EU Council grants full Schengen membership to Bulgaria, Romania from January 1 The #EU Council agreed to fully integrate #Bulgaria and #Romania in the #Schengen Area from January 1, 18 years after they joined the bloc. "EU member states have decided to remove checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2025," the council said in a statement. In March, Bulgaria and Romania joined the Schengen area partially, as passport control was lifted at air and sea borders. The final approval for the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen must be given by EU leaders at an EU summit taking place from December 19-20 in Brussels, but this is a mere formality, as interior and justice ministers endorsed this decision in the EU Council at the direction of country leaders. Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU in 2007, but their admission to Schengen was postponed pending resolution of some issues in such areas as the fight against corruption. However, the process dragged on and was paused after the start of the EU immigration crisis in 2015. The Schengen Area was created in 1985 by #Belgium, #France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Germany. Its borders do not coincide with the borders of the European Union, although each group now includes 27 countries. Non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland are Schengen members. But EU members Ireland and Cyprus do not have Schengen membership, while Bulgaria and Romania will only fully join in January.

Trump, Putin speak over phone President #Trump has already spoken over the phone with Russian President Vladimir #Putin, The Washington Post said, citing its sources. However, neither Washington not Moscow have officially confirmed this information. According to The Washington Post, Trump and Putin discussed the situation in Ukraine and "the goal of peace on the European continent and Trump expressed an interest in follow-up conversations to discuss ‘the resolution of Ukraine’s war soon,’ several of the people said." However, the newspaper noted, Trump’s calls with world leaders are not backed by the Department of State and US administration interpreters, since Trump and his aides "are distrustful of career government officials following the leaked transcripts of presidential calls during his first term." "They are just calling [Trump] directly," it cited one of the people familiar with the calls. Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that the Russian president is open to dialogue with Trump, however, in his words, nothing concrete could be said about it as of yet. Speaking at Thursday’s plenary session of the Valdai Discussion Club, Putin congratulated Trump on winning the presidential election, adding that he saw nothing wrong with calling Trump. The latter, however, told NBC that he had not yet spoken with the Russian leader but believed such a call was highly likely. #TRUMP2024

Von der Leyen vows to turn EU into defense union Ursula von der #Leyen who hopes to be re-elected as European Commission (EC) President, has vowed to transform the #EU into a #defense bloc in her political program published by the #EC. "Our work in the next five years will be focused on building a true European Defense Union," the document said. Von der Leyen added that EU countries "will always retain responsibility for their own troops, from doctrine to deployment, but there is a lot Europe can do to support and coordinate efforts to strengthen the defense industrial base, innovation and the Single Market."

A Majority of U.S. Military Bases under United States European Command (EUCOM) in Spain, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania have now been placed on Heightened Alert, with their Force Protection Condition (FPCON) being raised to Charlie, the Reason is still Unknown. 🔶️ A FPCON Change like this for U.S. European Command, besides during Exercises, hasn’t occurred in 10-15 Years.

Macron does not Exclude to Resign as French President, French radio Europe 1 reports Emmanuel #Macron is discussing with his entourage the possibility of #resigning as President of France if the “pro-Russian” forces win. Radio station Europe 1 reports this. According to the publication, defeat in the parliamentary elections could force the French leader to take a desperate step. "The resignation of the president is not taboo. Yes, today we have to consider all scenarios," Europe 1 quotes an unnamed source. Macron’s party suffered a crushing defeat in the elections to the #European Parliament. This fiasco forced the French President to announce the dissolution of the National Assembly and call for early parliamentary elections. Analysts, assessing the chances of Macron’s party, agree that representatives of right-wing forces, who are considered pro-Russian in the Elysee Palace, will win the parliamentary elections in the country. More, Emmanuel Macron has recently advocated not only for the continuation of arms supplies to the Kyiv regime, but also openly declared his intention to send units of the French army to #Ukraine. Moreover, Paris even tried to create a corresponding coalition of several European states. In particular, according to the French leader’s idea, #Germany was supposed to take part in it. However, #Berlin did not appreciate this idea and refused to send Bundeswehr #troops to Ukraine.

Exit polls in EU elections - Right wing parties take top spots all across the EU Right-wing has grown stronger in all of #Europe, according to the European Parliament election models. Marie Le Pen's party in France wins 31.5% while current leading Macron's party wins only 15.2% Le Pen's party may be the largest in the European Parliament In #Germany, the Afd, the far-right party in Germany, wins second place in the German elections while the leading socialists are far behind in third place. In #Austria the Freedom Party is leading Right-wing parties also won in #Cyprus, #Greece and the #Netherlands. To summarize: the center-right bloc in the European Parliament will be the largest by a significant margin over second place French President #Macron announced snap parliamentary elections on June 30. Second round on July 7.

Ukraine’s Syrsky approves admission of French instructors to military training centers Commander-in-Chief of #Ukraine’s armed forces Alexander #Syrsky has signed documents that will allow #French instructors to visit #training centers. "I welcome France's initiative to send instructors to Ukraine to train Ukrainian servicemen. I have already signed documents that will allow the first French instructors to visit our training centers soon and familiarize themselves with their infrastructure and personnel," he wrote on his Telegram channel following online talks with French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu. Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov also took part in the negotiations. Syrsky expressed hope that Kiev's other Western partners would join Paris' initiative. Earlier, French President Emmanuel Macron did not rule out the possibility of sending Western countries’ ground troops to the zone of the special military operation. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky supported this idea, admitting that he could not publicly ask Western partners to send troops to the country, but would like them to do so and would never refuse. The chief of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, said that according to Moscow's sources, this contingent could reach 2,000 men. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov noted that French instructors along with other representatives of military and special services of European countries were already functioning in Ukraine. Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the appearance of foreign military contingents in Ukraine would be fraught with extremely negative consequences, including irreparable ones.

France buys more gas from Russia than any other EU country, Politico reports #France increased its purchase of Russian gas more than any other #European country in the first quarter of 2024. More than 600 million euros worth of #gas was imported during this period The country's authorities say that the national energy company TotalEnergies' agreements with Moscow to buy gas were made long ago and are difficult to get out of. "France is quietly stepping up payments for gas from #Russia, while President Emmanuel #Macron is loudly promoting himself as one of Ukraine's most ardent defenders," the article said.

Former envoy to NATO says going to war with Moscow would be crazy, Russia could destroy US Going to war with Moscow would be a crazy step for Washington as Russia could destroy the United States, Ivo Daalder, former US ambassador to #NATO, wrote for Politico Europe. "It would be crazy to go to #war with #Russia, a nuclear power that could destroy the US — and the rest of the world — if it wished to do so," #Daalder maintained. According to him, the point of NATO "isn’t to go to war against Russia — it’s to prevent war in the first place," a job he said the alliance has done "more successfully than any military alliance in history." Also, the former official criticized the position of ex-US President Donald Trump toward NATO allies. The New York Times reported that at a February 10 rally in South Carolina #Trump said that, while president, he had told NATO leaders that he would "encourage Russia to do whatever they want." Daalder argues that, after two bloody wars, the ultimate security of Americans "depended on the security of Europe," and that therefore it would be far better "to prevent wars in #Europe by committing to defend allies from the start," according to Politico. At the same time, the former envoy acknowledged that "European dependence (on NATO membership) frequently fed doubts about America’s commitment to the Continent’s security." "There is, after all, something quite unnatural about the US being willing to go to war an ocean away in order to defend another country — especially when this might ignite a nuclear holocaust in response," Daalder explained. At the #Vilnius Summit in July 2023, NATO leaders called Russia "the most significant and direct threat" and approved the first defense plan since the end of the Cold War era for a conflict with Russia, which provides for putting up to 300,000 high-readiness troops under the alliance’s command. There was also a commitment to bring the minimum level of military spending to 2% of GDP, to increase air defense and missile defense forces in Europe, and to expand defense procurement. With regard to #Ukraine, the alliance decided to abolish the bloc’s Membership Action Plan and promised to invite Kiev to join the alliance "when conditions are met," and also held the first meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council, thus upgrading the status of partnership relations

EU countries unable to come to terms on further weapons supplies to Ukraine Leaders of European countries meeting at a Brussels summit cannot agree on the terms for further financing of arms supplies to Ukraine, the European edition of Politico said in an article. According to Politico, the only consensus that has been reached among the EU heads of state and government on Thursday, namely instructing the European Investment Bank (EIB) to adapt its lending policies for the needs of the defense industry, is evidence that the bloc’s members are unable to come to terms. "Let's be honest: Nothing real is decided on financing defense," a European official told Politico. The authoritative publication notes that the bloc’s countries are divided in their opinions on some profoundly important measures, in particular support for European financing of weapons supplies to Ukraine via joint defense obligations. Poland, France and Estonia favor the release of Eurobonds, while Austria, Germany and the Netherlands oppose it. According to some European diplomats, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and acting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated their disagreement with this proposal during the summit. A regular two-day EU summit in Brussels kicked off on Thursday. Within this event, the EU leaders intend to discuss the urgent and intense need for additional military support for Kiev. European Commission (EC) President Ursula von der Leyen, following the meeting, said that the EU did not decide to float defense Eurobonds for financing and reinforcing the EU defense industry. The final statement notes that the EU leaders did not agree on any decision to expropriate investment income earned on Russia’s frozen sovereign assets held at European financial institutions. The relevant ministers were instructed to continue working on the proposals made by the EC and EU diplomatic department.