Bertelsmanns Militaristische Agenda - Military agenda of bertelsmann
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Could you please introduce yourself
and tell us your name and position.
My name is Elke Schenk. I'm a teacher for German and social studies
at an occupational grammar school.
Mainly I'm engaged in the Attac EU-Group in Stuttgart.
And like one participant just mentioned during our discussion:
No matter which topic your are dealing with, you always run across Bertelsmann.
And thats the way it came to me
within the topic of EU policy.
One topic was militarisation - EU foreign policy.
How much is Bertelsmann involved in that topic?
They are involved since the end of the 80's,
to practice political consulting, how they call it euphemistically.
And since the beginning of the 2000s, they started to distribute
proceedings and policy papers, in which they accredit
a global power status to the EU.
With the aim to restructure/ redevelope the EU.
Finally the EU shall geopolitically operate at eye level with the US.
Also military capabilities, so called "missions",
shall operate independently without EU-mandate or Nato support.
That causes many changes, within the institutional,
within the important structures of the EU, that armament is necessary.
E.g. you can see, that within the present reform agreement
which was resolved the 16th or 18th October in Lisboa,
and which to 95 % refers to the content
of the declined EU constitutional contract,
central ideas of the Bertelsmann-Foundation about the global power status
of the EU are integrated.
One point they always recommend, the position of an EU foreign minister
who will be introduced, despite it's not allowed to name him that way.
He is called "High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security policy"
The European Defence Agency is resolute.
It has decided an own foreign service for the EU Foreign ministry.
It came to a decision referring a further centralisation
of decision making structures in Brussels.
That will provide advantages for the bigger countries.
Primarily for Germany, Great Britain and France.
What own interest could Bertelsmann have
to support such an agressive foreign policy of the EU?
The Bertelsmann corporation, as an international media corporation
depends on the exploration of markets.
On the one hand for his core products such as magazines,
music, radio and tv-programs.
Thats the one thing.
And then you have to take care that upcoming nations like China in India,
which are marked as threatening dangers
do not forestall.
Therefore a military coverage of the expansion is useful
even when they don't communicate it like that.
A second point is the existence of the Bertelsmann subsidiary "Arvato",
a so called service provider, which is active in the field of
IT-solutions and information technologies.
The ideas of their own European recon, their own European secret service
for everything related with
communication and information transfer,
which is important in the so called "new wars",
in that field Arvato expect contracts through Puplic-Private-Partnerships
or the outsourcing to private company profits.
The third point I can't evaluate with numbers right now,
but the Bertelsmann-Foundation itself gets orders
from public utilities, governmental authorities, ministeries.
And on that way they gain income, too.
The more important they present themselves in public
the earlier they get new orders for proceedings or a congress etc.
