European Union

As a part of a new EU plan aimed at reducing the number of refugees flowing into Europe, Greece has begun sending migrants back to Turkey.  Greek border agents put 135 migrants on a ferry back to Turkey, much to the anger of Turkish authorities. USAToday explains: Human rights groups have been highly critical of the plan, saying Turkey, which already hosts 2.7 million Syrian refugees, can not adequately care for the migrants. “This is the first day of a very difficult time for refugee rights.

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One of the recurring concerns involving Europe's seemingly perpetual economic, financial and social crises, is that these have been largely  predetermined, "scripted" and deliberate acts.

This is something the former head of the Bank of England admitted one month ago when Mervyn King said that Europe's economic depression "is the result of "deliberate" policy choices made by EU elites.  It is also what AIG Banque strategist Bernard Connolly said back in 2008 when laying out "What Europe Wants"

Submitted by Judith Bergman via The Gatestone Institute,

• Erdogan has boasted that he is proud of boldly blackmailing EU leaders into paying him protection money.

• Erdogan's threats were almost criminally sinister: "... the EU will be confronted with more than a dead boy on the shores of Turkey. There will be 10,000 or 15,000. How will you deal with that?"

Submitted by Dan Steinbock via The Difference Group,

As the Eurozone is amid secular stagnation, its old fiscal, monetary and banking challenges are escalating, along with new threats, including the Brexit, demise of Schengen, anti-EU opposition and geopolitical friction. According to Dan Steinbock, Brussels can no longer avoid hard political decisions for or against an integrated Europe, with or without the euro.