{"id":689257,"date":"2026-01-11T16:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689257\/"},"modified":"2026-01-11T16:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T16:36:10","slug":"my-take-the-days-of-eu-and-nato-may-be-numbered-under-von-der-leyen-and-kallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/689257\/","title":{"rendered":"My Take | The days of EU and Nato may be numbered under von der Leyen and Kallas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Grandstanding, self-righteous and hypocritical, what can possibly go wrong with the European Union under the leadership of Ursula von der Leyen and Kaja Kallas?<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">For a superstate bloc that supposedly stands for the rule of law, human rights and international justice, Brussels has given the lamest excuse of a response to the murderous American raid in Venezuela and the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">European Commission President von der Leyen said the bloc was \u201cclosely monitoring the situation in Venezuela\u201d, that it stood \u201cwith the Venezuelan people\u201d and supported \u201ca peaceful and democratic transition\u201d. \u201cAny solution must respect international law and the UN Charter,\u201d she declared.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cClosely monitoring\u201d, \u201crespect international law\u201d? That\u2019s diplomatic speak for doing absolutely nothing.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Nikolas Rajkovic of Tilburg University and Harvard Law School observed the double standard. For von der Leyen, \u201cUkraine was framed as an existential breach of order; Venezuela is treated as a crisis to be processed\u201d, he wrote in the international law journal Opinio Juris. \u201cUkraine was not a test of whether law could constrain power. It was a test of whether law would remain the language through which power is judged. Venezuela answers that question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">It ought to be clear that the enforcement of international law and sanctions is only for weak countries and enemies of the West. This is why Rodrigo Duterte and Maduro are in detention waiting for trial while US President Donald Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu go their merry unrestrained way to pursue war and genocide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grandstanding, self-righteous and hypocritical, what can possibly go wrong with the European Union under the leadership of Ursula&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":689258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[208178,208181,6505,11330,188008,1594,365,32,2000,299,5187,1699,366,18868,2190,85473,2596,2132,2821,37887,208177,26262,336,33527,208180,6973,208179,1166,657,86834,1220,978,208176,8518,1781,333,6709],"class_list":{"0":"post-689257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-american-raid-in-venezuela","9":"tag-article-five","10":"tag-benjamin-netanyahu","11":"tag-brussels","12":"tag-cartel-de-los-soles","13":"tag-cnn","14":"tag-denmark","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-eu","17":"tag-europe","18":"tag-european","19":"tag-european-union","20":"tag-greenland","21":"tag-harvard-university","22":"tag-hungary","23":"tag-juan-orlando-hernandez","24":"tag-kaja-kallas","25":"tag-mexico","26":"tag-nato","27":"tag-nicolas-maduro","28":"tag-nikolas-rajkovic","29":"tag-rodrigo-duterte","30":"tag-russias-invasion-of-ukraine","31":"tag-stephen-miller","32":"tag-stephen-walt","33":"tag-the-new-york-times","34":"tag-tilburg-university","35":"tag-trump-administration","36":"tag-ukraine","37":"tag-un-charter","38":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","39":"tag-us","40":"tag-us-justice-department","41":"tag-venezuela","42":"tag-viktor-orban","43":"tag-vladimir-putin","44":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=689257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/689257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=689257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=689257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=689257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}