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Soros: European Union Must ‘Reinvent Itself’

<p>Billionaire Investor George Soros on Tuesday claimed the European Union was in the midst of an &ldquo&semi;existential crisis&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;Everything that could go wrong &lbrack;in Europe&rsqb; has gone wrong&comma;&rdquo&semi; Soros said during a speech to the European Council on Foreign Relations in Paris&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a speech titled &ldquo&semi;How to Save Europe&comma;&rdquo&semi; Soros highlighted the bloc&rsquo&semi;s failure to handle the 2015 refugee crisis and claimed its austerity policies have &ldquo&semi;hindered Europe&rsquo&semi;s economic development&period;&rdquo&semi; The billionaire also expressed concerns regarding territorial fragmentation and the political chaos in Spain&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The ongoing Brexit negotiations are distracting the bloc from factors that could cause a &ldquo&semi;major financial crisis&comma;&rdquo&semi; warned Soros&comma; citing a strong USD&comma; Trump&rsquo&semi;s decision to withdraw from the JCPOA&comma; and uncertainty over tariffs that threaten transatlantic trade&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The only way for the EU to avoid disaster is to &ldquo&semi;reinvent itself&comma;&rdquo&semi; continued Soros&period; This includes transforming into &ldquo&semi;an association that countries like Britain would want to join&rdquo&semi; and removing regulations which dictate the number of refugees each EU member should accept&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Soros also called&nbsp&semi;on&nbsp&semi;grassroots organizations&nbsp&semi;to engage with&nbsp&semi;middle-class citizens and outlined a program to boost education and employment in Africa&period; The program&comma; which&nbsp&semi;would cost &dollar;34 billion per year&comma;&nbsp&semi;could significantly reduce the number of people seeking refuge&period; The EU could easily fund the program through its &ldquo&semi;largely unused&rdquo&semi; borrowing capacity&comma; he added&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&ldquo&semi;I want to point out that the proposal contains an ingenious device that would enable the EU to borrow from the market at a very advantageous rate without incurring a direct obligation for itself or for its member states&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&mdash&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>George Soros is a Hungarian-born investor and liberal activist who has repeatedly been criticized for meddling in European politics via his Open Society Foundation &&num;8211&semi; which in 2016 lobbied heavily against Brexit&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Earlier this month&comma; Soros announced he would be pulling OSF out of Hungary following aggressive opposition from Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the ruling Fidesz Party&period; Orban&comma; who was re-elected last month&comma; campaigned against Soros&&num;8217&semi;s liberal immigration policies&comma; which he warned would flood Hungary with Muslim immigrants and undermine national culture&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Author&&num;8217&semi;s Note&colon;<&sol;strong> Soros is calling out a crisis&comma; but his solutions would be much worse&period; His criticism of the&nbsp&semi;refugee crisis is too late&period; His criticism of austerity is&nbsp&semi;stupid because austerity is the only way for countries to get back on solid financial footing&period; His criticism of Brexit is&nbsp&semi;absurd because the whole point of the referendum was to give people an opportunity to escape the EU&&num;8217&semi;s foolish policies&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And his proposal to use borrowing to fund potential solutions to the refugee crisis would put the EU in massive debt&period; If the EU follows Soros&&num;8217&semi;s socialist and liberal policies&comma; it really will be facing an existential crisis&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Editor&&num;8217&semi;s Note<&sol;strong>&colon; Adding to the above&comma; I believe the EU is already facing an existential crisis&period; The Muslim population is expanding massively and they could very possibly win in a population war&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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