Van Rompuy, a new Brezhnev Doctrrine

Herman van Rompuy was speaking to a mixed bag of national and European Parliamentarians in Brussels today, in his speech he said something that chilled me to the bone.

national parliaments keep their budgetary sovereignty, at least as long as national policies do not threaten the financial stability of the whole.

It has dark echoes of the Brezhnez Doctrine, issued after the Prague Spring of 1968.
This is what Brezhnev said,

The peoples of the socialist countries and Communist parties certainly do have and should have freedom for determining the ways of advance of their respective countries. However, none of their decisions should damage either socialism in their country or the fundamental interests of other socialist countries, and the whole working class movement, which is working for socialism. This means that each Communist party is responsible not only to its own people, but also to all the socialist countries, to the entire Communist movement.

Of course the language is different. And of course we are talking the European not the Soviet Union.

But, but...

The similarities are frightening.

Lets rewrite the Brezhnev piece with slight amendment,

The peoples of the Member States certainly do have and should have freedom for determining the ways of advance of their respective countries. However, none of their decisions should damage the fundamental interests of the European Union and the peoples of Europe. This means that each National Parliament is responsible not only to its own people, but also to all the other member states, to the entire European movement.

Arise comrades and defend the expatriation allowance

The Euro Unions are at it again.

Appalled by the way in which there are moves to cut back on Eurocrat wages/promotions/allowances they have sent out a Call to Arms...
What we need is a plan that will revitalise employment and ensure long‑term growth.

In Brussels there will be a demonstration in front of the Council, starting at 12.00.

The policy of blind austerity that is being inflicted on the private sector and national public services is also part of the European Commission's proposals, undermining the European Public Service by reducing number of posts by 5 % (while the Institutions are being given more and more responsibilities), increasing the number of hours in the working week, reducing the status of secretaries, slowing down promotions, increasing the retirement age, and so on. At the Council, a majority of the Member States have already indicated that they want to go even further: ending the method for the adjustment of salaries and pensions, abolishing the expatriation allowance, reducing family allowances, and more.

All seems pretty fair enough to me, after all, us Eurocrats are at the heart of the problems, so why on earth shouldn't we take the minor hot whilst millions elsewhere lose their jobs.

The longest lunch in history?

I know that us Eurocrats are infamous. And the public perception of the Brussels inner track is of expense account lunches stretching into the sunset. Maybe the stories are true. Maybe this habit is stretching back across the channel?

The new(ish) Pro-Euro Tory grouping Nucleus that is highlighted by Con Home today boasts events. And what events. Take a look at this, it's inaugural policy lunch, for its Westminster branch

Category:
Conservative Europe Group
Location:
Venue: Room B1, 1 Abbey Gardens, Westminster, SW1
Time:
FROM : Wednesday, 02 November 2011 12:30
UNTIL : Monday, 02 September 2013 13:30
(UTC 00:00) Western Europe Time, London, Lisbon, Casablanca, Reykjavik
Seats available:
Unlimited seats
Event Creator:
Rhys Jones

Now I can eat and drink for England but even I might be overfaced by that.

'We have succeeded in building a European Union without Europeans'

I missed this article last month in Foriegn Policy magazine, whoich is a shame because it makes some pretty damning points. Garaeth Harding puts it like this,

Most Europeans have little idea what the EU stands for in the world, what binds its people together, where it has come from in the past, and where it is going in the future. After more than 60 years of EU integration, 200,000 pages of legislation, and a hefty (and still growing) stack of treaties, we have succeeded in building a European Union without Europeans.

Which fairly hits the nail on the head.

The EU has amassed extraordinary powers, but it has done so largely without consulting the people and without many of the basic safety valves we take for granted in a democracy. For example, nobody asked the German people whether they wanted to give up their beloved deutsche mark. The government simply made that decision for them, arguing that a single currency would be bound by strict rules -- which were later torn up by Paris and Berlin -- and that a currency union would not lead to a transfer of wealth from rich to poor states -- which has proved to be false.

In most democracies, if you don't like a government you can vote it out. In the EU system this is impossible. Neither the European Commission nor its president -- the nearest thing the EU has to an executive arm -- is directly elected. The president of the European Council, currently Belgian politician Herman Van Rompuy, was not popularly elected to his post. The two legislative bodies of the EU, the European Parliament and Council of the European Union, are largely made up of elected officials, but few Europeans bother to vote for the former, and changing your own representation in the latter is unlikely to have much impact on the collective policy of 27 nation-states.

He concludes,

Rather than bringing the European Union closer to its citizens, the currency has widened the gap between rulers and ruled. Instead of ushering in a new era of prosperity, the euro has condemned millions of Europeans to decades of penury. And far from bringing together the peoples of Europe, it is on the verge of tearing them apart.

Which is unarguable and is what we in UKIP have been banging on about for years. However to see this written by Gareth Harding is a surprise. This is him waxing lyrical in his optimism a mere two years ago,

The EU, which emerged from the ashes of a world war that left Europe shattered, humiliated and sidelined, is now the world's biggest economic power, exporter, trading bloc, aid donor and foreign investor. For most of the world Europe is not just the name of a continent; it is the dream of a better life.

Greek Democracy: Withering on the vine

Via @BrunoBrussels I come across this latest piece of news about Greece, and it makes depressing reading.

Greece should not hold early elections and Prime Minister Lucas Papademos should remain in office until 2013, Greek Economy Minister Michalis Chryssohoidis said in comments released on Thursday.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Frankfurt late Wednesday, Chryssohoidis said: "We believe the elections should be held in 2013, at the end of the current legislature."

That was the view of his whole party, the Socialist PASOK party, the minister claimed.

What is most worrying is that though this would mean that the unelected Government headed by Papademos would therefore last for another year, and this would speed the bailout, at what price to democracy.

Worse still for the Greeks it would mean that there would be no democratic outlet for the Greek people, who are already revolting. Mr Chryssohoidis may think that under his plans the current Government will last another year to force through the EU's debilitating plans, but the Athenian mob may think differently. If his plans come about, that the April election be postponed, I would lay evens that they will be overthrown by the street.

The closing of transparency in the EP

One of the things that most astounds even neutral visitors to the European Parliament in plenary session is the system of voting. 

Not only are at times hundreds of votes conducted at such a trot that mistakes are made at a phenomenal rate (one only has to look at the number of vote changes made as tardy or sonambulent MEPs realise that they have voted for this or that) but more importantly the vast percentage of votes that pass by show of hands. 

What this means of course is that there is no way at all for the general public to know how their MEP voted in any given vote. Votes are not counted unless somebody complains and there is an electric count. The late, great Graham Booth had great sport pointing out the failings of this system,

 “During voting on a report by Mr. Kaczmarek on EU partnership in the Horn of Africa, amendment No. 5 was declared ‘Rejected’ by the chairman Vidal-Quadras, having assessed the show of hands ‘for’ and ‘against’ the amendment.
The call for an electronic check revealed that it had actually been APPROVED by no less than 567 votes to 17 (with 18 abstentions).
He blamed the MEPs for ‘not holding their hands high enough’!
I close my case.”

But today the Parliament surpassed itself. You see, the only way in which we can find out how MEPs have voted is if somebody calls for a Roll Call Vote. which happens less than 20% of the time. But this is too much for the Parliament, too much light let in on the majesty.

Here it is, dull isn't it?

Stanimir Ilchev - Report on amendment of Rule 48 (2) of Parliament's Rules of Procedure on own-initiative reports(2011/2168(REG))

But what it means is the following,

Request for roll call vote should only be allowed for the final vote,

Or in other words, you lot, the proles, must not know who votes for what, but only a general position.
Oh it is presented as a money saving thing, printing of all those votes, all that paper you know, in 23 languages. They have of course never heard of the ruddy internet, everything could be done digitally, and thus automatically.

But the bottom line is that this is a deliberate attempt to ensure that the citizen cannot know what his or her elected representative is up to. It is just in reference (for now) for own initiative reports that have no legislative impact. But how long before the same rule is imposed for legislative reports?

If there was to be a serious reform it should be twofold.

1. All votes should be by roll call.
2. The abolition of own initiative reports (INI Reports).

The INI report system is a redundant, superfluous thing. An appendix in the body politic of the European Union. It was useful (maybe) when the European Parliament had no power, to allow the MEPs to say what they wanted to say, but today, after the Lisbon Treaty, the Constitution redux, the Parliament has significant and growing powers. It no longer needs these self indulgent, expensive vanity projects.

Much like the EDM system in the UK, but far more expensive and irrelevant they should be abolished. After all what are they for?

Eu suggests outrageous interference in national democracy

Nick Malkoutzis, the Deputy Editor of Kathimerini's English Edition has just reported on a Reuters story that has hit the wires. As he says,

If #eurozone makes this demand, it's unprecedented interference in another country's democratic process. This is all leaving v bad taste.

EU officials are now briefing thusly,

"There are proposals to delay the Greek package or to split it, so that an immediate default is avoided, but not everything is committed to,» one official briefed on preparations for a euro zone finance ministers call later in the day told Reuters.

"They'll discuss the options,» he said, adding: «There is pressure from several countries to hold off until there is a concrete commitment from Greece, which may not come until after they've held elections."

Or essentially we are thinking of delaying the full payment, despite the assurances and the vast cuts being made that has driven Greece into a 7% contraction of GDP in the last quarter until after the elections.
IE. Vote for whom we approve, or you can be damned. Looking at my last post, Van Rompuy's

European leaders, when in difficulty, will do whatever it takes to maintain the euro and the financial stability of the eurozone

begins to make sense.

HvR John Donne, undone

We are told (way too often) that the best thing about the President of Europe, that shadow in the room, Mr van Rompuy is that he is a published poet.

If so how can he justify this, PC, bowdlerising of one of the great poems of all time? Talking to a Chinese audience he said this,

“No man is an island. Every man or woman is a part of the main.” This is more true then
ever!

Gaaah, Donne's Meditation XVII

No man is an island entire of itself; every man
is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;

But that is hardly the worst of this speech. It is disarmingly honest, mind bogglingly delusional in equal parts and then just scary.

The honesty

The euro is not a sudden economic experiment.
Not sudden: because it is based on fifty years of preparation.
Not purely economic: because the euro is, at bottom, a political project.

Well yes, it is a political project, without political legitimacy. That of course would require democratic consent, something never asked for, and never granted.

Delusional

Together, we are 500 million Europeans, living in a prosperous, stable and free continent.

Interesting on a day the Commission reveals the following statement,

Euro area and EU27 GDP down by 0.3%

And the downright scary,

Therefore a period of crisis, such as the one we are living through now, does not distract us
from our sense of direction and from our goal: “more Europe”.

More Europe eh? And how are we to bring this about? By all means necessary it seems,

In the current crisis, beyond the money involved, it is a common European destiny which is at stake. That is why you should keep this political motivation in mind to understand why European leaders, when in difficulty, will do whatever it takes to maintain the euro and the financial stability of the eurozone.

Errrr... Whatever it takes! What does that mean?

Political leaders are showing real courage, in all member states, to convince their parliaments and public opinions of what is at stake. Some governments were forced to resign for taking unpopular decisions, but all the new ones are committed to adopting and implementing reforms.

Oh right, yes they were forced to resign... by whom perchance. By the EU and the IMF and teh Troika, not by their own people.

The rest of the speech is characterised by Herman telling the Chinese that the EU/Europe and China are remarkably similar.

What as in anti-democratic autocracies that drive through policies against the wishes of the people?

One interesting snippet. China should support the EU, because it is not the US. Or at least that is how I read this little comment,

Europe and China share a wish to live in a multi-polar world. A world which is "united in diversity", where we work together to find global solutions to common problems.
A world not dominated by one currency alone. That is why “a currency for Europe” is vital for you, too.

A Pefect Prescription?

The new President of the European Parliament, everyone's comedy German socialist, Martin Schulz has written in the Newshound, the Euiropean Parliamenrt's internal online newsletter his plans for the European Parliament.-


Which is odd, because as the President he should be looking at the workings of the Parliament at a technical/democratic level, rather than pushing his own partisan political agenda, but there you have it,

"What exactly are our proposals?- We want a financial transaction tax (In March 2011, an overwhelming majority of the MEPs called for the introduction of just such a tax).
- We want Eurobonds (Joint bonds issued at a low rate of interest can ease the debt crisis and stabilise the banking system).
- We want a European rating agency (a rating agency which breaks the US monopoly, which makes its assessments on the basis of clear criteria)
- We want a European growth initiative."
President Schulz also warned that a fiscal union which is not subject to scrutiny by parliamentarians is unacceptable and that the coherence of Union Law must be preserved.

Lord save us.

Mail image poses a question

Do you think Sir John Soane would vote UKIP?

Take a look at this

And then of course there is the the Bank of England,

But anyhow, surely William Morris, the Fabian author of News from Nowhere is a Labour man. Sir Joshua must be a Tory.

Dresser, as a free trader and lover of the continent, maybe and orange book Liberal.

So yes, I reckon Soane, one our country's greatest visionary architects, with a vision and purpose of magpie imagination, yup he would fit the UKIP brand almost perfectly.

Cameron vacillating on gender quotas

Despite today's reporting of the Cameron line on gender quotas it appears that Mr Cameron is shifting his line. Whether he is under pressure from donors one can only speculate. This is the position earlier today,

David Cameron has said he will not "rule out quotas" as a way of getting more women into top executive jobs.

At a summit in Sweden, the PM said he wanted to "accelerate" the increase in women on the boards of top UK firms, preferably without resorting to quotas.

But now according to PA he is saying the following,

"I do not favour quotas," he said as the leaders set out their views
after the discussions.

"We want to try everything short of quotas - a range of positive action
but stopping short of a positive discrimination in law.

"I think we should try to go as far as we can on this agenda without
taking that step."

Not sure about you, but given the fact that the EU is pushing through a 30% quota,

Women should make up 30% of top management in the largest listed EU companies by 2015 and 40% by 2020, believe MEPs. If voluntary measures fail to boost the number of women in senior positions, EU legislation must be used.

Women currently make up 10% of directors and only 3% of CEOs at the largest listed EU companies. As the number of women in corporate boards is currently increasing by only half a percentage point per year, it will take another fifty years before boardrooms have at least 40% women, says a non-binding resolution on Women and Business Leadership adopted by MEPs on Wednesday.

this looks like hedging his bets. After all he could rule out legislation, but he doesn't.

OK, we are ready for you Mrs Kirchner

HT a chap I know

GRASPE: Is there a better named EU body?

GRASPE is the acronym of the Reflection Group on the Future of the European Civil Service. It is an organisation for and by Eurocrats, and rather splendidly it has as one of its key aims.

civil servants need more time for long term thinking, internal discussions, lifelong learning;

I love the idea that there is an organisation campaigning for civil servants to have long convoluted internal discussions. It is almost parody.

HMG complacency over Commission staffing

Lord Howell yesterday dismissed the concerns of Lord Pearson, both as the fairness of the Croation EU accession referendum, but also the numbers and costs of new Croatian staff that will be employed.

how many Croatian nationals they estimate will take up posts in the European Union institutions following Croatian accession and what will be the United Kingdom's share of the cost of those jobs.

The Minister's response was brusque and failed to answer the question.

The UK supports the principle that nationals of all member states should hold posts within the EU institutions, and expects that the EU will actively support the recruitment of Croatian nationals after accession. We believe that this should be achieved without increasing the human resources available to the EU institutions or imposing additional costs on the EU budget.

We believe, he says. He might as well believe in faries.
Take a look at this press release from the Commission today about the employment of staff from Bulgaria and Romania the last two accession countries. In it the Commission fair boast about the fact that they have overshot their target by 23.%. At a time of austerity, these extra 228 recruits don'tcome cheap.

The Commission recruited 478 Bulgarians and 727 Romanians, exceeding its overall recruitment target by 23.3% - or 228 recruitments.

Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič said: "I am delighted we managed to identify and attract some of the brightest and best people from Bulgaria and Romania to come and work at the European Commission. Both countries have made a big contribution to European history and culture in the past, and they have much to offer today, as Europe continues to integrate."

If the Minister really thinks that in some way they won't impose extra costs, how are they to be paid for? By cutting UK and other country staff and thus his fabled  'influence' in Brussels.

The moment of shame

Even Douglas Hurd couldn't bear to look as he signed our country away

What is Herman Van Rompuy smoking?

I only ask because he has been tweeting some excerpts fromn his speech this evening at the Berlin Humboldt Univerity. "Europe in 2012: The road ahead". And I am struggling to work out what he means.

Please release him from his toil

Not the result you would like I suspect Mr Schulz

Somebody, a certain Mr Atherton, sent me a link to this little poll on Martin Schulz's personal MEP website, as opposed to his EP Presidential website.

In my dodgy translation it appears to be asking

Do we need an European Union? Participate in the current inquiry. Contribute this way to the forming of an opinion. 

The answers offered are thes

* Yes, in all politics fields
* Yes, but within limits
* No, each country is better alone 
* Don't Know

The answers?

That a pretty comprehensive vote there now isn't it Mr Schulz. You claim that these votes will help you work out your position. What do you say?

There is Top Totty in London, and Top Totty in Brussels

The great furore over the beer being chucked out of the Stranger's Bar in Brussels pales into insignificance when you see what is being pushed in Brussels.

POKEuroparl is a new venture in the anonymous urban battleship that is the European Parliament HQ in Brussels.

The beautician at this place is a young lady by the name of Melody Fortuna - which just has to be a pseudonym. Who advertises herself on the website thusly,

Which rather puts the strangers bar in the shade now doesn't it.

The question remains whether setting up a beauty salon in the EP at this moment is advised, though looking at some of our Euro representatives maybe it should be compulsory.

HT New Europe

Hain calls for NE Regional Assembly: Numpty

Will Green in the Journal has reported that the concept of English Regional Assemblies is still on the socialist agenda.

It come to something when a failed Europe Minister and Welsh MP starts to instruct the people of the North East as to what is good for them.
Mr Hain said during a talk at the London School of Economics: “It could be a regional government in the North East of England – rejected, I know, in 2004 but rejected on a kind of Mickey Mouse offer where the powers were not really real and the timing wasn’t right.
“Under a Tory-led Government, I think we could easily win that referendum now.”

Ian Mearns, MP for Gateshead and former chairman of the campaign for a North East assembly, said the region needed a “strong voice” to take on an increasingly powerful Scotland and a distant Whitehall.

Of course for Labour such a thing would be valuable as it would give them a permanent toehold in English governance, something that isn't guaranteed in any other way.

What the people of the NE would think about it, and the guaranteed waste of public money pushing, propagandising and voting for it is another matter.

They are just so desperate.

Oh my Giddy Aunt - Run for the Hills

No seriously, run for the hill. And don't look back. You might turn into a pillar of salt. This has just arrived in the inbox

V-Day cordially invites you to a cross-party call to action to end violence against women and girls

Please join Eve Ensler and Members of the European Parliament

for a very special performance of THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES

starring

Franziska Brantner (Greens, Germany)

Isabelle Durant (Greens, Belgium)

Marielle Gallo (EPP, France)

Ana Maria Gomes (S&D, Portugal)

Kartika Tamara Liotard (GUE NGL, Netherlands)

Ulrike Lunacek (Greens, Austria)

Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP, Finland)

Renate Weber (ALDE, Romania)

Cecilia Wikström (ALDE, Sweden)

(more to be confirmed)

and special guests

Tuesday 6 March 2012

18:30h

European Parliament, Yehudi Menuhin Space

(PHS building, Rue Wiertz, 1047 Brussels)

Followed by a reception

Really, run away fast

In all the furore about Farage's latest speech, this odd claim,

The AFP report of yesterday's debate in the European Parliament was recycled in various places. It contained much that was fair. It also contained this rather odd claim about Farage,

He secured a million votes at the last general election, surviving a helicopter crash on polling day and a series of operations on his back to boost his popularity.

Eh? Run that past me again. He had a helicopter crash, and had a series of back operations to boost his popularity.

Now I know he likes publicity, but theymust think the Brits are really weird if they feel that a series of back operations acts to help ones popularity.

Fascinating vox pop from Walthamstow

The cross section of society here voicing their extremely articulate views against the EU are eye opening

Good day for UKIP's Lord Pearson

Lord Pearson, the UKIP leader in the Lords has had a pretty good day today.

Firstly there is this letter in the Guardian spelling out the infantility of arguments that 'If we leave the EU we will not be able to do business any more and millions will lose their jobs which is the basic pro-European, 'don't ask, don't question' line.

The letter from Charles Kennedy and others (30 January) confuses our membership of the EU with our access to the single market. We could retain the latter without the former because:
1. We have 3m jobs exporting to the EU but it has 4.5m jobs exporting to us. We are its largest client. 2. The EU has free-trade agreements with 63 countries worldwide and another 63 on the way, so why not with us, on satisfactory terms? 3. Switzerland, not in the EU, exports three times more per capita to the EU than we do. 4. Only 9% of our GDP goes in trade with the EU (in deficit), 11% goes to the rest of the world (in surplus), and 80% stays in our domestic market. Yet Brussels overregulation strangles all 100% of our economy, and handicaps our exports to the countries of the future. Leaving the EU would create jobs, and restore our democracy.

More interestingly is the list of signatories to the letter, all of them well aware that Malcolm is a UKIPper.

Lord Pearson (UKIP)
Lord Stoddart (Ind Labour)
Lord Palmer (Crossbench - and magnificently Convenor, Lords and Commons Cigar and Pipe Smokers' Club)
Lord Stevens (Conservative Independent)
Lord Vinson (Conservative)
Lord Willoughby (UKIP)
The Earl of Liverpool (Conservative)
Douglas Carswell MP (Conservative)
John Cryer MP (Labour)
Mark Reckless MP (Conservative)
Philip Davies MP (Conservative)
Austin Mitchell MP (Labour)
Philip Hollobone MP (Conservative)
David Nuttall MP (Conservative)
Kate Hoey MP (Labour)
Gordon Henderson MP (Conservative)
Kelvin Hopkins MP (Labour)
Graham Stringer MP (Labour)

Secondly the Telegraph refers to all the hard work he has put in proving the inherent bias in the BBC programming over the EU issue by referencing the work of his thinktank, Global Britain.

An analysis by Eurosceptic think tank Global Britain found that over the past six years, just 0.04 per cent of the coverage on Radio Four’s flagship Today programme was devoted to the potential benefits of withdrawing from the EU.

Towler on Tour

Writing in this month's Total Politics magazine on the unpredictable rise of UKIP.

A little more the Deutsche Boerse - NYSE merger

I suggested yesterday that the fact that the European Commission has blocked the merger deal between the NYSE and the German Boerse might go some way to explain the way in which Cameron rolled back on his veto.  My idea has been picked up by Business Insider, and the German business news website Finanzen who credit it with a modicum of plausibility,

Did the EU kill off the Deutsche Boerse - NYSE merger so that the UK's prized London Stock Exchange would remain top dog in Europe?It bears consideration, at very least.

So it was interesting to read the Agence Europe report this morning on the subject (behind a paywall),

All the EU commissioners agreed with the decision so a vote was not needed, explained EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, suggesting that the commissioners who had supported the deal had ultimately seen the merits of the case made by DG Competition.

Which rather undermines my point, but reading further what do we see,

It is known that a number of EU Commissioners, including Internal Market Commissioner Michel Barnier, backed the merger as a way of creating a European heavyweight to compete with global market leaders. The merged entity would have had earnings four times higher than the London Stock Exchange from the global market, for example, although it would only have 16% of the derivatives market, compared with 19% for US competitor CME. The Deutsche Börse/NYSE Euronext merger would have created a counterbalance in the eurozone to the all-powerful City of London at a time when the planned Financial Transactions Tax looks like it would send business to the City or other stock exchanges around the world, due to the unattractiveness of smaller European bourses.

Oh...

Right.

Maybe I wasn't that far off after all.

Of course this sort of thing we will not know. Cameron has to go into bat for Britain, one way or another, and if the merger came up in the private discussions one has to ask, what would you do? If the option was presented to the British government as a Manichean black and white decision it would be a tough call.

The question remains is one of strategy and tactics. Do we believe that the European are so misguided that the result of the merger, though threatening to London's pre-eminence would in the final analysis fail in its plans, due to the way in which Europe is so gung ho about introducing anti-business taxes like the FTT, thus driving business towards London, or would the new heft of Frankfurt counterbalance that?

I am not an expert, but I do think that in these matters we have to look to those words of Franklin,

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety

What is the difference between niaivety and foolishness?

I only ask because I always regarded Lord Strathclyde as a pretty decent cove, but it seems defending the Government's position on Europe has pushed him into a position of foolishnmess, niaievety or maybe even knavery.

He was questioned by UKIP Peer Willoughby de Broke,

Is not this Council statement just a rehash of the European agenda, which was such a notable failure? Does the Minister agree that, as usual, it is all words and no action? Do not figures of 23 million unemployed in the European Union and 51 per cent youth unemployment in Spain show that the European Union is a total failure for its citizens? Would it not be much better to leave before we get sucked even further into the euro mire?

Strathclyde's answer was this,

We think that in the past the EU has gone in the wrong direction but we are hopeful. The noble Lord may not have read the European Commission's statement but I hope that he will take the opportunity to do so. I am glad to see he is indicating that he has read it. I think he should be heartened by much of what was said in it about growth, jobs, deregulation and single markets, which will aid prosperity in the long term.

He agrees the EU has gone in the wrong direction, but for some reason seems to think it might turn around. And on what does he base his hopes? The pious nothings in the latest Commission statement.

Was this the price the EU paid for Dave's backdown?

News that the European Commision has blocked the planned merger between the New York Stock Exchange Euronext and Deutsche Boerse today sets one thinking.


We do not know, because he has not said, what it was that Dave got, if anything for the veto relax.


Just asking.

Dammit, the Propaganda Prize has pupped!

Readers of this blog will know that alongside Hi-Viz clothing the thing I would chuck into Room 101 are the series of EU sponsored prizes. There are utterly unnecessary and frankly wrong. We have the Lux prize the EBBAs and all sorts of other bits and pieces. But in my mind the most monstrous was the Sycophancy prize. Now last thing I heard was the Parliament had got ashamed of this transparent piece of subsidised propaganda and scrapped it.


Buuit somehow it spored and seems to have sprung up over the Rue de La Loi as the 2011 EU Health Prize for Journalists.

Sadly it not about viewing the Brussels press pack as if they were at auction,

"Not sure about that Geoff Meade, bit long in the tooth"
"Have you seen the fetlocks on Ms Mott?" 

and that sort of carry on as it suggests, but about getting journalists around the EU to write articles for their respective outlets that promote the EU line.

The EU Health Prize for Journalists is awarded to stimulate high-quality journalism that raises awareness of issues related to healthcare and patients' rights. The Prize is part of the "Europe for patients" campaign, highlighting 12 health policy initiatives. All these are bound by a common goal: better healthcare for all in Europe.

Or as John Dalli puts it "to stimulate high-quality journalism,  with particular focus on the European Dimension"  So successful is it that 358 hacks from the 27 submitted almost 500 articles. Given the prizes amount to 13,000 EUR that is bloody good value for money at 26 EUR per published article.

Look, if the BMJ or some other Health publication wants to run a Journalism prize across Europe, not problem at all. But it is wrong for such an award to be sponsored by the EU, with taxpayers money.


Ruddy hell there is even a EU-Canada Young Journalist Award!!

Update,
And an Australian one

"the Greeks have to leave the euro zone"

According to Die Welt this week, the only way that Greece can be saved is that it be uncoupled from the Euro. It makes it clear that trying to impose discipline from without will fail,

 Whatever the euro summit agreed and whatever the next one will agree -- we won't get a European austerity commissioner equipped with authoritative powers."
"Countries in crisis can't be transformed into protectorates. An EU fiscal commissioner wouldn't be able to achieve much unless he had the powers of an occupying statute."
"The conclusion almost sounds paradoxical: In order to rescue their state and their sovereignty, the Greeks have to leave the euro zone. They owe it to themselves. They have to go their own way with the freedom afforded by exchange rate movements and with a strong stimulus of economic growth."

Well you can't say fairer than that.