Italy fingers Libya on immigration - Tripoli failing to keep its end of bilateral deal - says Roberto Savio of “Other News.”
ANSA, Milan, October 7, 2008.

Italian Interior Minister Roberto Maroni on Tuesday condemned Libya for failing to keep its end of a bilateral deal, as dozens more migrants arrived by sea from north Africa. Three boats carrying 149 people were stopped near the southernmost Italian island of Lampedusa in the early hours of Tuesday, prompting angry comments from Maroni over an accord signed in August.

”Around 99.9% of illegals who arrive in Lampedusa set out from Libya,” he said in a radio interview. ”Libya promised more controls but these are not being carried out effectively as we requested”. Rome pledged to fund medical and infrastructure projects under August’s five-billion-dollar colonial compensation deal in exchange for Libya implementing previously agreed measures aimed at reducing migrant arrivals in Italy, such as joint patrols of the Libyan coast.

But three weeks after the agreement was signed, it seemed headed for trouble, when Maroni announced there had been no drop in the number of migrants arriving from Libya and threatened to block certain projects.

Tripoli issued an angry reply via the Libyan ambassador to Rome, saying Libya ”had never asked Italy for help” in dealing with migrants.

On Tuesday, Maroni accused Tripoli of refusing to accept the delivery of six high-speed motorboats for joint patrols off the Libyan coast. ”We are waiting hopefully for the Libyan government to give us clearance,” he said.

”Saving a sinking boat in international waters is clearly an obligation but if boats carrying illegals were stopped at the departure point then this problem wouldn’t arise”.

Three boats were brought safely to Lampedusa on Tuesday morning although coast guards said others had also been sighted, probably as a result of the sudden improvement in weather. There were 61 women and 41 children among the 149 foreigners brought to the island’s reception centre for processing. Hundreds of migrants are stopped in Italian waters each year en route to Europe. Lampedusa, which is closer to Africa than Italy, is the first port of call for most of these migrants, and facilities on the tiny island are often strained to breaking point.

AGREEMENT SIGNED AT THE END OF AUGUST.

The agreement Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi signed with Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi at the end of August has not yet been published or ratified in Italy. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said the full text of the measure would be put to parliament within two weeks, along with a ratification bill. A deal to compensate Libya for Italy’s colonial occupation has been the subject of sporadic negotiations for over a decade. In 2004, Libya promised to stem the flow of migrants leaving its shores under a separate agreement.

Although hailed as a victory by the Berlusconi government of the day, it made no impact on the number of arrivals. The new compensation deal requires Libya to implement its 2004 promises, which includes patrols of Libya’s southern borders to prevent migrants from Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan and Chad from crossing the country to arrive at the coast.

EU states agree to invite Belarus minister {as an outsider to their foreign ministers’ meeting.}
PHILIPPA RUNNER, EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS, October 3, 2008.

EU states have agreed to invite Belarus foreign minister Sergei Martynov to a prestigious meeting in Brussels, as the French EU presidency struggles to counter Russian diplomacy on the union’s eastern fringe.

The Belarusian minister is to take part in a “troika” with EU foreign relations chief Javier Solana, external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner on 13 October, on the margins of a wider EU foreign ministers’ meeting on the same day.

Senior EU diplomats made the decision in Brussels on Friday (3 October), with Mr Kouchner’s office set to rubber-stamp the move before a formal invitation goes out. A previous suggestion to bring Mr Martynov to Paris in September was judged premature at the time.

The formal invitation may be made before Monday, when Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin plans to visit Minsk, in order to show Belarus that the EU is taking seriously its latest offer of a rapprochement with the West.

The Martynov-troika meeting would signal a breakthrough in EU-Belarus relations. In 1997, the EU froze contacts with Belarus officials above the deputy-minister level, and between 2004 and 2006 imposed a visa ban on 41 officials, including President Alexander Lukashenko.

Belarussian parliamentary elections last Sunday were judged undemocratic by the EU and the OSCE. But Belarus has released political prisoners and allowed small anti-Lukashenko protests, as it seeks Western support in a bid to resist becoming a Russian client state.

***
Unturning the screw:

The EU is also considering relaxing its legal sanctions package on top of the one-off Martynov gesture.

The latest options discussed internally include a temporary suspension of the visa ban for some of the names on the list. The suspension could include President Lukashenko himself, but not people such as Viktor Sheyman, a former security chief implicated in the disappearance of three anti-government activists in 1999.

The EU is also debating ending the 1997 ban on high-level contacts and chopping the costs of EU visas from €60 (one third the average monthly wage in Belarus) to €35 per visit.

The visa move could help build pro-EU sentiment among ordinary Belarusians and advertise the benefits of political reform. “We want people to come to Vilnius and see how things look in a democracy, how much we have prospered,” a Lithuanian official said.

Any sanctions decision will wait until the 13 October EU foreign ministers’ meeting however, in case the unpredictable President Lukashenko makes a u-turn after the Putin visit next week.

Dutch obstacle:

“We’re talking about human rights here and we have to take things seriously,” he added. “This has all the makings of being a substantial discussion point in the GAERC [the EU foreign ministers gathering].”

 EUOBSERVER / WEEKLY AGENDA (5 – 12 October) – This week will start with a meeting of the EU’s economy and finance ministers (ECOFIN) in Luxembourg on the need for a European response to the international financial crisis, just a day after the bloc’s four biggest states - Germany, France, Britain and Italy – hold emergency talks on the subject in Paris.

The ECOFIN meeting on Tuesday (7 October) is expected to highlight the need for co-operation and cohesion among EU states on the issue, as well as the necessity of constructing a “structural response” to the crisis, rather than taking ad hoc actions.

The ministers will also underline the need to respect the so-called Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) – the rules underpinning the euro, following comments coming from some EU capitals that tackling the crisis should take priority over keeping budget deficits in line with EU rules.

“[The SGP rules] are temporarily not the priority of priorities. The priority is to save the global banking system and the savings of citizens. There is no other choice,” Henri Guaino, a close adviser of French President Nicolas Sarkozy told French television channel Canal Plus on Thursday.

The meeting – which will be preceded on Monday by a meeting of the economy and finance ministers from EU countries using the euro – will also assess the impact of the crisis on banks and insurance companies, as well as on small and medium-sized enterprises.

===============

France believes EU-level measures may have to be cobbled together to aid banks in smaller member states, while denying rumours of a €300 billion package. But Germany has indicated it would not support any European “big-bang” deal.

“What happens if a smaller EU state is hit by a looming bank collapse? Maybe this country does not have the means to save the bank,” French finance minister Christine Lagarde told the Handelsblatt in an interview published on Thursday (2 October). “Therefore the question of a European safety net solution comes up.”

The safety package may be presented by French President Nicholas Sarkozy at a 4 October meeting between himself, the prime ministers of Germany, Italy and the UK, as well as Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker and European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet.

Reports have it that the Netherlands is the source of the €300 billion proposal. The country quickly denied this was the case.

But any suggestion of a European version of US treasury secretary Henry Paulson’s $700 billion bail-out plan for Wall Street is being stiffly resisted by Berlin. In an interview with German daily Bild, Chancellor Angela Merkel said she opposed writing “blank cheques” for banks.

“The idea of applying one solution, one big bang … is not practicable and would create new, enormous problems,” German finance ministry spokesperson Torsten Albig told reporters yesterday in Berlin. “Germany does not think much of such a plan,” he said, according to AFP.

European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso on Thursday welcomed the approval of the package by the American Senate, which had enabled another attempt to hammer out the bill in the House of Representatives and described it as “a good step forward in the right direction.”

But after receiving negative signals from both Berlin and London on the idea of a similar emergency fund worth €300 billion for Europe’s banking sector, French president Nicolas Sarkozy distanced himself from the proposal.

A day later Sarkozy said: “I deny the sum and the principle,” according to media reports. And from Christine Lagarde’s office:  “there was an exchange of ideas but no French proposals. There was no French plan,” AFP says.

Asked by journalists about a possible EU version of the US banking rescue scheme on Thursday, the European Central Bank (ECB) president Jean-Claude Trichet - also to attend the Paris mini-summit together with commission chief Barroso - openly said it would not work for Europe. “We do not have a federal budget, so the idea that we could do the same as what is done on the other side of the Atlantic doesn’t fit with the political structure of Europe.”

Britain has suggested that solutions to the financial crisis need to be primarily sought by national authorities. “It is right that individual countries would want to take their own decisions, particularly when national taxpayers’ money is potentially at risk,” said spokesman of Gordon Brown, UK’s prime minister: “The purpose of the [Paris] meeting will be to discuss how each of the four major economies in Europe are responding to the global financial crisis,” he added, according to the BBC.

The Irish parliament on Thursday passed a bill fully guaranteeing all bank deposits, which has sparked a controversy in other European capitals about unfair advantage for Irish banks over foreign competitors.

British media reported a rising interest among Brits to switch from the UK’s to Ireland’s banks in a bid to secure their savings in a rising atmosphere of insecurity. Minister Lagarde said in a BBC live interview that better European co-ordination could prevent such cases, arguing that “a measure decided in one [EU] member state has to be shared in advance with other member states.”

EU competition spokesman Jonathan Todd said his department still hadn’t received any formal explanation from Ireland about how its bank insurance programme would work, meaning it was still uncertain whether or not the EU will even clear the Irish move as legal.

The Guardian says that Greece has followed Ireland in offering a guarantee on deposits in all banks operating in the country, after it says savers were getting restless. The paper goes on to say that it puts EU leaders in a difficult position ahead of an emergency summit in Paris on Saturday to find a common response to the crisis.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Welle says that on Thursday the European commission gave the go-ahead to Germany for a €35bn deal to bail out mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate.

And El País says that the EU is struggling to come up with a common response to the financial crisis, with individual member states taking unilateral action to save their own banks: the UK (Bradford and Bingley and Northern Rock), France and Belgium (Dexia), and Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg (Fortis).

****
France and Germany at odds over EU ‘Paulson Plan’ - 02.10.2008

—————————————————————————-
France believes EU-level measures may have to be cobbled together to aid
banks in smaller member states, while denying rumours of a €300 billion
package. But Germany has indicated it would not support any European
“big-bang” deal.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26851/?rk=1

****
EU big four gather for financial crisis talks - 03.10.2008

—————————————————————————-
The leaders of the EU’s four biggest states - Germany, France, Britain and
Italy - are gathering for emergency talks on the financial crisis in Paris
on Saturday, one day after US lawmakers are expected to vote on an amended
bail-out plan. But France says there will be no US-type rescue package for
the EU.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26857/?rk=1

From The European Parliament - September 30, 2008:   Europe props up crumbling banks.

European governments were forced to rescue a number of financial institutions hit by the US-born crisis, sending stock markets plummeting, reports Deutsche Welle.

Washington’s rejection of a 700 billion dollar bailout caused world markets to plummet, it says.

Only a few weeks ago, banks in the eurozone financial sector were said to be safe from the US-born financial crisis, but now, as the global financial situation gradually worsens, five European governments have had to step in to prop up financial institutions, the paper goes on.

France is to inject €1bn into ailing Franco-Belgian bank, Dexia, which will receive €6.4bn in total, with the rest made up from donations from Belgium and Luxembourg, according to Le Figaro.

In Ireland, meanwhile, the government has placed a two-year guarantee on all deposits and certain debts in six major Irish banks, says the Irish Times, in a move it says is to “safeguard the Irish financial system”.

—————

Europe scrambles to save banking system: Banking stocks took a major hit across Europe after news the US bailout had failed.

LEIGH PHILLIPS, The EUobserver, September 30, 2008.

European authorities in Brussels, Frankfurt and at EU member state level are scrambling to save the continent’s financial system after bank stocks plunged when US lawmakers rejected a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street on Monday (29 September).

Banks are petrified of lending to one another for more than one day, requiring central banks to flood their coffers with the money they need to stay in business.

After yesterday’s part-nationalisation of Belgo-Dutch banking giant Fortis and the nationalisation of the UK’s Bradford & Bingley, Belgium-based Dexia, the biggest provider of lending to local governments in the world, could be the next financial institution to be rescued by taxpayers.

In an email from Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the country’s federal government reached an agreement with Belgium’s regional assemblies to jointly support the bank, Bloomberg News reported.

Even French President Nicolas Sarkozy has joined the rescue operation, despite the bank being headquartered in Belgium, issuing directions that the state investment body Caisse Des Depots offer Dexia funds.

***

Elsewhere, the German government backed by a series of private banks bailed out collapsing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate reportedly to the tune of €35 billion, according to the German Ministry of Finance.

The list of nationalisations is rapidly growing, with Iceland - not an EU member state - also nationalising the country’s third largest bank, Glitner. The government has taken out a 75 percent stake in the firm in return for €600 million.

The Icelandic bailout is a larger per capita rescue operation than even the failed US $700 billion plan, representing some €2,000 for every Icelander. Following the move, the Icelandic Krona dropped to its lowest level ever against the euro.

***

Russia’s Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, has rushed to the forefront in the crisis, announcing authorities will offer domestic banks a fresh $50 billion atop the $120 billion already supplied.

***

In perhaps the most frightening development, banks have deposited some €28 billion with the European Central Bank, afraid of leaving it stashed anywhere else, according to reports in the UK’s Daily Telegraph, quoting Hans Redeker, currency chief at France’s BNP Paribas.

“The ECB is no longer able to inject liquidity because the money is just coming back to them again,” the British paper quotes the banker as saying.

***

Bank stocks plunge:

Meanwhile, European bank stocks dropped through the floor on Monday, with Germany’s Aareal and Commerzbank particularly badly knocked down, taking a 42 percent and 22 percent hit to share prices. Ireland’s Anglo-Irish Bank was down 46 percent and Allied Irish down 16 percent.

Italy’s Unicredit, Sweden’s Swedbank and France’s Natixis all took a bruising as well, while a host of smaller banks in Denmark are set to collapse, according to the Financial Times. Spanish operations too are struggling.

On Monday, the European Banking Federation tried to reassure citizens that the financial sector was on a sound footing despite the crisis, and that depositors’ savings were not at risk.

“The global economy is facing an unprecedented crisis which is generating a certain degree of anguish due to the financial failure of some major banks,” the EBF said in a press statement.

“The European banking system will weather the storm,” the statement read, adding: “In EU countries retail deposits are insured.”

***

EU timetable:

French President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet bank and insurance company directors on Tuesday to assess the financial sector’s situation in his country, his office announced.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso also said that a “structural European response” was currently being prepared for the summit of European leaders in two weeks’ time.

Additionally, on Wednesday, EU internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy is to unveil a tripartite reform of European banks’ capital requirements.

———————-

Russia has a monetary surplus - will this now become its entree card to a tighter relationship with the EU?

Is this the beginning of a realignment that will see a Europe-Russia new economic bloc and a US-China economy tie-up?

 From:    HIROAKI_TESHIMA at env.go.jp
Subject: [October 22, 2008, Paris, France] 2nd International Workshop on Sectoral GHG Emission Reduction Potential
Date: September 25, 2008

2nd International Workshop on Sectoral GHG Emission Reduction Potential.

On October 22, 2008, “2nd International Workshop on Sectoral GHG Emission Reduction Potential,” organized by the Government of Japan, will take place at OECD in Paris, France.

***

This international workshop aims to;
- Enhance understanding on bottom-up emission reduction potential analysis through comparison of various models.
- Find cost-effective abatement opportunities from global perspective.
- Discuss the role of bottom-up analysis in ensuring comparability of quantified emission reduction targets for developed countries.
- Discuss the role of cross-border analysis contributing to Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable mitigation actions by developing countries.
- Discuss the role of common actions taken by specific sectors in order to avoid adverse effect to the market (e.g. leakage).
- Find international benchmarks for major sectors, consistent with common but differentiated responsibilities and respected capabilities.
- Enhance synergy among policy makers, researchers and industry sector representatives.

<Tentative Agenda>

Session 1: Introduction to emission reduction potential analysis
- Latest research outcomes of emission reduction potential models.
- Regional difference of emission reductions potentials and cost-effective abatement opportunities.

Session 2: Bottom-up analysis for setting comparable quantified emission reduction targets for developed countries
- The role of bottom-up analysis in ensuring comparability of quantified emission reduction targets for developed countries.
- The way to achieve the global emission reduction objectives: maximizing the bottom-up global mitigation efforts.

Session 3: Cross-border analysis contributing to Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable actions by developing countries
- Latest information, data collection and indicators by industry associations (IISA, WBCSD, IAI, etc.) and international organization (IEA, APP, etc.)
- The role of sectoral reduction potential analysis in defining Measurable, Reportable and Verifiable actions by major developing countries, considering sustainable development, efficiency and effectiveness.
- Co-benefits and appropriate incentives in realizing the cost-effective mitigation potentials
- The role of common actions taken by specific sectors in order to avoid adverse effect to the market (e.g. leakage).

Session 4: Issue for future works
- Identification of elements for further research progress and cooperative sectoral activities
- Discussion on required actions in consideration of the negotiation of the future framework.

<Expected participants>

- Policy makers mainly from Annex I Parties
- Researchers on bottom-up model from Japan, Europe, U.S. and some developing countries.
- Industry sector representatives (e.g. Steel, Power, Cement, Aluminum and Transport)
- International Organization (e.g. OECD, IEA)

Hiroaki Teshima (Mr.)
Office of International Strategy on Climate Change
Ministry of the Environment, Japan
e-mail:  hiroaki_teshima at env.go.jp
Tel: +81-3-5521-8330
Fax: +81-3-5521-8276

Sovereign funds AS VEHICLE to FINANCE the global economy.

Consideration should be given to the creation of an international system wherein sovereign funds (and/or those of affiliates) spent outside their native countries are restricted to only lending to public and private business enterprises subject to an international regulation, control, and oversight regime and subordinate to those of the nations where the loans are made.

This would:
(1) Provide additional liquidity and capital to the international financial system, maintain markets, and reduce the risk of regional and/or worldwide recession;
(2) Overcome the valid concerns ( economic, financial, security, political, etc.) and fear of sovereign funds buying up a country’s manufacturing, and service companies, agricultural enterprises, natural resources, banks, financial institutions, and technology and knowhow (industrial, military, scientific, nuclear, etc.) and engaging in economic aggression.
(3) Reduce the risk of protectionism and strife.

To protect and preserve the capital of sovereign fund banks, their off shore loans could be secured by the credit of the borrower and/or the nation, state, or municipal government where the borrowing enterprise is located, possibly as part of economic/job development financing programs.
This approach would satisfy the concerns and requirements of all parties, supply the capitol the global economy needs to function equitably and efficiently, and encourage greater sovereign fund domestic investment to improve the educational, infrastructure, and living standards at home.

This could be accomplished through:
(1) U.N. regulations prohibiting any member nation from allowing sovereign funds (or their affiliates), either directly or indirectly, to acquire any kind of asset in their country – only lend;
(2) individual countries collectively enacting standardized legislation to prohibit sovereign funds (or their affiliates) from acquiring or purchasing stock, bonds, or equity, either directly or indirectly, in the manufacturing, mining, agriculture, or service enterprises, technology, research, intellectual and real property, patents or copyrights in their country and set lending guidelines;
(3) the U.N. requiring all of its members to comply with all international patent and copyright laws; and
(4) the establishment (or empowerment) of an international oversight and regulatory banking commission, like the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization, European Trade Commission, or OECD to: (a) govern sovereign fund foreign lending, (b) set uniform regulations and standards for international bank and hedge fund reserve, transparency, disclosure, credit rating, and due diligence, etc. and (c) prohibit any interference or influence by sovereign funds (or their affiliates), either directly or indirectly, in the governments or politics of any country other than their own.

Private banks, financial institutions or consultants could assist sovereign funds in arranging and servicing said foreign loans on a fee basis.

Harry L. Langer           Tel: 212-517-5942     E-mail:  harrylanger at hllanger.com

 Obama and McCaine - Wake Up - It Is Not For You To Save The World Anymore - Bush Already Buried It.

‘Laissez-faire’ capitalism is ‘finished,’ says France. Germany talks of a “multi-polar” world {that we assume will have its center-point in Asia}.
ELITSA VUCHEVA, the EUobserver, September 26, 2008.

Both France and Germany on Thursday (25 September) said the current financial crisis would leave important marks on the world economy, with French president Nicolas Sarkozy declaring that the under-regulated system we once knew is now “finished,” and German finance minister Peer Steinbruck saying the crisis marks the beginning of a multi-polar world, where the US is no longer a superpower.

“The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished,” says France’s president.
Speaking to an audience of some 4,000 supporters in Toulon, France, Mr Sarkozy said the financial turmoil had highlighted the need to re-invent capitalism with a strong dose of morality, as well as to put in place a better regulatory system.

“The idea of the all-powerful market that must not be constrained by any rules, by any political intervention, was mad. The idea that markets were always right was mad,” Mr Sarkozy said.

“The present crisis must incite us to refound capitalism on the basis of ethics and work … Self-regulation as a way of solving all problems is finished. Laissez-faire is finished. The all-powerful market that always knows best is finished,” he added.

He accused “this system that allows the ones responsible for a disaster to leave with a golden parachute” of having “increased inequality, demoralised the middle classes and fed [market] speculation.”

***

A European response:

The French president also criticised “the logic of short-term financial profit” and said risks were hidden “to obtain ever more exorbitant profits” – something which, he said, was not the true face of capitalism.

“The market economy is a regulated market … in the service of all. It is not the law of the jungle; it is not exorbitant profits for a few and sacrifices for all the others. The market economy is competition that lowers prices … that benefits all consumers.”

The speech by Mr Sarkozy, who is also the EU’s current president-in-office, echoes similar statements he made earlier this week, when he called for an international meeting to discuss the crisis before the end of the year.

On Thursday, he also called on Europe to “reflect on its capacity to act in case of an emergency, to re-consider its rules, its principles,” while learning the lessons from what is happening worldwide.

Mr Sarkozy said: “For all Europeans, it is understood that the response to the crisis should be a European one.”

“In my capacity of president of the Union, I will propose initiatives in that respect at the next European Council [15 October],” he added.

‘The world will never be the same again’

Meanwhile, German finance minister Peer Steinbruck criticised the US for failing to act in the wake of the crisis and said it would now lose its status of “superpower.”

“It is a discussion that we have had for a long time in Europe, that the completely unregulated parts of the international financial market must be more closely monitored and that we must try to reach an agreement on common regulations,” he said during a visit to the New York Stock Exchange on Wednesday, according to Forbes.