest destination for Irish exports after the US, with trade accounting for some €16.4 (£14) billion.
In particular, the UK is a major export destination for Irish agricultural products.
In 2016, 49 percent of all Irish beef was exported to the UK.
Dublin’s dependency on Britain’s markets for its dairy products is even greater, with 82 percent of Irish milk sold to the UK in 2016 alone.
He must be getting worried.
Dr Ray Bassett has been a senior diplomat at Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin and has served as the country’s Ambassador to Canada, Jamaica and the Bahamas 2010-2016.
He was involved in the Good Friday Agreement negotiations as part of the Irish Government Talks Team and participated throughout the discussions, including the final session at Castle Buildings in Stormont.
Instead of the 'high risk strategy' of siding with the EU on options that are contrary to the democratic decision of British voters and dangerous to the stability of the island of Ireland, he urged the Irish government to lead from in front, by embracing the UK's technological solution to cross-border flows. It should also, he suggests, prepare to bring Ireland into EFTA and out of the EU. That would be best for a frictionless border, for peace on the whole island and in keeping with the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement.

7. L Jones , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 17:34:

''...How any rational person can try to argue that the EU actually gives more national sovereignty to its member states..... is simply breathtaking.''
Yes, indeed. And I understand that flags are to be removed from MEPs' desks, because ''national symbols are now banned...'' Is this correct?

8. L Jones , Thursday, January 16, 2020, 18:06:

Comment 4 - Concerned
We should not forget what E Powell said in 1980 -
''There is a name for appealing over the head of the Crown to an authority outside the realm, and that name is treason. The word may be disused, but the thing is not; and the penalties of praemunire, which those guilty of it formerly incurred, were not disproportionate to its seriousness.''

9. Concerned , Friday, January 17, 2020, 06:32:

Comment 8 L Jones - yes indeed E Powell should have been our greatest PM. He was far more intelligent than any of his other conservatives. Well read, spoke several languages and was a visionary. We live in miserable times politically. I believe Sam Vaknin explains some of the reasons why the world is at the juncture it is today. He has sevral YouTube explanations which make a lot of sense to me.

10. Barbara Jell , Friday, January 17, 2020, 23:01:

4 and 9 Yes, Enoch Powell was an exceptionally clever man and great politician who was politically crucified by our pathetic, morally bankrupt Establishment which not only left an indelible stain on the integrity of Parliament but did lasting damage, the ripples of which are still evident today. The content of his 'famous' speech was totally misrepresented and twisted out of all recognition and I believe this was the catalyst for the cancer of faux virtue signalling and political correctness. And yes, as articulated by the journalist Simon Heffer in an article written some years ago, he was RIGHT.

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