Free Republic

A leading Eurocrat in Brussels branded Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted against President Joe Biden’s demands to send billions more of American taxpayer dollars to fund the war in Ukraine as “traitors”.On Saturday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for violated the ‘Hastert Rule’, which requires Republican speakers to only put forward bills to the floor of the House if a majority of the GOP conference supports the measure, to push through a $60 billion Ukraine aid bill.The bill passed with the support of House Democrats, many of whom were seen waving Ukrainian flags and chanting “Ukraine!”...

Nigel Farage blasted Brussels chief Guy Verhofstadt, for his apparent calls for a “European empire”, telling it straight that the EU is “building an empire”. The Brexit Party leader took to his LBC show after comments by Guy Verhofstadt about a “European empire”. Mr. Farage said: “Andrew Adonis, who of course I’ve spoken to you many times before here at LBC, is really one of the fanatics for ‘Remain’. Even Adonis said, ‘I don’t believe in a European Empire but a free European Union; the world has had enough of empires’. Well, hear-hear to that, Lord Adonis, but that is...

This year’s EU election will be the “last chance” to kill populism, Guy Verhofstadt has warned, calling for sovereignty-destroying “reform” which would transfer national powers to Brussels. In an interview with five influential establishment newspapers from across the continent on Tuesday, the veteran MEP and Brussels’ Brexit coordinator gave his backing to the vision of a federal EU superstate unveiled by Emmanuel Macron earlier this week..... “The union envisioned by [the French president] is a Europe that can stand on its own two feet, in a world of great powers in which EU nations would not be able to protect...

European Union Council President Donald Tusk on Tuesday urged Britain to change its mind about leaving the bloc next year, as time to conclude a Brexit agreement runs short and EU leaders await more details on how the country sees their future ties. Britain is set to leave the EU on March 29, 2019, but the complex negotiations on its costly departure and future EU-U.K. relations must be concluded by October to leave parliaments time to ratify any agreement. […] “If the U.K. government sticks to its decision to leave, Brexit will become a reality, with all its negative consequences,...

The European Union’s chief Brexit negotiator says U.S. President Donald Trump poses a serious threat to the EU because he is working with far-right groups on the continent to engineer the bloc’s disintegration. Guy Verhofstadt said Monday the EU has “fewer friends than ever in the United States today.” He said Trump and his advisers had joined with European far-right movements in “undermining the EU.” …

The European Union’s Brexit negotiators will offer British people a chance to individually remain part of the EU, according to media reports in Britain. There was potentially some good news on Friday for all those Brits who were unhappy about the EU referendum result. The Independent newspaper claimed on Friday that Guy Verhofstadt, the man put in charge of Brexit negotiations by the European parliament, will fast-track a proposal that would allow Brits to opt-in and maintain their EU citizenship. It had already been revealed that the EU was considering a plan to allow Brits to stay as EU citizens...

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt planned to tender his government’s resignation Monday, one day after a general election in which conservatives - led by Christian Democrats - dealt his Socialist-Liberal coalition a stunning defeat. As votes were still being counted Sunday, Verhofstadt, 54, conceded defeat, saying he would leave the limelight after eight years as prime minister. "The voters of our country...have opted for a different majority," he said. That majority faces a difficult agenda that is bound to be dominated by steps to grant further autonomy to Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking northern half, and Wallonia, its francophone south. Since the...

Belgian prime minister Guy Verhofstadt has ordered a probe into whether a Brussels-based banking consortium broke the law when it provided US anti-terror authorities with confidential information about international money transfers. The consortium known as SWIFT – society for worldwide inter-bank financial telecommunications – was brought into the limelight when the New York Times last week reported that officials from the CIA, the FBI and other US agencies had since 2001 been allowed to inspect the transfers. Prime minister Guy Verhofstadt asked the Belgian justice ministry on Monday (26 June) to investigate whether SWIFT acted illegally in allowing US...

Today President Bush met with Tom Bock, the national commander of the American Legion in the Oval Office, as well as John Sommer, executive director of the American Legion's Washington office and Jim Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He also met in the Oval Office with Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to discuss key elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo. First Lady, Laura and daughter Barbara were in Ghana today, where Mrs. Bush addressed an audience at the Accra Teacher Training College in Accra, Ghana, to launch the African Education Initiative Textbooks Program. They also visited with patients at...

Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said yesterday that any attempt to negate the existence of the State of Israel is a form of anti-Semitism. Verhofstadt differentiated between legitimate criticism of Israeli policy and anti-Semitism, stressing that he was convinced that the political decisions taken by the European Union are not motived by anti-Semitism. He added, however, that "when you're tackling and directly criticizing Israel or the Jewish community, that's anti-Semitism." Verhofstadt, who participated in yesterday's inauguration ceremony for the new Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, added that the Law of Return forms "the basic idea of the foundation of the State...

... As Jose Manuel Barroso read the names of the Commissioners he had chosen for the key portfolios, it became clear that the center of gravity has shifted. France and Germany are no longer calling the shots. Almost none of the duo's central demands were met while all important economic positions went to avowed free-marketers. It all began when 10 new members, mostly from the former Communist East, joined the EU in May. In contrast to Paris and Berlin, the newcomers pursue largely free-market policies and support the U.S. war in Iraq. Heralding that tectonic shift in the balance of...

Belgium under pressure to amend law allowing case to proceedBelgium is coming under pressure from the US to block a potentially explosive war crimes case against General Tommy Franks, commander of coalition forces in Iraq. Jan Fermon, a Brussels lawyer, confirmed yesterday that 19 Iraqi plaintiffs were seeking to bring charges that would name the general and other US soldiers who had allegedly committed crimes. Mr Fermon claimed there were 17 violations of Belgium's controversial 1993 war crimes law, which allowed universal jurisdiction until it was amended early this month. The legal move could prove embarrassing for the government of...