Eurovision: It Never Leaves You.

This coming Thursday (25/6/15) sees a big meeting of European Union (EU) leaders European Council (the technical side of the EU) Summit. Preparations for this meeting have been dominated by two main issues;

The Greek economic crisis. In short Greece went bankrupt back in 2009. However rather then let this happen the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) formed what is known as "The Troika" and drew up a convoluted system that would allow them to pay Greek banks to buy Greek government debt. However in return for each tranche of bank funding the Troika expected the Greek government to reduce it's borrowing.

In early 2015 the far left SYRIZA coalition were elected in Greece on a platform to scrap this plan. Instead they want the Troika funding to continue without the overall reduction of debt. Some have likened SYRIZA's position to a game of poker where they're bluffing in order to secure a better deal. Others though have likened it to police and fire fighters pleading with a man standing on a ledge threatening to jump.

The other big issue has been the migration crisis. At a meeting of EU foreign ministers Italy which bears the brunt of crisis urged other EU nations to house some of the migrants until it can be determined whether they are legitimate refugees fleeing persecution or economic migrants who should be deported. While this process is taking place EU members states are allowed to hold asylum seekers in detention centres.

Preparations for the European Council Summit also coincided with Global Security (GLOBSEC) conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. This is a non-governmental meeting that it open to current and prospective members of both the EU and NATO. Although US President Obama has clearly got some issues that he needs to work through the biggest threat to Europe's security at the moment is not Russia. Instead it is the war against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in nearby Syria and Iraq. Specifically it is the huge wave of refugees the conflict has created.

This is particularly challenging problem because the route taken by these refugees will often see them cross the sea to land in Greece - an EU member. However they will then often travel by land from Greece into non-EU states such as Macedonia and Serbia before trying to re-enter the EU through Hungary. Migrants will also often land in Albania before crossing into Serbia and Macedonia on route to either Greece or Hungary. Given the local tensions getting all these governments to co-ordinate their efforts is really challenging.

It is also vital though because the overwhelming majority of those fleeing ISIL territory are legitimate refugees entitled to asylum. However with one of the suspects in the Tunisian Bardo Museum terror attack recently turning up in Italy it's clear there needs to be careful monitoring to filter out potential terrorists.

The problem also flows in the opposition direction because now western European nations such as the UK are getting better at stopping ISIL recruits travelling directly to Turkey many are now travelling to nations like Bulgaria and Macedonia before travelling on to Turkey.

Although the Irish Fine Gael government of Enda Kenny has been a bit worrying of late the UK's main line of communication with the EU's southern states that are disproportionally affected by both the economic and migrants crisis has been the Madeleine McCann case. This dates back to 2007 when a British girl - Madeleine McCann - went missing in Portugal whilst on a family holiday. As far as the Portuguese authorities are concerned she was killed by her parents who hid the body. However they can't close the case until they find the body. In the meantime the UK authorities have been working to keep the McCann's out of prison and the story alive. Part of this was a ruling by the UK High Court that Madeleine McCann was still alive. The Judge who made that ruling went on to rule against me in my grandmother's case during the COP18 Summit. Her credibility has never recovered.

In roughly October 2013 the UK speculated that Madeleine McCann may have been abducted by burglars. This was a reference to my crime problem. Greece responded with a story of Roma Gypsies abducting a blond haired, blue eyed little girl in a story that caused uproar across the EU. Eventually DNA testing revealed that the girl was in fact the natural child of the couple. This left all the people who couldn't believe that such a beautiful Aryan child could be born to dirty, gypsy parents looking distinctly racist.

Apart from mocking the UK this was Greece warning about the rise of the fascist Golden Dawn Party. Much like Svoboda in Ukraine and the AWB in South Africa Golden Dawn fly a flag with a rune design that we are constantly assured is definitely not inspired by the Nazi Swastika.

It should come as no surprise then that on Thursday (18/6/15) another sensational story emerged of dirty foreigners trying to kidnap British children who were on holiday in Cyprus. Initially the story was that a group of Romanian - no connection to Roma gypsies - tried to snatch a child into a car but were stopped when other hotel guests intervened. However as information from the Cypriot police and video footage emerged it turned out that a group of drunk British holiday makers accused a Bulgarian man of taking photographs of their children in the bar where they were getting drunk. They physically attacked the man who sought protection first from the hotel staff and then from the police who removed him from the scene. The police also conducted a search of the man's phone and camera and found the allegations by the drunks to be completely untrue.

I was actually accosted on Twitter by someone claiming to work alongside one of the drunk British group as a teacher. He kept insisting that teachers - who are on the public payroll - don't receive public money. With British teachers protesting over austerity cuts today this seemed a rather damaging position for him to take. However eventually one of the rarest things ever seen on Twitter occurred and he actually apologised for trying to argue with me. I'm guessing he must be new to the Internet.

I think what the Britain was trying to do was show support for SYRIZA in their negotiations with Greece by raising the spectre of the SYRIZA government being replaced by a Golden Dawn government in the event of a default. The UK's intention of course being to keep the Eurozone crisis going for as long as possible. However Cyprus' 2015 Eurovision entry appeared to express regret that due to their reliance on an EU bailout they failed to properly speak up in defence of Russia over Ukraine. On Friday (19/2/15) the SYRIZA leader travelled to Russia where he was promised emergency funding should the EU pull the plug. This seems to have caused the EU to blink in negotiations although there will be an emergency summit next week.

In light of the Ukraine crisis I'm struggling to work out Russia's position towards Greece. They could genuinely be trying to encourage them to leave the EU in response to the EU sanctions on Russia. Alternatively they could be trying to give SYRIZA just enough confidence to do further damage to the Eurozone economy from within.


Anyway on what I'm sure is a completely unrelated note it's emerged that in the months prior to the Charleston shooting South Carolina had been trying to secure Federal funding to help the victims of crime - apparently there's been a bit of a spike since August 2014.

Within six hours of South Carolina prosecutors apparently getting the suspect to 'confess' to a racially motivated hate crime the Federal government released USD29million of funds to South Carolina.

15:40 on 20/6/15 (UK date).