Macedonia and the European Union

[Bill77]

UEFA (Union of European Football Associations ) are in on it now

Celtic and St Johnstone (Scottish clubs) have been fined €18,000 by UEFA for flying Palestine flags.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-st-johnstone-hit-uefa-4149864

Apparently this is fine though.

[Soldier of Macedon]

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-st-johnstone-hit-uefa-4149864

UEFA deem the Palestine flag a political symbol because the conflict with Israeli forces in the region is still ongoing.

That's a stupid decision by UEFA. Neither the Palestinian or Israeli flag (or any national flag, for that matter) should be banned from being displayed. I wonder if the same applies to the Ukrainian, Russian or any other flag of the many countries around the world which are currently involved in conflicts.

[DedoAleko]

nAto said Macedonia during the introduction at the summith in Wales...This is pathetic.

http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/summary.asp?catid=27377&subid=2&pubid=33887895

[sydney]

UEFA (Union of European Football Associations ) are in on it now

Celtic and St Johnstone (Scottish clubs) have been fined €18,000 by UEFA for flying Palestine flags.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/celtic-st-johnstone-hit-uefa-4149864

Apparently this is fine though.

Search for Macedonia on UEFA's website. It's a FYROM fest. I've often sent them correspondence to correct their mistake but nothing.

[Bill77]

Search for Macedonia on UEFA's website. It's a FYROM fest. I've often sent them correspondence to correct their mistake but nothing.

There is a case of Hypocrisy

UEFA Statutes

http://www.uefa.com/MultimediaFiles/Download/Regulations/uefaorg/General/01/47/69/97/1476997_DOWNLOAD.pdf

Objectives
Article 2

B) Promote football in Europe in a spirit of peace, understanding and FairPlay. Without any discrimination on account of politics, gender, religion, race or any other reason.

But then this......

III MEMBERSHIP
Article 5

Membership of UEFA is open to national football associations situated in the continent of Europe, based in a country which is recognised by the United Nations as an independent state.

We also have our selves to blame.

[makedonche]

nAto said Macedonia during the introduction at the summith in Wales...This is pathetic.

http://www.megatv.com/megagegonota/s...pubid=33887895

Dedo
I like this one....hopefully a sign of things to come!!!!

[Thorvald]

Dont join the Eu...Its not the promised land...I wish my country left that horrible institution.

[Philosopher]

Dont join the Eu...Its not the promised land...I wish my country left that horrible institution.

I don't think Macedonia will learn that important lesson until she compromises her identity and awakens from the illusion of the EU. Alas, it will be too late. Most countries who have joined the EU -- indeed almost all of them -- are worse off today than before joining.

[spitfire]

Joining the E.U. means that you will lock your economy to the euro currency. Therefore you will have a currency that you cannot devaluate at all. In this way more and more will be asked from you. This will become so stiff that you will eventually end up in trying to keep up with the madness of a locked currency suffocating your citizens.

Unless of course you have an economy like the Germans, this will eventually turn your country into a land of unemployed citizens.

Do not commit suicide.

[George S.]

Brussels pressures Macedonia not to do business with Russia

Brussels pressures Macedonia not to do business with Russia on SouthStream project, Friday, 24 October 2014

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/26292/45/

Brussels has been unable to influence EU member Austria from its cooperation on South Stream with Russia, so instead has tuned its focus now on Macedonia, not an EU member. Macedonia became the latest Western Balkan country to receive a warning on the implications of building Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline for its EU future, reads euobserver.com. The good news for Macedonia here is that its EU future is bleak. Janez Kopac, the head of the European Energy Community (EEC), said on Thursday (23 October) that Skopje’s South Stream agreement with Moscow is “not in compliance” with EU energy law. He noted that as an EEC treaty signatory it has “a legally binding commitment to implement these rules”. He added, in comments to the Brussels-based dtt-net.com news agency, that “Macedonia will have to withdraw from the IGA [the South Stream accord] or renegotiate it if it wants to become a full EU member”.

The EEC is a Vienna-based body which counts the 28 EU states, the Western Balkan EU-aspirants, Moldova, and Ukraine among its members. South Stream is to carry Russian gas under the Black Sea via Bulgaria and Serbia to the heart of the EU. But potential branch lines are to connect up with Bosnia, Macedonia, and Montenegro. The EU says its current model - in which Russian firm Gazprom owns at least 51 percent and controls both production and distribution - goes against EU laws designed to stop monopolies from inflating prices.

The EEC’s Kopac in panic mode spoke after a senior Gazprom executive met with Macedonian energy officials in Skopje earlier the same day. Both sides voiced confidence the branch line will go ahead as planned. For its part, the European Commission on 30 September wrote a formal letter to Macedonia to voice disquiet. “South Stream, as any other major infrastructure project in Europe, may only be developed and operated fully in line with EU law”, an EU official noted. “Pipelines developed and operated in conflict with EU law endanger the functioning of the internal market”.

The EEC and commission complaints come after similar criticism of Bosnia and Serbia. “It should be clear from the beginning that Serbia cannot accede to the EU without bringing this [South Stream] agreement into compliance [with EU law]”, Kopac told EUobserver earlier this month. Russian president Vladmir Putin has said he hopes to make a deal on the situation with EU leaders. But in the meantime, Gazprom is pressing ahead with construction of the offshore portion of the pipeline despite the dispute. EU leaders at a summit in Brussels also on Thursday fretted over how to improve the Union’s energy security in view of its gas dependence on Russia and Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Among other provisions, their joint conclusions, published in the small hours of Friday, say the “Southern Gas Corridor” is one of the EU's “critical projects of common interest … to ensure diversification of energy suppliers”. The southern corridor is a competing scheme to South Stream which aims to bring gas from the Caspian Sea to Europe, bypassing Russia. In light of Kopac’s forceful statements, the conclusions noted that EU states will “further strengthen the [European] Energy Community, which aims to expand the EU's energy acquis to enlargement and neighbourhood countries, in the light of the EU's security of supply concerns”. They added that EU countries should use “foreign policy instruments to convey consistent messages related to energy security, in particular to strategic partners”.

[Constellation]

The EU is the enemy of Macedonia. How is this not clear by now.

[Volokin]

Can't Macedonia choose to do whatever the fuck it wants?

[Nikolaj]

The EU is the enemy of Macedonia. How is this not clear by now.

Haven't seen you post in a while Constellation, wb.

[George S.]

I call Brussel sprouts as they spring up now and then.Why pressure someone to join when all they be doing is pushing the self destruct button.

[Redsun]

Having the presence of two Gas companies within Europe creates competition that will lower prices and give a choice to the customers.

Brussels what is it exactly? Why are you concerned... for your own interest.

Want to trade?

What have you got to offer us... nothing?

What positive action can this rubbish talk from Brussels create?

Brussels has not explained how we will benefit from not cooperating with the construction of South Stream.