Translated material
Germany is a little jealous
The Chancellor of Germany, the country currently presiding over the EU and the G8, is trying to influence the agenda of the upcoming EU summit, which will be held tomorrow and the day after tomorrow in Brussels. The main topic of this meeting should be environmental issues. However, most likely they will have to give way to discussions on problems related to the deployment of American missile defense in Poland and the Czech Republic.
The head of the Foreign Policy Committee of the Bundestag, Ruprecht Polenz, in a conversation with Vremya Novostey, noted the need for a more intensive dialogue between the United States and Russia regarding the deployment of missile defense systems on the European continent. The invitation to this dialogue, our interlocutor said, sounded back in February in the Munich speech of President Vladimir Putin. Ruprecht Polenz, a member of the ruling CDU/CSU faction, is committed to the idea of involving Russia together with the United States in efforts to create a missile shield.
The parliamentary opposition is increasingly demanding greater flexibility in assessing US plans to deploy missile defense systems in Europe from Chancellor Merkel. The chairman of the Free Democratic Party, Guido Westerwelle, recently warned of the danger of a new split in Europe. “This deployment of missiles concerns not only Prague and Warsaw,” he emphasized. “We are talking about the security of Europe.” The deployment of an American missile shield is a questionable matter, and the German Chancellor, as President of the Council of the EU, is obliged to put a barrier to these plans, say opponents of turning Europeans into hostages of an overseas idea.
Although up to 70% of Czech residents do not support plans for their country to participate in US missile defense plans , Czech Minister for European Affairs Alexander Vondra found his own explanation for anti-American sentiment in “old” Europe: “Germany is obviously just a little jealous. After all, the United States, if it now wants to communicate with Europe, calls not to Berlin, but to Prague and Warsaw.”