Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008, The Japan Times nline.

Moving from Christian to Muslim democracy.

By JAN-WERNER MUELLER
BUDAPEST — This past summer, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) narrowly escaped being banned by the country’s constitutional court. State prosecutors alleged that the party was trying to “Islamicize” the country and ultimately introduce theocracy. After the decision, not only did AKP supporters celebrate but those in the West who view as a prototype “Muslim Democratic” party also breathed a sigh of relief.

The clear model for a moderately religious party — one committed to the rules of the democratic game — are the Christian Democratic parties of Western Europe and, to a lesser extent, Latin America. Yet opponents of the idea of “Muslim democracy” argue that European Catholics only turned to democracy under orders from the Vatican, and that since Muslims do not have anything like a Church hierarchy, Christian democracy is an irrelevant example.

But history shows that political entrepreneurs and liberalizing Catholic intellectuals were crucial to the creation of Christian democracy. This suggests that Muslim reformers, given the right circumstances, might be similarly capable of bringing about Muslim democracy.

***

Christian Democratic parties first emerged in Belgium and Germany toward the end of the 19th century as narrowly focused Catholic interest groups. The Vatican initially regarded them with suspicion, perceiving their participation in elections and parliamentary horse-trading as signs of “modernism.”

A breakthrough came with the Italian Popular Party’s founding in 1919. Its leader, Don Luigi Sturzo, wanted it to appeal to tutti i liberi e forti — all free and strong men. The Vatican, having prohibited Italian Catholics from participating in the political life of newly united Italy for almost 60 years, lifted its ban. Mussolini soon outlawed the Popolari, and in any event, the Vatican had had a strained relationship with the party, appearing more comfortable supporting pro-Catholic authoritarian regimes in countries like Austria and Portugal.

While Christian democracy got nowhere politically between the world wars, momentous changes were initiated in Catholic thought. In particular, the French Catholic thinker Jacques Maritain developed arguments as to why Christians should embrace democracy and human rights.

During the 1920s, Maritain was close to the far-right Action Francaise, but the pope condemned the movement in 1926 for essentially being a group of faithless Catholics more interested in authoritarian nationalism than Christianity. Maritain accepted the pope’s verdict and began a remarkable ideological journey toward democracy.

He criticized France’s attempts to appear as a modern crusader, incurring the wrath of Catholics in the United States in particular. More importantly, he began to recast some of Aristotle’s teachings and medieval natural law doctrines to arrive at a conception of human rights. He also drew on the philosophy of “personalism” — which was highly fashionable in the 1930s as it sought a middle way between individualist liberalism and communitarian socialism — and insisted that people had a spiritual dimension that materialistic liberalism supposedly failed to acknowledge.

After the fall of France, Maritain decided to remain in the U.S., where he happened to find himself after a lecture tour (the Gestapo searched his house outside Paris in vain). He authored pamphlets on the reconciliation of Christianity and democracy, which Allied bombers dropped over Europe, and he never tired of stressing that the Christian origins of America’s flourishing democracy had influenced him.

Maritain also insisted that Christians, while they should take into account religious precepts, had to act as citizens first. Acceptance of pluralism and tolerance were central to his vision and he forbade one-to-one translation of religion into political life. He was rather skeptical of exclusively Christian parties.

Maritain participated in the drafting of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights, and the Second Vatican Council eventually approved many of the ideas that he had been propounding since the 1930s. He also influenced the Christian Democratic parties that governed after 1945 in Germany, Italy, the Benelux countries and, to a lesser extent, France, and which consolidated not only democracy but also built strong welfare states in line with Catholic social doctrine. By the 1970s, the parties even began to stress that one didn’t have to be a believer to join.

Maritain’s example disproves the claim that the analogy between Christian and Muslim democracy fails. It wasn’t the Vatican that took the lead in creating Christian democracy; it was innovative philosophers like Maritain (who never served in the Church hierarchy, though he was briefly French ambassador to the Vatican) and political entrepreneurs like Sturzo (a simple Sicilian priest).

Of course, Muslim democracy will not be brought about by intellectuals alone. After all, Christian democracy’s success is also explained by its strongly anti-communist stance during the Cold War.

Some of the philosophies used in the European Catholic transition to democracy — such as personalism — were rather nebulous, although it was probably their vagueness that helped to bring as many believers as possible on board. But the point remains that ideas matter. So the creation of a liberalized Islam by self-consciously moderate and democratic Muslim intellectuals is crucial.

Jan-Werner Mueller, a professor of politics at Princeton and currently an Open Society fellow at Central European University, Budapest, is the author of “Constitutional Patriotism.”

EU-15 mostly on track to meet Kyoto targets.
Writes LEIGH PHILLIPS from Brussels. EUobserver, October 17, 2008.

 The 15 ‘old’ European Union member states are on track to meeting their targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions that they signed up to under the 1997 Kyoto Agreement: The EU-15 as a whole, excluding member states that joined in 2004 and 2007, should meet its collective target of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by eight percent for the period 2008-2012 compared with 1990, the Kyoto agreement’s baseline year.

While Denmark, Italy and Spain are behind in reducing emissions, the performance of the other EU-15 nations is enough to pick up the slack so that the EU-15 overall should meet its Kyoto commitments, according to figures in a report from the European Environment Agency (EEA).

“Emission performance remains mixed in the EU-15. A few member states are still off their Kyoto track,” said Jacqueline McGlade, the executive director of the agency.

The EEA figures show that as of 2006, four EU-15 Member States - France, Greece, Sweden and the UK - had already reached a level below their Kyoto target.

Eight additional other states - Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal - project that they will achieve their targets in the future.

The reductions are being achieved by a combination of domestic policies and measures, reforestation and buying “carbon offsets,” in which the countries pay for other states to make the carbon reductions on their behalf.

The EU-15 have already cut emissions by 2.7 percent, which should climb to 3.6 percent by 2010. Reforestation counts for 1.4 percent of the eight percent cut, and the purchase of carbon offset credits through “Kyoto mechanisms” delivers another three percent.

Most of the EU-15 are planning for reforestation to achieve much of their Kyoto target. However, the total amount of carbon dioxide that could be removed annually between 2008 and 2012 is relatively small (1.4 percent compared to 1990), according to the EEA, although it is somewhat higher than the projections made in 2007.

This means that the countries may have to purchase more carbon offset credits to make up the difference.

“In the end, some member states might make use of Kyoto mechanisms more intensively than they are currently planning,” the report says.

——————–

Climate package must now be ‘cost-effective’; Poland has not put its veto back in its holster yet.
part two of LEIGH PHILLIPS  posting in EUobserver of October 17, 2008, dated October 16, 2008

Europe’s climate package was saved from collapsing during a summit of the bloc’s leaders under threat of veto from Poland and Italy on Thursday (16 October).

European Union heads of state and government agreed during a two-day meeting to reach an agreement on the package by December, but only by offering the two rebel nations a compromise that will now allow member states to implement the package in a way that is “cost-effective.”

Poland has not put its veto back in its holster yet.

The final statement agreed to by the leaders calls for “intensified work in coming weeks to allow the European council to decide in December 2008 appropriate solutions to the issues in this work in progress.”

The package will be implemented “in a rigorously established cost-effective manner to all sectors of the European economy and for all member states, respecting each member state’s specific situation,” the final conclusions continue.

“The objectives remain unchanged, the calendar remains the same,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a press conference after the summit.

“The deadline on climate change is so important that we cannot use the financial and economic crisis as a pretext for dropping it,” he said.

The key issue for Poland, alongside Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia, is the use of 2005 as the baseline year for setting new emissions targets, rather than 1990. They argue that they made significant cuts in carbon emissions after 1990.

Italy too had threatened a veto, arguing that its economy already has a problem with off-shoring jobs, and that the burden imposed on its manufacturing sector by having to reduce carbon emissions will now be squeezed even further if the world tips into recession.

Not yet in the clear

German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, asked by reporters whether there had been at any point a real threat to the package as a whole, responded “That was precisely what was at stake this morning.”

He added that at one point, the French presidency took the Poles out of the meeting for a short tete-a-tete to convince them.

However, despite the compromise, the climate package is still not entirely in the clear, as the Poles have not put the threat of a veto back in its holster.

Speaking at the end of the summit, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland “has won the right to veto if there is no other solution.”

His foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, echoed Mr Tusk, telling reporters that Poland’s veto “is still possible.”

Nevertheless, he said, Warsaw hopes to reach an agreement by December that is acceptable to every member state.

“That means that we have now a few weeks [to finish negotiations on] a very good package that has to take into account the interests of our part of the world.”

Mr Tusk stressed that Poland is interested in protecting the climate, as it is the very country that is to host the next UN climate change conference, which will take place in Poznan in early December.

Yet this conference, he declared, will be host to “both the rich and the poor.” The poorer countries were “afraid” for their economies, he said.

“It is a ‘to be or not to be’ question for Poland,” the Polish leader said, as his country depends for 90 percent of its power on coal. “If Poland can not agree to the targets, how will the other 100 poor countries?” he asked.

“We are not telling the French to decommission their nuclear power plants, which several tests show are very dangerous - and use only windmills as of tomorrow.”

“Nobody is going to persuade Poland that we have to decommission all coal-fired power plants and start using windmills,” he said.

Vague language

Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the result, admitting he had been taken by surprise when a paper from seven countries tabled on Thursday morning suggested the December deadline be scrapped.

In return for keeping the December deadline, heads of states agreed to have final talks on the package at their December summit. This means that even if given the OK by qualified majority at the ministerial level when environment ministers meet to discuss the package next week, any final agreement will require unanimity, as decisions taken at European summits must be unanimous.

Mr Rasmussen admitted it would be very difficult to reach a global agreement on a follow-up to the Kyoto Protocol at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in 2009 if European countries are not able to reach agreements at the latest by the end of this year.

***

Greens relieved:

Green groups, for their part, were relieved at the result.

“It could have been a lot worse,” Greenpeace spokesperson Mark Breddy told EUobserver.

“Italy and Poland failed to delay the package for the moment, opportunistically using the financial crisis as an excuse,” he said.

“There was vague language worked into [the final statement], but nothing that stops environment ministers to negotiate a strong deal.”

EU environment ministers meet to hammer out the details of the package on Monday (20 October).

 As Per The EUobserver of October 15, 2008:

1. EU leaders have second thoughts on bank rescue and green goals - 15.10.2008 - 09:29
—————————————————————————-
Europe has breathed a sigh of relief after markets reacted positively to
its coordinated rescue of the banking sector. But the Brussels summit of EU
leaders is expected to see criticism of the strategy, as well as scepticism
over ambitious climate change goals in the uncertain economic times.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26928/?rk=1

5. Employers and unions fear for EU real economy - 15.10.2008 - 09:23
—————————————————————————-
European employers and workers are both fearful that even if EU and world
leaders manage to save financial markets from calamity, the real economy
beneath the froth and waves of finance is set to be hit hard. The two
traditional workplace antagonists have both called on the European Central
Bank to cut interest rates further still.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26938/?rk=1

6. EU summit to see battle over union’s green ambitions - 14.10.2008 - 18:02
—————————————————————————-
European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has urged EU leaders set to
gather for two-days talks in Brussels this week not to use the ongoing
financial crisis to sacrifice the EU’s ambitious, although costly, green
goals. Meanwhile, some EU states are gearing up for a heated debate on the
issue.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26929/?rk=1

7. Group of 12 to reflect on future of Europe - 14.10.2008 - 17:43
—————————————————————————-
EU leaders are on Thursday set to approve a 12-member group headed by
former Spanish prime minister Felipe Gonzalez and tasked to reflect on how
best to deal with Europe’s future challenges.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26930/?rk=1

8. Europe spends trillions in historic bank rescue - 14.10.2008 - 09:52
—————————————————————————-
In a violent swerve away from the laissez-faire capitalism that has
underpinned Western society for the past three decades, EU states on Monday
outlined the details of a historic state bail-out of Europe’s financial
sector.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26927/?rk=1

9. [Comment] Where would we be now without the euro? - 15.10.2008 - 09:29
—————————————————————————-
Global financial markets are in turmoil, with record volatility on stock
markets, unprecedented losses in financial institutions and even whole
banking systems being bailed-out. But there is one crisis we have managed
to avoid within the euro zone - a currency crisis on top of the credit
crunch, writes Hans Martens and Fabian Zuleeg.

 http://euobserver.com/9/26933/?rk=1

Paris Conference: Simone Veil, Holocaust Survivor and Ex-President of European Parliament, Voices Plea on Durban II

Paris — Speaking before a UN audience, Simone Veil, Holocaust survivor and former president of the European Parliament, urged the international community to prevent a recurrence of the 2001 Durban debacle, where a world conference on racism became a hatefest for demonstrators attacking Israel and praising the policies of Adolph Hitler. She addressed the UN’s recent annual conference of non-governmental organizations, assembled in Paris to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing there of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,

“In Geneva, we are now starting to look forward to the conference which will follow that of Durban in 2001. May I make an appeal? I would not like there to be the same form of overspill, the same events which occurred in the sidelines of Durban. I know that the international community would condemn that if it were to recur.” More…

Paris Conference: French Human Rights Minister Slams Human Rights Council Censorship, Sides With Embattled NGO Activist

Speaking on the same podium as Veil, French secretary of state for human rights Rama Yade voiced the strongest international backing yet for the human rights activist who was silenced by the Human Rights Council for daring to mention Islamic Sharia law.

Showing more courage and candor than any other European official to date, Yade said that “certain governments would like certain forms of slander to be acknowledged as criminal law offences which run counter to the principle of universality upon which human rights are predicated.” She added, “it is very saddening that within the UN Human Rights Council, last June, a speaker of an NGO was censored because he was talking about the stoning of women in countries applying Sharia law. We have to be very determined as to maintaining the universal nature of human rights even if they are mistreated by States who defend a view of things that they themselves describe as cultural.”  More….

Paris Conference: UN Watch Director Heads Expert Panel on Human Rights Council, Urges Protection for Free Speech

As vice-president of the Geneva NGO Special Committee on Human Rights, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer headed an expert panel at the UN’s recent annual conference of non-governmental organizations, assembled in Paris to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing there of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The conference gathered 1,700 NGOs associated with the United Nations for three days of debate.

Neuer chaired a panel discussion on the UN Human Rights Council, co-sponsored by the Conference of NGOs and Pax Romana, featuring Willy Fautre of Human Rights Frontiers International, Peter Prove of the Lutheran World Federation, Paula Schriefer of Freedom House, and Lukas Machon of the International Commission of Jurists.  More…

UN Debate: Blaming the West for Durban II

UN Watch Responds to UN Rights Chief, Iran, Egypt 

Addressing the matter of Durban II, the UN’s so-called “anti-racism” conference set for Geneva in April 2009, UN rights chief Navi Pillay suggested the West was solely to blame for the troubles plaguing the planned world gathering. Iran, Egypt and Pakistan echoed her remarks.

Joining the debate, UN Watch pointed out the distortions of Durban II that give cause for legitimate concerns among Western states and proponents of human rights and the anti-racism cause.

Click for Video

 Protecting Human Rights

UN Debate: “Free Jailed Bloggers,” says UN Watch

 UN Watch Defends Expert Mandate for Darfur

UN Watch called on all UN member states to honour the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declarartion of Human Rights by releasing jailed bloggers, writers and journalists. Even as UN investigator Sima Samar reported to the Human Rights Council of Sudan’s crimes on Darfur — mass killing, sexual violence against women and children, wholesale violation of human rights — Sudan, Egypt for the African group, and other states demanded the termination of her mandate. UN Watch rallied to the defense of the embattled human rights expert.
Click here for video

UN Debate: Israel Under Assault

Council Bans UN Chief’s Critique of Anti-Israel Bias, Raps UN Watch

After Palestinian Envoy Compares Israelis to Nazis, UN Watch Recalls Haj Amin Al Husseini’s Alliance with Adolph Hitler

Under a September 18 ruling by the UN Human Rights Council, it is now prohibited to quote Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s critique of the council’s special agenda item targeting Israel, during debates held under that item. So ruled Ambassador Elchin Amirbayov of Azerbaijan, vice-president of the 47-nation body, after UN Watch quoted from Ban Ki-moon’s June 2007 statement. During a vitriolic session opened by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Amirbayov expressed no objections when governments and NGO speakers compared Israel to Nazi Germany, treating each with full parliamentary protocol. But after UN Watch responded, the council vice-president banged his gavel, declined to thank UN Watch, and prohibited any speaker “to put into question the agenda.” On previous occasions, UN Watch quoted Ban Ki-moon’s critique of the council’s biased agenda without incident.  Click for Video

Promoting Human Rights: UN Watch in the Media

The Durban II Debates: UN Watch’s Hillel Neuer on Al Jazeera With Riz Khan

New York, Sept. 24, 2008 – In the first major TV debate on Durban II, the UN’s upcoming “anti-racism” parley, UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer debated Islamic Human Rights Commission Chair Massoud Shadjareh, the controversial leader of mass anti-Israel demonstrations at the original 2001 conference in Durban, South Africa.

 Click here for video

 Leading Newspapers in the World Quote UN Watch on United Nations, Human Rights and Durban II…

“Why is the commissioner aiming her fire at the world’s most tolerant democracies, instead of at racist tyrants like Sudan’s Omar al-Bashir and Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who, under the chairmanship of Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, have already begun to hijack the conference?’ asked UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.” — “Pilay urges states to take part in anti-racism conference,” The Press Trust of India, Sept. 9, 2008.

more…

“Navi Pillay tire dans la mauvaise direction’, a réagi l’ONG ‘UN Watch’. Et de se demander pourquoi la Haut Commissaire ne critique pas plutôt l’attitude du Soudan, de l’Iran et de la Libye ‘qui ont commencé à détourner la conférence’ de ses buts…” –  “Reprise du Conseil des droits de l’homme Navi Pillay veut sauver la conférence de Genève contre le racisme,” Schweizerische Depeschenagentur AG, service de base francais, Sept 9, 2008.

more…

“The threat of Western non-participation remains the only force with the slightest chance of preventing the conference from degenerating into an out-and-out fiasco…” — H. Neuer quoted in “UN rights official urge US, Canada, Israel to join anti-racism meeting,” Agence France Presse, Sept. 8, 2008.

more…

“The threat of Western non-participation remains the only force with the slightest chance of preventing the conference (Durban-2) from degenerating into an out-and-out fiasco…” — H. Neuer quoted in L. Maclnnis “New UN human rights chief calls for racism debate,” Reuters, Sept. 9, 2008.

more…

“…Ms. Pillay must denounce the proposal adopted last week by African states in Nigeria that attacks free speech, singles out Israel, and endorses a text calling for the elimination of Zionism and comparing it to apartheid…” — H. Neuer quoted in B. Avni, “Planned Conference on Racism Raises Concerns at the U.N.,’” The New York Sun, Sept. 5, 2008.

more…

“Haute Commissaire Pillay a exhorté tous les Etats à participer à la Conférence d’avril, même ceux qui ont exprimé leur volonté de ne pas le faire. Cette déclaration a suscité l’ire d’UN Watch. L’ONG ne comprend pas pourquoi Navanetham Pillay fait allusion aux démocraties telles que le Canada, les Etats-Unis et Israël qui ont déjà promis de boycotter le sommet genevois. Pour UN Watch, la haut-commissaire se trompe de cible et devrait plutôt fustiger l’attitude d’Etats comme le Soudan ou l’Iran…” — “Droits humains: ce qui attend la haut-commissaire,” Le Temps, Sept. 9, 2008.

more…

“…«Navi Pillay tire dans la mauvaise direction», a réagi l’ONG «UN Watch». Et de se demander pourquoi la haut-commissaire ne critique pas plutôt l’attitude du Soudan, de l’Iran et de la Libye «qui ont commencé à détourner la conférence» de ses buts….” — H. Neuer quoted in “Conférence sur le racisme: le premier défi de Navi Pillay,” La Tribune de Genève, Sept. 15, 2008.

more…

UN Watch Quoted on Durban II African Conference in Abuja, Nigeria

“All of these African victims, and millions more in the future, are harmed by the [African Durban preparatory] conference’s failure to ensure accountability for crimes committed in African countries,’ said Hillel Neuer, executive director of Geneva-based UN Watch….” — “Africa states to raise Palestinian issue at UN forum,” Reuters, Aug. 26, 2008.

more…

“…The text [the declaration adopted by an African regional meeting] according to UN-Watch’s executive director Hillel Neuer, ‘flouts international human rights principles, and breaches the red lines set by France, Britain, the Netherlands, and other Western states, which they have warned could trigger their boycott of the 2009 meeting in Geneva’….” — “Africa wants racism, xenophobia to be criminalized,” Agence France Presse, Aug. 26, 2008. Also published in The Herald (Zimbabwe).

more…

“…UN Watch, a Geneva- based independent human rights group that is actively participating as an international non-governmental organisation at the current African Regional Conference in Abuja, Nigeria, is deeply concerned that the draft declaration set for adoption later yesterday threatens to derail this year’s UN follow-up to the 2009 world conference in racism…” — “African Meeting in Nigeria Threatens To Derail World Conference,” Leadership (Nigerian Newspaper), Aug. 26, 2008.

more…

“…More recently we were informed by Hillel Neuer, UN Watch executive director, and one of Canada’s unsung heroes, that a declaration adopted on Aug. 26, 2008, by an African regional meeting in Abuja, Nigeria, ‘fails to address racial and ethnic crimes committed by Sudan, tramples international human rights guarantees on free speech, places Islam above all other religions, and targets Israel alone, implying that it is uniquely racist.’…” — N. Emmanuel, “Darfur: Two Measures for Muslim Corpses,” The Suburban, Sept. 3, 2008.

more…

“Portraying Israel’s conflict as racial is more than political mischief…It’s an attempt to dehumanize Israelis and their supporters as uniquely evil’…” — H. Neuer quoted in P. Goodenough, “African States Want to Condemn Israel While Ignoring Darfur,” CNS News, Aug. 29, 2008.

more…

“…« La déclaration ne fait pas mention des crimes raciaux et ethniques commis au Soudan, piétine les droits internationaux garantissant la liberté d’expression, place l’Islam à une position supérieure aux autres religions et vise Israël comme étant un pays raciste » rapporte Hillel Neuer, directeur de l’organisation UN Watch, qui promeut les Droits de l’Hommes à travers le monde…” — Guysen International, “Durban II, le retour!”, Aug. 27, 2008.

more…

“A draft document circulating at the United Nations suggests human rights violators will get off the hook at the upcoming Durban II anti-racism conference in Geneva while Israel will again come in for special opprobrium, and the West – including its fundamental respect for free speech – will come under attack, said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch…” — “Durban II prep conference called a concern,” The Canadian Jewish News, Sept. 18, 2008.

more…

UN Watch Continues to be quoted on background on the Human Rights Council

“…Pillay müsse ihr Amt vor allem dazu nutzen, politische Aufmerksamkeit auf die weltweit größten Menschenrechtsverletzungen im Sudan, in Burma, China und Simbabwe zu lenken, forderte die Organisation UN Watch nach der Ernennung der Südafrikanerin im Juli…” — UN Watch cited in “Neue UN-Kommissarin für Menschenrechte,” Kurier (Austria), Sept. 2, 2008.

more…

“…The UN watch report on former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Arbour calls on the new Commissioner use her ‘bully pulpit’ to promote human rights everywhere. With a staff of almost a thousand and an annual budget (from the UN budget and donations) of  $150 million, her office is a well-appointed pulpit, but the fact remains that her only weapon is persuasion. …” — “Human rights at the UN,” Oxford Analytica, Aug. 30 - Sept. 5, 2008.

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.

“We wouldn’t like to leave Belarus in the arms of Russia,” a French diplomat told EUobserver. “We want to see what we could do in order not to give up [EU] sanctions totally, the sticks, but to give some carrots at the same time.”

France is “considering” the risk that Mr Putin will use the threat of gas price hikes against Belarus in 2009 to pressure the country into recognising Georgia rebel enclaves South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, she added.

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:

The large majority of EU states in favour of softening sanctions will also have to persuade Dutch foreign minister Maxim Verhagen of the merit of such a move.

“We are not convinced there has been any major improvement [in the political climate in Belarus]. He [Mr Verhagen] doesn’t see any grounds for a substantial change,” a Dutch diplomat said.

“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