June 26, 2008 (LPAC)-- What a small world, indeed. The European think-tank ECFR-- European Council on Foreign Relations--on the 25th of June issued a statement on their website, signed by its founders, which calls for a continuation of the imperial British-led EU-project, after the Irish vote. This call was also published on the Letters page of "Guardian," "ABC" (Spain), and Serbian "Dnevnik." The title: "The EU cannot afford to become a symbol of weakness or decline". George Soros and German former foreign minister Joschka Fischer (lap-dog of Madeleine Albright, who cleared the way for the bombardment of Yugoslavia in 1999) initiated the whole thing. The ECFR presents a "Who is Who" of the British "liberal" empire faction, and its collaborators worldwide, with the clear aim, to destroy the United States potential as a Republic, and to create a worldwide revival of the British empire, using the EU as a ramming bloc, with Soros located as the henchman for both US and European operations.

The statement refers to "the threat of a nuclear Iran, the risk of war in the Middle East, the fight against extremism in Afghanistan, the challenge of climate change and the plight of all Africa", which supposedly requires "a strong Europe". "The world will not pause and wait for Europe to resolve its internal debate about better institutions". "Europe's place in the world will be challenged if the Union indulges in self-doubt and paralysis". Also, the "new Administration in Washington will need a strong European partner to reaffirm the Atlantic Alliance and restore its moral prestige." Therefore, "nonwithstanding disagreements about institutional reform", Europe must not become a "symbol of weakness and decline in the 21st century". There cannot be allowed to be "uncertainty" over the Lisbon Treaty", weakening "Europe's fledgling foreign policy".

Who is behind this organization?

In October 2007, George Soros and former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer founded the "European Council on Foreign Relations," a pan-European think tank, to "advise the EU on foreign policy". The ECFR presented itself that same month at the Foreign Office in Berlin and decided to introduce itself to an Austrian audience at the Insurance Giant Allianz Lectures at Vienna's Burgtheater on January 20, 2008 on the subject "Let's talk abut Europe." At that lecture, on "The world disorder and Europe's Role" George Soros, Joschka Fischer, Karl zu Schwarzenberg (Czech Foreign Minister) and Anne-Marie Slaughter spoke. (A professor for politics and international relations in Princeton, Slaughter played a key role in the "Princeton Project on National Security," that teamed up for the famous Middlebury College event on the privatization of the military, where Rohatyn endorsed private armies.)

ECFR is backed by the Soros Foundation Network, British citizen Sigrid Rausing (founder of the Sigrid Rausing Trust), the Spanish Foundation FRIDE, the Italian UniCredit Group and the Bulgarian Communitas Foundation.

It has some 50 founding members, including intellectuals and former politicians from all over Europe. Its website says, that it was founded to "promote more integrated European foreign policy," and has a unique pan-European perspective on Europe's role in the world.” The council, which founded it (see below), wants to "promote a new strategic culture at the heart of European foreign policy." With offices in 7 countries, ECFR's "in-house-policy-teams brings together some of Europe's most distinguished analysts and policy entrepreneurs to provide advise and proposals on the EU's global challenges." It will work through "advocacy, mass media and campaigns" to make the "necessary connections between innovative thinking, policy-making and civic action.”

Its executive director is British tweener Mark Leonard, who chaired the Foreign Policy at the London-based Centre for European Reform; before that for six years he was director of the Foreign Policy Centre, a thinktank under the patronage of Tony Blair. In 2005 he wrote a book "Why Europe will run the 21st Century"; his second book on China will come out this year. He also had a Fellowship at the "German Marshal Fund of the United States" in Washington in 2005, which he used to write his book. The German Marshall Fund works with German Bertelsmann Foundation, which has just recently "officially" set up shop in the US.

Among the members of the Council are:

Martti Ahtissari (of infamous Ahtisaari plan fame, setting up the road for independence for Kosovo in confrontation with Russia and Serbia), Robert Cooper, Emma Bonino, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Giuliano Amato, Etienne Davignon, Joschka Fischer (the German foreign minister, who helped to create the major confrontation with China and Russia in 1999 on the bombardment of Yugoslavia); Timothy Garton Ash, Wolfgang Ischinger (Chairman of the Munich Security conference, global Head of Government Affairs Allianz SE), Lionel Jospin, Mary Kaldor (London School of Economics,infamous for slandering us, and her strange connection to slain Olof Palme), Caio Koch-Weser (former vice president and managing director World Bank; former German finance state secretary; Vice Chairman of Deutsche Bank Group, member in board of Bertelsmann Stiftung), Ivan Krastev (Center for Liberal Strategies, Bulgaria -- the one, says that the real conflict is the Russian outdated allegiance to sovereignty as opposed to the EU's post-modern empire approach, and who spoke about a Balkan war, which "Europe badly needed" see EIR Nr. 10, 2008); Pascal Lamy (Director General of the WTO, and former EU Commissioner), Mark Leonard, Chris Patten (British former EU Commissioner and last British Governor of Hongkong), George Robertson (former Secretary General of NATO), Renato Ruggiero, former Secretary General of WTO); George Soros, Dominique Strauss-Kahn (France, IMF Managing Director), Sir Stephan Wall (UK, Chairman Hill and Knowlton; former Europe advisor to Tony Blair), Andre Wilkens (Germany, Executive Director Open Society Institute Brussels), Baroness Shirley Willians of Crosby (UK), MP; Prof. em. Kennedy School of Government. And many more from all over Europe.

Among the statements given by members of the council on their purpose, which you find on their website:

Soros: "The EU embodies the principles of an open society and it ought to serve as a model and motive force for a global open society. The EU used to take its lead from the Untied States, reacting to its agenda, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively, but it basically accepted the world order as given. That has to change and it cannot be achieved by individual countries acting on their own."

Another major founder, Sigrid Rausing, promotes an EU interventionist policy, saying that she is "pleased to be part of the effort the Council to mobilise EU countries to work in concert and to employ the power of their numbers , to promote and respect human rights worldwide." So far, there has been a lack of "coordination" by EU members, that they failed to take a leading role against human rights abuses in the world. (Rausing, a British citizen, took over the trust from her grandparents, in 2003 is was renamed; it focuses on human rights, women's rights, minority rights, environmental justice etc.)

Soros himself spoke at a major Berlin conference "A Soul for Europe" November17-19th , 2006, on the topic of how to proceed with Europe after the failed referendum. He gave it the title "Europe as a Prototype for a Global Open Society," referring to his "philosophical" predecessors, existentialist French philosopher Henri Bergson ("Elan Vital") who in 1932 wrote about the "The two sources of Morality and Religion." Bergson had described one source as being "tribal" and closed, and the other one "universal," leading to an open society guided by universal human rights. Soros then refers to his mentor, Karl Popper, and his book "The Open Society and Its Enemies" from 1944. In his speech he says, having a network of foundations inside and outside the EU, he is ready to "support an Open Society Initiative for Europe." It would "try to mobilize civil society behind the idea of Europe as a model and a force for a global open society…The world badly needs it."