Leaders of 4 E.U. nations warn they will push back against more integration

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In the wake of the British vote to leave the European Union, Poland, the Czech Republic,  Hungary  and Slovakia are  prepared to push back  against the efforts of Germany for more integration of EU. member states.

The push-backers are worried about being marginalized as Germany, no longer having to share space in the E.U. with Britain, a major economic power,  might gain even more authority in the multinational organization. Britain has been a strong friend and ally of the four nations as they try to get the best deals for themselves within the E.U. Further, they, like the British, strongly support curbs on immigration into the E.U. in particular and into their nations in particular.

Note, of course, that there’s an outside chance that the U.K. won’t leave the E.U. after all.

“The genuine concerns of our citizens need to be better reflected,” the group’s four prime ministers said in a joint statement  last week, in which they called for  the E.U.’s executive power to be restrained. “Instead of endless theoretical debates on ‘more Europe’ or ‘less Europe’, we need to focus on ‘better Europe’,” they wrote.

To read The Guardian article on this, please hit this link.

Especially in Developing World, people more and more see themselves as global citizens

Especially in Developing World, people more and more see themselves as global citizens

(June 21st, 2016) A BBC World Service poll funds that people in general  are increasingly identifying themselves as global rather than just national citizens. (The Boston Global Forum has been heavily involved in global citizenship education programs.)

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The news service says that  that the  trend “is particularly marked in emerging economies, where people see themselves as outward looking and internationally minded.”

However, in some advanced industrialized nations, perhaps most notably Germany, “fewer people say they feel like global citizens now, compared with 2001,” in what points to the effects of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to open borders to a flood of migrants from the Mideast. That decision has spawned much anxiety in Europe.

The poll founds  that “more than half of those asked (56 percent) in emerging economies saw themselves first and foremost as global citizens rather than national citizens.

In Nigeria (73 percent), China (71 percent), Peru (70 percent) and India (67 percent) the data were particularly marked.

“By contrast, the trend in the industrialised nations seems to be heading in the opposite direction.

“In these richer nations, the concept of global citizenship appears to have taken a serious hit after the financial crash of 2008 {and with the start of the refugee crisis}. In Germany, for example, only 30 percent of respondents see themselves as global citizens.”

For the entire BBC story, please hit this link.