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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on August 24th, 2010
Reihe: GENIAL DAGEGEN/ kuratiert von Robert Misik
Montag, 6. September, 19.00 Uhr Bruno Kreisky Forum für internationalen Dialog | Armbrustergasse 15 | 1190 Wien Anmeldungen unter: Tel.: 3188260/20 | Fax: 318 82 60/10 | e-mail: einladung.kreiskyforum@kreisky.org FRANZ WALTER Institut für Demokratieforschung Göttingen VORWÄRTS ODER ABWÄRTS? Hat die Sozialdemokratie noch eine Zukunft?
Moderation: Robert Misik, Journalist und Autor Vorwärts oder Abwärts?: Zur Transformation der Sozialdemokratie (edition suhrkamp) Jospin, Blair, Schröder: 1998 sah es so aus, als stünde die europäische Sozialdemokratie vor einem goldenen Zeitalter. Elf Jahre später hat die SPD 10.192.426 Millionen Stimmen verloren und sechs Parteivorsitzende verschlissen, die niederländische Partij van de Arbeid fuhr 2002 das schlechteste Ergebnis ihrer Geschichte ein, die schwedischen Sozialdemokraten 2006, die österreichischen 2008. Der »Dritte Weg« erwies sich als Weg ins Abseits, längst ist vom Ende einer Volkspartei die Rede. Es sieht so aus, als hätten die Sozialdemokraten keine überzeugende Antwort auf den radikalen Wandel der Arbeitswelt, auf Individualisierung und Globalisierung. Franz Walter, einer der profiliertesten deutschen Parteienforscher, untersucht die Ursachen für den Niedergang der SPD. Er wirft einen Blick über die Grenzen Deutschlands und fragt, was Freiheit, Gleichheit und Solidarität in unserer Zeit bedeuten. Melitta Campostrini Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 30th, 2010 Media freedom threatened in most European countries, says OSCE“Authorities have yet to understand that media are not their private property,” says the OSCE IN FRANCE IT IS THE PRESIDENT WHO NOMINATES THE HEAD OF THE PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING – CLEARLY AN INFRINGEMENT OF THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS NOT UNKNOWN IN TOTALITARIAN STATES. July 30, 2010 - http://euobserver.com/9/30561/?rk=1 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Media freedom is threatened in most European countries, warns the Organisation for Co-operation and Security in Europe, highlighting incidences in several of its member states including EU countries France, Italy and Greece. In a report published Thursday (29 July), the 56-member OSCE, a loose gathering of states monitoring regional security, says that “freedom of the media concerns arise in most OSCE participating States. They only manifest themselves differently.” The report, published annually, says the “freedom to express ourselves is questioned and challenged from many sides” and the threats manifest themselves through “traditional methods” to silence free speech as well as “new technologies to suppress and restrict the free flow of information and media pluralism.”
The breaches, either existing or potential, to media freedom range from a draft law on electronic surveillance and electronic eavesdropping law in Italy which could “seriously hinder investigative journalism” to a draft law in Estonia that may allow too many exemptions to the right to protect the identity of sources, to the fact that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is head of the public service broadcaster, France Televisions. “The presidential nomination of the head of a country’s public service broadcaster is an obstacle to its independence and contradicts OSCE commitments,” said the body’s Dunja Mijatovic, in charge of monitoring media freedom. Other areas of concern include the recent adoption by the Hungarian Parliament of parts of a media package with elements threatening media freedom and a possible threat in Greece to a minority radio station that broadcasts in Turkish, while the organisation expresses hope that Germany will adopt a law protecting investigative journalists. Beyond the EU, the “brutal attack” against a Serbian journalist known for his outspokenness against nationalism was highlighted as was the the “high number of criminal prosecutions” against journalists in Turkey covering sensitive issues as well “serious infringements” on media pluralism in Kyrgyzstan and a series of attacks against journalists in Russia. “Many argue that media freedom is in decline across the OSCE region. In some aspects, I can subscribe to that,” said Ms Mitjatovic. “Authorities have yet to understand that media are not their private property and that journalists have the right to scrutinize those who are elected.” “Violence against journalists equals violence against society and democracy and should be met with harsh condemnation and prosecution of the perpetrators,” she added. With the internet changing the nature and scope of reporting, Ms Mijatovi also promised a study into the various internet laws in place across the OSCE countries. “My office is currently working on the compilation of the first comprehensive matrix on internet legislation which will include an overview of legal provisions related to freedom of the media, the free flow of information and media pluralism on the internet in the OSCE region.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 6th, 2010 Greece Seeks Regional Deal To Aid UN Climate Talks.July 7, 2010, Alister Doyle, for Reuters from Greece. Greece is pushing for a Mediterranean initiative on climate change that could show a way to breathe life into stalled global climate talks, its environment minister said. “The most important thing is to create regional alliances,” minister Tina Birbili told Reuters in an interview. Greece is working on an initiative by Mediterranean nations to forge a common stance, a shift from working only in the European Union. The Mediterranean area is set to get drier this century, bringing problems of heatwaves and water shortages. She said such a regional approach could be imitated by other groups in negotiations on a new United Nations climate treaty, for instance African nations likely to be affected by drought or Asian nations affected by shifting monsoons. Existing negotiating blocs were often too broad to be effective. “The U.N. blocs seem to be very weak at this point… Why not have all these regional initiatives that could create a regional dynamic in U.N. negotiations?” she said. Environment ministers from around the world are set to meet for the next U.N. climate talks in Cancun, Mexico, from November 29 to December 10 after the Copenhagen summit in December 2009 fell short of a binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. “I believe that before Cancun, we will have a political declaration on the Mediterranean,” Birbili said. Mediterranean countries, also vulnerable to rising sea levels, could consider merging national plans for adapting to the impacts of climate change into one regional one, she said. Developing nations, which usually work in the Group of 77, could adopt a similar regional approach in addition to their efforts in the G77, she said. The G77 represents a wide range of nations with differing interests — from oil exporters worried that a shift to renewable energy will cut their earnings to Pacific island states fearful that they will be submerged by rising seas. Birbili said there should be more focus on regional alliances. Birbili said that a full U.N. treaty was unlikely in Cancun. “It’s very difficult to achieve binding agreements in Cancun,” said Birbili, a 40-year old environmental expert. “We have to make things mature in Cancun, and then agree on a document in South Africa or wherever, in 2011 or 2012,” she said. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 1st, 2010 July 1, 2001 The e-mail reads: Today Belgium assumes its role as the President of the Council of the European Union for the twelfth time in its history. It is a moment for Flanders and Belgium to shine: the rest of Europe, and indeed the world, will be watching as our country takes partial command of the complex EU institutional machinery. This time, Belgium is part of a triumvirate, in which Spain, Belgium, and Hungary consecutively chair the Council of Ministers for six months. This trio presidency of the Council of the European Union is the first one that falls entirely under the regime of the new Lisbon Treaty. This Treaty gives Europe the necessary clout to answer today’s challenges. Flanders has made substantive contributions to the joint presidency program of Spain, Belgium and Hungary, and to the Belgian one. The EU has much more influence on the daily life of Europeans than you may think: generally more than 70% of the legislation Europeans have to abide by, originates at the EU level! As our Minister-President recently highlighted with the slogan “Flanders shines in Europe, Europe shines in Flanders;” the EU Presidency is an excellent opportunity for Flanders to celebrate Europe and to bring Europe even closer to the Flemish people. We hope to achieve something similar with this introduction and to bring the European Union and the role of Flanders in the EU somewhat closer to all Flemings and the friends of Flanders in the US.
I wish you all an enjoyable Flanders Day on July 11 and relaxing summer holidays! Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 27th, 2010 Delors tables energy community plan, slams EU leaders.VALENTINA POP, the EUobserver. 05.05.2010 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Former European Commission president Jacques Delors on Wednesday (5 April) tabled proposals for a new EU treaty establishing an energy community and criticised the lack of political will in dealing with the eurozone’s problems, saying Europe needed “architects” just as much as “firefighters.”  Jacques Delors says an energy community could foster greater EU integration (Photo: EU Commission)
The 84-year-old French economist presided over the European Commission between 1985 and 1994 and is considered one of the architects of European integration following the end of the Cold War and Germany’s re-unification. The report he presented on Wednesday, drafted by a group of lawyers and academics, makes the case for an “EU energy community” based on a new treaty. It draws its inspiration from the European Coal and Steel Community founded in 1950, which set the ground for what later became the EU. Sixty years on, Mr Delors made the case for a unified energy community, which would also include the leap to “green technologies” needed to reach the climate change mitigation targets. The proposal includes concrete measures ranging from an EU energy fund to “purchasing groups” of countries, so as to give them greater negotiation leverage in relations with suppliers like Russia. Although recognising the “difficult circumstances for our economies and finances,” in reference to the Greek bail-out and market speculation concerning other troubled euro-countries, Mr Delors emphasised the need for EU “architects” just as much as “firefighters.” “We need blueprints during this period of time,” he said, criticising the lack of co-operation at the EU level. The report sees three ways of achieving this energy community: via a new EU treaty, via “common actions” or via “re-inforced co-operation,” pooling together countries who want the same things and gradually attracting more members – similar to the eurozone or the border-free Schengen area. “I know there is a certain fatigue of some governments to draw up another treaty, but one should value the power of treaties, which helped a lot in terms of growth of our countries, mutual understanding and peace. A treaty also implies a common set of rules everybody respects. A treaty is an element of EU architecture,” Mr Delors argued. He also noted a certain “allergy” when it comes to reinforced co-operation, but stressed that this was the only solution in a union of 27, “where some want to go faster than others.” Mr Delors’ proposals were received rather coolly by EU energy commissioner Guenther Oettinger, who said that the Lisbon Treaty actually has a specific article on energy matters, allowing for EU legislation in this field. “My duty is to use article 194 of the Lisbon Treaty for legislative proposals. If after analysis, this article is not enough, your proposals will come back on the table,” Mr Oettinger said. A former regional politician in Germany, Mr Oettinger also stressed the principle of “subsidiarity” enshrined in the EU treaty, meaning that rules and regulations have to be drafted as closely to the citizen as possible – by regional or national assemblies and appeal to the EU level only when absolutely needed. No leadership from Germany: Asked in a later press conference how he saw Germany’s reluctance to help out the Greeks, Mr Delors said that “weeks of tergiversation, of discussions, even if some may argue there were serious discussions, only incited market speculations and fueled euro-skepticism.” “But EU’s economic and monetary union has the means to face the events of yesterday, today or tomorrow. It simply lacks the will to and the spirit of co-operation,” he added. ———————— ‘Euro-father’ Kohl defends Greek bail-outVALENTINA POP, The Euroobserver. May 5, 2010 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Germany’s former chancellor and re-unification figurehead, Helmut Kohl, has defended the euro as a “guarantee for peace” and said he has “no understanding”for those against the Greek bailout, a reference to his former protegee Angela Merkel and her reluctance to come to Athens’ aid.  Helmut Kohl and his former protegee Angela Merkel in 2005 (Photo: CDU)
Nicknamed the ‘father of the euro’ for his pro-European policies at the end of the Cold War, Helmut Kohl said the common currency is a “guarantee for peace” on a continent that witnessed so many wars in the past. “I have no understanding for the current debate about Greece. For people who act as if Greece has nothing to do with them,” he told some 800 guests, including Chancellor Merkel, who had come to celebrate his 80th birthday in his home town Ludwigshafen. “Of course it is difficult,” he went on, struggling to make himself understood after having a suffered a life-threatening skull fracture two years ago, “but one has to do everything.” The patriarch of German centre-right politics, once Ms Merkel’s mentor, thanked many in his speech, but did not mention his former protegee turned chancellor. His comments came on the same day as another veteran of EU politics, former commission president Jacques Delors, slammed the “lack of will and spirit of co-operation” of current leaders in dealing with the problems of the eurozone. Ms Merkel, however, did thank Mr Kohl for re-unification which saw her home, East Germany, come back into the fold, as well as for laying the foundation for the euro. “We still feel the importance today of the fact that you fought for the growth and stability pact [the rules governing the common currency area] in 1997″ Ms Merkel said to brief applause, according to German media. Only a few hours earlier, she had come to the defence of the Greek bail-out, in a keynote speech held in the German Parliament, brushing off criticism that her reluctance had only worsened the woes of the eurozone. “A good European is not necessarily one who helps quickly. A good European is one who respects the European treaties and helps in a way that doesn’t damage the stability of the euro,” she argued, alluding to Berlin’s insistence on Greek austerity measures before tabling its 22 billion share of the 110billion loan. The austerity measures, to be voted on in Greek parliament today, have caused brought citizens out into the streets of Athens to protest. A summit of eurozone leaders on Friday evening is expected to give the political go ahead to the bailout package as well as discuss lessons learned from the crisis, the drawn out response to which has prompted fears of contagion to other countries such as Portugal and Spain. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 3rd, 2010 Richard Attias (born 1959 in Morocc) – he is a global events producer. As chairman of PublicisLive Attias was the producer of the World Economic Forum in Davos for over fifteen years. His personal history and the history of the organizations he was involved with are plainly fascinating and we write this longer posting because we feel that he is embarking now upon even a greater voyage with his new NEW YORK FORUM, then in his previous activities.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Geneva-based non-profit foundation best known for its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which brings together top business leaders, international political leaders, selected intellectuals and journalists to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world, including health and the environment. Beside meetings, the WEF produces a series of research reports, and engages its members in sector specific initiatives. WEF also organizes the “Annual Meeting of the New Champions” in China, and a series of regional meetings throughout the year. In 2008 those regional meetings included meetings on Europe and Central Asia, East Asia, the Russia CEO Roundtable, Africa, the Middle East, and the World Economic Forum on Latin America. In 2008 it launched the “Summit on the Global Agenda” in Dubai. The WEF was founded in 1971 by Klaus Martin Schwab, a German-born business professor at the University of Geneva. Originally named the European Management Forum, it changed its name to the World Economic Forum in 1987 and sought to broaden its vision further to include providing a platform for resolving international conflicts. In the summer of 1971 Schwab invited 444 executives from Western European firms to the first European Management Symposium held in the Davos Congress Centre, under the patronage of the European Commission and European industrial associations, where Schwab sought to introduce European firms to US management practices. He then founded the WEF as a non-profit organization based in Cologny, Geneva, and drew European business leaders to Davos for their annual meetings each January. Schwab developed the “stakeholder” management approach which based corporate success on managers taking account of all interests: not merely shareholders, clients and customers, but employees and the communities within which the firm is situated, and governments. Events in 1973 including the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate mechanism, and the Arab-Israeli War, saw the annual meeting expand its focus from management to economic and social issues, and political leaders were invited for the first time to Davos in January 1974. As the years went by, political leaders began to use Davos as a neutral platform to resolve their differences. The Davos Declaration was signed in 1988 by Greece and Turkey, helping them turn back from the brink of war. In 1992 South African President F. W. de Klerk met with Nelson Mandela and Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi at the Annual Meeting, their first joint appearance outside South Africa. At the 1994 Annual Meeting, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat reached a draft agreement on Gaza and Jericho. In 2008 Bill Gates gave a keynote speech on Creative Capitalism, a form of capitalism that works both to generate profits and solve the world’s inequities, using market forces to better address the needs of the poor. 
Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992. During the five-day Annual meeting in 2009, over 2,500 participants from 91 countries gathered in Davos. Around 75% (1,170) were business leaders, drawn principally from its members, 1,000 of world’s top companies. Besides these, participants included 219 public figures, including 40 heads of state or government, 64 cabinet ministers, 30 heads or senior officials of international organizations and 10 ambassadors. More than 432 participants were from civil society, including 32 heads or representatives of non-governmental organizations, 225 media leaders, 149 leaders from academic institutions and think tanks, 15 religious leaders of different faiths and 11 union leaders.
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During the 1990s, Attias founded an Event Management Company and produced various global events including the Zurich Insurances Convention and Boris Yeltsin‘s visit to France. Richard was awarded the contract for the signature of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) signature agreements in Marrakesh and for the Middle East and North Africa summit meeting in Casablanca.
A brief encounter with Klaus Schwab, President of the World Economic Forum, resulted in a long-standing partnership and the eventual creation of the Global Event Management Company. This joint venture agency went on to manage international conferences, including the International Telecoms Union Congress and the Middle East Peace Summit in Jordan and the World Economic Forum in Davos. – Richard joined Publicis Groupe in 1998 and established a global enterprise producing events for various clients including IBM, l’Oreal, Uniliver, BT, Avaya, Lenovo, EDF, Sanofi-Aventis, etc. Richard was named Chairman of the Board of Publicis Dialog which combined the operations of Publicis Events and a range of marketing services. In 2004, Richard moved to New York and became chairman of Publicis Events Worldwide, the first world wide events network with over 600 employees. At PublicisLive Richard combined the events company and team to form PublicisLive that specialized in the conception and production of international conferences and very high profile events such as the Clinton Global Initiative Forum, the Islamic Conference, The Petra Conference of Nobel Laureates, the Dalian Economic Summit in China, and the Monaco Media Forum. – On March 23, 2008, Richard Attias married in New York’s Rockefeller Centre the ex-wife of French President Nicolas Sarkozy Former French First Lady Mme. Cécilia María Sara Isabel Ciganer-Albéniz (a descendent of the composer). Cécilia Sarkozy visited Libya twice in July 2007 to visit Muammar al-Gaddafi and helped in securing the release of five Bulgarian nurses and one Palestinian doctor who had all spent years on Libya‘s death row after allegedly being tortured into confessing to infecting Libyan babies with the HIV virus. The French left asked for Cécilia Sarkozy to be heard by the Parliamentary Commission expected to be created in October 2007 concerning the terms of the release of the six, as she had played an “important role” in their liberation. A Newspaper interview with Cécilia Sarkozy on October 19, 2007, made it known that she is leaving the President.
Current workIn 2008 Richard Attias created the Experience Corporation – a U.S. based full service event management and strategic consulting company with offices in New York, Paris, Jeddah and Dubai, that supports government and non-governmental organizations worldwide. As Executive Chairman, Richard oversees the execution and management of global events. Two major recent productions have been the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the accession to the throne of the King of Jordan and the launching of the Bahrain Education Project in Manama on October 10, 2009. The Experience Corporation has also executed more than a dozen corporate and governmental events since its inception in March, 2008. Richard Attias is the Executive Chairman of the Experience Corporation and works there with his wife. Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women, In October 2008, Cecilia Attias announced the launch of her Foundation for women’s rights. The Cecilia Attias Foundation for Women actualizes concrete improvement in the lives of women worldwide by serving as a strategic, media, and financial platform for small and moderate sized, established non-governmental organizations, associations and foundations who champion the cause of women’s equality and well-being. Recently, Cecilia Attias delivered the keynote address at the ARISE Africa Fashion Awards entitled “The Promise of Africa.”2008, Richard Attias sold the Global Event Management Company and with it the contract with the World Economic Forum. Richard is named special advisor to the Emirate of Dubai to provide a comprehensive strategy to make the city a destination for major conferences, and cultural and sporting events and spends a year and a half in Dubai. Richard Attias is the Chairman the Advisory Board of the Center on Capitalism and Society, directed by Nobel Prize winner Edmund Phelps. Currently, The Experience is making preparations for its New York Forum, the first summit to unite business leaders, sovereign funds and all major players in the global economy for an open, action oriented debate to foster ideas for improvement and reinvent current business models. This brings us to what goes on right now – right here in New York, and we got wind of this from the New York Foreign Press Center where Richard Attias gave a Briefing on-The-Record, June 2, 2010.
We learned that this was the launching announcement for the FIRST ANNUAL NEW YORK FORUM, and we bet, in an age of contraction and increased interest in the real world, with demands that go beyond what a resort can provide, the location in New York City might make it possible that the meeting will become even more important then those Davos meetings.
The First Meeting will be held June 22-23, 2010, at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on East 42nd Street in Manhattan.
If you check the dates – you find that this fits neatly before the G-20 meeting – June 26 – 27, 2010 in Toronto. And as such, we already learned, that a main attraction of this meeting will be Christine Lagarde, Finance Minister of France will be the featured speaker at the closing session June 23, 2010.
Lagarde is the first woman ever to become minister of Economic Affairs of a G8 economy. In 2008, Lagarde was ranked the 14th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine. A noted antitrust and labor lawyer, Lagarde made history as the first female chairman of the international law firm Baker & McKenzie. She has been awarded France’s highest honor, the Légion d’honneur. In 2009, the Financial Times ranked her the best Minister of Finance of the Eurozone.
Further we learned that to date, Vikram Pandit, CEO, Citigroup; Edmund Phelps, Nobel Prize in Economics, 2006; Arthur Sulzberger Jr., Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times; Robert Wolf, CEO, UBS Americas; Jonathan Miller, CEO, News Corp Digital; Cathie Black, President, Hearst Magazines; and S.D. Shibulal, Co-Founder of Infosys Technologies, are among the people who have confirmed their attendance.
The New York Forum is a call for action by the business community to reinvigorate the global economy and to find new confidence and credibility. Initial support came from the following Forum partners: The Boston Consulting Group, The New York Times, Partnership for New York City, and the Center on Capitalism and Society at Columbia University.
The Forum’s distinguished Advisory Board includes Nobel Prize-winning economist and Director of The Center for Capitalism and Society, Edmund Phelps; Partnership for New York City CEO Kathy Wylde; Economist and Planet Finance Founder, Jacques Attali; and Scott-Heekin-Canedy, President and General Manager, The New York Times. —————
WHY NEW YORK?
From Mr. Attias we learned that his love affair with New York started at 9/11. He saw then how “UNITED WE STAND” was something real in this city. That is how he decided to make it his main home.
When the financial crisis struck he was in Dubai – he realized that the economic crisis will follow. He saw there the workers from India losing their jobs without understanding what it is all about. He came back to New York with the intent to create this new platform – the New York Forum with people who really run the show – the business people rather then the politicians. He talks as stakeholders – of NGOs, academics, besides the business people, and he wants them to come up with actual proposals. He will keep them in the discussion groups and wait for solutions. He talks of a call to action and is not shy to say that the problems were started right here in New York, and solutions should come from New York and applied directly in New York.
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Richard Attias thinks the Financial Crisis is behind us – but we have the Economic Crisis and we must have jobs for people.
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The 2010 New York Forum will have a total of only 320-360 participants – just 3 plenaries with CEOs and attendees. Also many smaller group meetings, Mr. Attias said that 60 people in a group is the maximum. Further, as he said, at the end there must be a road map on regulations and transparency as needed to create renewed trust in the system. For years we had the feeling of credibility, what happened recently made us lose that feeling and we must restore it.
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Several days after the meeting there will be a “white book” – 100% transparent, open to the media – at least to the web – and press releases.
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Three days after the meeting Rubinstein Communications Inc. will have the result of the dialogue in the form of a document – “REINVENTING THE BUSINESS MODEL.”
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We got enthused by the fact that Mr. Attias said that while now there are 600,000 cars on the global roads every day, when China matches us in the ratio of cars per people, there might be 2 billion cars on the roads of the planet – and this is not negotiable. Different transportation systems must be established.
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indeed, in his briefing Mr. Attias did not go into details of a green economy, or of the actual alternatives that must evolve. We realized that in ways he wants to keep his neutrality before the dialogue, but it is clear that no results are possible if all our favorite arguments will not be part of this dialogue. Therefore we are confident that the Forum can be the answer to just what the doctor found in his diagnosis: The crisis started in New York and the road map will be drawn in New York in order to effect the financial institutions, that will from now on, have to handle with complete transparency the requirements of sustainability.
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He picked New York also because its rich cultural life, in this respect it might be more to the point then going away to a retreat.
With a composition as diverse as including people from South Africa, India, Dubai, Korea, etc. a process of innovation may be started at this forum. He has extended invitations to Sovereign Funds- so governments like Saudi Arabia will be present.
Problems started as for years political leaders were out to reduce costs, but the problem that in the real world it led to the Greece crisis. Something has to change. Mme. Legarde is expected to address tis problem
———————- For The New York Forum Contact: Rubenstein Communications, Inc. Iva Benson (212) 843-8271, ibenson at rubenstein.com Thomas Chiodo (212) 843-8289, tchiodo at rubenstein.com ——————– Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 10th, 2010 Europe announces vast contingency fund, racing to contain crisis. By Howard Schneider Europe announces trillion-dollar fund to stem debt crisis – Greece protests austerity measures. After a discussion that ran into the early morning Monday, the finance ministers, the ECB and the International Monetary Fund took separate steps meant to stanch a loss of confidence in European governments that had put the world’s nascent economic recovery at risk. A joint European Union-IMF program will give the 16 nations that share the euro access to nearly $1 trillion in loans if world bond markets abandon them and demand higher interest rates. That dynamic pushed Greece to a near-default before a $140 billion bailout by the IMF and Greece’s European neighbors. The long delay in negotiating Greece’s rescue, however, raised doubts about what might happen if other, larger and economically weakened countries, such as Spain, were to run into trouble. As borrowing rates in other countries began to rise last week, world stock markets slid and the euro lost value against other currencies. Concerned that the problem could evolve into a full-blown crisis — undermining economic recovery and possibly shattering confidence in the euro itself — the ministers rushed to put the package together before a new trading week began in Asia. The action was given an initial vote of confidence, with Asian markets trading higher and the euro strengthening against the Japanese yen. “This shows we are placing considerable sums in the interest of stability in Europe,” said Spanish Finance Minister Elena Salgado, who chaired the meeting. Under the new program, the 27 members of the European Union would have access to about $80 billion in loans. Separately, the 16 nations that share the euro as a currency agreed to establish a special entity that could borrow as much as $575 billion, with repayment guaranteed by the group. The money could then be used to support any other eurozone countries that have difficulty borrowing on world bond markets. The IMF would put about $325 million in additional funding behind the effort. “These are strong measures,” IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn said in a written statement that followed the European decision. The ECB announced its own measures to protect the euro. The bank said it would, if necessary, begin buying public and private debt on the secondary market “to ensure depth and liquidity in those market segments which are dysfunctional.” The bank and the U.S. Federal Reserve also announced that the Fed was reactivating a program of “swap lines” to make sure other central banks have access to enough money to keep world credit markets moving — a program used when the financial crisis took hold in 2008. The very debate in Europe marks a dramatic turnaround. European finance and political officials took months to deliberate a bailout package to keep heavily indebted Greece from defaulting on its loans — time during which confidence slipped in other European governments and put the 16-nation European monetary grouping under threat.
On Friday, as they gave final approval to aid for Greece, European heads of state also said a larger effort to support the euro was needed, and they set their finance ministers to work developing a program over the weekend.
“We are going to defend the euro,” Salgado told reporters. “We have to give more stability to our currency. . . . We will do whatever is necessary.” The emergency measures in Brussels came as the IMF gave final approval to the rescue package for Greece. Combined, the two programs, along with the ECB action, are meant to assure investors that European governments are financially stable and that the euro nations will collectively stand behind the currency. Ministers from the larger European Union approved the support program, though the main focus is on supporting the value of the euro, and the funding will come almost entirely from the countries that use the common currency. As President Obama lobbied European leaders to take what a White House statement described as “resolute” action to protect an evolving economic recovery, Europe’s response to the crisis in Greece continued to roil regional politics. German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling party appeared headed for defeat in regional elections that were turning, in part, on her support of emergency loans for Greece. British leaders continued sorting through the results of an election that produced no clear winner but may lead to the ouster of the Labor Party government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Emotions remain high in the Greek capital. What was advertised as a vigil for three bank employees killed in an Athens firebombing last week turned into a haranguing denouncement of government budget cuts and the “foreign occupation” of Greece by the IMF. The program is one of the IMF’s most extensive, but fund officials said it was warranted both by the risks Greece posed to the economic recovery and the aggressive steps Greek officials have been willing to take to right the country’s finances. About $26 billion will be available immediately, enough for Greece to make a large debt payment later this month. Overall, the program is meant to give Greece three years of “breathing room” to balance its budget and restructure its economy without having to borrow on the open market. ————– On the Fareed Zakaria Program today, Sunday May 9th, 2010 it was repeatedly pointed out that because of the common currency, no single country can now defend itself by devaluation of its currency – this goes for Greece while no help from Brussels was forthcoming. Fareed formulated this as “European leaders have failed and Greece is burning.” He further said that this happened because Europe had no General Powell to say – ACT SWIFTLY! With an unwieldy 27 it just did not lead to decisions until now. Greece is just 2% of the Euromarket, but with Portugal, Belgium, Spain in similar troubles, this becomes a real chunk of the EU. The consensus seems that trying to make it work now, will be less painful then letting the Euro collapse. Skeptics on the panel added that the Germans will have to say they are willing to do it, so the confidence of the market returns and may even conclude that it is not needed to intervene. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/09/AR2010050901146.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010050903427 Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 2nd, 2010 ? New at www.wdev.eu – The World Economy & Development site: The Baltic Future of Greece. Likely consequences of IMF and EU conditionality ————- Greece: A European Crisis Needs European Solutions. Open letter to European policymakers Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 2nd, 2010 We had the following sit in the computer in draft form for nearly a year. We did not post it because I thought – wait – we really may not see the depth of the problem yet. I watched today Fareed Zakaria interviewing Lloyd Blankfein, the present CEO of Goldman-Sachs, and saw the pits – this reminded me of the article. We heard that the Bush Administration employed ten graduates of the Goldman-Sachs school of doing business while the Obama Administration employs only three. This seems progress, but we learned that Hank Paulsen and Tim Geithner call Lloyd Blankfein to find out what goes on “on the Street” – read Wall Street. There is nothing wrong when the former boss calls the one that replaced him for information – but what if the information helps guide policy in ways the old House likes it? This does not have to be an issue of corruption – it is mainly an issue of business culture. This was not just in the Bush Administration – this is TODAY. We know that Wall Street is doing fine again – only that most everybody else does not – and some of the meanest misery was exported to others. See Europe – the German and French banks lent to Greece, Spain, Portugal etc. and never checked country policies that might have been very different from their own. Even the EURO, having been structured without common fiscal policy, gets into this hot tub. If Greece falls – so will the German banks that invested in a financially failing situation with open eyes. If Greece fails, what will happen to the EURO? Then how does this compound the German loss. The German loss will then be the US win – after all exchange rates go by who loses least. Having started the ball rolling, the US banking institutions, having already gotten support, can now watch how the Europeans start rolling into the dust. But this is not all – we listen to Mr. Blankfein and realize that more shoes will be falling – so – more institutions will lose credibility and start rolling. There is ample space in the mud – for all of them. Possibly some space in the jails too. John Paulsen was not the only Wall Street Wizard to figure out how selling of poison bundles will do him good. He was part of that school and stood his ground today explaining that giving rope to others to hang themselves is a good bet for the salesman.What is needed is seemingly the closing of schools that teach such science and for Washington to retain only reformed graduates of such schools. Knowing crime is a positive thing only if beholden friendship to the criminals is a thing of the past. Perhaps George Soros could be an adviser in such matters to President Obama. Paul Volcker, Joseph Stiglitz are excellent academics in these areas also. Paul Krugman and Thomas Friedman could further add a line or two. We get now to the point that real reform is needed by all – in the US and in Europe. Will this ever happen? Will the politicians agree to seek the right track to survival that is not just a game of cannibalism? Will they allow financial reform to proceed? —————————————————– Arianna Huffington, June 15, 2009 Whistling Past the Economic Graveyard: The Audacity of Misplaced Hope – Banks, Economic Recovery, Financial Market, Geithner Plan, Obama Economic Recovery Plan, Public-Private Investment Program, Timothy Geithner, Toxic Assets… Is it possible to have too much hope? To be too optimistic? Yes, if that hope keeps you from facing — and dealing with — unpleasant realities. That seems to be what’s happening regarding the financial institutions responsible for the economic meltdown. —– Let’s start with the banks’ toxic assets. When Tim Geithner unveiled the Public Private Investment Program, he said that dealing with these assets was a “core” part of solving the financial crisis. But the banks would much rather keep pretending that their toxic assets are not that toxic, and worth much more than they really are — a risky charade the relaxed mark-to-market rules allow them to continue to pull off. So, last week, the PPIP program was apparently scrapped. Does this mean that the toxic assets are no longer a “core” part of the problem? Or that hoping they’re no longer part of the problem will somehow make them no longer part of the problem? Among the proposals: “raising capital and liquidity requirements for all institutions”; “consolidated supervision by the Federal Reserve”; “robust reporting requirements on the issuers of asset-backed securities” including “strong oversight of ‘over the counter’ derivatives”; and providing “a stronger framework for consumer and investor protection across the board.” The devil, of course, will be in the details. And on how much muscle Obama puts behind pushing these measures through and ensuring they become law without being watered down. Especially at a time when the latest stock market bubble has undermined the urgent push for reform, which seems to have given way to a push to move on to other things and leave that little financial kerfuffle behind us. And investors seem anxious to do the same. Witness the “fierce rally” in the collateralized loan obligation market. CLOs are made up of sliced and diced assets (including high-risk and junk loans) — and are kissing cousins to the collateralized-debt obligations (i.e. crap) at the heart of the financial meltdown. But according to analysts at Morgan Stanley there has recently been a “remarkable change” in investor sentiment towards these securities, including an “exuberance” for the lowest grade junk being sold. In other words, we are right back to risky business as usual. No harm, no foul. Let’s get back to the fun we were having before this whole worldwide economic collapse thing started happening. It puts a whole other spin on the audacity of hope. ———- Too many in Washington — and in the media continue to take the well-being of Wall Street as the proper gauge for the well-being of the rest of America. Yes, the Dow is up 33 percent since March. But another 345,000 jobs were lost in May, raising the number of the unemployed to 14.5 million, and the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent. Since the start of the recession in December 2007, unemployment has almost doubled. What’s more, as the charts show it, over the past two decades, the top one percent of Americans has done very well in terms of wage growth. Things have not been nearly as good for everybody else. Are the reforms going to be sufficiently fundamental to avoid a repeat of the boom and bust cycles, in which only a select few enjoy the boom and everybody else pays for the bust? Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on May 2nd, 2010 This is a sequel that we announced in our article posted http://www.sustainabilitank.info/#14986 on the meetings at Columbia University on Friday, April 30, 2010. This sequel deals with the presentation, and the discussion following it, by the President of the European Parliament, Professor of Chemical Engineering Jerzy Buzek, formerly the Prime Minister of Poland (1997-2001). ( the speech – http://www.ep-president.eu/president/view/en/press/speeches/sp-2010/sp-2010-April/speeches-2010-April-3.html ) The European Parliament was created in 1979 as an eventual development from what was started May 9, 1950 – 60 years ago – by the Robert Schuman declaration that formed the coal community. The coal and steel industries of six European, previously warring countries, united to show that after WWII a new Europe was born. This led to new peaceful International relations as a way of reconciliation and eventually to the creation of the EU. Jerzy Buzek was born on 3 July 1940 in Smilowice, a town in south-eastern Silesia which is now in the Czech Republic, to a prominent family, which participated in Polish politics in the Second Polish Republic during the period between the two World Wars. The family was part of the Polish community in Zaolzie. Buzek’s father was an engineer. After the Second World War, his family moved to Chorzów. He is a Protestant. In 1963 Jerzy Buzek graduated from the Mechanics-and-Energy Division of the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice specializing in chemical engineering. He became a scientist in the Chemical Engineering Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice. Since 1997 he has been a professor of technical science. He is also an honorary doctor of the universities in Seoul and Dortmund. Mr. Buzek told at the meeting that he went to study a hard science because in those days you could go nowhere with politics – politics were “of one color and falsified”he said, but in politics you can influence much more then in hard sciences he also said. Solidarity was the first non-communist party controlled trade union in a Warsaw Pact country. In the 1980s it constituted a broad anti-bureaucratic social movement. The government attempted to destroy the union during the period of martial law in the early 1980s and several years of political repression, but in the end it was forced to start negotiating with the union. in December 1989 Tadeusz Mazowiecki was elected Prime Minister. Since 1989 Solidarity has become a more traditional trade union, and had relatively little impact on the political scene of Poland in the early 1990s. A political arm founded in 1996 as Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) – a rather rightist or center-right party – won the parliamentary election in 1997, but lost the following 2001 election. Those were the years that Jerzy Buzek was Prime Minister 1997-2001. In the 1980s Jerzy Buzek was an activist of the democratic anti-communist movements, including the legal (1980–1981 and since 1989) and underground (1981–1989) Solidarity trade union and political movement in communist Poland. He was an active organizer of the trade union’s regional and national underground authorities. He was also the chairman of the four national general meetings (1st, 4th, 5th and 6th) when the Solidarity movement was allowed to participate in the political process again. Jerzy Buzek was a member of the Solidarity Electoral Action (Akcja Wyborcza Solidarnosc, AWS) and co-author of the AWS’s economic program. After the 1997 elections he was elected to the Sejm, the lower house of the Polish Parliament, and was soon appointed Prime Minister of Poland. In 1999 he became the chairman of the AWS Social Movement (Ruch Spoleczny AWS) and in 2001 he became the Chairman of the Solidarity Electoral Action coalition. After losing the parliamentary elections in 2001, he stepped back from Polish political life (although he was elected a member of the European Parliament in 2004) and focused more on his scientific work, becoming the prorector of Akademia Polonijna in Czestochowa and professor in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Opole University of Technology in Opole. Buzek was elected to the European Parliament (MEP) from the Silesian Voivodeship, basing his candidacy only on the popularity of his name and on direct contact with the voters. He received a record number of votes, 173,389 (22.14% of the total votes in the region). His current party affiliation is with the Platforma Obywatelska, the governing party in Poland, which is a member of the European People’s Party – rather to the right in the European Parliament. On 7 June 2009, in the European Parliament election, Buzek was re-elected as a Member of the European Parliament from the Silesian Voivodeship constituency. Just as in the previous election, Buzek received a record number of votes in Poland: 393,117 (over 42% of the total votes in the district). In the 2004-2009 European Parliament, he was a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, an alternate member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, a member of the Delegation to the EU–Ukraine Parliamentary Cooperation Committee, and an alternate delegate for the delegation for relations with the countries of Central America. He served as rapporteur on the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development, a multi-billion euro spending programme for the years 2007-2013. On 14 July 2009, Buzek was elected President of the European Parliament with 555 votes, becoming the first person from the former Eastern Bloc and the first former Prime Minister since Emilio Colombo to gain that position. He succeeded the German Christian Democrat MEP, Hans-Gert Pöttering. He has pledged to make human rights and the promotion of the Eastern partnership two of his priorities during his term of office, which will last two and a half years until, due to a political deal, Social Democrat MEP Martin Schulz will take over. At the meeting at Columbia University President Buzek said that we are in a time of transition period in the EU – going from treaty to treaty and enlargement. What does this mean for Europe and the US after Lisbon ? - and he will thus read from a prepared paper that said – A STRENGTHENING EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT IN THE TRANSATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP. How does the EU work? – he asked. And proceeded explaining that it is in a rising curve of power in the last 25 years. We used to have a Council guided by a rotating Presidency and now we moved further on with Lisbon. To his credit, he sounded self-deprecating when mentioning that actually there will be now several Presidents. This because Lisbon still left intact that half-year-long rotating structure. The EU Council is a system of Collective President. Europe 2020 is the project of how to learn to organize ourselves. There is still need for progress in the EU political system. Will ever the collection of 27 proud Independent States really agree to give up some of their sovereignty to a Central Government? Will the Council agree to be a Senate to the Parliament’s House of Representatives? How indeed can the US find its way across the Ocean and form a bridge with a body that has Three Presidents? THAT IS THE REAL QUESTION – and progress via just a strengthened Parliament will not do. Nevertheless, Mr. Buzek pointed out that the European Supra-National level has been strengthened by doing away with the previous requirement of unanimity that is reduced now to a qualified majority. The inter-governmental contact at head of state level still exists – but it is less. Passing on to the issue of Foreign Policy – with problems that are today global, there is the “Baroness” – Baroness Catherine Ashton or Lady Ashton – just one person now at the EU. She is a member of the Council and the Commission bringing thus one person to the position of power and the responsibility to deal in Foreign issues – and that is the point – unless the West is united – we will not be able to defend our interests in multilateralism at G8 or G20 etc institutions. Then he digressed by saying that Transatlantic Community is not enough anymore – we need partners all over the world for a united purpose in democracy and civilization. He quoted by name an interesting list of countries – that we give here in the order he said them – Russia, China, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Africa – that have to become stakeholders in the new order – they must have a sense of owner on issues like climate change. Everyone must feel that they are responsible. Then back to the topic – on the Transatlantic economic Council – we must have a more ambitious program. There is already freedom of flow of products, goods, capital, people in Europe – the four freedoms we have – transatlantic markets could build on these great success stories he said. The business community looks at the 800 million citizens of the Common Market in Europe. We must think of this common space of the Community. Then came the Q & A: Q: One big difference is that the US Congress spends 25% of the GDP but the European Parliament only 1.5% – will the Common Agriculture policy (the CAP) be decided bythe Parliament or the council? A: The answer is not about money but on the organization. Money and budget are not important but the “community.” Two World Wars were started in Europe and we have to change. We like diversity in language – we have 23 – you have one. We say it is our strength – “Unity in Diversity.” We have buses that leave the Parliament to the regions every weekend. They come back with ideas from home. We will have a European Energy Efficiency new Policy. — The Consul-General from Austria – Ambassador Peter Brezovszky, who was Consul-General in Krakow at the time Mr. Buzek was Prime-Minster, asked about the priorities – in democracy, on enlargement and what can the Parliament do to support parliaments in other Nations. As Europe does not pass the budget through the Parliament such activities are more limited, but he had interaction with his meetings in Washington (actually that was his main reason for coming to the States and I will be attaching more material on this) he had a meeting with Nancy Pelosi to develop the Transatlantic Parliamentary partnership. There are the European Energy Community, the European External Action Service, The European Human Rights activities. Next step in enlargement will probably involve Croatia and Iceland. He said that Iceland being located right in the middle between the US and Europe, had a hard time in deciding where they belong, but then Croatia and Turkey have problems that stem from ethnic conflicts – Croatia because of what goes on with the Serb minority and Turkey because of Cyprus. There is the Non-Visa regime and then the further potential of Bosnia-Hezegowina, Montenegro under some name, and Albania. Mr. Buzek further evaluated European recent history in periods – the 1950-1960s as French-German reconciliation. then came the 1980-1990s as German-Polish reconciliation. Now we need not only Polish-Russian reconciliation that might have been made easier because of the dignified way Russia reacted after the terrible recent air accident, but also the reconciliation with further border neighbors. The real problem is what happened in Katyn 70 years ago. Asked about an EU constitution, the President said – look the UK is doing fine and also has no constitution. —— These questions went on for an hour and Greece was not mentioned – this until someone observed the gap and said so! Mr. Buzek said two words; SOLIDARITY and RESPONSIBILITY. We wish him luck and that this does the trick. —– As we said earlier, we found out that the reason for The EU Parliament President’s trip to the US was his opening a Washington liaison office for the Parliament with US Congress. This is the first office of the EU Parliament outside Europe. That was April 29, 2010. We have what was said there and the follow up speech at the Johns Hopkins University. Also, the timing of this trip falls coincidentally when the EU is very much in the cross-hairs of the world economy because of the failure of Greece, the potential failure of Spain and Portugal, the danger to the EURO and what amounts – not to a strengthening of the EU, but rather to the unraveling of a system that created a common currency without having first secured a common policy. It is just inconceivable that voters in Germany can accept that their country pays tens of billions to save the people in Greece who enjoy much lower tax rates and get much better social conditions. The same voters will not think that much of the Greek debt is actually owned by German Banks, while much of the losses of German banks came on because of a lack of regulation that did not stop them from buying low grade financial products that were inspired by the Wall Street self-enrichment gurus. Yes – we know – much of the global financial problem originated in the US, but then the EU had its own internal structure faults that created imbalances that were just as easy – foreseeable. As Fareed Zakaria pointed out on CNN today the German voters talk of why they have to work for 45 years before being entitled to retire with a 46% pay, while a Greek worker gets 80% of his pay after only 35 years of employment. While the Greeks demonstrate now that they do not want a cut in their social conditions, the Germans by a majority of 92% say they will not let their leaders bail-out the Greeks. Is this leading to a call for the expulsion of Greece from the EU? The elimination of Greece from the EURO Club? The bailout by their own governments of German and French banks hurt by these debacles? Is it the end of the easy EU? Or are we moving into a stronger union where the member States give up some more of their independence? All this shows that after all – the European Problematique has to do with money because they have not yet created the structure that some day may bring the EU into the China-US G2 league as a third partner to turn it into a G-3. Until then, we fear, the days of Transatlantic talk are over. —————– www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126436512&ft=1&f=1004Crisis In Greece Puts E.U. At Risk May 1, 2010
Greece’s debt woes aren’t all that’s plaguing the European economy. Spain and Portugal have also seen downgrades in their credit ratings, and the response by the European Union to the crisis is being watched around the world. Host Scott Simon speaks with Jerzy Buzek, President of the European Parliament, about the financial crisis in Europe. SCOTT SIMON, host: We’re joined now by Jerzy Buzek, the president of the European Parliament. He’s at the European Union’s delegation to the United Nations office in New York. President Buzek, thanks very much for being with us. Mr. JERZY BUZEK (President, European Parliament): Thank you for the invitation for this interview. SIMON: You going to bail out Greece? Mr. BUZEK: Yes. It will be a response as usual in the European Union. Solidarity is our main slogan in the European Union for last six years. And I’m confident that the decision will be taken during next days. SIMON: I’ve read some opinion this week that suggests this was exactly what some people worried about with the euro, that thered economic problems in one, two or three countries and you couldn’t contain them because, of course, you had a common currency. And now you have Greece’s problems dragging in the rest of the eurozone. How do you address that concern? Mr. BUZEK: First of all, we must say that we’re at the beginning of the process of organizing our eurozone. It’s less than 10 years yet, so it’s not so easy. On the other hand, we have very deep crisis all over the world. So, it’s nothing unusual is that also some countries from the eurozone are affected by the crisis. And I’m quite sure we can manage. SIMON: But do you also, for example, in this case have countries with very different approaches to debt and spending? Say, between Greece and Germany. Mr. BUZEK: Yeah, it’s also obvious because we are saying in the European Union that we, of course, base our community on solidarity. But responsibility every separate member state is also very important. SIMON: May I ask, Mr. President, did the member states of the eurozone do a good enough job in checking out the Greek economy before they joined in 2002? Mr. BUZEK: It must be checked maybe once again by the European Commission. I wouldn’t like to say anything about that being representative of European Parliament because it was not our responsibility. It will be not our responsibility in the future as well. But of course, as members of European Parliament, we are very, very interested in everything what is connected with the recovery from crisis, exit programs, and also about Greek’s crisis. SIMON: So assuming a bailout for Greece, you think that that will have the effect of improving other particularly plagued economies in, let’s say, Spain, Portugal and Ireland, and that means they would be less likely to have to ever request a bailout? Mr. BUZEK: I’m optimistic because if we solve, and I’m sure we will solve the problem of Greece, it will be much easier in other countries. I know very well. I talked to Mr. Prime Minister Papandreou a few weeks ago and they prepared a very tough, difficult program for Greece. It will be not easy, but if you start working, it would be great progress in Greece economy and then will be no danger for the whole eurozone. SIMON: Jerzy Buzek, who’s president of the European Parliament, joining us from New York. Mr. President, thanks so much. Mr. BUZEK: Thank you much. ———————————————————————– Press Releases The office will be opened by President Buzek at midday (US, East Coast time) on Thursday. EP President Jerzy Buzek said: “We have many ideas for deepening our relations. The main purpose of the office is to build a much closer partnership between the European Parliament and Congress as the European Parliament is more powerful after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The EU and the US need to be more coherent and well informed on legislation and political activity. If we work together in advance of legislation we can improve the outcome for citizens and business in a huge transatlantic market. Together, we must face the challenges that confront us across the Atlantic, from climate change to energy security, from maintaining free trade to improving global governance.” Background EP President Buzek has been in Washington since Monday for key meetings with the US administration including Vice-President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and Speaker Pelosi. President Buzek and will travel to New York for meetings at the UN, including with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon which will take place on Friday 30 April. * * * The Director of the new European Parliament Liaison Office with the US Congress is Piotr Nowina-Konopka, Ph.D. Tel +1 202 862 4731 Office details: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/us/ – website of the EP – Congress Liaison Office For further information: —————————————– Press Releases Buzek to open the European Parliament Liaison Office with US Congress EP President Jerzy Buzek said: “We have many ideas for deepening our relations. The main purpose of the office is to build a much closer partnership between the European Parliament and Congress as the European Parliament is more powerful after the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty. The EU and the US need to be more coherent and well informed on legislation and political activity. If we work together in advance of legislation we can improve the outcome for citizens and business in a huge transatlantic market. Together, we must face the challenges that confront us across the Atlantic, from climate change to energy security, from maintaining free trade to improving global governance.” Background EP President Buzek has been in Washington since Monday for key meetings with the US administration including Vice-President Biden, Secretary of State Clinton and Speaker Pelosi. President Buzek and will travel to New York for meetings at the UN, including with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon which will take place on Friday 30 April. * * * The Director of the new European Parliament Liaison Office with the US Congress is Piotr Nowina-Konopka, Ph.D. Tel +1 202 862 4731 Office details: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/us/ – website of the EP – Congress Liaison Office * * * For further information: – — – President Buzek on “The New European Parliament: Politics and Power in Today’s European Union” at the School of Advanced International Studies – Johns Hopkins University I am delighted to be able to address you today. As a professor myself, I always feel at home when I come to a university. My passion has always been knowledge and passing on knowledge to the next generation, my activity in politics only came later on in life. I grew up in a system where art was censored, where history was falsified, and where politics had only one colour. This is why I chose the hard sciences and not political science – because even the Communists had to accept that ‘one plus one equals two’. Or at least they accepted that most of the time! Dear Friends, I would like to make a few remarks about the political system in the European Union, following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, and what that Treaty means for both Europe and the United States. I will keep my talk fairly short. After that, I would be delighted to take questions or comments. I would be especially interested to hear your own views on these issues. =European Parliament= First, let me say a word about the European Parliament, which I now have the honour to chair. The Parliament has been on a rising curve of power over the last quarter century. The Lisbon Treaty takes that power to a new level. Already in most of the routine areas of law-making – like the single market, transport, the environment, employment, development policy, and intellectual property – the Parliament has been co-equal with the Council of Ministers for many years. It has long enjoyed a right of veto over EU law – first introduced by the Maastricht Treaty 17 years ago. However, now with the Lisbon Treaty, we move a step further. We are co-equal with the Council in law-making on agriculture and fisheries, international trade policy, and justice and home affairs. Nearly all international agreements, including all trade agreements, now need the Parliament’s explicit approval. We have a right of veto. We have already seen the implications of that on final data transfer (SWIFT or TFTP). In effect, like in the United States, we now have lower and an upper chamber – the European Parliament and the Council – in a single, bicameral legislature. =EU Political System= In parallel, things have changed on the executive side. The meetings of heads of state and government – the European Council – have been split off to become a separate, formal institution, chaired by Herman Van Rompuy. This body gives overall guidance to the Union, setting the big, long-term priorities for the Union. The European Commission remains the administration, with the special right to propose legislation. Simply stated, the Council of Ministers is now the counterpart to the European Parliament, as Europe’s legislative and budgetary authority. The Commission and the European Council jointly form the executive. In this system, the member states still remain very important, but the European level – the supranational level – has been strengthened and the exercise of power is shaped more than ever by the ‘Community method’. Now qualified majority voting, not unanimity, is the norm in the Council of Ministers. Now co-decision between the Council and Parliament is the norm. The ‘intergovernmental method’ still has its place, but in a smaller sphere – in decision-making on foreign and security policy, the financial resources of the Union, and some aspects of monetary union. =Foreign Policy Structures= We have also put in place new arrangements in the field of foreign policy. We have a new High Representative, also Vice President of the Commission – Baroness Cathy Ashton. She chairs the Foreign Affairs Council and is a member of the European Council: she is thus the only EU person officially in three institutions – the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Council. The external departments of the Commission and Council will be merged into a new European External Action Service. This will give the EU a more coherent structure for developing and implementing foreign policy – and present a more united face to our partners and allies around the world. =Transatlantic Perspectives= Dear Friends, So we have a new design to the political system of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty should help Europe better coordinate its policies both internally and externally, and to develop a better way of dealing with the rest of the world. Critical to our success is the Transatlantic Partnership. In this second decade of the 21st century, the relative power of both Europe and the United States – and the rest of the West – is already decreasing. By the year 2025, OECD countries are expected produce only 40% of the world’s output, compared to well over half at the moment. Asia’s share will increase to 38%, practically on a par with that of the OECD. The rise of China, India and other new players makes this clear to Europe. In the United States, over the last decade, you have discovered the limits of American power. How are we to respond? Together, I believe, that we need to take the lead in building and shaping a new form of global governance. I have always liked how my friend Bob Zoellick has put it – that we need to ‘modernise multilateralism’. The hard truth is that unless the West is united, we will lose the ability to defend and advance our interests and values. If we are united, we can help define international responses, in the G8 or WTO or elsewhere. Of course, we will not be able to solve all major international challenges on our own. We will need to cooperate – and should want to cooperate – with a range of new partners around the world. Our interdependence can and should make us stronger. We need to use the Euro-Atlantic partnership to change the way global governance functions. The United States and Europe should play a key leadership role in defining the principles and structures of this new multipolar and multilateral world. In such a world, America and Europe should still serve as an axis of global stability and enlightened values. I believe we need to use this partnership to put in place the right policies and the right institutions on a world-wide scale. We all know the difficult challenges we face today – economic insecurity, energy independence, climate change, migration, money-laundering, piracy, and of course terrorism. Common action on these fronts is essential. And in addressing these issues, we will need to find ways of bringing on board, in different ways, Russia, China, India, Brazil and the other new regional powers. They have to become stakeholders in the new world order, or disorder – so that they can expect to have a genuine sense of ownership in the way policy is set. The time to do this is now, whilst Europe and America are still powerful enough to make a difference. If we fail, the 21st century will be a century of insecurity and instability for all of us. Dear Colleagues, Our transatlantic relationship is already very strong – we have the biggest trade and investment flows in the world. We share the same values – and very many of our interests are the same. We do have some issues on specific areas of legislation and regulation. You all know the cases – Boeing vs Airbus; Chlorinated Chicken; the REACH directive and recently SWIFT. We can address those in the Transatlantic Economic Council, but I think we should think bigger than that. We need to set ourselves a more ambitious challenge for the 21st century. In ten years time let us implement a genuine transatlantic single market, based on the four freedoms which already exist in Europe – the free movement of goods, services, capital and (yes) people. I would add a fifth freedom, the free movement of knowledge across the Atlantic. A transatlantic market could build on one of the European Union’s greatest success stories – the single market that we have building continuously for over 50 years. Yesterday I addressed the US Chamber of Commerce and challenged the business community to put forward their ideas and proposals to achieve such a free market, to look at both sides of the Atlantic as one space of 800 million citizens. Today I challenge you, the next generation of Americans, to think of a Euro-Atlantic community – a common space where you can live, work and study on either side of this inner sea which is the Atlantic Ocean. That may seem a dream, but our challenge is to change the context and create a new reality. Next weekend – on 9th May – we will celebrate the 60th anniversary of the famous declaration in Paris by Robert Schuman that lead to the European Coal and Steel Community. Jean Monnet, who wrote that declaration, once said that ‘everybody is ambitious. The question is whether he is ambitious to be or ambitious to do’. The pooling of sovereignty over coal and steel, which at the time was the core of a nation’s industry, was an incredibly bold and ambitious project. The six countries that took part changed Europe’s face and Europe’s future. Today, let us also be ambitious to do. Let us dream not just of a strong Transatlantic Partnership – let us create a genuine Transatlantic Community. =============Europe unravels in a tangle of national interests.By Philip Stephens Published: April 29 2010
Watching the slow-motion train crash that is the Greek debt crisis invites the question as to whatever happened to European solidarity. Listening to politicians in Berlin explain that parsimonious German voters will not stomach a bail-out of their spendthrift continental cousins offers only half an answer. There is more to the story than an angry collision between Greek profligacy and German moral superiority. Behind the proximate threat lies a more unsettling truth. The crisis is symptom as well as cause. For all its upheavals, there used to be something reassuringly ineluctable about the European Union. Now the enterprise is beginning to unravel. Greece’s predicament, and the response of its eurozone partners, holds dangers on many levels: a sovereign default within the single currency; contagion as markets test the resilience of Portugal, Spain and Ireland; and a breakdown of the political trust and mutual support mechanisms on which the monetary union depends. As my FT colleague Alan Beattie observed in a searing commentary earlier this week, recent events have underlined also the sheer incompetence of those charged with stewardship of the eurozone. Given Angela Merkel’s central role, perhaps we should not have been surprised at the vacillation. Berlin’s stumbling response to the collapse of Lehman Brothers provided a template for the ineptitude that has again left the authorities playing catch-up with unforgiving markets. Lest I am accused by my German friends of taking the side of the sinner against the sinned against, Ms Merkel has right on her side in saying that Athens must not be rewarded for disdaining its solemn obligations to its partners. It is no use writing cheques unless Greece has a credible fiscal plan. As Berlin should have learnt, however, there comes a point when finger-wagging becomes self-defeating. The price of righteousness turns out to be chaos; and chaos does not discriminate – as the German banks holding billions of euros of Greek sovereign debt well understand. We sometimes have to live with moral hazard. More worrying is what all this tells us about the fundamental cohesion of the Union. Until quite recently if someone asked what the EU would look like, say, 20 years hence my reply was that its essential contours would be pretty much unchanged. Sure, my argument would have run, the guiding purpose had changed with the end of the cold war, the reunification of Germany and enlargement to central and eastern Europe. But a collection of middle-ranking powers with common borders, values and interests had sensibly concluded that they were better together than apart. The rise of new powers – China, India, Brazil and the rest – presaged a much diminished role for Europe on the global stage. Proud nations such as France, Germany, Britain or Spain would not surrender their identities; but they would pursue their interests collectively. Maddening as it could often be, “Europe” would always be around. That is what I used to think. Even now, I still believe the logic is compelling. Look at any problem touching the peoples of Europe – from crises in the international financial system to global warming, from terrorism and uncontrolled migration to a newly assertive Russia – and they tell the same story. Europeans must act together if they want to exert influence. For all that, Europe no longer carries the stamp of inevitability. Quite suddenly, it has become almost as easy to foresee a future in which the Union fractures. The risk is not so much of a great rupture – though if Greece defaults the immediate shocks will be profound – but of the atrophy that flows from the absence of political leadership. European governments still pay lip service to the logic of co-operation; they are no longer willing or able – sometimes both – to admit its implications. They know where their national, and the continent’s, strategic interests lie, but they lack the purpose to marry them. Germany relishes instead the chance to become a “normal” country, separating what it sees as its national from the European interest. Helmut Kohl’s historical insights are forgotten in the insistence that German taxpayers should not be asked to remain the continent’s paymaster. So too are Berlin’s long-term interests in European-wide political stability and in open markets for its exports. France struggles with the dynamics of a Union in which more Europe no longer necessarily means more France. Nicolas Sarkozy’s admirable energy is unconnected to strategic purpose. Britain, as ever, stands half on the sidelines. Italy, led by Silvio Berlusconi, has removed itself from influence. There have been moments of stasis before. But the rules have changed. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism have turned an enterprise of necessity into one of choice. If the Union falls into disrepair everyone will still be the loser; but the threat no longer seems an existential one. The EU has become a victim of one of the awkward paradoxes of globalisation. Even as it robs nation states of power, global interdependence increases the domestic pressure on national politicians to shelter voters from the insecurities of a borderless world. The response of Europe’s politicians has been to sacrifice the strategic to the tactical. They boast that they can “reclaim” power from the EU – and promise they will not be pushed around by Brussels. This explains Ms Merkel’s Germany-first approach to the single currency; and the reluctance of other leaders to match pieties about Europe’s role in the world with anything resembling common policies. There is nothing strange or wrong about politicians pursuing national interests. That is what they are paid for. The problem for the EU is that governments now see this as a zero-sum game. During the era of postwar reconciliation and the cold war the coincidence of national and European interests spoke for itself. Europe’s waning influence in a world no longer owned by the west means that the convergence is as powerful as it has ever been. But without the threat of war or invasion, it is harder to identify. It requires leaders of stature to make a case to their electorates. Look around the continent and there are no such politicians in sight. More columns at www.ft.com/philipstephens ============================= Speech by Professor Jerzy Buzek,President of the European Parliament,Columbia University, New York City When I look back upon my life I sometimes have to remind myself of the journey we in Central and Eastern Europe took to get here. As some of you may know my true vocation has always been that of a scientist and academic. I am an Engineer not a political scientist. The science of politics came later in life but my passion has always been knowledge and passing on knowledge to the next generation. I grew up in a system where art was censored, where history was falsified, and politics had only one colour. I chose science, because even the Communists had to accept the iron discipline of mathematics. One of your greatest Presidents, Abraham Lincoln, once said that “you can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time”. The Communist regimes tried to fool all of the people all of the time, but they forgot that liberty, that justice, that human rights, that dignity and solidarity will always beat a lie. With the entrance of ten new member states to the European Union in 2004 and Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, we have reunited our continent, but more importantly we have reconciled our continent. Today, we live in a different European Union, one where the President of the European Parliament is from a country that not long ago would imprison me for speaking to you freely, and would probably not give me a passport to come to Columbia University! Dear Friends, First, let me say a word about the European Parliament. We have been on a rising curve of power over the last quarter century. The new Lisbon Treaty takes that power to the next level. Already, in most of the routine areas of law-making – such as transport, the environment, employment, the single market, development, intellectual property – the European Parliament has been co-equal with the Council of Ministers for many years. It has long enjoyed a right of veto over EU law. Now, with Lisbon, we are also co-equal with the Council in agriculture, international trade, and justice and home affairs. Nearly all international agreements, including all trade agreements, now need the Parliament’s approval. We already saw the implications of that on SWIFT which the European Parliament rejected in February. In effect, like in the United States, we now have an upper chamber and a lower chamber – the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament – in a single legislative system. Dear Colleagues, The Lisbon Treaty will help Europe better coordinate its policies both internally and externally – and we hope, help both of us to develop a new way of dealing with the rest of the world. I believe that together we need a new form of global governance. We need to ‘modernise multilaterism’ – as my friend Bob Zoellick has put it. This is something I have said over the past couple of days in Washington. In this second decade of the 21st century, the relative power of both Europe and the United States – and the rest of the West – is already decreasing. By the year 2025, OECD countries will produce only 40% of the world’s wealth, as compared to 55% in 2000. Asia’s share will increase to 38%, practically on a par with that of the OECD. The hard truth is that unless the West is united, we will lose the ability to defend our interests and values. Even then, we will no longer be able to solve major international challenges on our own. We need to cooperate – with each other, but also with our partners around the world. Our interdependence can and should make us stronger and should not be seen as a threat but as an opportunity. We need to use the Euro-Atlantic partnership to change the way global governance functions. The United States and Europe can and must take a leadership role in defining the principles and structures of this new multipolar, multilateral world. We all know the difficult challenges we face today – economic insecurity, energy independence, climate change, migration, terrorism. Common action on these fronts is essential. And in addressing these issues, we need to find ways of bringing on board Russia, China, India, Brazil and the other new regional powers. They must have a sense of ownership since they too are stakeholders in this world’s governance. I often use the small example of combating piracy in the Gulf of Aden. For the first time, Chinese war ships operate next to Russian, American, European and South Korean vessels. Why? Because these pirates are a threat to the 30 000 ships which sail through this passage. Ships which are bound for Europe, and Asia. But in such a world, America and Europe must still serve as an axis of global stability and enlightened values. We are home to the world’s most successful democracies. I believe we need to use this partnership to put in place the right policies and the right institutions on a global scale. We represent 60% of the world’s GDP. If we have the right policies, the rest will follow. If we fail to work together the 21st century will be a century of insecurity and instability for all of us. I believe fundamentally that the EU’s unique model of sharing sovereignty – of promoting common solidarity and common responsibility – is working well and can be a model for the rest of the world. Dear Colleagues, Next week is the 60th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration, when six countries pooled sovereignty over coal and steel, making war between them virtually impossible and laying the foundation of today’s EU. Schuman said that ‘Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity” He was right. Our trade relations are already 95% problem free, we respect each others regulations, customs and laws. Our legislators and our executives talk and negotiate with each other non-stop. It is time to create a space of freedom so that 800 million people can benefit from our relationship. An area based on the four freedoms we have in Europe – free movement of people, goods, services and capital. I am convinced that this should be the next step in the evolution of our partnership. It is a dream, but it is up to you, the next generation of Europeans and Americans to make it a reality. Thank you for your attention. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on April 24th, 2010 Media speculation on whether the collapse of the government would impact negatively on Belgium’s EU presidency stint began immediately following Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme’s decision on this Thursday to resign after a key partner, the Flemish Liberals, withdrew from the Federal governing coalition over a long running linguistic rights dispute between the Dutch-speaking Flemish and Francophone communities.The collapse of the Czech government during its 2009 EU presidency term caused serious disruption to the EU’s agenda, and concerns have been raised that a long running bout of political turmoil during the Belgian presidency could similarly paralyse the EU’s workload. The FT quoted an unnamed Brussels diplomat as saying, “The last thing we need is another presidency hobbled by domestic events. “There are serious institutional, economic and diplomatic questions to be resolved – we cannot afford another vacuum in leadership.” So, this is the political mess at an EU burdened with three “Presidents” where one Belgian Mr. Herman Van Rompuy heads the Brussels so called two year-term “Permanent” Presidency of the European Council, while his successor is losing his Belgian cabinet just in time he was going to take over the 6-months temporary EU Rotating Presidency. All that while the finances of a monetary EURO union that was not backed by a common treasury, is unraveling because on incompetency in Member States that cannot be disciplined, because there is no powerful central home to this chaotic assembly of States calling itself a Union. —————- Greece formally requests EU-IMF aid – Euro area states have pledged to give up to €30 billion this year.23.04.2010 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Greece has formally placed a request to activate a €40-45 billion EU-IMF aid package, a day after new budget deficit figures revealed the country’s 2009 shortfall to be worse than previously forecast. The country’s finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, transferred the message on Friday (23 April) in a letter addressed to Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker, EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn and European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet.
“In accordance with the Statement of the Heads of State and Government of 25 March 2010 to provide financial support to Greece, when needed, and the follow up Statement of the Eurogroup, Greece is hereby requesting the activation of the support mechanism,” reads the letter. Earlier, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said he would instruct his finance minister to place the request. “It is a national and imperative need to officially ask our partners in the EU for the activation of the support mechanism we jointly created,” he said in statements broadcast live from the remote Aegean island of Kastellorizo. “Our partners will decisively contribute to provide Greece the safe harbour that will allow us to rebuild our ship,” said the embattled premier against a picturesque backdrop. Fresh figures released by the EU’s statistics office, Eurostat, on Thursday revealed Greece’s 2009 deficit to be 13.6 percent of GDP, significantly higher than the previous 12.7 percent forecast. Markets subsequently leapt on the new EU data, sending the yield on 10-year Greek bonds to 8.83 percent, the highest since 1998, and prompting credit rating agency Moody’s to cut the country’s sovereign rating from A2 to A3. On Friday, bond yields retreated marginally following the formal aid request. Next steps? A significant amount of uncertainty remains however. Greece, swamped by a €300-billion debt pile, is currently negotiating the lending terms with EU and IMF officials in Athens, with the talks potentially lasting for several more weeks. An agreement between EU leaders in late March indicated that any request for aid must first be approved by the ECB and the European Commission, before then being formally agreed by euro area states. While governments may be willing to bail-out their profligate partner, doubts remain as to how quickly member states will be able to release the funds, with at least one legal challenge being mounted in Germany against the unpopular transfer to Greece. Responding to questions from MEPs in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said several times that he is confident the Greek plan does not breach the EU treaties. The solution found so far is “fully in line with the treaty,” he said. “It is simply wrong to say that it is some kind of bailout.” Chancellor Angela Merkel, faced with crucial regional elections in May, has been at pains to stress that any support must be considered ‘ultima ratio’, or a last resort. As well as the legal uncertainty, total contributions to the three-year support package have yet to be finalised. Euro area states have agreed to contribute €30 billion, this year, but figures for 2010 and 2011 remain unclear. German central bank chief Axel Weber recently conceded that “the numbers are changing all the time”, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal, adding that total euro area contributions over the three years could reach as much a €80 billion. ——————————– Further on Greece: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/opinio… —————————– New York Times Editorial
Greece and Who’s Next?
Published: April 23, 2010
As Greece careened ever close to default this week, frightened investors also rushed to dump bonds from financially troubled Portugal, Spain and Ireland. But while the markets increasingly see this as a euro zone crisis, many European leaders are in denial. Unless the European Union and the International Monetary Fund back up Greece, it could default on its debts. And the roughly $40 billion bailout promised — grudgingly — by Brussels with an additional $15 billion to $20 billion from the International Monetary Fund is unlikely to be enough. Greece has more than $50 billion in debt coming due over the next 12 months alone. Meanwhile, Germany is resisting turning over the money. After George Papandreou, the prime minister of Greece, called on Friday for the bailout plan to be “activated,” Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany said Greece first had to negotiate “a credible savings program.” Georg Nuesslein, a lawmaker in Merkel’s governing coalition, told Bloomberg the program “has to hurt.” Greece’s efforts to curtail public spending have not made enough of a dent in its deficit to persuade investors it can bring its debt under control. But amid a severe recession, which is likely to be exacerbated by budget cuts, even the tightest belt-tightening can’t eliminate a deficit that amounted to more than 13 percent of its gross domestic product last year. To stop a rout, the European Union must commit to activating the bailout. Then Europe and the International Monetary Fund must start negotiations with Greece for a much bigger bailout package. This would help restore investors’ confidence, allowing interest rates on its debt to fall from the punitive heights of nearly 9 percent reached last week. While some economists believe Greece would still have to restructure its debts, it would have space to negotiate the terms. As investors made clear this week, the turmoil doesn’t end with Greece. Portugal, Spain and Ireland have seen their deficits balloon as the housing bust and the economic downturn took a toll. The European Union and the International Monetary Fund must put together a pre-emptive bailout package to convince investors of the stability of their finances and head off a flight to dump their bonds on a bigger scale. Speed is essential. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and European finance ministers should start working on that during this weekend’s International Monetary Fund meeting in Washington. This is mainly a European problem. But Washington must ensure that the fund commits adequate resources. The good news, if there is any here, is that American banks do not own much Greek debt. But the American economy won’t be immune if the Greek crisis spreads much further. —————— But who should work on The EU CHRONIC STRUCTURAL POLITICO-ECONOMIC DISEASE? A simple intervention by the Belgian King attempting to beat sense into the heads of his two different National groups warring in his own country, doe nothing to the much larger problem of many more ethnically different groups in the EU that have not yet digested the idea that building a Federal Nations means giving up the previously held pretenses at National Sovereignty. If they do not digest this their model becomes the UN and not the US – so they exist on the grace of their interdepedence but not on the basis of being a major global player to sit at the UN-China discussions table – not even as outsiders like India and Brazil, not even as a tolerated South Africa that is there because they represent the consumers of all-of-Africa. Fall of Belgium coalition threatens its Brussels chair role.By Stanley Pignal in Brussels, The Financial Times Published: April 23 2010 The Belgian government was in turmoil yesterday after the federal coalition collapsed, driven apart by tensions between French and Dutch-speaking factions that will threaten the upcoming presidency of the European Union. Yves Leterme, prime minister, tendered his resignation to the king after the Flemish liberal party pulled out of the coalition, making it all but impossible for the five-month-old ruling grouping to carry on. King Albert II sought to avert an outright political crisis by withholding his acceptance of Mr Leterme’s resignation, leaving his government in place but with no viable political mandate. The upheaval threatens to damage its leadership of the EU, whose six-month rotating presidency Belgium takes on in two months. “The last thing we need is another presidency hobbled by domestic events,” said an EU diplomat. “There are serious institutional, economic and diplomatic questions to be resolved – we cannot afford another vacuum in leadership”. The collapse of the Czech government in early 2009 while it was in the EU chair caused turmoil in Brussels and forced it to drop large swathes of its presidency agenda. The king said a political crisis would harm Belgium’s standing in Europe and hamper its economic prospects as it emerged from the downturn. In an interview with the French-language state broadcaster, Mark Eyskens, a former prime minister, warned: “If we have a deep political crisis, we could find ourselves in a similar position to Greece. We have a debt of over 100 per cent [of GDP] that we must finance.” Spreads on Belgian debt widened to 50 basis points over equivalent German paper, partly driven by EU deficit statistics published yesterday. Lieven De Winter, a professor at Université Catholique de Louvain, said new elections in June now appeared inevitable. “We are in a position where the government has been put on hold, it cannot take important decisions. It would be a massive face-losing situation to take on the EU presidency in such circumstances.” Part of Belgium’s latest bout of political instability can be traced back to the EU; Herman Van Rompuy, Mr Leterme’s predecessor, left national politics to take on the European Council presidency in November. His departure paved the way for the return of Mr Leterme, a centre-right politician from the Dutch-speaking northern half of the country with a record of antagonising the French-speaking Walloons living in Belgium’s southern half. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 20th, 2010 At the UN a good journalist, not the ever-wish of the UN – the kind that just reports on the UN Press releases, can have fun indeed and throw some light on what goes on in the world. We bring here the essence of the EU charade as seen by Matthew Russell Lee in his reporting of March 18 and February 4, 2010. Matthew looks at the personal involvements of the IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn who might run against President Sarcozy – thus making an internal rivalry of France into one of the centrifugal powers active in the EU. So it is this rather then a German – French rivalry that puts in motion the threat of IMF undoing the EU with its involvement in the crisis named Greece. Could you imagine California going to the IMF, or as a matter of fact, Rhode Island or even Puerto Rico? —————– With Euro Tanking On Reports of Greece Turning to IMF, of Half Answers, on Dodd Bill and Sri Lanka By Matthew Russell Lee, UNITED NATIONS, March 18, updated.
As Angela Merkel speaks darkly about ejecting from the Euro zone non compliant countries like Greece, that country’s renewed threat of turning for help to the International Monetary Fund has the market selling off the Euro.
Near the end of the IMF’s fortnightly press briefing on Thursday morning, spokesperson Caroline Atkinson, beyond saying the IMF has not had a request for financial assistance, declined to describe various aspects of Greece’s relations with the IMF. Her boss, Dominique Strauss Kahn, previously bragged that the IMF would “intervene” in Greece upon request. France’s finance minister Lagarde, belatedly added to the UN’s climate finance group after Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was confronted with the fact he’d named men to all 19 positions on the panel, has said the EU can still be Greece’s interlocutor and helper, not the IMF. Her president Sarkozy has a personal motive to oppose IMF help to Greece: Strauss Kahn is polling ahead of him for the next French election. Inner City Press submitted to the IMF during its briefing, but without answer yet, questions about financial reform and the Fund’s apparently stalled consideration of a third tranche to Sri Lanka. It was mostly Greece on Thursday, with few answers from the IMF. Update: later these two answers came in from the IMF: Re Senator Dodd’s bill, overall, we support the thrust toward comprehensive reforms that would address the gaps in financial regulation illustrated by the crisis. Strong and prompt implementation would both help to secure financial stability going forward. Re Sri Lanka, not much update. As you know, staff will visit Colombo after the parliamentary elections and the formation of the new cabinet, to discuss with the government its plan for a 2010 budget. Best regards, * * *
IMF’s Strauss-Kahn Coy on Opposing Sarkozy and Intervening in Greece, IMF and Greek Denials, Yemen Deferrals By Matthew Russell Lee UNITED NATIONS, February 4, updated — The managing director of the International Monetary Fund Dominique Strauss-Kahn bragged Thursday to radio station RTL in his native France that he might leave the IMF early — and perhaps challenge Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidency — and that if asked by Greece, the IMF could “intervene” in the country. Questions about both comments were dodged later on Thursday by the spokesperson for Strauss-Kahn and the IMF, Caroline Atkinson. Strauss-Kahn is quoted that “As it stands… I am planning to see out my mandate. But if you ask me whether in certain circumstances I could reconsider this question, the answer is yes, I could reconsider this question.” This is consciously leaving open the door to reconsider and leave. But Ms. Aktinson emphasized only his “planning to see out my mandate” and called everything else “hypothetical.” On Greece, Strauss-Kahn said regally, “I have a mission on the ground to provide technical advice requested by the Greek government. And if we’re asked to intervene, we will.” He added, “I understand that the Europeans don’t want this for the moment.” Inner City Press on Thursday morning asked Dimitris Droutsas, Alternate Foreign Minister of Greece, to describe his government’s thinking about IMF help. Mr. Droutsas responded on the record, “Categorically may I state, any idea of the IMF… there is no idea about that.” Still, at Thursday’s IMF biweekly briefing, Ms. Aktinson emphasized the “the IMF” — not just Strauss-Kahn — “had a technical team in Athens because the Greeks are very interested in getting any help from us on the technical implementation of the plan.” Later on February 4 Droutsas told Inner City Press, on camera, that he was unaware of any IMF team having been in Athens. Video here, last question. One wag wondered, has the IMF become like the CIA, or Xe / Blackwater, whose presence is alleged and denied? But the IMF under Strauss-Kahn brags about being present. As with the wider UN, the rush to be relevant. It was surprising, then, that when Inner City Press asked Ms. Aktinson about Yemen — using as the lead in a quote by UK Foreign Secretary (Ivan Lewis) that “we address the economic problems that face Yemen, especially through the IMF program” — Ms. Atkinson said she didn’t have information about Yemen and would have to respond later to Inner City Press. But as February 4 hit midnight, no information was provided. Yemen is in the news, and one would expect the omnipresent Strauss-Kahn to be all over it. We’ll see. Ms. Atkinson gave a pro-IMF spin in responding to Inner City Press’ question about the IMF’s new loan to Haiti, but we’ll be writing about that later, along with the IMF’s Yemen response. ——————— Top EU officials push for agreement on Greek aid next week19.03.2010 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Two of the European Union’s most senior officials have called on member states to agree on a financial aid plan for Greece when they meet in Brussels for a summit next week. “It is essential that when we deal with a euro area country there is a European lead and a European responsibility,” EU economy commissioner Olli Rehn said at a conference in Brussels on Friday (19 March). “It is important that the EU in the course of next week comes to a more specific conclusion, specific political conclusion about the European framework for co-ordinated and conditional action, if needed and required,” he told journalists afterwards.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appears set to go further on Saturday, indicating the EU is ready to provide financial aid to Greece if it is requested, according to a leaked transcript of an interview with French radio, seen by Dow Jones Newswires. And despite recent suggestions that Germany is moving against the idea, Mr Barroso is set to include aid from Berlin in the potential package. “Germany is ready in case Greece needs it, and so far Greece has not asked for financial support,” the commission president will tell radio channel France 24, according to the document. All sides stress however that full implementation of the austerity measures announced by Athens in recent weeks is the best means to bring the country’s borrowing costs down. Roughly €20 billion in Greek bonds are due to mature before the end of May, with Athens indicating its unwillingness to keep offering highly expensive interest rates that threaten to create future refinancing problems down the line. In the interview transcript however, Mr Barroso does not exclude the possibility of a financing role for the IMF, insisting there would be no shame in this for Europe. “What I want to remind is that Greece and all the member states of the EU are members of the IMF … EU member states are by far the biggest source of revenue for the IMF,” says the text. “So it’s not a question of prestige. It’s a question of seeing what is the best way to respond to the situation,” he is set to say. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on March 18th, 2010 Merkel says errant states should be kicked out of eurozone.Angela Merkel says the eurozone’s current rules are not sufficient. 17.03.2010 @ 17:45 CET EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the eurozone must be able to expel members that repeatedly break the club’s fiscal rules in the future. In a speech to the German parliament on Wednesday (17 March), the chancellor stressed that such an option would only be used “as a last resort”, but added that the EU’s current Stability and Growth Pact rules are no longer sufficient to deal with the euro area’s difficulties. “In the future, we need an entry in the [Lisbon] Treaty that would make it possible, as a last resort, to exclude a country from the eurozone if the conditions are not fulfilled again and again over the long term,” Ms Merkel said. “Otherwise co-operation is impossible.” Market doubts over Greece’s ability to meet refinancing needs in the coming months have plunged the euro area into its greatest crisis in its 11-year history, with the possibility of a sovereign debt default weighing heavily on the euro currency. With a deficit of 12.7 percent of GDP last year, Athens is grossly in breach of the three-percent limit laid down by stability and growth pact. Other member states have proved little better however, raising the prospect of contagion spreading to other EU countries with weak finances such as Portugal or Spain. Ms Merkel’s comment’s echo plans outlined by Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, earlier this month, under which a European IMF-style monetary fund would be set up to aid struggling eurozone countries, but backed up by much tougher fiscal rules including the possibility of expelling repeat offenders. With German public opinion strongly against a Greek bail-out, to which Berlin would be a main contributor, a number of analysts have interpreted Mr Schauble’s plans as a means of avoiding such aid transfers in the future by making it easier for eurozone members to leave the single currency. At least one senior euro area official greeted Ms Merkel’s statements with sympathy on Wednesday. “An alternative view of ‘safeguarding financial stability’ in the eurozone, [a stated desire of EU leaders], is to look for mechanisms that would facilitate an orderly exit of a consistently ‘misbehaving’ member state,” the official told EUobserver. Greek situation With the likely need for a treaty change ruling out the quick establishment of such an exit mechanism, Ms Merkel said no member state should be “left on its own” in a crisis. But she added that: “A quick act of solidarity is definitely not the right answer,” confirming the German line that no aid will be offered to Greece unless absolutely necessary. That date may arrive at some point over the months of April and May when roughly €20 billion of Greek debt is set to mature. Athens has indicated that the interest rate of 6.3 percent, offered to investors during the country’s last bond issuance, is unsustainable. On Tuesday, EU finance ministers agreed much of the detail of a mechanism to provide financial aid to Greece, but the political decision to announce the plans has yet to be taken. A Greek spokesperson said on Wednesday that the country’s centre-left Pasok administration is looking for “clear support” next week from EU leaders at a summit in Brussels, adding that Athens could turn to the IMF if the EU support is not forthcoming. “I believe the summit is when it will become evident whether the European partners want to support a country … or whether we have to resort to some other solution,” Mr George Petalotis said, report newswires. Greece has used the threat of turning to the IMF as a means of putting pressure on euro area governments in the past, with EU officials previously indicating their desire to solve eurozone problems internally. However, reports suggest a number of eurozone countries are softening their stance on potential IMF aid to Greece, with the international organisation already providing technical advice. “It would be good if the IMF were a part of the package. Finland supports both technical and economic aid [from the IMF]“, Finnish finance minister Jyrki Katainen reportedly said this week. ——————— EU economic governance inevitable, Belgian PM saysLeterme: “It’s about Europe’s financial stability and it’s not an ideological debate about federalism.” 16.03.2010 EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme has said that joint economic governance among some or all EU member states is an inevitable consequence of the creation of the euro. Speaking in an interview with EUobserver about the prospects for setting up a future European Debt Agency (EDA) and a European Monetary Fund (EMF), Mr Leterme predicted that current resistance to the plans will melt away in the coming year. “You can have doubts about the political will today …but the idea of strengthened economic government has been put on the table and will make progress. In the end, the EDA or something like it will become a reality. I’m convinced of this,” he said. “It’s about Europe’s financial stability and it’s not an ideological debate about federalism. I myself am a federalist. But more integration and deeper integration are simply logical consequences of having a single currency.” Mr Leterme floated the debt agency proposal in the press on 5 March. The agency would be a new EU institution based at the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg. It would help EU governments to borrow money more cheaply by selling bonds guaranteed by all participating states and channeling funds to national treasuries, within a set of limits. A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that if markets bought the bonds at an interest rate just 0.1 percent lower than today, the EU as a whole could save €6.6 billion. The EMF plan was put forward by Germany and involves the creation of a new fund to grant emergency loans to countries at risk of sovereign default. Both proposals would require EU states to give up fiscal decision-making powers and to co-ordinate national budgets at the EU level to a far greater extent than today. They could also require financially sound EU countries to prop up their insolvent cousins. The EMF would most likely need a new EU treaty, which forbids eurozone bail-outs as things stand. But the EDA could be set up on the basis of Article 136 of the existing treaty on “the proper functioning of economic and monetary union,” Mr Leterme’s advisors say. The Belgian leader may raise the debt agency plan at the EU summit on 25 March. It would be “interesting” for EU leaders to discuss it further at the informal, monthly summits proposed by EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, he said. The EDA could initially be set up outside EU structures if need be. “We can do a lot of things on an intergovernmental basis, a kind of coalition of the willing, a coalition of the willing of most of the eurozone countries,” Mr Leterme explained. ‘Doubt in their eyes’ The global financial crisis and the more recent Greek debt crisis have caused a shift in EU thinking. Recalling an extraordinary EU summit in October 2008, which took place a few weeks after the collapse of the US investment bank, Lehman Brothers, the premier said: “We saw the doubt in the eyes of [French and German leaders] Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel. You could feel that they were thinking that sharing the risks, the common approach is not necessary because they were big enough as countries to save their own banking systems.” But today, he said: “Even Mr Sarkozy and Mrs Merkel realise that if this was to happen again and there was a problem for one of their banks, it would not be easy to avoid a common approach.” Mr Leterme cautioned that on the one hand, pro-integration countries must strike while the iron is hot: “[The Greek crisis] creates a momentum which we have to seize.” But on the other hand, the EDA requires a deep technical analysis best made away from the volatile emotions and media glare surrounding the Greek bail-out case. “The problem is that you should not do this at the moment when it is at the core of the public debate. You have to be able to do it in a more theoretical way, a scientific way,” he said. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on November 16th, 2009 From: Sylvia Gardner Mechanical Miracles of the 21st Century
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on October 24th, 2009 Underwater City Starts Yielding Secrets.Divers Find Pottery, Streets, Courtyards, Tombs and Buildings AOL News
Oct. 22) — Scientists have known for 40 years that a 5,000-year-old city lay obscured by water off southern Greece. But divers haven’t had a chance to study the ruins until now. Scientists are just beginning to unlock the mysteries of Pavlopetri, a submerged city discovered 40 years ago off Greece. During a dive earlier this year, researchers from the University of Nottingham in England determined that the city was 5,000 years old, more than 1,000 years older than first believed. Here, a diver from the team surveys the site in an undated photo. The Bronze Age site is believed to have been submerged since 1000 B.C. In an interview in the Guardian, Jon Henderson, associate professor of underwater archaeology at Nottingham, explained the significance of the site. “It has remains dating from 2800 to 1200 B.C., long before the glory days of classical Greece,” he said. “There are older sunken sites in the world but none can be considered to be planned towns such as this, which is why it is unique.” The city may have inspired the myth of the lost city of Atlantis, the Guardian said. The divers have found a wealth of material on the sea floor, including pottery shards, streets, courtyards, tombs and 97,000 square feet of buildings, the Guardian reported. “But what really took us by surprise was the discovery of a possible megaron, a monumental structure with a large rectangular hall, which also suggests that the town had been used by an elite, and automatically raised the status of the settlement,” Henderson said. The site was discovered in 1967 by Nicholas Flemming, a marine scientist at the University of Southampton, the BBC said. He is a part of the new expedition team, which plans to study the city for five years and publish its research in 2014, the BBC said. Greece’s underwater antiquities department is co-directing the study. The site “is significant because as a submerged site it was never reoccupied,” Elias Spondylis, an official with the agency, said in an interview with the Guardian. “As such it represents a frozen moment of the past.” For more on the team’s discoveries, go to the BBC and the Guardian. Below are two videos on the research project from the University of Nottingham. The second one has Flemming’s account of his discovery of the city. http://news.aol.com/article/divers-get-first-look-at-underwater-city/732031?icid=main|main|dl1|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fdivers-get-first-look-at-underwater-city%2F732031 ———- So, what submerged this city? What happened to Atlantis? These must have been disasters that did not come because of climate change but their effects show us that life in a location can be extinguished by some event – man made or not. It is our responsibility nevertheless to do every possible human effort so that this does not happen. ——– Now the clencher: IT IS SHABBAT NOAH this Saturday! Jews read Parashat Noah – that is about the ark, the flood … and what caused that flood. You guessed it – it was the human transgressions! JUST LIKE NOW!!! So, some will have a “Global Climate Healing Shabbat” this weekend. THE CLIMATE IS CHANGING AND WHO IS BUILDING THE ARK? That needs a Jewish Response!
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 30th, 2009 Greek Hunters Take Dim View Of Solar Energy Scheme Date: 31-Jul-09 MEGALOPOLIS - {a village about 120 km (75 miles) of Athens – big name but small horizon - www.SustainabiliTank.info comment} - Lignite power plants belch dust and smoke into the air above the southern Greek town of Megalopolis, but residents resistant to environmental arguments have blocked a scheme to build the country’s biggest solar energy project on a nearby hillside. “Under no conditions will we accept sacrificing even one tree … we are not bowing to these interests,” Kostas Markopoulos, president of the Hunters’ Association of the Peloponnese, said on a visit to the site on a hill overlooking the small town. Red tape, a lack of political will and local opposition have cramped the development of an otherwise promising renewable energy market in Greece, whose climate is endowed with plenty of sunshine and wind. Despite one of the most generous government subsidies and long-term guaranteed electricity prices worldwide, it ranked 18th in percentage of renewables as a proportion of gross electricity consumption in the EU in 2007. The Megalopolis project, using photovoltaic panels to convert sunlight into electricity, would be one of the biggest solar energy schemes in the world. It is expected to cost 200 million to 250 million euros ($280 million to $349 million). Nearly two years after electricity operator PPC was granted production licenses, nothing has been built on the site. A court ruling on the hunters’ appeal is still awaited. Investors, waiting for years to tap Greece’s huge potential, say that after decades of struggling with endless bureaucracy, they see some reason for hope as new legislation takes effect. “In the past 15 years, Greece has been the sleeping giant of European renewables,” said Nikos Vassilakos, who heads a Greek and a European association of investors in renewables. “Now something is moving, maybe at a slow pace but investors have learnt to be patient.” Greece is notorious for its long licensing procedure, which Vassilakos estimated at three to four years on average. The government has just passed a zoning law for renewables as well as approved new incentives for individuals to install solar panels on rooftops and sell the electricity, doing away with a licensing process that used to cost thousands of euros. Within the next two months, it plans to submit a law to shorten procedures for wind farms and small hydroelectric plants. With installed capacity of about 1,200 megawatts, mostly from wind, Greece must move up a gear to comply with EU rules. It needs to produce more than a third of its electricity from renewables by 2020, from about 9 percent currently — the figure drops to about 4 percent without large hydro plants, which experts say is a more realistic assessment. Investors present in the Greek renewables market include Italy’s Enel, France’s EDF, and Spain’s Iberdola as well as other, smaller companies. More than 4 billion euros’ worth of renewable applications are awaiting approval by Greece’s energy regulator. “It’s an exciting moment,” Vassilakos said. “Look at how big the untapped potential is.” MISSING THE BIG PICTURE Walking around the mine and the hamlets bordering the plant, where pollutants in the air burn the throat after just a few minutes, the hunters’ leader Markopoulos is unconvinced. “A (solar) park here at such a large scale … would be one large mirror that will drive away wildlife,” he told Reuters. “This should be done in other areas, and they exist, that do not destroy the natural environment.” Environmentalists, investors and local authorities shake their heads in dismay and say the hunters and others lack information and are missing the big picture of environmental, health and economic benefits. “Building photovoltaics there is going to be better for the environment than a few trees,” said PPC Renewables chief executive Tassos Garis. “At first we heard things like the temperature will reach 60 degrees Celsius, dreadful things, nothing to do with reality,” said Megalopolis mayor Panayiotis Bouras, who backs the project. Solar power is usually among the most warmly welcomed green options. Hydroelectric dams can cause anger when valleys are flooded and wind turbines can be called eyesores, but solar power is rarely criticized since its panels are usually quite inconspicuous. The hunters, who shoot rabbits and other small game in the surrounding hills, are not the only ones worried about the project. Those who depend on the power plant and mine for a living fear jobs will be threatened. “People work here (in the lignite plant), they earn their livelihood there … what can we do?” said 77-year old Aggeliki, chatting with neighbors near a group of houses a stone’s throw from one of the plants. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on July 20th, 2009 Turkey Gets Boost from Pipeline Politics. by Helena Cobban WASHINGTON, Jul 19 (IPS) – The political geography of the modern Middle East has been affected for one hundred years by the appetite of westerners and other outsiders for the region’s hydrocarbons. Last week, the region’s “pipeline politics” took another step forward with the signing in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, of an agreement to build a new, 3,300-kilometre gas pipeline called Nabucco, running between eastern Turkey and Vienna, Austria. The project underlines the new influential role that Turkey, a majority Muslim nation of 72 million people, is playing in the Middle East, and far beyond. The new project’s name was chosen, Austrian officials said, after the Verdi opera that representatives of the five participating countries – who include Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary, along with the two terminus states – saw together during an earlier round of negotiations in Vienna. But the name also gives clues to two intriguing aspects of the project’s geopolitical significance. The theme of the opera is the liberation from bondage of slaves held by the ancient Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar (‘Nabucco’) – and it is a widely discussed feature of the Nabucco project that many European nations want access to a gas source that is not under the control of Russia. Last winter, several European nations suffered severe gas shortages after Russia, locked in a tariff dispute with transit-country Ukraine, closed off the spigots completely. But the other implication of the name is more strictly Middle Eastern. The modern-day home of Nebuchadnezzar is Iraq. Washington has given strong support to the Nabucco project – and one of the reasons U.S. officials give for this support is their hope that once Nabucco is up and running in 2015, Iraq can be one of the nations that reaps large profits by feeding gas into it. However, construction of the pipeline is estimated to cost some eight billion dollars, and many officials in the participating countries are still unclear where they will get enough gas to make it economically viable. The Nabucco participants had been hoping that a key feeder state would be one of Turkey’s eastern neighbours, Azerbaijan. But on the eve of the project’s inauguration in Ankara, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took the CEO of the vast Russian gas company Gazprom to Azerbaijan, where they signed a contract with the state gas company that will force Nabucco to compete hard against Gazprom for any purchase it wants to make from Azerbaijan. One fairly evident other source for Nabucco’s would be Iran, which is reported to have considerable amounts of new gas coming online in the next five years. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on June 9th, 2009 The Greens — unique in campaigning on a common Europe-wide platform — proposed a Green New Deal economic plan to invest in environmental initiatives that would create ‘green-collar’ jobs in renewable energy, social care, sustainable housing and public transportation… They Greens in Europe say – Lets create 5 million jobs – Europe needs a Green New Deal!
- create green collar jobs for five million Europeans within 5 years. - mobilise a cohesive strategy for private and public investment in the green economy that amounts to 500 billion Euros over the next five years (0,75% of the GDP of the EU). - keep energy affordable. - help to fight climate change and green the European economy. The Green New Deal will set the European economy on a sustainable path and place Europe at the forefront of the Green industrial revolution. ———– “Riding a wave of public concern over the effects of climate change, the Green-European Freedom Alliance bloc captured 53 of the EU parliament’s 736 seats, compared with 43 spots in the last 785-seat assembly… . The Greens saw their biggest electoral surprise in France, where the Europe Ecologie party took third place nationally. Acknowledging that support, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said France’s governing conservative UMP party would make tackling the economic crisis and global warming its priorities in the European Parliament. Greens also took third place in Germany, where they pushed the campaign for renewable energy. Greek Greens won one seat for the first time, while Green candidates from Sweden and Finland went from one to two seats each. There were some setbacks. British Greens failed to add to their two seats, Italian Greens fell short of the 4% threshold for a seat, and Austrian Greens lost one of their two seats.” Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on February 4th, 2009 Latvian government could fall as crisis bites. As unrest spreads in Latvia as a result of the worsening economic crisis, the government faces a no confidence vote in the parliament on Wednesday (4 February). The vote could see the first European Union government – and the second in Europe after Iceland – felled by the financial and economic turmoil that has hit Latvia harder than most other states in the 27-member bloc. Tractors blocked roads in Latvia in the second such protest in a week.
The farmers lit bonfires outside the ministry building and demanded the minister resign. In imitation of similar actions by Greek farmers in recent days, thousands of tractor-driving farmers headed to Riga, bringing traffic to a halt on a number of motorways – the second such action in a week. The government convened an emergency meeting out of which emerged €34 million (22m lats) in fresh aid for the farmers. Shortly after Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis announced the decision, the agriculture minister, Martyns Roze, fell on his sword. The economic crisis has bludgeoned the country’s farmers, whose productivity has slid as prices plunge. The losses are bankrupting rural Latvia, with producers unable to pay their loans and processing firms going out of business. Some 15 million lats is to come from the State Forests budget and another 7 million from the Latvian Privatization Agency. The aid amounts to around 5 million lats more than originally planned. A system of export loan guarantees is also to be established for dairy farmers, which, according to the prime minister, will temporarily save the sector from bankruptcy. The industrial sector has also dropped off the cliff, with industrial production dropping 2.5 percent in December, equal to a year-on-year decline of 14.2 percent, according to figures released on Tuesday by Statistics Latvia. The fall comes atop an already steep drop of 3.1 percent in November. Manufacturing has been pummelled in particular, seeing a decline of 18.2 percent on an annual basis. Some 70 percent of the people have lost faith in the government according to polls and last week, the Union of Greens and Farmers said it would abandon the ruling coalition if the government did not come up with additional aid for farmers. The prime minister approached opposition parties to join the government, but they all declined his offer. Meanwhile, the country’s neighbour, Lithuania, is itself seeing fresh protests, a fortnight after riots over the economic crisis hit the capital. A small demonstration of some 200 people, many of whom pensioners, was countered by 500 police officers and a kilometre-long fence was put up to protect the Seimas, the Lithuanian parliament, from the “unsanctioned protest”, according to Vilnius police commissariat spokesperson Loreta Tumalaviciene, the Baltic Course newspaper reports. Permalink |
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Posted on Sustainabilitank.info on January 17th, 2009 The UN Holocaust event announced for Tuesday January 27, 2009 (The Mandated Day to Remember the Holocaust) is balanced out with an announcement for the Arab Edition on a book on The Question of Palestine. We find this appalling. ////////////////// From: UN DPI UPDATES (16 – 31 January 2009) MEETINGS, CONFERENCES AND SPECIAL EVENTS: Tuesday 27 January 2009 —————
—————– From: UN DAILY NEWS , UNITED NATIONS NEWS SERVICE BAN URGES UNILATERAL ISRAELI CEASEFIRE IN GAZA; MEETS WITH PALESTINIAN LEADERS On the third day of his intensive diplomatic mission to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza conflict, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon conferred today with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in Ramallah, and called on Israel to unilaterally cease hostilities. “We have no time to lose,” he told reporters after his meetings in the West Bank on the 21st day of the offensive Israel launched with the stated aim of halting Hamas rocket attacks against it from Gaza. “A unilateral declaration of a ceasefire would be necessary at this time.” He said he would exert his utmost efforts to realize that goal and underscored his full support for President Abbas’s leadership. “There is increasing hope that flows from the intensive political discussions that are going on, not least by our Secretary-General, which is much appreciated here on the ground,” a top UN official in Gaza reported, speaking to journalists in New York by video link from ground zero from where he has been giving daily briefings on the death and destruction. “Let’s keep the urgency and momentum moving, because if there were a briefing tomorrow I am sorry to say there are people alive including children right now who will be dead, so that is where the imperative lies, we have to get the ceasefire because every hour that passes without a ceasefire is costing the lives of innocent civilians here,” Gaza Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) John Ging said. As of noon New York time the death toll stood at 1,115 dead, including 370 children, with 5,150 wounded, 1,745 of them children, according to Gazan health ministry figures, which UN officials call credible. Mr. Ging said 4,000 more people had fled their homes in the last 24 hours to seek shelter in UN schools, bringing the total to 49,000. Hundreds of thousands of others are estimated to have sought refuge with relatives and friends in less conflict-hit areas of Gaza. After meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem last night, Mr. Ban told reporters the Israeli Government would make an important decision on a ceasefire and he hoped it would be the right one, with Israel showing the world that it is a responsible member of the UN, abiding by Security Council resolutions. Last week the Council called for an immediate ceasefire. Following his stop in Ramallah, Mr. Ban travelled to Ankara to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, stressing his determination to work with the Turkish Government to help find solutions to the terrible crisis in Gaza. At the weekend he will go to Lebanon and Syria for talks with Government officials in both countries about the violence in Gaza and southern Israel, before attending the Arab Economic Summit in Kuwait on Monday. Mr. Ging said UNRWA, which aids 750,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza, about half the population, is establishing alternative warehouses and is “up and running again” after Israeli shells destroyed the warehouse in its main compound yesterday, sending hundreds of tons of food and medicine up in flames. The fire continued to burn today. “Massive devastation and destruction” was reported in the area of the compound, he added. “I myself would never have predicted what has happened in full view of the whole world over these past 21 days and nights, but it has happened and continues right now, but I am hopeful, not least because of the efforts of our Secretary-General, which is there for all to see, and I wish others would join him in the degree of commitment and pro-activity that he is bringing to bear.” DPI UPDATES (16 – 31 January 2009) MEETINGS, CONFERENCES AND SPECIAL EVENTS
 Ministerial-level meeting on Food Security for All: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Prime Minister José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero of Spain are convening a ministerial-level meeting on “Food Security for All”, 26-27 January in Madrid, to chart action on the continuing global food crisis. DPI is working with communicators from the Rome-based agencies and the Secretary-General’s High-level Task Force to develop information materials and a possible advance press briefing. There will be at least one press conference in Madrid, on 27 January. More information is available on the conference meeting site http://www.ransa2009.org
Contact: wallt@un.org
International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust: DPI will organize several events in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust (27 January). These events include:
9 a.m.- 11a.m.: Videoconference with six francophone UN Information Centres (Antananarivo, Brazzaville, Bujumbura, Dakar, Lomé, Yaoundé), the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Kigali, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme (New York Headquarters) and the Mémorial de la Shoah (Paris) at UNESCO, Paris. Students gathered at UNICs and in Kigali will hear the testimony of a Holocaust survivor in Paris and will be able to ask questions about his personal experience.
Exhibition “Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race”. This exhibition shows how the Nazi regime, with the support of doctors and scientists, aimed to change the genetic makeup of the population through measures known as “racial hygiene” or “eugenics”. Open to the public from 26 January through 22 March 2009. Venue: UN Public Lobby at visitors’ entrance, 1st Ave. and 46 Street.
10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.: Memorial ceremony at the UN General Assembly Hall : “An Authentic Basis for Hope: Holocaust Remembrance and Education”, with keynote speaker Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, Chairman of Yad Vashem Council. USG Kiyo Akasaka will open the event, which will include a message from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Statements will be made by H.E. Mr. Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, President of the 63rd session of the General Assembly, and H.E. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev, Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations. Ruth Glasberg Gold, a survivor of the Transnistria camps, and WWII veteran Leonid Rozenberg will share their personal stories. Cantor Ya’akov Motzen will recite “Kel Ma’le Rachamim” and “Ani Ma’amin”. The ceremony will also include musical performances by Elisha Abas (piano) and Yoon Kwon (violin). Please register at holocaustremembrance@un.org or by fax 212-963-0536.
1:00 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project Book Signing at the UN Bookshop. Mrs. Frances Irwin will present and sign copies of her memoir included in the volume titled “Stolen Youth: Five Women’s Survival in the Holocaust”. Every January in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, volumes from the Holocaust Survivors’ Memoirs Project are on display in the Public Lobby and for sale in the Book Shop. Mrs. Jeannie Rosensaft, one of the editors of the memoirs, will discuss the Project, which is an initiative of Nobel Prize laureate and United Nations Messenger of Peace Elie Wiesel, and Menachem Rosensaft, Chairman of the Project’s Editorial Board.
For further information, please contact holocaustremembrance@un.org
9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: DPI-NGO briefing on the experience of Jews in Greece during the Holocaust, in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. Non-UN grounds pass holders please register at HU2@un.org .
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.: Film screening, “Forgiving Dr. Mengele”, with statement by Ms. Eva Kor, who makes an inspirational visit to Germany, Israel and Auschwitz to come to terms with her experience. Venue: Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium. Please register at holocaustremembrance@un.org or by fax 212-963-0536.
Contact: mann@un.org/prudhommem@un.org
NEW PRINT AND ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
The Question of Palestine and the United Nations (Arabic edition): The Arabic edition of The Question of Palestine and the United Nations will be published by the end of January.
Contact: ueki@un.org
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