EU leaders are allowing Europe to 'sleepwalk into new conflict just like First World War'

EUROPEAN politicians are allowing the continent to 'sleepwalk' into a new conflict with parallels to the First World War, a former German chancellor has warned.Helmut Schmidt, 95, claimed the crisis in Ukraine is "increasingly comparable" to the period leading up to the 1914-1918 Great War. And he blamed the European Commission and NATO for seriously misreading the worst East-West tension since the end of the Cold War.

"I think very little of talking up the threat of World War III, and especially of demands for more money to arm NATO," he told German newspaper Bild. "But the danger that the situation gets ever more tense, as it did in August 1914, is growing day by day."

"Europe, the Americans and also the Russians are acting the way author Christopher Clark describes the start of World War One in his very readable book, like 'sleepwalkers'." 'The Sleepwalkers' by this Australian historian re-evaluates the eve of the First World War, focusing on how clueless the leaders of Europe's great powers were about the carnage of the first industrialised war that would follow.

Warning that European Union commissioners "understand very little", he stated: "The latest example is the attempt of the European Commission to annex Ukraine, and also to try to draw in Georgia. Just a reminder: Georgia lies outside of Europe. This is megalomania, we have no business being there."

In Brussels, officials had blundered by "confronting Ukraine with the apparent choice of having to choose between West and East", so infuriating Russia. He called on MEPs to grab back power from the commissioners.

[link to www.express.co.uk]