Finland Joined NATO

As of yesterday, Finland abandoned decades of neutrality and officially became NATO's 31st member. 

Following WWII, and throughout the Cold War, Finland acted as a buffer zone between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  

In 1994, the country joined the Partnership for Peace programme to cooperate with NATO in peacekeeping and joint exercises without being a NATO member.  In 1995, Finland joined the EU.

When a country joins the EU, there is an obligation to aid any fellow member country that gets invaded.  It's legally binding that all EU members must assist but it allows each country to decide on how to help.  The aid a country provides could be military, political, humanitarian, etc.  This isn't the same thing as NATO Article 5, that says an attack on one is an attack on all.

Due to Article 5, every NATO member must approve any new member.  The USA approved Finland's accession in less than three months.  Czechland was also quick and gave approval in just over three months.

Hungary and Türkiye were the holdouts.  Hungary took 10 months, 1 week, and Türkiye approved after 10,5 months.

Putin didn't want NATO enlargement, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, it got the opposite.  Finland and Sweden both ditch neutrality and applied to join NATO.  Now Russia's direct border with NATO has doubled due to the 1.340 km (830 mile) border that Finland has with Russia.

The Finish military brings a lot to NATO.  While there are only about 24.000 active-duty personnel, it's wartime mobilisation is about 280.000 and they have a reserve pool of 870.000.  They spend about 2,3% of GDP on defence and they have one of the largest artillery forces in Europe.  The Finns are experts in cold weather and arctic operations, and the Gulf of Finland now became NATO territory.

Let's see how long it takes for Sweden to join.  Here's a short video I found out on YouTube.

©WSJ

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

EU and NATO Enlargement

When Russia invaded Ukraine, Putin wanted to prevent EU and NATO expansion in the east.  Well four months into the war and he's accomplished the opposite of what he wanted.  
Ukraine and Moldova have formally applied to join the EU and both are now official candidate countries.  Georgia has also applied and is now a potential candidate member.

Ukraine and Georgia were on track to apply in 2024 but the war has fast tracked their applications.

Joining the EU is not an easy thing to do and it takes years.  Türkiye applied in 1999, North Macedonia in 2005, Montenegro in 2010, Serbia in 2012, and Albania in 2014.  

Slovakia applied on 27 June 1995 and Czechland appleid on 17 January 1996.  Both joined on 1 May 2004.  So over eight years and neither country had Russian troops occupying part of their territories.

©The EU made SIMPLE

What's really significant is that Finland and Sweden have now both officially applied to join NATO.  While both countries are part of the the Partnership for Peace programme, both countries have long histories of neutrality.  Russia's invasion of Ukraine has really changed things.

©CNBC

©WSJ

Russia really can't be surprised that countries want to join NATO.  Take a look at the countries that the Soviet Union or Russia has invaded in the last 100 years.

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine. 

Update:  The USA approved both Finland's and Sweden's NATO applications on 3 August 2022.  Czechland approved both on 27 August 2022.

Update:  December 2022 - Bosnia and Herzegovina is now an official candidate member for EU membership.

Update: 4 April 2023 - Finland became the 31st member of NATO.

GDPR

GDPR is on its way.  The General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, was passed by in April 2016 and it gets implemented on 25 May 2018.  There's a lot to it and but the bottom line is that Europe will now have the world's strongest data protection rules.

The GDPR directive gives control to European citizens, and residents, of their personal data.  The personal data can be anything that helps identify you including a person's name, a photo, an e-mail address, medical information, bank details, social media posts, and even computer data to include location data, an IP address, cookie data, and RFID tags.

Companies need to obtain informed consent from a person before collecting, storing, or using any personal data.  Any data collected must be minimised, accurate, portable, and secure.  An individual has the right to be forgotten which means that a company must delete personal data upon request and provide proof of deletion without any undue delay.  And in the case of a data breach, consumers must be notified within 72 hours.

This pertains to all EU and EEA countries.  It also pertains to companies outside of Europe if the personal data leaves Europe.  So for example, although I am an American citizen, I am a European resident so my personal data falls under GDPR protection when I sign up for a random mailing list in the USA.

And it's not like business can just ignore the law.  Fines for not complying with GDPR can reach up to €20 million or 4% of a company's global annual turnover.  For every time they violate the directive.  Ouch!!

Here are a couple of short videos I found out on YouTube that talk about GDPR.

©CNN Money

©Wall Street Journal

Update:  If I don't use a VPN then I often get notifications on U.S. sites that their material isn't available to me in Europe.