World View: Germany Threatens Britain with EU Expulsion over the Migrant Issue

This morning’s key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com

• Germany threatens Britain with EU expulsion over the migrant issue
• Mystery drones fly over France’s nuclear sites

Germany threatens Britain with EU expulsion over the migrant issue

Polish jobseekers boarding buses to the UK (Getty)

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is warning Britain’sPrime Minister David Cameron that Britain might have toleave the European Union if Cameron insists on adopting quotasthat would limit the number of migrant workers coming to Britain.

German sources are saying that if Cameron proceeded with hisplan, then:

There will be no going back. Should Cameron persist[in this plan], Chancellor Angela Merkel would abandon her effortsto keep Britain in the EU. With that a point of no return would bereached. That would be it then.

It should be noted that this isn’t about migrants from Syria ornorthern Africa, which is an entirely different issue. This is aboutmigrants who are EU citizens living in eastern Europe, mainly inPoland, Romania and Bulgaria. These and other east European statesjoined the EU in 2004-2007, but restrictions on migrant labor did notfully disappear until January 2014.

A big driver of east-to-west migration is the big gap in averagewages. In 2012, an average worker in Bulgaria or Romania got alittle over $4,000 a year, while the figure was $33,000 for UK andDenmark and $27,000 for Germany.

Cameron is also concerned about “benefit tourism,” where joblessmigrants shop around from country to country to find the best socialwelfare and unemployment benefits.

Cameron is fighting a political battle in Britain over the riseof UKIP, the UK Independence Party, which favors Britain leavingthe EU and has been gaining popularity.

But for Merkel, there is no possible compromise on this issue.British quotas on EU migration would call into question the EuropeanUnion’s “four freedoms” — the free movement of people, goods,services and capital — that form a significant part of the foundationfor European unity. Der Spiegel and BBC and Independent (Ireland)

Mystery drones fly over France’s nuclear sites

Officials in France– which gets more than two-thirds of itselectricity from nuclear power, the highest proportion in the world– are concerned about a flurry of mystery drones that in the last monthhave flown over 15 of the country’s 19 nuclear power plant sites.On Friday of last week, there were drone flights at fiveseparate nuclear sites.

There is the fear of a security risk. The drones are small, of thekind that anyone can purchase for a few hundred dollars, but aterrorist might be tempted to launch a drone with an explosivepayload. However, officials say that the drones present no danger tothe public, since France’s nuclear sites have been prepared forpossible earthquakes or plane crashes, which presumably would be worsethan an exploding drone.

However, a Greenpeace spokesman, while denying that Greenpeace hadanything to do with the drones, warned that a medium-sized bomb on adrone could hit cooling pools that hold radioactive material.

French authorities are searching for the perpetrators who, if found,will face fines of up to 75,000 euros and year in prison. AP and Digital Journal

KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Germany, Angela Merkel, Britain, David Cameron,Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, benefit tourism,France, drones, Greenpeace
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