http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/2877197.stm It's interesting that a substantially larger number voted to join "old Europe" than to join the Atlantic military body. Must also be a desperate disappointment to all those Europhobes out there,
Would you please tell that to the English Euro-sceptics? They might beg to differ! A 9:1 vote in any free - and, in this case, legally binding and significant - referendum is astonishing.
No, the point isn't that Slovenia is one of Rumsfeld's "New Europe" countries. The point is that its people have overwhelmingly decided to join the bloc mostly made up of "Old Europe" countries. So maybe "Old Europe" isn't too bad after all.
Old Europe is two countries, France and Germany. People equate Europe with those two, which simply isn't true. The majority of the EU is not in the Old Europe group
There is no old and new Europe, just a lot of European countries that have different interests and base their position and decisions on those interests. But saying that Spain and Bulgaria both have the same reason to stand with the US is as fault as saying that France, Germany and Belgium all have the same reason to opposse the war...
I kinda see what you mean...still though, Spain and Bulgaria were swung to our side by powell's speech on Feb14. Bulgaria called it "shattering,compelling evidence" of Iraq's non-compliance. Spain made a similar statement.
That isn't true. I think the split amongst existing EU states is 9-6 against. The split, if you include the 10 applicant states, is 13-12 against. So it certainly isn't just France and Germany who oppose this alone.
I thought there was a BBC page stating that, but I can't find it. SKY said on 23rd January that 6 oppose, 5 favour, 4 undecided: http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,15410-12232592,00.html favour: UK Spain Italy Denmark Holland oppose: Germany France Luxembourg Belgium Austria Greece "undecided": Sweden Ireland Finland Portugal "Undecided" basically means that they don't want to criticise Washington, but don't like the action being taken without UN approval. But, either way it shows the high degree of division. The divisions have not changed much since this article.
Well, it's sorta like bigfoot, there have been sightings, but noone really knows if it exist for real...
It's about time we teach Luxembourg a lesson! Rumsfeld's comment about "old" and "new" Europe was ridiculous, though I'm surprised how seriously people took it. As an American, I'm bothered that our Defense Sec. is causing so many diplomatic ripples, but I wish people would ignore him.
> It's interesting that a substantially larger number > voted to join "old Europe" than to join the > Atlantic military body. Remember, joining NATO means a certain amount of new military spending (there are certain requirements of weapon and command compatability) which many countries cannot easily afford. Joining the EU might actually get them aid. There is probably nothing ideological about the split at all.