Why does a “trading bloc” need a “genuine Defence Union”?

One of the men below heads the World’s most successful defence alliance
The other man is building his own version

Who is this other man?

Yesterday a meeting took place at the HQ of the “European External Action Service” in Brussels. [More correctly the EU External Action Service.]

The host for this meeting was a man whom almost no-one in the UK will have heard of. His name is Josep Borrell Fontelles and he’s Spanish/Argentinian.

The EU’s new Foreign and Defence Secretary, now speaking for the UK internationally

He has been a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party since 1975

He was involved in the drafting of the European Constitution that eventually led to the Lisbon Treaty

He advocated for the federalisation of all EU member countries

In 2018 he was fined for insider trading of shares in a multinational company of which he was a director

In July this year (2019), he acquired joint Argentinian-Spanish citizenship

On 1 Dec 2019, he became “EU Vice-President & High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy”

In effect, he combines the roles of EU Foreign Secretary and EU Defence Secretary.

Yesterday’s meeting with the NATO Secretary-General

In Brussels yesterday, Senor Borrell welcomed the NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg — a passionate Europhile — to the Headquarters of the EU External Action Service.

Whilst following the usual EU mantra of the European Union not intending to supplant NATO, merely to ‘supplement’ it, the EU’s new defence chief nevertheless said the following:

“We have to work together in order to reinforce cooperation between the Member States of the European Union and to build a genuine European Defence Union”

• Josep Borrell, EU Vice-President and de facto EU Foreign and Defence Secretary, Brussels, 09 Dec 2019

Josep Borrell now holds arguably the second-most-powerful position in Brussels after that of the new EU Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen.

Almost no-one in the UK will have ever heard of him.

Senor Borrell will claim to have been elected to his position by the EU Parliament. In reality, he was selected and then presented to the MEPs as the only candidate.

This is what happens in totalitarian regimes, so I invite readers to draw their own conclusions.

[ Sources: El Pais and other Spanish press | EU Commission ]