Kindgo
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The Rising Shadow of a Great Dragon......... ![[eek]](graemlins/eek3.gif)
Today Spain steps aside and Denmark takes over the European Union presidency. To be honest, as far as Bible prophecy is concerned, since Denmark was not one of the 10 nations I was expecting a boring six months before of us. Boy was I wrong. In this next six months the beast of Revelation could actually be born.
It turns out that the primary task before the Danish presidency is preparing the EU for the integration of 10 new nations. And this preparation has to be completed within the window of the six-month term of the presidency. Otherwise, the window for enlargement will probably close.
I'm still having trouble absorbing what this could all mean. Just 15 short years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and Europe will be truly reunited -- just like the Bible said it would.
As an American, my first thoughts are what this could mean to the US. But, Bible prophecy doesn't clearly tell us anything about what happens to the US in the end-times. I know there are some who think it does. And sometimes, I think I get a glimpse of American in the prophecies too. But, for me, it always turns out to be nothing but speculation.
So, as I watch this foretold beast rising on the European continent, I try to keep my attention on the other place where I know the Bible prophecies does have a lot to say -- Israel.
What will this mean for Israel? It means the shadow of a great dragon is slowly rising in Europe and will soon spread across the Mediterranean and cover Israel.
Just like the Bible said.
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Big bang or bust for EU hopefuls
European Union on a knife edge as Denmark kicks off its presidency by setting six-month deadline for expansion
Ian Black in Copenhagen
Monday July 1, 2002
The Guardian
Highly ambitious plans to expand the European Union in an unprecedented "big bang" enter their tense final phase today as Denmark takes over the EU presidency vowing to complete the difficult process.
In a risky, knife-edge strategy, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish prime minister, is deliberately raising expectations to encourage the 15 current member states to stop squabbling and close the deal with the 10 impatient candidate countries.
"The window of opportunity opens in December," he warned last week as he unveiled his programme for the next six months. "After that it will close. The perspective is a Europe no one has seen before and that people have dreamed of since the 15th century."
Hectares of small print must be agreed before Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Malta can join the club.
But when they do - during 2004 - the achievement will be enormous: a continent truly reunited 15 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism; 500m people in a single market, mostly using the same currency, with the potential to walk tall on the world stage. The EU will be 30% bigger, though only 11% richer.
"We mustn't let this historic opportunity slip through our fingers," Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said yesterday.
Mr Rasmussen's catchphrase is "from Copenhagen to Copenhagen". In 1993 the Danish capital hosted the EU summit that launched enlargement and it will also host the one a fortnight before Christmas when he fervently hopes the nail-biting endgame will be completed.
Huge progress has already been made. The leading candidates have worked hard to adjust to the rigorous political and economic conditions required for entry. Between 22 and 28 of some 30 negotiating "chapters" - covering issues ranging from the environment to accounting standards - have been closed.
But the toughest nut, agriculture, remains to be cracked, with the 15 current member states at loggerheads over the level of payments to overstaffed and inefficient farming sectors in the candidate countries - particularly Poland, the biggest and most important of them.
Crucially, this is linked directly to plans to reform the €45bn (£29bn) common agricultural policy amid signs of a bitter row, as France - where popular support for enlargement is the lowest in the EU - fights to delay changes.
Radical proposals due next week from the European commission could lead to a new flare-up.
Timing makes this dossier doubly hard. No agreement is possible until after September's elections in Germany, where the centre-left Gerhard Schröder and his conservative challenger Edmund Stoiber are both equally determined to cut the country's contributions, currently a whopping 25% of the EU budget.
"I wouldn't advise any EU government to do something that the German chancellor would find unattractive, whoever the chancellor is," one top diplomat said.
Since it may take weeks to form a new coalition in Berlin it is unlikely that a farm package can be finalised by a preparatory summit in Brussels in October. By that time the countdown to the Copenhagen summit will be dangerously advanced.
Candidate governments, under pressure from populist and Eurosceptic opinion at home, fear that the rapidly approaching deadline will force them to accept unfavourable entry terms - on top of long-standing worries about shifting goalposts and holding second-class status within the EU.
"We are concerned the time span for final negotiations will be very narrow," Slovakia's negotiator Jan Figel said. His stance was backed by Hungary and the Czech Republic. Poland signalled on Friday that it would prefer delay to a bad deal - Denmark immediately warned that there would not be a better outcome after Copenhagen.
Other problems cannot be resolved by negotiation. The biggest worry is the Ireland's latest vote on the Nice treaty after the Irish electorate shocked Europe by rejecting it last summer. Without that, the reforms agreed in Nice in December 2000 - needed to adapt creaky decision-making machinery for enlargement - cannot take effect.
Officials in Brussels hint that there are ways to get round this obstacle if Bertie Ahern's government cannot pull off a "yes" vote this time. But the Danish line is firm: "There is no Plan B," said the foreign minister Per Stig Moeller.
Cyprus is also a problem. The official position is that the island as a whole should join, but if the UN fails to broker a peace deal between Greek and Turkish Cypriots the EU will face an agonising choice. Nightmare scenarios include Greece blocking enlargement because of concessions to the Turkish side or Turkey annexing the part it has occupied since 1974.
On the eastern front, the EU needs a visa and transit deal with Russia for the Kaliningrad enclave after Poland and Lithuania join.
Slovakia's internal politics could also be an obstacle with elections ahead and the Maltese might reject membership in their referendum.
Mr Rasmussen is sticking his neck out by cautioning that even a short delay might mean a long postponement but this is not simply a tactic. Failure will mean a loss of credibility, cries of betrayal and an anti-EU backlash in Warsaw, Budapest and points east.
From 2003 there will be big distractions in the form of constitutional discussions about the future of the union, possible euro referendums in Britain, Sweden and Denmark as well as fractious treaty negotiations and skirmishing over a new budget round. The stakes could hardly be higher.
"I don't believe that on December 15 any EU leader will sit in Copenhagen and use his veto," predicted a high-ranking Dane. "It would be a very big responsibility for any head of government to go home and have to explain why we lost enlargement for Europe."
Timetable for change
July 1 2002 Denmark takes over EU rotating presidency
July 10 European commission unveils its plans to overhaul common agricultural policy
September 20 Election in Slovakia
September 22 Election in Germany
October 18 Commission submits final reports on readiness of 10 candidate countries
October 24 Brussels summit
October-November Irish referendum on Nice treaty
November Deadline for agreement on farm payments
December 13-15 Copenhagen summit
January 2003 Greece takes over EU presidency
Spring 2003 Individual countries sign accession treaties.
Referendums and ratification in current and candidate member states
January 2004 Up to 10 new countries join the EU
June 2004 Up to 25 EU member states take part in election to the
European parliament
2007 Bulgaria and Romania likely to join EU. The thirteenth candidate, Turkey, is expected to be still negotiating
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God bless,
Kindgo
Inside the will of God there is no failure. Outside the will of God there is no success.
Posts: 4320 | From: Sunny Florida | Registered: Jun 2002
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