EU Commission: 'The European Army is NATO', Thus Revealing the Long-Held Plot

As per Martin Selmayr, the EU Commission's 'Ambassador' in Austria, Brought to You by Der Standard, 3 Sept. 2023

Like the other posting I did this week about interesting stuff in legacy media, this one deserves notice.

3 Sept. 2023 is a day, which will live on—in infamy for sure, but perhaps it will also be remembered as an inflection point in European history.

What has happened? Der Standard, Austria’s premier Commie-‘Green’-Woke cult megaphone, just published an interview with one Martin Selmayr, a long-time career bureaucrat originally from Germany. The below is from his bio over at the EU Commission’s website:

Martin Selmayr has been the Head of Representation of the European Commission in Austria since November 2019. After joining the Commission in 2004, he served as Spokesperson for Telecoms and Media under President Barroso and then as Chief of Staff for Vice-President Reding. Under President Jean-Claude Juncker, Selmayr served as his Chief of Staff, before being appointed Secretary-General in February 2018.

He holds a doctorate in law from the University of Passau and teaches EU Law at the Universities of Saarbrücken, Passau, Vienna and Krems.

Note that this is as certified an ‘expert’ as the people who brought you the so-called—rather: declared—’pandemic’ of yesteryear. Note further that, although listed indiscriminately here, Krems is not a ‘university’ in the technical sense but rather a kind of postgraduate training facility (in German, it calls itself ‘university’, but in reality it is a Fachhochschule, with the distinction being that the latter cannot, by law, award doctorates). Finally, the ‘Danube University’ in Krems is the long-standing pet-project of the ÖVP state party, specifically long-time former Landeshauptmann (governor) Erich Pröll whose main motivation was that the Social Democrat-run City of Vienna has a real university. But I digress.

A de facto official ‘prose’ version of Mr. Selmayr’s bio can be obtained at Wikipedia.

The below is an interview that appeared in Der Standard on 3 Sept. 2023, which comes to you in my translation (as well as with my emphases). It is followed by a brief analytical comment in the bottom lines.

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EU Ambassador Selmayr: ‘The European Army is Nato.’

Europe is facing more fundamental changes as a result of the war in Ukraine than at any time since 1989, says EU diplomat Martin Selmayr. Enlargement will be accelerated.

Interview by Thomas Mayer, Der Standard, 3 Sept. 2023 [source]

Russia’s war against Ukraine and the consequences for Europe were omnipresent at the Forum Alpbach [the ÖVP’s customary summer retreat; think of it as a much scaled-down version of the elites talking to themselves like in other Alpine resorts]. The importance of Eastern Europe in the EU is growing. The Community is under pressure to act. It will have to accelerate EU enlargement in order to secure democracy and prosperity, and redesign the security architecture with NATO, explains Martin Selmayr, Permanent Representative of the EU Commission in Vienna.

Der Standard: At the Alpbach Forum, the overall topic of discussion was whether Europe is ‘bold’, English for courageous, daring, decisive, enough to survive in the global world. Is that true?

Selmayr: As a topic, that is exactly right. I translate it as ‘self-confident Europe’. Surveys show that especially in times of uncertainty, people are attracted to populists who claim that everything is getting worse. Therefore, it is important to be self-confident and to show how much is actually working well.

Der Standard: Please be more specific.

Selmayr: Let’s take the past three years. In three major crises—pandemic, energy crisis, and war—Europe has stuck together and shown what it can do. Those who only grumble now are driving people towards the populists.

Der Standard: ‘Bold’ could also be translated as ‘oversaturated’.

Selmayr: Your question shows that people in the German-speaking countries tend to look for negative things first [note that Selmayr is German, too]. No, we have to reflect on our common strengths. Ultimately, it’s about our democracy. At present, ten states want to join the European Union. That is a compliment to the stability, freedom, and prosperity in Europe, to the charisma that we have together today [I almost fell off my chair when I read about the invocation of charisma—by, say, von der Leyen?]. It is also an appeal to tackle the current challenges with unity and determination. We will not succeed if we are fearful [verzagt].

Caption: ‘EU, NATO, European security architecture. A lot is in motion.’ Passing for NSA (no shit analysis), this picture, which accompanies the interview, is actually a vivid and quite true reflection of the current state of affairs; I think it’s a gaffe, but it could also be predictive programming.

Der Standard: What are the challenges?

Selmayr: If we had not reacted immediately with sanctions and shown solidarity with Ukraine on 24 Feb. 2022, the day of the Russian attack on Ukraine, Putin would have won on the very first day. It is important to be quick, ‘bold’, and also to deliver right away.

Der Standard: But the crisis is real. Europe is a rich continent, yet right now there are big problems with inflation, people’s fears of decline. This is having a broad impact. In Germany, the extreme right-wing [warning: ideological bias out in the open] AfD is very popular.

Selmayr: And yet many fears are unjustified. The US is doing much worse than Europe in terms of social division [Schadenfreude is, after all, a German word, isn’t that right, Mr. Selmayr?]. The AfD is primarily an East German phenomenon [oh, I wonder as to why that might be…]. There is no shift to the right in Europe, but a very stable centre. Economically, a weakening China is the biggest problem of the world economy at the moment. Two years ago, many claimed that China would come out of the pandemic just fine. But China has done a lot wrong in vaccine development as well as in its brutal lockdowns [it takes one to know one].

Der Standard: In Europe there was a lot of criticism of the mandates.

Selmayr: In Europe, we have managed the pandemic well overall. Sure, you have to analyse weaknesses, but we should also be aware of our strengths, like social security, the efficiencym and creativity of the economy and the population. All this has proven its worth, especially during the pandemic.

Der Standard: The EU Commission must see it that way, it is also the community’s mai sales pitch.

Selmayr: Our task is to hold Europe together. Critical, but not despondent. That’s what the EU Commission stands for.

Der Standard: How will Europe change as a result of the war in Ukraine?

Selmayr: The EU will change fundamentally in the next few years. It will expand further to the east. EU enlargement, also to include Ukraine, will take place. And what country could play a central role in this better than Austria? There is a lot of potential. Austria is ideally positioned geographically, it does not have to hide.

Der Standard: What does that mean?

Selmayr: In the past few years, people thought that EU expansion was de facto over. According to the motto: ‘We are 27, and that is sometimes difficult enough. The Western Balkans belong to the EU, but the enlargement process is complex and will take decades.’ Now, Russia’s war of aggression has suddenly added a fundamental geopolitical moment. The European Union always enlarges when there is such a moment. The situation is now even more dramatic than in 1989.

Der Standard: Why more dramatic than in 1989? At that time the Iron Curtain fell.

Selmayr: Back then, undreamt-of possibilities opened up. Today, unimagined threats are opening up because we have the aggressor Russia in the east of the continent [small wonder that, e.g., former Russian president Medvedev recently characterised the collective West as ‘pro-Nazi coalition’]

Der Standard: Back then it was peaceful [another one of those no shit analysis moments].

Selmayr: Today we have a war in the neighbourhood that affects Europe and can spread to EU member states any day. Europe’s order of peace, security, and prosperity is at stake. We must stop Putin and help Ukraine to beat him back. If we fail to do so, the life we know and cherish would be over. The opening of the Iron Curtain in 1989 was a great motivation, it forced the Union to deliver on the promise of the united continent. [fake news and disinformation warning: the EU did not exist in 1989…]

Der Standard: What is it like today?

Selmayr: Today, the pressure is much greater. If we don’t get our act together now, if we don’t tackle the enlargement of the Union including its security policy dimension now, then our European model of life can quickly be taken away from us by an aggressor like Putin. The awareness that we must stick together is growing. If one had said two years ago that the EU Commission would propose candidate country status for Ukraine and six months later the member states would unanimously approve it, one would have been thought crazy. Now it’s geopolitical common sense. [proof-positive that the EU Commission is re-writing any rule it deems relevant or appropriate to further its aims, treaties and laws be damned]

Der Standard: If I had written an op-ed two years ago saying that Germany should rearm vigorously and take the military lead in Europe, some would have said I lost my marbles.

Selmayr: That shows that the turning point is not just a term. It means much more than we all perceive so far. This becomes visible in the theme of enlargement. We all want peace. One day the war in Ukraine will end. And we want a restoration of the country’s integrity [keeping claims—whatever their merits—alive over decades to come is something ‘Europe’ knows a lot about, be it, historically, the constant referencing of ‘Christendom’s hereditary enemy’, the Ottoman Empire, ot the more recent example of Franco-German enmity after 1870/71]. But even then there will be a border between Ukraine and Russia. So if we want to have a security architecture, it must be clear that this border can no longer be moved. That can only be done through the EU and NATO.

Der Standard: Who guarantees the security architecture?

Selmayr: We discussed this here in Alpbach. Europe’s security architecture will not be supported by a non-existent European army. The European army is NATO. All those who legitimately had other ideas about this have been overtaken by reality. In terms of realpolitik, Europe will not create a new military structure because of the four states that are not in NATO.

Der Standard: That’s exciting, a few years ago, an EU army was still a goal.

Selmayr: There was talk about a European pillar in NATO. That was because important states like Sweden or Finland were not in it. But we no longer have the time to build up our own European structure. In Austria, people sometimes act as if NATO were a foreign organisation [care to guess why?]. For most EU states, however, that is not the case, it is their organisation, they are co-determining members [I call BS, for there is but one opinion that matters in NATO, which is that of the White House, i.e., the executive that, constitutionally, has no legal right to unilaterally decide on matters of war and peace; it seems Mr. Selmayr needs not ‘only’ some lessons in European history but also, perhaps more importantly, in US affairs].

Der Standard: The NATO summit in Vilnius in July [2023] also made that clear. Austria, Ireland, Malta, Cyprus, even Switzerland, were not even invited as partners for peace.

Selmayr: Thank God Austria is part of the Partnership for Peace [Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain]. It is co-protected by NATO [would that mean part-time protection only valid on, say, workdays between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.?]. Neutrality is respected by everyone. It is also not a problem for the rest of the continent.

Der Standard: Would you say that the war in Ukraine is something like a catalyst for European development?

Selmayr: This is evident every day. On 24 February 2022, most states in Europe had ammunition that would have been enough to defend themselves for just one day. Today, we as the EU are buying ammunition together for the member states and for Ukraine. The programme is called ASAP, ‘as soon as possible’. 27 states have put together a programme in a few weeks that they would not have agreed on in years in peacetime [fair enough, but who’s in charge, what about oversight, transparency in procurement of arms, and who decides on their use?]

Der Standard: That sounds like it would be appropriate to hold back on predictions for years to come. Things change quickly.

Selmayr: The most important thing in European politics is to be prepared for the unprepared. Exchange between the capitals and Brussels is very good. The EU foreign ministers are in constant contact, there are regular summit meetings. The crises of the last few years have led to close coordination on an ongoing basis. In the past, decisions took much longer. [what Mr. Selmayr is saying out loud here is that ad hoc ‘crisis’ mechanisms have become institutionalised, i.e., that a coup against the EU treaties and the member-states’ constitutions is, in fact, an ongoing concern]

Der Standard: We are on the verge of European elections, in nine months the European Parliament will be reconstituted. What do you expect: gains for radical parties, a strong shift to the right?

Selmayr: There was already a high turnout in the 2019 European elections [fake news alert: turnout stood at 50.66%, i.e., roughly in line with US elections], which surprised some. Even now, I think there is a strong awareness that this is not some unimportant election. I don’t see a strong shift towards radical parties in the polls. There is a stable democratic majority in the middle of the parliament between Christian Democrats, Social Democrats, Liberals, and hopefully the Greens [be afraid, be very afraid, if this comes to pass]. If this remains the case, we can continue the course of the past years and accelerate it further. In Europe, it’s not like in the US that suddenly a Trump comes along and everything is rolled back. That is the advantage of our decentralised system and the separation of powers in Europe [as if the US wouldn’t have that kind of separation of powers; also, note the less-than-subtle, if not gratuitous Trump bashing so common among the juste milieux of Europe]

Der Standard: You are the representative of the EU Commission in Austria. There, the mood with regard to the EU is not very good right now. Or in Germany, it used to be better. Why is that, why is there this reflex of retreating to one’s own, to the national?

Selmayr: The phenomenon you describe for Austria is not limited to European policy, but is evident in all policy areas. Yet the Austrian government is actually extraordinarily successful. It has achieved more in the area of climate protection than many other governments in Europe. With the abolition of the cold progression [i.e., inflation eating up any wage or pension growth], it has made the most modern tax reform—neighbouring countries have been trying to do this for years. The Austrian government was also far ahead of many of its neighbours in the area of digitalisation and in the fight against pandemics.

Der Standard: Is there too little education?

Selmayr: There is far too little talk about the achievements. But leadership in crises consists precisely in pointing out how to counteract them. Perhaps the government is too modest in this respect, it has remarkable successes to show.

Der Standard: Why is it not succeeding?

Selmayr: Perhaps it is also due to our fast-moving media landscape, which today is often accelerated by social media. Many prefer to look for the screaming headline, in which it is easier to present anything in a negative light. On the other hand, it is much more time-consuming to explain exactly how everything works. Nobody will say that everything is perfect. But always pretending that everything is catastrophic does not help to convince people and win them over for future projects.

Der Standard: How do you convince people?

Selmayr: The question is: How do I react to populism? My former boss, the former Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, said: ‘Politicians who always run after the populists are only ever seen from behind by the voters.’ An important sentence. You have to develop your own concepts, go forward courageously, recognise real problems, and tackle them resolutely [note the utter absence of anything resembling, say, a vision, ideological base, or strong convictions, to say nothing about concrete ideas]

Der Standard: And you think the Austrian government’s record is good? [this is hilarious, esp. as Thomas Mayer’s paper, Der Standard, considers the gov’t as not nearly woke and activist enough]

Selmayr: As the EU Commission, we constantly compare the 27 Member States [great, the EU is run by people who fashion themselves as headmasters in a primary school—what could go wrong…?] The Austrian government’s record so far is quite respectable. Of course, there are a few points that need to be taken care of now, such as the climate protection law and Schengen enlargement. But all in all—the promotion of renewables, the tax reform, the exemplary generous measures to cushion inflation—it is a balance sheet that many others in the world can only dream of. [CPI in August stood at 7.5%, which ‘surprised’ many; gov’t handouts via fiat money are extremely ‘generous’, with no-one in legacy media pointing out that ‘printing’ more ‘currency’ to stave of rising inflation is, well, exacerbating the problem and akin to trying to put out a fire by adding gasoline…bottom line here: Mr. Selmayr and Mr. Mayer also need some economics lessons]

Der Standard: Is there too little talk about practical work in Austria, too much grumbling?

Selmayr: Grumbling is a bit part of the national sport. But after five minutes of engaging in this kind of national pastime, one should also say what is going on in Austria and in Europe.

Der Standard: You go out among the people a lot, you go on tours of Austria by bicycle. How do you perceive the mood there at grassroots level?

Selmayr: Of course people have concerns. When you sit at a citizens’ forum or at a regulars’ table [not the condescending attitude], they ventilate these concerns [more condescending attitudes]. If you address them and offer concrete solutions, it is usually satisfactory for both sides [note, again, the absence of anything concrete in Mr. Selmayr’s prevarications so far, that is, other than ‘enlargement’ and militarisation]. People who are looking for answers have to be given answers. We have to engage with people, explain much more. We must not leave the field to the fear-mongers and populists. [and here it is: ‘people…have to be given answers’, because people cannot, in Mr. Selmayr’s view, think of answers themselves]

Der Standard: Do the parties deal too little with European policy?

Selmayr: This is not a Viennese phenomenon. Austria has just as strong and critical a European policy as most others. Austria is by no means a small country, but a medium-sized one; it lies right in the middle of the Union. There are some issues where Austria has particularly strong support, such as EU enlargement towards the Western Balkans.

Der Standard: The opposite is the case with the Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria.

Selmayr: There are idiosyncrasies in the argumentation on some issues, the Schengen veto being one example. Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said something very important about enlargement in Alpbach, namely that we have to think more politically. We must not be bureaucratic, but see EU enlargement, but also Schengen enlargement, as a historic opportunity. [so that means that we should do away with, say, standards, treaties, and the rule of law to be, you know, historically opportunistic?]

Der Standard: Like Greece in 1981 or Spain and Portugal in 1986, which were dictatorships before?

Selmayr: Exactly. At that time, they were certainly not at the highest level in terms of democracy and fighting corruption. But they were given the benefit of the doubt. This is what Foreign Minister Schallenberg has now promoted with regard to the Western Balkans. If we want to tackle enlargement, we have to ensure trust within the house, i.e., between the 27 member states. And for this, I would like to add, Austria's veto against the Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria should now be gradually overcome. [this episode neatly explains the meddling in internal affairs so deplored by, well, ‘the people’, as well as a rationale for the EU Commission’s desire to simply be more ‘opportunistic’, for it would do away with those pesky hoi polloi demanding a say in their governance]

Der Standard: Doesn’t the government nevertheless have a point when it points to the pressure of migration and how much Austria has done in migration?

Selmayr: Everyone is always a little bit right. Austria is a country that is more burdened than others with regard to transit migration. However, the majority of these migrants come via Hungary, not via Romania and Bulgaria, because Hungary violates European law [no EU Commission statement without Orbán bashing, I suppose]. That is why I would like Austria to support the Commission in its proceedings against Hungary. In any case, if one controls the borders, this would be far more justified vis-à-vis Hungary than vis-à-vis Slovenia. Romania and Bulgaria should certainly not be punished for something for which Hungary is responsible. We have understood very well the call for help from Austria because of a higher burden regarding migration. But I also hope that Austria has understood that the main problem is the lack of respect for EU asylum and refugee law in Hungary.

Der Standard: How is the government’s closeness to Viktor Orbán or Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić, who are not very exemplary when it comes to democracy and the rule of law, perceived in Brussels? [speak for yourself, Thomas Mayer]

Selmayr: First of all, it is good if a country in the region is available as a dialogue partner and mediator. We would view fraternisation scenes with Orbán and Vučić sceptically, serious talks are needed. Just as the European Commission has clearly told President Vučić that compliance with European visa policy is a precondition for EU membership [historically, Germans or Austrians ‘telling’ Belgrade—or Budapest, for that matter—about ‘preconditions’ has not always been a good idea…] The free granting of visas to Tunisia and India was an inadmissible instrumentalisation of migration.

Der Standard: Austria did the groundwork, put pressure on them.

Selmayr: That’s right, we worked well together on that, Austria supported us strongly in bilateral talks. You have to talk to everyone, but you also have to speak a clear language. This is what Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer did during Orbán's recent visit to Vienna. A serious tone is needed with Hungary, there are already several condemnations by the European Court of Justice.

Der Standard: How do you see Austria’s role in the Union in general? Before joining the EU in 1995, the formula under Foreign Minister Alois Mock was still that Austria should focus on maximum integration, as the ‘seventh founding country’, as the legendary Ambassador Manfred Scheich said at the time, just like the Benelux [Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg] countries at the forefront. Has that waned? Is the country missing opportunities in Brussels?

Selmayr: There is no singularity in Austria. Everywhere in Europe, politics has become more complex. Politics is no longer done the way it was in the founding days. We have to live the Union on a daily basis, so there are also disputes and conflicts. But Austria has a unique geographical position in the heart of Europe.

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Bottom Lines: The Coup vs. the European Peoples

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, in black and white.

Whatever the merits of the original treaties and its context, Mr. Selmayr declares that the EU Commission non longer considers itself bound by law:

Politics is no longer done the way it was in the founding days.

‘Enlargement’ and ‘militarisation’ being the EU Commission’s new geopolitical aims, we are told that ‘we have to live the Union on a daily basis’, i.e., there is no longer anything that is constant.

Lasting constitutions, laws, or policies are no longer deemed appropriate by the EU Commission.

Come the next ‘crisis’ or ‘shock’, it is reasonable to expect the next push—but where are the limits of these people?

Geographically, it means a push into the South Caucasus, at the very least.

Politically, forced NATO membership by stealth and guile is in the store as well, for both de iure EU members like Austria as well as for de facto EU members like Switzerland.

Ideologically, the EU Commission has no convictions or beliefs other than power, thereby, by way of a self-fulfilling prophecy, proving the post-modernist mantra of human relations ‘true’ (which is not really True but a mere re-formulation of the age-old adage of the ends justifying all the means).

The Peoples of Europe are irrelevant for the delusional notions espoused by Mr. Selmayr and his ilk.

Speaking of Mr. Selmayr, we note two biographical highlights: according to a less-than-charming piece in Politico, he was sacked as the EU Commission’s top bureaucrat in 2019 because he ‘politicised’ the agenda:

Selmayr and his allies portrayed the job as one that had to be filled by someone who enjoyed the fullest confidence of the president of the Commission—someone much like the head of Juncker’s Cabinet, the job that Selmayr had held for the previous three and a bit years.

In pushing that vision of the position forward, Selmayr eroded the distinction established over several decades between the offices of the commissioners—the cabinets—which were filled by personal appointments, and the permanent civil service, in which advancement was governed by competition and grades.

Now, however, Mr. Selmayr is back—and, if media reports are to be believed, poised to become EU ‘Ambassador’ in Washington, DC:

The ‘Monster of the Berlaymont’ might be staging a comeback—in the U.S.

Martin Selmayr—once a powerful figure atop the EU’s executive institution—has been shortlisted to become the EU ambassador to either the U.S. or the United Nations, two officials told Politico…

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss personnel decisions, indicated that while Selmayr is in the running to helm either the EU’s delegation in Washington, D.C., or move to New York, he is not a shoo-in.

Mr. Selmayr going far away would be good for the peoples of Europe; appointment to the powerful satrapy in DC, though, would likely turbo-charge his shenanigans.

What, then, is to be done?

Change is upon us, big change, and the above statements are very telling indeed.

In my opinion, what Mr. Selmayr as a representative of the EU Commission has said, should make all EU member-states protest loudly, with Austria ‘asking’—demanding—his removal from the ambassadorship.

Moreover, any self-respecting government in the EU that is not in agreement with the policies outlined by Mr. Selmayr should quash the Commission’s ambition to change the treaties. Failure to do so should be followed by notifications of leaving the bloc, whatever the consequences.

Failure to do so will bring about the end of the European states in their present configuration.