EU-DIGEST

France shows off new, roomy amphib - Christopher P. Cavas

The French Navy’s new 21,500-ton amphibious ship Tonnerre towered over the pier at the sprawling Norvolk naval base, just as high as the 40,000-ton U.S. Navy assault ships tied up at piers on either side. But on coming aboard, a visitor is struck by something just not found inside the nearly twice-as-large American ships: space.

Labels: France, Navy

Bush pushes vague new climate change plan

US President George Bush said on Thursday he would urge major industrialised nations at a summit next week to join a new global framework for fighting climate change after the Kyoto Protocol lapses. Environmental groups immediately criticised the plan as vague and based on non-binding limits on the greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, but Britain and Germany hailed the move as an important, if symbolic, step forward. "The United States will work with other nations to establish a new framework on greenhouse gas emissions for when the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012," Bush said in a speech laying out his agenda for the June 6-8 G8 summit in Germany.

Labels: Bush, Environment: climate change

Europe's Economic Choice: Hard or Soft? - by Honor Mahony

EU policy based on competitiveness will result in higher environmental and social costs in the future, while a cohesion-oriented policy will have a softer territorial impact but fewer economic benefits, a new study shows.

The competitiveness policy mix foresees Brussels further pursuing liberalisation of public services, supporting regions with the strongest potential, promoting more immigration to boost the work force and re-targeting the EU's budget away from farmers and towards R&D. Under this scenario, protection of the environment would be dictated by market forces.

Labels: Economics, EU

Spain and France urge fast progress on EU treaty

Spain and France on Thursday downplayed their differences on the European treaty, urging rapid progress on the issue.

An agreement was needed 'as soon as possible,' Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said at a joint press conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy during the latter's one-day visit to Madrid.

Labels: EU CONSTITUTION, France, Spain

Another Iraq War to help the Turkish Islamists? - by Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Leaving aside the European weaklings, still today at a moment of an undeniable Russian comeback, the US – all accounts made as regards 3 dozens of European states – can count only on Turkey, Poland, and (taken as an island) the UK. This is definitely not much. At a moment of Russian threats emanate every moment in terms of energy blackmail, Middle Eastern confrontation involvement, support of Iran’s exploration of its nuclear potentialities, and opposition to the US-led War against the Islamic Terror, only a paranoid would think that America has the slightest chance to protect its own interests from the African Atlas to India, let alone prevail in the area, without an all-committed alliance with Turkey.

The US needs Turkey so badly that the White House inhabitant and his power sharing Congress and Senate opponents should compete for Turkey’s favours, and incite Ankara to return in force from Somalia to Caucasus and from Algeria to Iraq. Yet, Pelosi supports unnecessary pro-Armenian resolutions (that concern the past, not the present), and support is offered to the one Turk who has chances – if ruling Turkey – to cause colossal damage to the US indispensable ally, Islamic terrorist premier Erdogan. Even worse, the only warrantors of Turkey’s superior military power are viewed rather inimically, although they are politically and ideologically close the US ruling class, and in addition are supported by an undeniably overwhelming majority of Turks (oscillating around 70 to 75%). The US indirect support to Erdogan is undeniable; suffice it to read the New York Times, and you get the feeling that capital of America is Mecca, and that Pelosi’s and Bush’s common enemy is the Secularist Rainbow of Turkish political parties (Nationalist, Conservative and Social-Democrat), which are expected to total 70 to 75% in the forthcoming July elections. The massive manifestations of overwhelming popular rejection of Erdogan’s Islamist agenda did not get adequate coverage in the US and the EU mass media, and when they did, the reader would be maneuvered to be negatively predisposed.

Labels: EU, Turkey, US

Carlos Slim Helú

For the complete report from USATODAY.com click on this link

Mexico - The richest man you've never heard of - Chris Hawley

Carlos Slim Helú's business career began on the playground, trading baseball cards. He would buy the adhesive-backed cards at a candy stand in downtown Mexico City, then make a meticulous record of each trade in a notebook, carefully evaluating whether he had come out on top. By age 12, he had moved on to trading stocks and bonds. Before turning 30, he owned a soft drink company and a stock brokerage. Now, at 67, Slim is the world's second-richest man and is closing quickly on Bill Gates, according to Forbes magazine's most recent rankings.

Slim accumulated his $53 billion fortune by collecting companies much as he once did baseball cards. He searches for undervalued businesses, infuses them with cash and uses the size of his holdings to overwhelm the competition. He now owns controlling stakes in at least 222 businesses, but he tells USA TODAY in a rare interview that he has never forgotten the lessons of his youth. "Buying well is a discipline," he says. "The first type of business negotiation you do as a child. … (Trading cards) was a way to understand supply and demand, to understand the market. … Some boys had few (cards), and some had a lot."

Labels: Carlos Slim Helú, Mexico

Russian Missile

For the complete report from the Kommersant Moscow click on this link

Russia:Some Nuclear Heavy Lifting

Yesterday the Russian military announced the first successful test of the new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile with multiple independently-targetable detachable warheads. The addition of this missile to Russia's arsenal could put the country back on an equal strategic footing with the United States, which is slated to have no fewer than 2,200 nuclear warheads in its arsenal by 2012. Moscow claims that the maneuverable warheads on the RS-24 will be capable of confounding the American missile defense system.

Along with gaining equal ground with Washington, Moscow is counting on its new rockets to ensure that a Russian attack could successfully penetrate the US missile defense system, no matter how complex it becomes. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov declared yesterday that the RS-24 missile "is able to overcome any existing or, possibly, future missile defense system." Mr. Safranchuk of the WSI believes that the successful test of the RS-24 "can be regarded as one of the elements of the asymmetric response promised by Vladimir Putin after the US withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002."

Labels: Missile Crises, Russia, USA

Nordex: Successful re-entry into the Swedish market

Nordex's work on constructing the Bondön wind farm is to commence at the end of 2007. Comprising 14 turbines N90/2,500 kW, the project is being executed for Danish developer Global Green Energy. Nordex is selling the second project – Huds Moar – to the in 2005 established operator Rabbaldshedde Kraft. The six N90/2,500 kW turbines are to go into operation at a site north of Gothenburg in spring 2008.

This year, Nordex will be recruiting project managers and service staff for the Swedish branch. Explains Pedersen: “We expect to receive further contracts in the near future and want to reinforce our local team to handle the projects more efficiently. We have in the N90/2500 an ideal turbine for wind speeds in Sweden and are now offering a modified climate version of this model.” This will ensure production in sub-zero temperatures of up to 20 degrees.

Robert Zoellick - a diplomat to replace a hawk

For the complete report from Buzzle.com click on this link

Washington Veteran Gets Nod for World Bank Post

The Bush administration - bruised by the fallout after the former Pentagon deputy was forced to step down after granting pay rises to his girlfriend - has turned to Robert Zoellick, an experienced Washington insider who served as Condoleezza Rice's number two at the state department and played a key role in the reunification of Germany in 1990. Sources within the World Bank said the announcement follows careful negotiations by the US Treasury secretary, Hank Paulson, with major governments, including Britain and Germany, in which Mr Zoellick's name was mentioned as the top choice. "It certainly could be worse. He's a solid appointment - he's not a former architect of the Iraq war," said Ken Rogoff, a former chief economist for the International Monetary Fund and a professor at Harvard University.

The US has selected the head of the World Bank since the institution was founded 60 years ago, while European governments have chosen the head of its sister organization, the IMF. Nancy Birdsall, president of the Center for Global Development, while praising Mr Zoellick's analytical skills and experience, said: "The question is whether other countries will be satisfied that he is indeed the best candidate, for example, whether he has the right management skills."

Labels: Robert Zoellick, World Bank

NATO's Afghan dilemma - by Philip Smucker

Nearly six years after US forces invaded Afghanistan to topple the Taliban and hunt down al-Qaeda operatives, expectations about what the US and NATO can and will do have plummeted, say Afghans and Westerners.

Until NATO and the United States decide what their real mission is, he adds, perplexed Afghans are bound to grow increasingly bitter toward foreign occupation. "Right now, NATO soldiers are flying 10,000 miles to maneuver through Afghan villages in full body armor and a tank," he says. "Villagers just think, 'Yes. And the Taliban are trying to kill you, and you are insisting that you are just here to build a girl's school?'"

Italy's Eurofighters near readiness-by Luca Peruzzi

Italian air force use of the Eurofighter Typhoon is gaining momentum, with the service's first frontline squadron expecting to achieve full operational capability with the type in late 2008.

Some 35 pilots are now flying the aircraft, including more than 20 to have achieved combat-ready status and others who are conducting squadron exchanges from the US and European air forces. "This summer the first cadre of ab initio pilots will begin training at 20 Squadron, a syllabus requiring around seven months," says 9 Sqn commander Lt Col Daniele Picco. The work will be supported using simulators at Alenia's Turin Caselle plant and a Galileo Avionica facility in Ronchi dei Legioniari.

Labels: EU, Euro Fighter, Italy

Turkish Army Build - Up against PKK Kurdish Rebels Fuels Anxiety on Iraq Border

Speculation about an imminent incursion into Iraq has grown since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week he saw eye to eye with the army over possible military action, despite unease in the United States, Turkey's NATO ally, about such a move. There was also anxiety along the border in southeast Turkey, where many Kurdish villagers form part of a state-backed militia which fights alongside the army against the PKK rebels.

"We support the operations in the mountains here because the PKK made us suffer a lot. I lost 10 people from my family," said Nadir Karadeniz, an official in the village of Gorumlu, located near a military base just a few kilometers from the border.

Labels: Iraq, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey, US

George Bush's estate at Walker Point, in Kennebunkport, Maine

For the complete report from the Buffalonews/LA Times click on this link

Bush and Putin to talk in Maine July 1 - 2 - by Maura Reynolds

In an effort to warm the deepening chill in U.S.-Russian relations, President Bush will host Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in July at his family’s vacation compound in Kennebunkport, Maine. The two men say they have a friendly relationship, even as serious strains have developed between the two countries over NATO’s plans to install missile defense systems in former Soviet bloc countries, over the status of Kosovo, and other issues. U.S. officials said Wednesday the aim of the Kennebunkport visit, set for July 1-2, is to ease tensions, starting at the top. The presence of the president’s father, the first President George Bush, during the visit was also seen as a way to personalize the encounter and evoke a more optimistic period in U.S.-Russian relations.

Labels: Bush, Missile Crises, Putin, Russia, US

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said Thursday that plans to place a missile defense bases in the Czech Republic and Poland will test Europe's willingness to defend itself."It's not primarily about a radar and 10 interceptors, it's mainly about expressing the willingness to defend ourselves," Topolanek told a conference in Prague Thursday. "Europe can survive without a radar, but without a will to defend itself, this civilization is lost," he said.
Note EU-Digest:"Agreeing to a EU constitution which includes an article that "an attack on one of the member states is to be considered an attack on all" and a a strong army, will eliminate the need for reliance on any foreign power."

Labels: Defence, EU, Military

More Than Half of EU Adults Overweight - by Raf Casert

More than half of adults in European Union nations are obese or overweight and the young are increasingly making Europe a fat continent, the EU's top public health official said Wednesday.In the 27-nation bloc, the EU says that over 21 million children are overweight. "Even more worrying is that the rate of increase of that number is more than 400,000 children a year."

On Wednesday, the Commission proposed to tighten advertising standards on unhealthy processed food. It called on the food industry to cut down on sugar, fat and salt and urged sports organizations to do more to get youngsters to engage in physical exercise.

Labels: EU, Fast Food, Obeisity

Netherlands connection In Ankara Bombings

It is revealed that the subject of Ankara Bombings in May 22, Güven AKKUŞ had been trained in Holland, at a village near the city of Eindhoven. Doğan News Agency also admitted that the camp where suicide bomber Akkuş trained (for 3 years), has been in use by PKK (Kurdish Labour Party) terrorists for 18 years.

he agency reported that PKK terrorists (recently apprehended by Turkish police) came from Belgium, Austria, France, Sweden and Denmark also trained in the camp and to boot high rank names of PKK has been hosted there.

Labels: Kurdish PKK terrorists, The Netherlands, Turkey

For the complete report from RTTNews click on this link

Airbus Signs MOU With Qatar Airways For 80 A350XWB Aircraft Worth euro 12 Bln

Toulouse, France based Airbus SAS; one of the leading global aircraft manufacturers, signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar Airways for euro 12 billion order for 80 A350XWB aircraft. The largest ever order for A-350 is described as a shot in the arm for the European rival of Boeing Co. (BA), which has been ailing primarily due to production delays. The new mid-sized, long range, 300 seater is expected to come out in 2010 and will compete directly against Boeing's upcoming 787 Dreamliner. Deliveries for Qatar Airways are expected to start in 2013.

Labels: Airbus 350 XWB, Aircraft Industry

Bulgaria ratifies Black Sea-Aegean pipeline deal

The Bulgarian parliament Wednesday ratified a 280-kilometre, 900 Million euro pipeline deal with Russia and Greece to link terminals in the Black Sea and the Aegean. The pipeline between Burgas in Bulgaria and Alexandropoulis in northeastern Greece would be completed in 2011 with an initial annual capacity of 35 million tons, with a potential for 50 million.

France To Let Turkey EU Talks Continue For Now

France does not plan to stop the European Union from opening new policy "chapters" in Turkey's accession talks next month despite President Nicolas Sarkozy's opposition to Turkish membership, an official said on Tuesday. A presidential official said Sarkozy had other priorities that he wanted to tackle first within the European Union before confronting the issue of Turkey. Sarkozy indicated on Monday that he did not want to get into an immediate fight with EU partners over Turkey and preferred to focus initially on finding a deal on institutional reform and on discussing economic governance within the euro zone.

Labels: EU, France, Turkey

The Central Role of China in the Global Imbalances - by C. Fred Bergsten

"China’s global current account surplus soared to about $250 billion in 2006, more than 9 per cent of its GDP. Its trade surplus has doubled again in the first quarter of 2007, suggesting that its current account deficit will exceed $300 billion in 2007—the largest ever recorded by any country. China has become by far the largest surplus country in the world, recently passing Japan and far ahead of all others. Its foreign exchange reserves have also passed Japan’s to become the largest in the world and now exceed $1 trillion, an enormous waste of resources for a country where most of the huge population remains very poor. About one quarter of all of China’s economic growth in the past two years has stemmed from the continued sharp rise in its trade surplus. China is thus overtly exporting unemployment to other countries and apparently sees its currency undervaluation as an off-budget export and job subsidy that, at least to date, has avoided effective international sanction.

These global imbalances are unsustainable for both international financial and US domestic political reasons. On the international side, the United States must now attract about $8 billion of capital from the rest of the world every working day to finance our current account deficit and our own foreign investment outflows. Even a modest reduction of this inflow, let alone its cessation or a selloff from the $14 trillion of dollar claims on the United States now held around the world, could initiate a precipitous decline in the dollar. Especially under the present circumstances of nearly full employment and full capacity utilization in the United States, this could in turn sharply increase US inflation and interest rates, severely affecting the equity and housing markets and potentially triggering a recession. The global imbalances represent the single largest threat to the continued growth and stability of the US and world economies.

Labels: China, Europe, US, World Trade

Japanese Shipping giant NYK moves HQ from London to Antwerp

Japanese shipping line NYK is moving its Bulk Transport Headquarters from London to Antwerp. NYK’s European feasibility study showed the best location for this was, for a number of reasons, the Port of Antwerp. For one thing, NYK can enjoy Flanders’ beneficial tonnage tax. In addition, the shipping firm was attracted by a unique treaty between Belgium and Hong Kong which avoids double taxation and the notional interest deduction scheme which allows companies to reduce their taxable base when making investments from their own resources.

Labels: Antwerp, Belgium, EU, Shipping

China Triggers A Tumble In Europe - by Vidya Ram

China caught a cold and Europe sneezed on Wednesday. Beijing's decision to triple its excise tax on securities transactions sent the Shanghai stock market down more than 6%, and European equity indexes subsequently lost about 1% of their value in midday trading.

“It's just a straightforward reaction to what happened in Asia, particularly in China,” said Mike Lenhoff, chief strategist at Brewin Dolphin Securities.

Labels: China, EU, World Trade

Wealth Divides 2 Arctic Mining Towns - by Alister Doyle

The Russian and Norwegian miners and their families live on the same island 40 kilometers apart, separated by a snow-covered mountain range that marks one of the greatest wage divides in the world for doing the same job. Norwegian miners can earn up to euro 80.000 per year, more than 10 times the pay of a Russian miner, Norwegian officials say. Norway administers Svalbard, but other nations can exploit natural resources under a 1920 treaty.

Russian miners in the village of Barentsburg, which boasts a big, heated indoor swimming pool and a bust of Lenin on the main square, declined to say precisely how much they earned. Still, miners in Barentsburg, operated by state firm Arktikugol, say they also enjoy Arctic life, even if expectations are lower. The islands are bathed in the midnight sun for almost half the year, with darkness for most of the rest.

Labels: Barentsburg, Norway, Russia, Svalbard

The Market for Servers in Europe Is Hot - by Timothy Prickett Morgan

Last week, the box counters at IDC and Gartner provided their quarterly estimates of global server sales by server type, operating system, and vendor. But IDC also went the extra mile and provided some insight into server sales in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In what must seem like something of a dream for server makers, Europe is going strong right now. According to IDC, sales of server across all architectures rose by 11 percent in the first quarter of 2007 to nearly $4.3 billion, and the number of server units sold increased by 8 percent to 600,000 machines. In recent years, shipment growth has outpaced revenue growth, but the advent of multicore machines and sophisticated virtualization technologies are convincing some customers to buy beefier machines and then virtualize them.

Labels: Europe, IT Industry

Europe: Commercial Real Estate Sizzles - by Carol Matlack

While residential housing markets across Europe are starting to cool, commercial real estate is sizzling. IPD, a London-based research group, says the value of investment property in Western Europe—retail and office space, as well as big residential developments—rose 7.8% in 2006. Growth last year topped 20% in Ireland, and was over 10% in Britain, France, Spain, and Scandinavia. By contrast, the average increase across Europe was 5.9% in 2005, 3.6% in 2004, and less than 1% during the three preceding years.

Labels: Europe, Real Estate

Labels: EU, Quality of life

Turkey's beaches receive international award

Turkish beaches are among the best in Europe, with 38 more receiving blue flag certifications this year. Last year, 192 of Turkey's beaches reached the tough standard set by the award, but in 2007, 38 more attained the level. The award is granted by the International Environmental Education Foundation and places Turkey among the top eight countries in Europe, alongside Italy, France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Croatia and Denmark. The accreditation guarantees a standard of cleanliness, tidiness and maintenance that tourists can trust, as beaches are reassessed every year. Beaches must realise 29 criteria to obtain the award, with water cleanliness the hardest to achieve. Water is tested for bathing quality by insuring there is no industrial or sewage discharge present. Other specifications of the system include environmental education and information provision, for example, each beach must offer a minimum of five educational activities.

Labels: Beaches, EU, Turkey

New low for reality TV in the Netherlands?

A Dutch broadcaster will air a show this week in which a terminally ill woman selects a recipient for her kidneys from three contestants, despite government calls for it to be scrapped.Ruling coalition parties Christian Democrat and the conservative Christian Union have called the show "wretched" and unethical. The Netherlands is a pioneer of reality shows like Big Brother.

Labels: Reality Shows, The Netherlands

Cannes: The year of the underdog

As the Cannes Film Festival draws to a close for another year, a host of relative unknowns will be going home with the festival's most coveted prizes. Romanian director Cristian Mungiu triumphed against stiff competition from Cannes veterans Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers and Gus Van Sant to win the prestigious Palme d'Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, his tale of illegal abortion.

"At the end of the day, nationality shouldn't matter - this isn't the Olympics. The general feeling was that this was a better Cannes than we've seen in a few years, so that's got to be good news for everyone," she adds. As for the US, the Coens' No Country For Old Men and Michael Moore's Sicko were probably the most talked about films of the Festival.

EU-Digest comment: What a great and classy festival this year in Cannes. A "smorgesbrot" of world-wide quality films. It certainly beats the US corporate controlled Oscars "bonanza" hands-down. Lets hear it for Europe!

Labels: Cannes Film Festival

For the complete report from The Korea Times click on this link

Cannes’- Jeon Do-youn’ Best Actress

Jeon Do-youn’s best actress award at Cannes could hardly come at a better moment for herself and many others. It was the first top acting award given to a Korean at a major film festival in 20 years, reconfirming Korean actors’ ability and endeavors. Unlike in 1987, the film ``Secret Sunshine’’ didn’t take an Oriental but a Western theme of salvation as its motif, demonstrating homegrown movies’ potential for global appeal. Most importantly, it came when the film industry is taking a serious downturn.

Korea is one of a handful of countries in the world, along with India, Japan and some European countries, that compete with Hollywood. The government’s policy support may be strongest only next to France except for its effect and expertise. It has more than 1,000 film production firms, the largest in the world. Young audiences, which constitute the bulk of moviegoers, have even more ``Koreanized’’ tastes than older fans. Provincial cities are active participants, playing host to film festivals.

Labels: Cannes Film Festival, Jeon Do-youn

Fokker Now Approved By Airbus To Outfit Aircraft - by OJ Fagbire

The Dutch company Fokker Services has been approved by the Airbus Corporation as an Airbus cabin outfitter. The new outfitting company will now give Airbus customers greater choice on the interiors of their cabins. Fokker is an experienced aircraft cabin outfitter, and has just endured a serious Airbus scrutiny prior to being approved.

Airbus has been needing to expand its cabin outfitting capabilities as strong demand in the private jet sector has left it unable to meet customer demands. Airbus hopes to work closely with both its customers and with Fokker Services to offer its private jet customers an unparalleled level of choice for the design of their cabin interiors.

Labels: Aircraft Industry

For the complete report from the International Herald Tribune click on this link

Europe leads in designing buildings that save energy-by Nicolai Ouroussoff

After more than a decade of tightening guidelines, Europe has made "green" architecture an everyday reality. In Germany and the Netherlands especially, a new generation of architects has expanded the definition of sustainable design beyond solar panels and sod roofs. As Matthias Sauerbruch put it: "The eco-friendly projects you saw in the 1970s, with solar panels and recycled materials, they were so self-conscious. We call this Birkenstock architecture. Now we don't need to do this anymore. The basic technology is all pretty accepted." In the United States, architects cannot make the same claim with equal confidence. Despite the media attention showered on environmental issues, the government has yet to establish universal efficiency standards for buildings. According to some estimates, buildings consume nearly as much energy as industry and transportation combined. And the average building in the United States uses about a third more energy than its counterpart in Germany.

Labels: Almere, Architecture, Europe

Germany: Pelosi says her delegation saw firsthand evidence of climate change in Greenland - Geir Moulson

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that she led a congressional delegation to Greenland, where lawmakers saw "firsthand evidence that climate change is a reality," and she hoped that the Bush administration would consider a new path on the issue. After meeting with German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Pelosi praised Berlin for its leadership on the issue.

Her trip comes ahead of next week's Group of Eight summit and a climate change meeting next month involving the leading industrialized nations and during a time of increased debate over what should succeed the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries. It expires in 2012.

Labels: EU, Nancy Pelosi, Pollution and the environment, USA

The Netherlands: 499 ADB Luminaires Light Up Holland’s New Schouwburg Almere

A vibrant new multi-theatre complex in The Netherlands, the Schouwburg Almere, has taken delivery of one of the largest single lighting equipment orders to be placed in Europe in recent years, with nearly 500 ADB luminaires deployed throughout the venue’s three multi-function auditoriums. The theatre is located at the edge of the Weerwater lake in the Kunstlinie Cultural Centre at the heart of Almere, a new city that is the fastest growing urban area in The Netherlands, just half an hour from Amsterdam. This ultra high-tech venue was designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the Japanese architectural firm SANAA, and its sophisticated AV/IT integration sees most of the venue’s technology systems operating over a common digital network, with the show control MediaLon integrated with the lighting network, audio system, communications and dressing room video and audio feeds.

Labels: Almere, EU, Theater

Russia Calls For Conference On CFE Treaty

Russia has requested an emergency conference to discuss the Conventional Forces In Europe (CFE) Treaty. The Foreign Ministry said that Russia has approached the Netherlands, the depositary of the treaty, with a request to call an emergency conference on June 12-15 in Vienna.

President Vladimir Putin last month said Russia will suspend compliance with the treaty because NATO members Slovenia and the Baltic states have not signed it, while other NATO signatories have not ratified it and are not abiding by its provisions.

Labels: Nato, Russia

Turkey Says U.S. Planes From Iraq Breached Airspace - by Mark Bentley

U.S. jet fighters from Iraq crossed into Turkey in an area where the Turkish military is building up forces in preparation for a possible attack on Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Two U.S. F-16 combat aircraft flew over the southeastern province of Hakkari for four minutes on May 24 in a violation of Turkish airspace, Turkey's army said in a statement on its Web site late yesterday.

Turkey, with the second-biggest army in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has threatened to enter northern Iraq without the approval of the U.S., saying the U.S. has failed to stop militants from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, from using Iraq as a base from which to attack Turkey. The deaths of six people in a May 22 suicide bombing in the Turkish capital, Ankara, blamed on the PKK, has increased pressure on the government to order an attack.

Labels: EU, Kurdish PKK terrorists, Turkey

Brown risks isolation if he plays veto politics in Europe - by David Clark

Among the very first issues Gordon Brown will be forced to address as prime minister is Europe, and in particular plans to salvage parts of the ill-fated European constitution in the form of a new mini-treaty. He may even be pressed to take a firm stance before he enters Downing Street if German efforts to get agreement at next month's EU summit succeed. His reaction will set the tone for his Europe policy and, crucially, define his relationship with Angela Merkel and the other new boy, Nicolas Sarkozy, both of whom support a new treaty. Will Brown join a gang of three or will he prefer to adopt the role of Euro-outsider?

Labels: Britain, EU, Gordon Brown

Tax-cut war widens in Europe - by Simon Kennedy

A tax-cut war is spreading across Europe as leaders of the Continent's biggest economies give up criticizing smaller neighbors for cutting business-tax rates and decide to join them instead. The move toward lower levies on corporate profits in Spain, Germany, France and Britain is aimed at attracting companies and reinforcing the strongest economic expansion in six years. It comes after Ireland and new European Union members from Eastern Europe succeeded in attracting investment, and irking their larger rivals, with tax rates of less than 20 percent, among the world's lowest.

"The gloves are off," said Erik Nielsen, chief European economist with Goldman Sachs in London. "Bigger countries are now competing on taxes. This is very much something that will determine how much and where companies want to invest."

Labels: CorporateTax rates, EU

n June 1993, a GSM transmitter antenna was set up in the Southern Germany city of Naila, and became operational since September 1993. The transmitter antenna has a power of 15dbW (31.6W) per channel in the 935 MHz range. In December 1997, an installation from another company was added. Several doctors living in Naila decided to respond to the call by Wolfram König, President of the Federal Agency for Radiation Protection, to collaborate in assessing the risk posed by mobile phone radiation. They carried out a study to examine whether people living close to transmitter antennas had increased risk of cancer. They found that the proportion of newly developed cancer cases was significantly higher among those who had lived during the past ten years at a distance of up to 400m from the cellular transmitter site, compared to those living further away, and the patients fell ill on average 8 years earlier. In the years, five years after the transmitter has been installed and operating, the relative risk of getting cancer had trebled for the residents within 400 m of the installation compared to inhabitants outside the area.

For the entire period from 1994 to 2004, the odds ratio (OR) for getting cancer in the inner, strongly exposed area compared to the outer area was 2.35. The average age of developing cancer was 64.1 years in the inner area, whereas in the outer area it was 72.6 years, a difference of 8.5 years. The average for Germany as a whole for developing cancer is 66.5 years, among men, 66 and women 67. The new cancer cases showed a high annual constant value. Considering only the first 5 years, there was no significant increased risk of getting cancer in the inner area. However, for the period 1999 to 2004, the OR for getting cancer was 3.38 in the inner area compared to the outer area. Breast cancer topped the list, with an average age of 50.8 year compared with 69.9 years in the outer area, but cancers of the prostate, pancreas, bowel, skin melanoma, lung and blood cancer were all increased.

Labels: Cellular Phones, Microwaves Cancer Risks

Franco - Arab Ties Could Yet Survive Sarkozy’s U-Turn

The defensive and guarded Arab reaction to the self-pronounced and reported pro-Israel and pro-America statements of Nicolas Paul Stephane Sarkozy de Nagy-Bocsa, who was sworn in as the new President of France on May 16, as well as his Jewish connection and that of his foreign policy team, have alerted Arab capitals and public opinion to a possibly imminent break with his country’s more than a five-decade old balanced approach to Arab conflicts and the Arab - Israeli conflict in particular.

Acting on a campaign pledge to a clean break with France’s political past, Sarkozy’s declared aim to change France could yet prove easier said than done, but nonetheless Sarkozy has grouped together a foreign policy team that could vindicate Arab fears; however Sarkozy’s pragmatism could not but take French huge interests in the Arab world into consideration, which might still prove his Arab critics wrong.

Pitt to receive large collection of European Union documents

Pitt to receive large collection of European Union documents

The University of Pittsburgh's library system will receive what is believed to be North America's largest collection of European Union and European Community public documents and publications. The library system plans to digitize a large portion of the collection and upload it to the Internet as part of the school's Archive of European Integration, an online archive and repository. The collection also will be available at Pitt's Hillman Library.

The university expects to receive the collection in late June or early July from the European Commission delegation in Washington, D.C., which recently decided to donate the materials to the school. Phil Wilkin, Pitt's University Library System bibliographer for West European Studies, said the number of documents in the collection was difficult to determine, but that it would occupy between 3,300 and 3,500 feet of shelf space.

Labels: EU documentation

Turkey's troubles run deep - Daniel Silke

Nothing divides Europeans more than the issue of Turkey's role in Europe and her possible entry into the EU. And, following a devastating bomb blast in Ankara this last week and mass demonstrations to protest the influence of Islamic-oriented political activities, Turkey represents a true crossing point for the world - not just geographically but also ideologically. For a country whose political ethos - established over the last century - has been one of secular nationalism, it is not surprising that any possible drift towards a more religious state or political representation should cause ripples of concern throughout the secular establishment.

The country literally is a bridge between Europe and the Middle-East - and between Judeo-Christian values and Islam. Its sensitivity has been enhanced by events in Iraq and Iran and its courtship by the West as a bulwark against Islamic Fundamentalism. In addition, the West views Turkey as the model Moslem state where a separation of Mosque and State go hand-in-hand with secular Islam. Somehow, though, for all the good that Turkey provides the West, it seems increasingly isolated. The question remains whether the West is doing enough to aid and assist Turkey in what is likely to become an increasingly tough battle as elements try to destabilize this bastion of Islamic Democracy.

Labels: EU, Turkey

Romanian film takes top Cannes prize - Angela Doland

A harrowing film about illegal abortion in Communist-era Romania beat 21 movies by well-known directors such as Quentin Tarantino, Ethan and Joel Coen, and Wong Kar-wai to win the Cannes Film Festival's top prize today. Romanian director Cristian Mungiu's low-budget film, "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," depicts the horrors a student goes through to ensure her friend can have a secret abortion.

Several high-profile movies that screened at Cannes were not in the running for prizes, including Michael Moore's "Sicko"; "Ocean's Thirteen," starring George Clooney and Matt Damon; and "A Mighty Heart," featuring Angelina Jolie as the widow of slain journalist Daniel Pearl.German writer and director Fatih Akin's "The Edge of Heaven," a German-Turkish crosscultural tale of loss, mourning and forgiveness, won the prize for best screenplay.

Labels: Cannes Film Festival, Romania

Europe criticizes U.S. anti-terrorism role - by Josh Meyer

Two of Europe's most prominent counter-terrorism officials on Friday criticized the United States for not being fully cooperative in the global fight against Islamist extremism, saying its unwillingness to share information and evidence in a timely manner had compromised important investigations and prosecutions. The remarks were made by senior investigative magistrates Armando Spataro of Italy and Baltasar Garzon of Spain at a counter-terrorism conference here that was attended by senior U.S. officials.

Garzon, Spain's most prominent counter-terrorism official, said U.S. authorities had withheld evidence or delayed sharing it to protect sources and methods, which had the effect of undermining the efforts of various European governments. He said he had to wait more than a year in some cases for information from the U.S., and in one case still hadn't received it. Asked why, he said: "I don't have an answer. It is a very important problem with the U.S."

Labels: Europe, Terrorism, US

Alarming increase of Casualties in Iraq as US celebrates Memorial day

The latest U.S. military deaths included five Saturday: a Marine killed in Al Anbar province, three soldiers who died in a car bomb attack in Salahuddin province in the north and a soldier killed south of Baghdad. The others were a soldier who died Friday in an ambush in Taji, north of Baghdad, and two who were killed Wednesday in a bombing east of Baghdad. The deaths raised the number of U.S. military fatalities to 3,452 since the start of the war in March 2003, according to the website icasualties.org, which tracks military deaths. The May death toll of 101 U.S. military personnel makes it the seventh time a monthly total has surpassed 100 since the U.S.-led invasion.The wrangling in Washington over war financing, still fierce despite the Democrats’ decision to forgo for now withdrawal deadlines, has obscured a more fundamental debate over what Iraq’s future might look like without American troops.

Iraqis who favor a speedy American departure include those who think the country will stabilize after a flaring of violence and redrawing of sectarian boundaries. Some factions, including many supporters of the anti-American Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr, said they believed that they would be better able to bring stability, albeit on their own terms. “I think the Sadr tide will rule the country,” said Muhammad Qasim Ali, a suitcase salesman in the predominantly Shiite neighborhood of Karada. “They are the majority and they have a good background, and that gives them a chance to take control. Once we take power, we will be merciful with Sunnis.

Labels: Casualties, Iraq, Troop withdrawal

China advancing rapidly toward EU's Market Economy Status

European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson has reported that China is advancing with market economic reforms, causing alarm among several EU countries that fear Brussels is being soft on Beijing, diplomats said. The EU has previously said China falls a long way short of qualifying for the bloc's coveted Market Economy Status (MES) and countries hurting from Chinese exports such as France, Italy and Spain protested at the new tone, the diplomats said. Getting MES status is a priority for Chinese policymakers because it would make it easier for the booming Asian export powerhouse to defend itself against European anti-dumping cases.

Labels: China, EU, World Trade

EU launches privacy probe into Google's search engine

An independent panel of the European Union (EU) has launched a probe into whether U.S.-based Google Inc.'s Internet search engine violates EU privacy rules, local media reported Saturday.

In a letter to Google, the panel, made up of representatives from EU member nations, demanded clarification about the company's practice of storing and retaining personal information taken from users for up to two years, said a spokesman for the European Commission.

Once a month before dawn on a Saturday, an unlikely convoy pulls up by the soaring glass-and-steel complex of Europe's Parliament: half a dozen trucks crammed with documents for the assembly's monthly four-day session.

Once a month before dawn on a Saturday, an unlikely convoy pulls up by the soaring glass-and-steel complex of Europe's Parliament: half a dozen trucks crammed with documents for the assembly's monthly four-day session.Some 3,000 parliamentarians, officials, lobbyists, journalists and hangers-on descend on Strasbourg for every plenary session, filling every hotel room in the picturesque provincial city of 270,000. The exorbitant and complicated to-and-fro is a result of an EU treaty accommodating the demands of France to house an EU institution.

The commute - by plane, train or automobile - continues even as EU leaders agree that the 27-nation bloc must take the lead in the fight against climate change. Road transport alone accounts for about one-fifth of the EU's carbon dioxide emissions. A study commissioned by the EU's Greens shows that the monthly trek produces over 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year, the equivalent of 13,000 return flights from London to New York.

Labels: EU Parliament, Pollution and the environment

If you've hit 70, car rental in Europe can be difficult - by Ed Perkins

If you're age 69 or over - and planning to rent a car in Europe this summer - make sure you find an agency that allows you to rent and drive a car.

According to the latest compilation I could find, travelers of any age can rent cars in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden or Switzerland.

A few countries, however, impose constraints: Denmark: Some rental agencies impose a maximum age of 80. Czech Republic, Greece: Some rental agencies impose a maximum age of 70. Poland, Slovakia and Turkey: Some rental agencies apply an age limit of 70 to some car classes.

Labels: Age limitations, Europe, Rental Cars

Islamophobia, racism grip Europe

Europe is gripped by a dangerous rising of racism and xenophobia and the traditional European values of tolerance and welcome are washing away with European politicians fueling racist prejudices against foreigners across the continent, said a new report by a pan-European rights commission.

"The overall picture as regards contemporary forms of racism and racial discrimination is complex and worrying," said the report which was released Friday, May 15, by the Council of Europe's Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI). The report said that intensified manifestations of racism and intolerance can be observed in all Europe of Council's 46 member-states.

"We're starting to shut people out of our communities, it's a very sad development," ECRI president Eva Smith-Asmussen told reporters to mark the release of the report.

Labels: Europe, Muslims, Religious tolerance

World Order Is All About China and Europe - by Ruchir Sharma

a new world order has been in the making, defined by China's growth surge and a European economic renaissance. At just under $3 trillion, the Chinese economy in nominal terms is still less than a quarter the size of the U.S. economy. But with a pace of expansion now more than four times that of the United States, China is incrementally adding more to global growth than the U.S. is. The even bigger surprise is the German-led revival of Europe's economy. Last year the euro zone grew by 2.6 percent, spurred by a 3 percent rise in Germany. An intense focus on increasing productivity has helped Germany's export sector become highly competitive, and it is now benefiting from booming demand in emerging markets. With projected growth for 2007 in the 2.5 to 3.0 percent corridor, Euroland will likely outperform the U.S. economy for the first time in recent history.

If the U.S. lapses into an outright recession, the impact may still be large enough to unravel the global economic story. But any scenario less drastic than the dreaded recession now looks manageable, with the euro area and China together accounting for a larger share of global GDP than the United States. Almost effortlessly, it seems, the world has escaped its risky dependence on U.S. economic power.

Labels: China, EU, World Economy

Activists Choke Growth Of European Shipping

Supported by strict European Union environmental laws and a band of die-hard residents, squatters and Gypsies, Ms. Apers has sued to keep alive the 17th-century village of Doel, which was slated for destruction. Her efforts delayed the first stage of the Antwerp port's expansion by three years and now stand in the way of new infrastructure and a second container dock, port officials say. At a time when the global container-shipping trade is growing by 11% a year, thanks to booming exports from Asia, Europe's ports can't keep up, say growth advocates. A combination of environmental protections and resistance from local residents is helping to stifle ports' expansion plans across the continent. And with China planning to spend $54 billion in the next 10 years on building and expanding ports, the mismatch between its capacity to ship and Europe's ability to receive goods is growing fast. Some maritime economists say all this could have big implications for the European economy. As Europe's deep-water ports jam up, ships from China will face growing costs as they wait in line to dock. Fewer imports could lead to higher prices for consumers and shortages of some goods made in Asia. If exports are affected, it could restrict economic growth in Europe.

"Europe just needs to buy less from Asia," says Joris Wijnhoven, a Netherlands-based campaigner against port expansion at Friends of the Earth, an environmental group. In the first quarter of 2007, 73% of container ships arrived late in European ports, up from 45% in the same period last year, according to the latest annual report by Drewry Shipping Consultants Ltd. Every extra day at sea costs shipping companies an average $30,000 per vessel. Rotterdam in the Netherlands, Hamburg in Germany and Southampton in the United Kingdom all had to turn away container ships for lack of docking space lately. U.S. ports face expansion hurdles too. Environmental activists and local residents in Houston, Los Angeles and Charleston, S.C., have delayed projects. Although the U.S. also has tough environmental rules and protected areas, its coastline is less crowded and offers more area for expansion, say port experts. Additionally, ports in Mexico and Canada have been taking some of the overflow.

Labels: EU, Ports, World Trade

Nicolas Sarkozy, French president, warned the world on Wednesday night that he expected Europe to take a much tougher stance in global trade talks and would not allow his country’s farmers to be sold “at the lowest possible price”.

Sarkozy, on his first presidential visit to Brussels, called on Europe to “protect” its citizens, buying them time to adapt to the pressures of globalization. His comments suggest he will pursue an assertive French agenda in Europe that could put him in conflict with free traders including Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and Gordon Brown, incoming UK prime minister. Sarkozy’s passionate defense of French farmers will concern Europe’s trade partners who hoped he might be more flexible in his approach to cutting EU farm tariffs than Jacques Chirac, his predecessor.

Labels: EU, Farming, France, World Trade

Moody's Economy.com forecasts at least two quarter-point interest-rate increases for Western Europe by year's end. It is expecting gross domestic product growth of 2.5% in the region, down from last year's 2.7%. "The slowdown should be fairly modest," said Katrin Robeck, a Moody's economist. "But it's likely to spread into 2008 across the euro zone. "In contrast, Poland, for example, is seeing far more robust economic activity. The country's 2006 GDP growth rate of 5.8% should increase to about 7% for the first quarter of 2007 when final data come out, she added. For the year, Ms. Robeck expects Poland's GDP to run in excess of 6%.

Ralf Oberbannscheidt sees Russia's growth continuing at a faster pace than Western Europe's. He manages three foreign closed-end funds under the DWS Scudder family, which is a unit of Deutsche Bank AG. Yet in recent months, he has decreased exposure to Russia and put some of those profits in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic. "We're looking at the energy and financials sectors in those markets," he said. "Housing markets are growing, and infrastructure improvements have been spreading for several years." Some of the larger and more stable economies in Eastern Europe help mitigate the political risk of investing in Russia right now, Mr. Oberbannscheidt says, noting that the country's presidential elections are coming up.

Labels: European Economy

A new and vital Europe - by David Crane

With its many museums and beautiful old buildings, Europe is too often dismissed as a quaint tourist destination that is no longer of much relevance to the modern world, and the United States, China and India are seen as representing the present and the future. Europe, instead, has been seen as a symbol of the past, bogged down in high unemployment, slow growth, bureaucratic rigidity, unaffordable social benefits and paralyzed institutions. This was never an accurate picture.

But what's important today is that Europe is reasserting itself, shedding regulations, making social and workplace changes, and becoming much more innovative. Its focus is on becoming a 21st-century economy in a society that is equitable, sustainable and ready to play a larger role in world affairs, especially with regard to international development.
Merkel, Sarkozy and Brown are all committed to better relations with the United States through the pursuit of the new Transatlantic Economic Partnership, focusing on improving regulatory convergence and deepening cooperation in energy and the environment. It is not clear where Canada will fit in with this. But Merkel and Sarkozy, in particular, have made it clear that while they admire the Americans they will challenge them when they disagree, on climate change, for example. They will be partners, not followers.

Labels: EU 50, Innovation

Is Europe waiting for Churchill or Godot? - by Fjordman

"Europe is now at one of those famous crossroads where the course of history could go either way. Given the weakness of Europe and the rapid expansion of Islam, it would be foolish to discount the possibility that Muslims could win this. However, I happen to think that another possibility is that Islam not only will lose the battle for Europe, but could become destroyed as a global force during this century. Maybe in some strange way, Europe needs to go through a period of colonization and de-colonization herself, to get rid of her post-colonial guilt complex?

Sharia is worse than war. I have hard claims that European civilization will not survive the century. A century is a very long time, remember that. Would anybody (except Churchill) in 1906, when Europe really was strong and powerful, have predicted that Europe would now be in the process of being overpowered by Algerians, Africans Moroccans, Turks and Pakistanis? Things change. They can change for the worse, but they can also change for the better. If we do get another world war, which appears increasingly likely, this could finish off what remains of European civilization for good. But it could also, theoretically, have the opposite effect, where the shock waves could create a different kind of Europe from the decadent, nihilistic Europe we see now. A Christian revitalization, for instance. Yes, this could happen. Stranger things have happened before. Our ancestors, better men and women than us, held the line against Islam for more than one thousand years, sacrificing their blood for the continent. By doing so, they not only preserved the European heartland and thus Western civilization itself, but quite possibly the world in general from unchallenged Islamic dominance. The stakes involved now are not less than they were then, probably greater."

Labels: Europe, Immigratation, Religion

US idol attracts more votes than the president - by JACQUI GODDARD

Commercialism takes over in US and Europe as US idol attracts more votes than the president - by JACQUI GODDARD

A US survey last month found that one in ten Americans had voted on American Idol and 35 per cent of viewers said that they considered the vote as important - if not more important - than if it were for the presidency.

In 2004, George Bush was supported by nearly 62 million Americans in his bid for President. On May 24, 2007, Hicks, a grey-haired soul singer from Alabama eclipsed Bush his record by scooping an unprecedented 63.4 million votes to claim a far loftier title: the new American Idol. "

Note EU-Digest: "when commercialism and marketing starts to overtake reality in life it is time for the people to wake up. To quote Proverbs 29:18 in the Bible, “Without a vision, the people will perish.”

Labels: Commercialism, US Idol

USA - The Assault on Reason - by Al Gore

Not long before our nation launched the invasion of Iraq, our longest-serving Senator, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, stood on the Senate floor and said: "This chamber is, for the most part, silent—ominously, dreadfully silent. There is no debate, no discussion, no attempt to lay out for the nation the pros and cons of this particular war. There is nothing. We stand passively mute in the United States Senate."

It is too easy—and too partisan—to simply place the blame on the policies of President George W. Bush. We are all responsible for the decisions our country makes. We have a Congress. We have an independent judiciary. We have checks and balances. We are a nation of laws. We have free speech. We have a free press. Have they all failed us? Why has America's public discourse become less focused and clear, less reasoned? Faith in the power of reason—the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power—remains the central premise of American democracy. This premise is now under assault.

Labels: Free Press, Ignorance, USA

EU Constitution: MEPs to debate with Prime Ministers

Ahead of June's European Council two Prime Ministers are in Strasbourg this week to debate with MEPs on what Europe should do about its Constitutional impasse. They offer an interesting contrast: Italian Premier Romano Prodi was Commission President in 2004 when the draft Constitution was signed while Jan Peter Balkenende was PM when the Netherlands rejected the Constitution in a referendum in May 2005 just days after France. Of the 27 EU members 18 have already ratified the Constitution with another 7 having frozen the ratification process after the French and Dutch "No" votes in May 2005. Following those referenda, Europe entered into a period of "reflection" into what should happen next.

Labels: EU, EU CONSTITUTION

Europe-wide high-speed rail advances as German train comes to Paris

Two high-speed trains designed to cut travel time between Frankfurt and Paris almost in half as part of a Europe-wide high-speed rail network made their first journey on Friday. The French-German cooperation, however, is billed as the beginning of a Barcelona to Budapest high-speed dream that has been taking shape in Europe for years. For now, the new, fast train routes will affect four countries. France's newest high-speed line, the TGV East, opens June 10 with service to cities in Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

A typical second-class ticket on the train service will cost €99 (US$133) for trips between Frankfurt and Paris and €95 (US$127) for travel between Paris and Stuttgart. A standard Air France economy class ticket from Paris to Frankfurt costs about €200 (US$268) round trip, or €498 (US$669) one-way.

Labels: EU, Trains

HIV/AIDS in Europe: trends and EU wide priorities

There are an estimated 740 000 people living with HIV or AIDS in western and central Europe today, and 1.7 million in the neighbouring countries of eastern Europe and Central Asia [1]. The proportion of undiagnosed HIV infections is estimated to be as high as 30% in the European Union (EU), and likely to be higher in neighbouring countries. People who have not yet been diagnosed are unaware that they are infected, and therefore cannot benefit from treatment and care, and may unknowingly transmit HIV to others.

In the EU, major advances in treatment have prolonged and improved the lives of infected people. However, these therapeutic advances have been paralleled by a decreasing emphasis on HIV prevention and a resurgence of high-risk sexual behaviours among gay men in major EU cities. According to the latest epidemiological data from the EuroHIV surveillance network (http://www.eurohiv.org), 23 620 new HIV diagnoses were reported in the EU in 2005. This figure excludes Italy and Spain, where no national HIV reporting systems are in place. The majority of cases are in males (65%), but the proportion in females is increasing, and 12% are in young people aged 15 to 24 years. The highest rates in new HIV diagnoses were reported in Estonia (467 cases per million) and Portugal (251 cases per million), and the lowest rates were reported in the Czech Republic (9 cases per million) and Slovakia (4 cases per million).In western European countries, many HIV infections have been diagnosed in immigrants from countries with generalised HIV epidemics. These people represent an important group, with unique challenges for HIV prevention and care services. There is a need for specific services for immigrant communities with prevention activities tailored to their needs, and communication about immigrant health issues which does not add to existing stigma.

The HIV situation in the EU is increasingly influenced by international travel and migration, which underlines the need for a global and European-wide approach to HIV prevention and control.

Labels: AIDS, EU, HIV

Increasing prevalence of HIV-infected blood donations in eastern Europe

There is considerable variation in the prevalence of HIV-infected blood donations across Europe and unless action is taken to tighten up screening, some countries in Eastern Europe risk HIV-infected blood donations entering the blood supply, according to a survey published in the May 24th edition of Eurosurveillance Weekly Release

analysis showed that the prevalence of HIV-infected blood donations has fallen steadily in Western Europe since the 1990s, and remained stable in Central Europe. However, in Eastern Europe, the prevalence increased from less than one donation per 100,000 in 1995 to 40.3 per 100,000 in 2004. “This trend is a reflection of the development of the HIV epidemic in those regions, with many countries in the east experiencing high ongoing transmission of HIV, in particular among injecting drug users, and a large pool of newly infected potential blood donors have not yet been diagnosed”.
Earlier this week, the US Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA) reaffirmed its blanket ban on gay men ever giving blood.

Labels: Eastern Europe, Gay Community, HIV

Cannes Film Festival: Cannes Do: Shiny Happy People

"The book-making at the Cannes festival in France on the winners is heating up; everyone has an opinion. Almost the same opinion. The lead was pretty much tied between "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" (the Romanian abortion movie — sorry, but it's faster) and the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men." Then Tuesday dawned, and Julian Schnabel queered the deal with his luminous, painterly, unsentimental "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly." It's an adaptation of the book by former French Elle editor Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered a massive stroke and was left completely lucid but physically frozen. He dictated the memoir by blinking his left eyelid, and this process is presented as both poetic and tedious. Bauby died 10 days after the book's publication, but Schnabel pays him even-handed homage by presenting the roguish, healthy Bauby as rather a selfish jerk who pleased neither his wife nor his mistress and thought such a trauma could not happen to him because he was too cool for it."

Labels: Cannes, Cinema

Turkey stresses determination on its EU membership bid

Turkey aims to join the European Union (EU) as a full member, a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman stressed on Thursday. "Turkey is a country which started entry talks with the EU. Turkey's objective is clear. It is eager to be a full EU member," Levent Bilman told a weekly press conference. While replying to a question on French President Nicolas Sarkozy's statements that he would not drop his opposition to Turkey's EU membership, Bilman noted that the statements were not encouraging.

According to the semi-official Anatolia new agency, Erdogan had a phone conversation Thursday with Sarkozy, urging joint effort and direct talks to overcome common problems. "Let's not talk to each other through the media," Erdogan was quoted as telling the French president.

Labels: EU, Turkey

Funding for troops Iraq approved by US Senate: "Operation Iraq Forever" - by Manuel Valenzuela

The occupation of Iraq has and will continue to severely cripple America, both in treasure and blood, bogging it down in a grueling guerilla war of attrition for years to come. Already the war and occupation has lasted longer than America’s involvement in World War II. Already it has cost, in only four years, over one trillion dollars. Already, America’s military is overstretched, overstressed, overburdened and overworked. So far, close to 3,500 troops have died, with up to 30,000 maimed and injured; tens of thousands of personnel have been forced to serve more than two tours of duty.

raq is too valuable, in the minds of America’s elite and her corporatists, to simply walk away from. For all intents and purposes, therefore, Iraq has become America’s 51st state, a colony that will act as America’s gas station for decades to come. Iraq is destined to become the grease that provides the lubrication needed to run the great American engine. It will act as America’s aircraft carrier, the easier to patrol the world’s most strategic region. In time, Iraq will be used to invade, threaten, hold hostage and/or conquer the oil fields of Iran and those of the central Asian basin."

Labels: Iraq, US

What has Europe ever done for us ?

"The campaign Speak up Europe has begun and aims to ignite a lively debate about the European Union (EU) and its future. We want to know what you think the EU should do and not do, where it should engage itself and how it should do it... Have your say, join the debate!"

Labels: European Unity

U.S. Growth Expected to Cool, Falling Below Pace in Europe - by CARTER DOUGHERTY

Economic growth in Europe and Japan is expected to outpace that in the United States this year for the first time since 2001, as a slowdown in the American housing market curbs growth, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Thursday.

The forecast by the agency, which is based in Paris and has representatives from the 30 richest countries, suggests that the world can weather a cooling in the United States, the globe’s largest economy. Demand is robust in China and India, and growth elsewhere is strong, it said.

Labels: EU, World Economy

Lock up your hotels, the Brits are coming - by Graham Hiscott

HANG out the flags Britain, the British are no longer the world’s worst holidaymakers. That’s the good news. The bad news is that foreign hotel­iers still quake at the approach of British tourists. In a survey of more than 15,000 hoteliers around the world, the Japanese were named as the best guests overall – well-behaved, quiet and polite. Britons were praised as being among the world’s most generous guests when it comes to tips, beaten only by the Americans and Russians. The best-dressed national visitors are Italians, French and Spanish.

Overall, France came out as the worst nation of tourists, followed by India, China, Russia and Britain.

Labels: Britain, Tourism

Europe and the Arab world: divided souls - by Pierre Schor

At a meeting of the Arab Reform Initiative (ARI) in Amman on 18-19 April 2007, Prince Turki al-Faisal outlined the new, proactive Saudi foreign policy: "Reform is imperative, not optional for the Arabs." The prince backed the ARI programme but rejected "external offerings... which present us with preconceived diagnoses and prescription...and perspectives that are very far from the regional reality."

For many participants in the Amman meeting, as for millions of people in the region, the European position demonstrates a desire for regime change in Palestine - an approach unaffected by the transition to a Palestinian unity government on 17 March 2007, or the internal tensions that have followed.

The Arafat precedent suggests that ending the boycott and beginning a debate of principles with the Palestinian national-unity government is a much better recipe for the European Union than passively to observe the growing anguish and desperation, the poverty and the rage in the occupied territories.

The Finnish presidency of the European Union, with foreign minister Erkki Tuomioja in the vanguard, tried unsuccessfully to change the EU's common position. The debate should continue

Labels: EU, Middle East, Palestine

EU expresses solidarity with Turkey following Ankara blast by Kurds

European Commission expressed solidarity with EU hopeful Turkey Wednesday, a day after a powerful bomb blast in Ankara killed six people, AFP reported. "I strongly condemn this horrible and cowardly attack. I send my condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their life," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement. "The Commission expresses its solidarity with Turkey in its efforts to fight terrorism, which is a common concern for the EU and Turkey," said Rehn, who has been closely involved in Ankara's quest to join the European Union.

Labels: EU, Kurds, Turkey

A roadside bomb that killed six Turkish soldiers on Thursday and a deadly suicide bombing days earlier have intensified debate in Turkey about whether to attack Kurdish rebels operating across the border in northern Iraq.

The attack on a military vehicle in rugged terrain in southeast Turkey near the border with Iraq and the bombing on a bustling thoroughfare in Ankara took place amid growing frustration over the Kurdish rebel group PKK, which has stepped up cross-border raids from hide-outs in northern Iraq.

Europe acknowledges that Galileo can have military applications

Amidst all of the controversy over funding for the beleaguered Galileo system, Europe's answer to the U.S.-based GPS, comes official acknowledgment that Galileo will have its military and defense uses, alongside civilian applications. Proponents of the Galileo system all along have maintained that since the U.S. global positioning system was created and is maintained by the U.S. military, that Europe should have its own, purely commercial civilian satellite navigation system. Given the importance of GPS to navigation and commerce, Galileo's proponents argue having an alternative is critical, should the U.S. military cut off civilian use of its satellites.

However the European Space Policy, signed off earlier this week by ministers from the European Space Agency's (ESA) member states and others tasked with internal market, industry and research within the European Union’s Competitiveness Council, notes that defense is an important parameter to Galileo and space technology in general.

Labels: EU, Galileo

The Center for Public Integrety - Europe's relations with U.S. undermined by apparent complicity on CIA prisons - by Nathaniel Heller

One of the most significant fallouts from the U.S. war on terror has been the strain on America's historically strong relationship with Europe.

Allegations of secret CIA prisons in Europe and European governments' complicity with the kidnappings of terror suspects (known as "extraordinary renditions") have irritated trans-Atlantic relations, stressed the NATO alliance and jeopardized U.S. national security priorities, including maintaining an international coalition in Iraq. Allegations began to surface about secret CIA prisons in Europe in late 2005, after the Washington Post revealed the existence of "black site" prisons there. By the time the European Parliament released its initial findings about the covert program in June 2006, European public outcry was swift and shrill.

Labels: EU, US

The French Say Au Revoir to Microsoft Software - David Garrett

The French parliament has said au revoir to Microsoft Relevant Products/Services. Starting in June of next year, French deputies will use desktops and servers running Linux, Mozilla's Firefox Web browser, and OpenOffice.org, a free open-source alternative to Microsoft's Office software.

For day-to-day documents, French members of parliament and their staff will use OpenOffice.org, currently in version 2.0.4 and designed to compete directly with Microsoft's Office System.

Labels: France, Linux, Microsoft

Pentagon to open liaison office in Serbia

The U.S. armed forces will open an office in Belgrade in a bid to widen military cooperation with Serbia, Belgrade media said Wednesday. Lt. Gen. Zdravko Ponos, head of the Serbian army general staff, this week met in Washington with U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Serbia's RTS radio-television reported.

Labels: Serbia, USA

Serbia: Appeasing Serbia hurts EU - by Natasa Kandic and Mabel van Oranje

This month has been a bad one for the cause of human rights in Europe, as Serbia was allowed to begin its six-month presidency of the Council of Europe, the Continent's oldest political body.

With Serbia at the helm, the Council, which aims to promote human rights and the rule of law, is now overseen by a state that thumbs its nose at the Genocide Convention and harbors an indicted war-crimes suspect, former Bosnian Serb army chief Ratko Mladic.

Labels: EU, Serbia

Sarkozy aims for 'simplified' EU treaty - Bruno Waterfield

Mr Sarkozy has made it clear that for Paris "simplification" does not mean ditching sweeping new EU decision-making powers or rules allowing federalist countries to press ahead with closer political union. "We have to be able to move forward," he said in Brussels yesterday. "I am thinking of enhanced co-operation. I am thinking of majority voting, some areas moving from unanimity to majority voting."

Labels: EU, Sarkozy

Bush Authorizes New Covert Action Against Iran- by Brian Ross and Richard Esposito

The CIA has received secret presidential approval to mount a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, current and former officials in the intelligence community tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com.

A National Security Council spokesperson, Gordon Johndroe, said, "The White House does not comment on intelligence matters." A CIA spokesperson said, "As a matter of course, we do not comment on allegations of covert activity." The sources say the CIA developed the covert plan over the last year and received approval from White House officials and other officials in the intelligence community. Officials say the covert plan is designed to pressure Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment program and end aid to insurgents in Iraq.

Labels: George Bush, Iran, War

Legal Mumbo Jumbo - the world is getting crazier - US versus European Legal System

"Last week, an Associated Press story crossed my desk about a man in Washington, D.C. who is suing the South Korean immigrant owners of a small dry- cleaning company for $65 million. The issue? He claims the mom-and-pop business owners lost a pair of pants from a $1,000 suit. Even though the owners said they didn't lose the pants, they've made several offers to settle. First for $3,000 and, finally, for $12,000. Now, remember, the suit only cost $1,000 and the couple's lawyer says the plaintiff's pants are hanging in his office. No matter. The customer won't settle. According to the AP story, the bulk of the $65 million claim comes from the plaintiff's "strict interpretation of Washington consumer protection law, which imposes fines of $1,500 per violation, per day." He's counting 12 violations over 1,200 days and multiplied by three defendants.It's a travesty, and it goes beyond farce.

Alternative approaches to the US legal systems and the protections inherent to it exist in other countries, particularly France and Germany. In the US legal system the emphasis is on providing a fair trial, and in particular, protecting the rights of the individual being tried. As a result, the actual trial itself is more adversarial than in most European countries.In choosing which system is best it really comes down to what you think is more important, imprisoning a guilty man or making sure an innocent man is not imprisoned. In the US legal system the emphasis is on protecting the individual from state misconduct, the protections the US has in place do a good job of preventing this. The risk the US run with this system is that those protections will sometimes protect the guilty as well.

In the European system the system is designed to punish the guilty first and foremost. This does mean that there may be some individuals who are wrongfully convicted but, as a whole, the guilty are punished and the state is preserved.

Labels: EU, Judicial System, US

Are you on time for a job in Spain?

The updated guide ‘Looking for work in Spain’ provides the answers; Spain is hot at the moment, with a thriving economy. Spanish players have swiftly entered the global market place and the restructuring of the Spanish economy is progressing ceaselessly. Ever since Spain entered the European Community in 1986, its economy has boosted, and has enabled the country to improve its infrastructure and to conform its economy to EU guidelines. Despite some of its challenges, Spain is most definitely taking over a top position in Europe’s economic hit parade as the fourth EU economy. The new, entirely updated ‘Looking for work in Spain’ guide provides the necessary information to be a part of Spain’s economic hit parade.

Expertise in Labour Mobility, a knowledge broker when it comes to international labour mobility, has published a series of guides called ‘Looking for work in ...’ , available for over 40 countries, which are not only interesting for people who are looking for work, but also for expatriates, expat spouses, internationally active entrepreneurs and students.

Labels: EU, jobs, Spain

Labels: Cellular Phones

The European Union- An economic Giant but a Political Dwarf - no match for USA

While the EU has seen some success, there have been far more disappointments and unmet promises. It battles over minor issues: wanting Germany to give up its treasured autobahns to save gas and reduce carbon dioxide emissions; Great Britain finally joining the EU, but refusing to replace the pound with the euro. It has been battling for years about whether to grant Turkey membership while its internal Muslim populations grow by leaps and bounds. And it battles over major issues like its role in geopolitics. As Klaus Haensch, former president of the European Parliament, said recently: "The EU has to orient itself to the outside world now. Someone who is an economic giant but wants to stay a political dwarf is not acting modestly, but irresponsibly."

"The most telling indicator of how far the EU has to go is the fact that 50 years after its inception, it still does not have a constitution. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is pushing for a constitution to be passed by 2009, but as recently as 2005, voters in France and the Netherlands rejected a constitution effort. Werner Hoyer, German lawmaker and a member of the Free Democratic Party, said: 'People are afraid of losing their regional and national identities if too much is turned over to Brussels (EU headquarters). I think national leaders have not explained the EU well enough to their voters. You don't lose your identity by joining the EU, you gain another identity.'"

Labels: EU 50, EU CONSTITUTION

How terrorism finds root in Europe - Alienation and radical European politics are factors - John C. Cooley - John C. Cooley

It's conventional wisdom that Middle Eastern, North African, and South Asian terrorists attack Western societies partly as reactions to conflicts in their own regions, such as the Palestinian-Israeli strife. But there's plenty of evidence that extremist ideologies, even if born abroad, are often nurtured in the West.

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy and his advisers and supporters in the academic world realize this. It's why they recommend that France, Britain, and their European neighbors strengthen integration of their Muslim and other immigrant populations – in the way, for example, that millions of Arab-Americans, Iranian-Americans, and Hispanics have been helped to be successful members of US society.

Labels: Terrorism

Labels: European Parliament

World Bank: Bush wants US citizen for World Bank; Blair out of the race?

President George W. Bush said this week he wants a United States citizen to succeed Paul Wolfowitz as president of the World Bank, playing down speculation he might turn to departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair for the job.“We’d very much like it to be an American” Bush said in an interview. He said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is in charge of the search for Wolfowitz’s successor and will take to Bush a list of those he thinks would be good for the job. Asked if his close ally Blair might be a candidate, Bush said: “I haven’t talked to Tony Blair about it, but I do think it’d be good to have a US citizen run the bank.”

Labels: George Bush, Tony Blair, World Bank

Holland opens investment office in Dubai-by Robert Ditcham

The Netherlands has announced the opening of a Dutch Investment Office in Dubai to promote trade and investment between itself and the GCC region. Dutch officials say the government-run office, which offers its services free of charge, will sustain bilateral relations between the Netherlands and the UAE, as well as promote Dutch products and investment opportunities.

The announcement comes on the heels of a mutual agreement between the Netherlands and the UAE to avoid double taxation.

Labels: Dubai, EU, Netherlands

Spain investigating if recovered treasure by Florida treasure hunters was taken from its territorial waters

Spain is investigating whether one of the world’s biggest-ever finds of sunken treasure was plundered by US treasure hunters from its waters or from a shipwrecked Spanish galleon, the Madrid government said yesterday.

Florida-based treasure hunters Odyssey Marine Exploration (OME) said on Friday they had recovered gold and silver coins worth an estimated $500 million at an undisclosed location in the Atlantic Ocean. It flew out of Gibraltar to Tampa, Florida on a Boeing 757 on Thursday. The Florida based company stated the recovery was conducted in conformity with Salvage Law and the Law of the Sea Convention, beyond the territorial waters or legal jurisdiction of any country.

Labels: Spain, Treasure, US

Labels: Muslims

Labels: EU, Turkey

Convicted Monopolist Terrorizes Software Industry - by Michael J.Jordan

Yes, fear sells. Microsoft knows this. And if they can't sell software (it would seem that the tepid response to Vista would prove this), then they'll try selling some fear. This week, they're selling it wholesale. They've made this clear via an article in Fortune this past Monday. In it, Microsoft chief counsel Brad Smith claimed that the Linux kernel, along with other Open Source and Free Software applications, infringed on over 200 patents owned by Bill Gates and company. The article got into specifics on which applications violated the patents and contained an indirect threat of lawsuits.

Microsoft may be a behemoth, but they're not big enough to take on the world in the courts. For now, they'll just play the fear card. But even fear will get you so far. Then what happens when nobody's afraid anymore?

Labels: Linux

European Parliament Adopts a Written Declaration on Establishing a Green Hydrogen Economy

The European Parliament adopted a written declaration on establishing a green hydrogen economy and a third industrial revolution in Europe through a partnership with committed regions and cities, SMEs and civil society organisations with 420 MEPs signing the declaration. The President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering announced at the beginning of the session in Strasbourg, that with more than half of all MEPs signing the declaration it had been adopted.

The written declaration calls upon the EU Institutions to:

- pursue a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020,

- pursue a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020,

- reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 (compared to 1990 levels),

- produce 33% of electricity and 25% of overall energy from renewable energy sources by 2020,

- institute hydrogen fuel cell storage technology, and other storage technologies, for portable, stationary and transport uses and establish a decentralised bottom-up hydrogen infrastructure by 2025 in all EU Member States,

- make power grids smart and independent by 2025 so that regions, cities, SMEs and citizens can produce and share energy in accordance with the same open-access principles as apply to the internet now.

Labels: Alternative Energy

Changing automotive manufacturing in Europe - by Mike Page

Changing automotive manufacturing in Europe- by Mike Page

The European automotive manufactures face many technical and strategic changes in how and where they build cars and trucks, reports Mike Page from a recent German conference

Marc Seghers, manager of Facilities, Environment and Safety, Volvo Trucks, described how the Volvo Europa Truck plant at Ghent, Belgium, became the world's first carbon dioxide emissions-free vehicle plant in the world.

Labels: Automotive Industry

EU sets record energy deficit with Russia

The European Union last year recorded a trade deficit of nearly € 70 billion with Russia owning to large energy bill, the EU’s statistical arm Eurostat said. Accounting for over 6 percent of EU exports and 10 percent of EU imports, Russia became the third largest trading partner of the 27-nation bloc last year, trailing worldwide after the U.S. and China.

The increased deficit was primarily due to an increase in the deficit for energy, only partially offset by an increase in the surplus for machinery and vehicles.

Labels: Energy, EU, European Economy

European Union Calls For Rules To Safeguard Data - by Madhu Unnikrishnan

A proposal that airlines collect fingerprints to comply with the U.S.-Visit program is an alarming prospect to most Europeans, a senior European Union official tells The DAILY. >Surrendering biometric data such as fingerprints to travel to the U.S. is not the issue, Telmo Baltazar, EU Justice and Home Affairs counselor, said. Instead, European officials worry that private companies, such as airlines, may have the authority to collect sensitive information. "Europeans find it difficult to accept that a government function is being used by airlines," he said.

Labels: EU, security, USA

Chaos in Romania: Romanian president in fresh controversy - - by Christopher Condon

Even as he overcame a weekend referendum seeking to remove him from office, Traian Basescu, Romania’s president, strode into fresh controversy on Saturday after a confrontation with a journalist that allegedly involved racist remarks. In an incident that underlined critics’ claims that Mr Basescu’s explosive temperament makes him a divisive figure, the populist politician seized a mobile telephone being used by a reporter to record an interview with him as he was shopping with his wife.

Mr Basescu then left apparently unaware that the phone was still recording his conversation with his wife. After the phone was returned to the reporter’s television station, the recording revealed that Mr Basescu had called the journalist a “stinking Gypsy”.

Labels: EU, Romania, Traian Basescu

Combating IP Piracy And Counterfeiting In The European Union - by Christian Falk

Piracy and counterfeiting by entities operating in non-EU member states is causing considerable damage to the intellectual property of companies operating in the EU. Manufacturers of branded goods must therefore do everything in their power to protect themselves. One option worth considering is coordinated confiscation of infringing goods throughout the EU – including confiscation at trade fairs.

Labels: Counterfeiting, EU, IP Piracy

Michael Moore's Documentary "Sicko" Opens At Cannes Film Festival - Mary K. Brunskill

Michael Moore's newest film, "Sicko," debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday to a packed crowd. The film is a documentary criticizing the U.S. healthcare system, which Moore argues leaves 50 million U.S. citizens without access to medical care. Moore's argues 50 million Americans, including 9 million children, do not have insurance coverage and that those who are insured do not receive sufficient coverage.

The documentary contends that the U.S. healthcare system is more concerned in personal profit and protecting big business than it is with the health of American citizens.

Labels: Cinema

As Cannes turns 60, Sarkozy lauds France's cultural exception

As the Cannes film festival turned 60 Sunday, newly sworn-in President Nicolas Sarkozy said its continuing success was the legacy of France's unyielding defence of its cultural heritage.

Sarkozy addressed the festival in a message to its president Gilles Jacob, which was made public by new Culture Minister Christine Albanel at a gala celebrating the anniversary of the world's paramount film festival.

Labels: Culture, EU, France

Instability in the Caucasus Directly Affects Europe”An Exclusive Interview with German Ambassador to Georgia - Patricia Flor

Germany is the second largest contributor to Georgia’s reconstruction. As of this year, Germany has donated or invested upwards of 277 million Euros in Georgia. Based on agreements with the Georgian government, Germany has supported those sectors that are considered the most important for economical, political and public reconstruction. For example, Germany has provided assistance with the implementation of a private property registration system. This represents a solid foundation for developing a solid market economy.

Labels: Georgia

Labels: EU, Political

Serbia Rules Out Territorial Concessions

Serbia will never give up its sovereignty over its southern Kosovo-Metohija province to gain membership in the European Union, Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said Saturday. “The government is fully united and categorical in its stand that Serbia will never agree to usurpation of Kosovo-Metohija province for the sake of integration in European structures,” said Serbian Premier in an interview with the Tanjug news agency, adding that “the government’s priority is to take care of Serbia’s interests.”

Labels: EU, Serbia

Labels: Energy, Europe

Labels: Islamist, Politics, Turkey

Serbia - Eurovision Song Contest a sign of things to come: "New Europe and Asia grow, Britain losing influence" - by Stephen King

"What about Britain's influence in the continent's affairs? For an approximate answer, you have my daughter, Helena, to thank; or, more precisely, her geography teacher, a Mr Harris. He was the one who suggested Helena and her classmates conduct an analysis of voting patterns in last week's Eurovision Song Contest. Mr Harris clearly believed the voting would be biased, reflecting the jingoistic tendencies in individual countries. In reality the Serbs were helped out by other countries whose populations appear to have fond and long-lasting memories of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires.

Nevertheless, the voting patterns show how Europe's political map has been redrawn since the fall of the Berlin Wall. This has all sorts of implications but, from Britain's point of view, the most obvious is a gradual loss of influence elsewhere in the world.

The world is changing. Eurovision is just one sign of things to come." Stephen King is managing director of economics at HSBC

Labels: Economy, Eurovision, Political

Eastern European EU members the achilles heel of Merkel's grand EU alliance plans with Russia - by Ian Traynor

As the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, flew to Samara on the Volga last Friday night for dinner with President Vladimir Putin and to open today's summit, it was clear that the meeting was being hijacked by a long list of disputes focused on eastern Europe and the Balkans.

The roots of the estrangement lie in the transformation of the EU with the entry of 10 central European and Balkan states since 2004 - all of them former Soviet satellites nursing grievances to varying degrees against Russia.

The new EU member states of Poland and Lithuania have been arguing this week for the summit to be called off, and criticising the German preparations. For historical reasons, the east Europeans are highly sensitive to any sign of Germany cutting deals with Russia over their heads. Note EU-Digest: "What had been feared by European political insiders before the EU was "forced" by the US to take in the Eastern European nation states into the EU before they had reached at least some form of political stability, is becoming a reality - the new Eastern European EU member states are turning out to be the Achilles heel of Europe."

Labels: Eastern Europe, EU, European Unity

How Scot has changed shape of local politics across Europe - by Hugh Ash

WHEN Spain elects 15,000 mayors and councillors next week, many will owe their seats to a Scot who is helping to redraw the map of European politics by galvanising foreign voters.

Kate Mentink-Duncan was the first person to identify the huge untapped power of migrants to Spain, especially the legion of British expats, who, under European Union law, are entitled to vote in local and European elections wherever they live in the 27-nation bloc.

Labels: EU, Integration

Desire for Europe, fear of Europe-by Bejan Matur

In recent days, it has become clear that Europeans had a difficult time understanding the “No to the EU!” shouted by Turkish women who have filled city squares across Turkey, wearing mini-skirts and carrying flags and posters, moved by their worries over their “lifestyle” in the future.

When the European doors of our dreams finally open and we are told that we can go in, our reaction, with desire having reached its peak, will be “I have entered through the European doors, but who am I in contrast to them? Who am I?” We have already seen the initial reverberations to these questions in the rallies against European membership.

Labels: EU, Turkey

As Barclays slugs it out with Royal Bank of Scotland for ABN Amro, the focus of consolidation in the continental European banking sector switched to Italy yesterday.

The Milan-headquartered UniCredit will acquire the smaller rival Capitalia for more than euro 21.33 bn after the board of directors of both banks met yesterday to approve a deal to create the Europe's second-biggest bank by market value.

Labels: Banking, EU

Norway: 3400 Year Old shoe discovered

Analysis of the leather shoe showed it to be 3,400 years old, says Oppland County Archaeologist Espen Finstad to Aftenposten. This means that not only is it Norway's oldest shoe, but also the oldest piece of Norwegian "clothing" discovered so far.

The shoe therefore dates back to old bronze age, roughly from 1800 to 1100 years before Christ. In the same area were also found several complete arrows and a spade made from wood.

Labels: archeology, Norway

Shafir Engineering to build 3,000 apartments in Eastern Europe- by Lior Baron

Sources inform ''Globes'' that Shafir Civil & Marine Engineering Ltd. has entered the residential construction market in Eastern Europe, where the company is already building infrastructure projects. The company plans to finance the housing projects with proceeds from its NIS 150 million IPO.

Shafir Engineering is building an infrastructure project in Romania worth hundreds of millions of shekels. The company took the strategic decision to expand its business in Europe and to begin building residential projects, with the first projects in Romania and Serbia.

Labels: Engineering, Europe

In Europe, visionaries make way for pragmatists - by Matthew Schofield

In hopes of encouraging parents to have bigger families, Merkel's junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats, proposed setting up daycare for children one year or older, a model popular in Scandinavia. And Merkel agreed, throwing out a basic tenet of her own party's ideology about childrearing at home. The result: a massive construction program to permit universal daycare within six years.

It's the latest example of Europe's new pragmatism, and as of this past week, Merkel - who became chancellor 18 months ago - finds herself in good company. With Gordon Brown succeeding Tony Blair as prime minister in Britain and Nicolas Sarkozy following Jacques Chirac as president of France, a different generation is taking over."It's not only in Rome, but in Paris, in London, in Berlin. We've got too much that needs to be done to fight about ideologies," said Italian Sen. Furio Colombo, a Left Democrat. "The timing is not coincidental. It is a new era. Some generations produce Raphael, who creates works we all notice," he said. "Other generations must finish painting the rest of the church. Both are necessary."

As for George Bush, perhaps the most unpopular American leader in Europe in modern times, no one is paying him much attention. "That's not irony, that's election cycle," said Jan Friedrich Kallmorgen, an expert on trans-Atlantic relations with the German Council on Foreign Relations. "Bush is no longer standing. He's closer to dead duck than lame duck."

Labels: EU, Visionaries

Cattle: European Union bans 'infamous veal crates'

As we celebrated Mother's Day and the cherished bond between mother and child, my thoughts turned to dairy cows, worldwide symbols of motherhood, who never even get to see their babies. The newborn calves are torn from their mothers at birth and chained by the neck in tiny wood crates. They are denied mother's milk and love as well as natural food and water, fresh air and sunshine, straw bedding or any movement. They suffer from chronic anemia, diarrhea and respiratory disorders.

Because of consumers' revulsion at these abuses, the infamous veal crates have been banned by the European Union. Yet the U.S. dairy and veal industries have resisted similar reforms.

Labels: Cattle, EU, US

Labels: Sarkozy

Latvia Ratified Border Treaty with Russia

Latvian parliament has ratified the Border Treaty with Russia that will govern frontier relations of both states. Of 100 lawmakers in the Seim of Latvia, 75 voted to ratify the Border Treaty with Russia, while 20 voted against it. Russia’s parliament hasn’t launched the ratification procedures yet. The Pskov Region’s Pytalovo District was the stumbling block of the treaty. Latvia pressed for the borders of Riga Treaty of 1921, which regarded Pytalovo belonging to Latvia. But Russia refused to yield territory to the Baltic state.

Latvia dropped territorial claims to Russia after prolonged negotiations and agreed to ink the treaty, never mentioning the agreement of 1921 there.

Labels: Latvia, Russia

The Pro-Israel Lobby and US Middle East Policy - by James Petras

Never in recent history has US Middle East policy been subject to such a barrage of conflicting pressures from erstwhile allies, clients as well as adversaries. The points of contention involve fundamental issues of war and peace, foremost of which are divergent responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US-Iranian confrontation, the US occupation of Iraq as well as the US-Ethiopian proxy invasion and occupation of Somalia.

The primary pre-occupation of the moderate Arab regimes of the Persian Gulf is securing political stability, avoiding disruptive regional and internal conflicts and consolidating a favorable business climate for the dynamic development projects they have undertaken. The US military invasion, occupation and prolonged violent imperial war in Iraq have been a source of instability and internal conflict in the region. Israel’s repeated military assaults and violent seizures of Palestinian land, its invasion of Lebanon and threats against Iran and, most important, their political vehicle – the ZPC’s capacity to ensure US backing -- has created an environment of permanent ‘high tension’.

Labels: Israel Lobby, US

Fractured opposition facing tough road ahead in Turkey - by Paul de Bendern

Turkey’s secular opposition parties must stop squabbling and come up with credible policies if they are to have any chance of unseating the Islamist-rooted government in elections set for July. Analysts said a pro-secular rally of 1mn people in the port city of Izmir on Sunday kept up pressure on the ruling AK Party but failed to show the opposition as a strong alternative.

The leaders of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the small Democratic Left Party (DSP) let down their supporters by refusing to meet on stage and announce a centre-left alliance, the analysts said.
Much of the attention in July will be on how many opposition parties clear the 10% hurdle to enter parliament.

Labels: Islamist, Political, Turkey

From Russia with Pain

Any incoming prime minister is understandably concerned about the immediate domestic policy challenges. Yet, as Tony Blair could ruefully testify, international events often prove the more awkward and traumatic tests. Some of these are “bolt from the blue” moments which demand a response – such as September 11, 2001 – while others are closer to what Churchill called the “gathering storm” sort of crisis.

Gordon Brown knows that there are controversies abroad which will occupy him. These include Iraq, the pesky reemergence of an EU constitution, the nature of his relationship with Washington, the conflict in Afghanistan and his ambitions for Africa.

Labels: EU, Gordon Brown, Russia

Russia, EU fail to reach agreement at summit

Russian and EU leaders failed to reach any agreement at a biannual summit here, with disputes on democracy and the relocation of a former Soviet statue in Estonia lingering on.

Both sides also touched on energy cooperation, but no progress was made on the issue which has hampered relations in recent years with successive winter price disputes, pipeline shutdowns and Russian consolidation of Central Asian oil and gas reserves.

Labels: EU, Russia

"Failure at the OK Corral" - Final act looms for the 'George and Tony show' - by Jitendra Joshi

US President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair were Thursday to bring the Washington curtain down on one of the most controversial double-acts in global affairs.

Labels: George Bush, Iraq. War, Tony Blair

Croatia, Hungary plan sea gas terminal

www.bbj.hu : Croatia, Hungary plan sea gas terminal

Croatia and Hungary pledged on Thursday to intensify cooperation on the construction of a gas terminal at a Croatian port.

The EU-bound gas terminal would diversify Europe's energy sources. “We have agreed to continue an intensive exchange of cooperation between our experts and companies on the project,” Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader told journalists. “The two likely locations for the terminal were the northern island of Krk and northwestern port of Plomin, “Sanader said at the end of a joint session of the two governments in the Croatian capital. His Hungarian counterpart, Ferenc Gyurcsány, voiced strong support for the project, labeling it a “strategic issue for Hungary.”

Polish ambassador to EU Jan Tombiński,
For the complete report from Poland PL click on this link

Poland may veto new EU treaty - "Poland does not understand that European Union membership is a "two way street"

Poland's foreign minister Anna Fotyga has said that Poland will not allow the EU to hamper its sovereignty. Opening an exhibition of the history of Poland's diplomacy, Minister Fotyga said that during the June EU summit Poland will stand counter to the majority of member states.

Note EU-Digest:If Poland wants EU member states to assist her in their conflict with Russia they must also have the courtesy to act as a partner when it comes to the strenghtening of the European Union. European Union membership is a "two way street".

Labels: EU, Poland, Russia

Russia: After Samara

EU leaders travel to Samara, Russia on May 18th in an attempt to resolve serious differences with Russia across a range of issues. A new EU-Russia treaty has been ruled out; any agreement that does come out of the meeting will be limited; and the best hope is for relations not to deteriorate further. Germany, which as president of the EU will lead discussions, will increasingly face a major foreign policy dilemma of its own: whether to pursue stronger bilateral relations with Russia, or to continue seeking a more complex EU-based policy over the coming years, but risk weakening Germany's own special relationship.

Labels: Economics, EU, Russia

Cuba, the European Union and Spain - by W. T. Whitney Jr

As part of Washington’s decades-long project to isolate the Cuban revolution, Caleb McCarry recently undertook an eight-nation European tour. It came after a visit to Cuba in early April by Spain’s foreign minister to sign agreements with his Cuban counterpart — the first visit from a high-level European diplomat in four years. McCarry, coordinator of the Bush administration’s “Plan for Assistance to a Free Cuba,” attended a conference staged in Berlin, April 26-27, by the International Committee for Democracy in Cuba, founded in 2003 by former Czech President Václav Havel.

Present at the session were notables such as Havel and former presidents Lech Walesa of Poland and Luis Lacalle of Uruguay.

Labels: Cuba, EU, Spain

Europe beats US in collaboration between Industries and Universities

ndustry and universities in Europe collaborate better than their US counterparts, according to a recently published Europe wide survey. The survey, conducted by ProTon Europe and funded by the EU’s Gate2Growth initiative, found the volume of contract research in Europe in 2005 to be €2.8billion, compared to €2.1bn in the US.

The report found, however, that this advantage was offset by the US’ more advanced knowledge transfer, based on patents and licences.

Labels: Electronics, Europe, USA

Piracy losses in the European Union drop by euro 700 million in BSA 2006 study

A Global Software Piracy Study from the Business Software Alliance (BSA), shows that the software piracy rate in Ireland has continued to drop - to 36% - the European Union average - in 2006, but losses to industry from illegal software installed on personal computers dropped by euro 700 million. However, despite this drop, losses in the EU remain high at euro 8 billion and losses in Ireland are at euro 85 million.

Labels: Computer industry, Europe

V-girl, Pocket Gamer coming to Europe - by Stuart Dredge

It's been out for a while now in Asia, but Artificial Life has just signed a distribution deal with Jamster here in Europe, which means the game will be more widely available.

The basic idea is to meet up with a bunch of pixelly ladies, and go on virtual dates, which take the form of easy-to-play mini-games.

EA: Europe to determine next-gen video-games winner

EA's executive vice president Gerhard Florin sees Europe as the key battleground in the fight for next-gen supremacy. "I believe the biggest fight will be in Europe... Whoever wins the hardware war in Europe, most likely will be the overall winner", Florin said at this week's Reuters Technology, Media and Telecoms summit in Paris.

Labels: Computer Games, Europe

Since the end of 2005, Europe has seen the handover of top leadership in Berlin, Paris and London. Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Tony Blair have received their last curtain call, with the next generation of political leaders stepping in or ready to step in.

A broader background for the three leaders' departure is: European countries have failed to cope adequately with the fast-moving globalization process, reforms have stagnated and leaders have lost public support. This, as well as their political legacies, will be an enormous challenge for the next generation. Will their successors cope better and be any wiser? Chancellor Angela Merkel, President Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown (Tony Blair's likely successor) are all ambitious politicians born after WWII. Facing huge challenges both at home and abroad, can they draw a new, better picture of the future for their nations and Europe?

Labels: EU, Europe, Political

Wolfowitz to Resign at End of June - by JEANNINE AVERSA

Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz will resign at the end of June, his leadership undermined by the generous compensation he arranged for his girlfriend. His departure was announced late Thursday by the World Bank board.

Labels: Wolfowitz, Worldbank

Rift growing over NATO's Afghan tactics - by Peter Graff

A U.S. commander's repudiation of a cease-fire in Afghanistan that was backed by his British predecessor reveals rifts among the main Western allies over how to defeat Taliban insurgents and win hearts and minds.

The aggressive U.S. approach "doesn't seem to be in tune with the philosophy of the British Army," he said. "On several occasions, senior British commanders have expressed a desire to try to modify the allegiances of potential insurgents, rather than try to kill them."

Labels: Afghanistan, Britain, Nato

Europe’s chance to leapfrog the US as economic leader

WHO will win the long-running economic battle between the European Union and the US? Surprisingly, the Europeans could emerge supreme, writes James Brewer.In any event, Europe should avoid copying the US economic model with its shaky foundation of low savings, excessive consumption and foreign funding in the shape of $2.5trn in US debt issues, companies and real estate owned by the rest of the world.

One of the most radical points is that Europe should spend another 2%-4% of gross domestic product on education and research. At present public spending in this field is equivalent to about $1,456 per capita in the 25 EU nations compared with $2,338 in the US, although for each dollar spent Europe generates more patents and publications than the US. “Such a boost would allow Europe to become world class,” asserts Dr Fassbender.

Labels: Economy, EU, US

U.S. drawdown in Europe may be too much

The commander of the U.S. European Command may not have enough troops to fight in Afghanistan, Iraq and conduct routine operations. If not, one of former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's main reforms to the U.S. military may have to be rolled back -- that is, pulling troops out of "traditional" U.S. deployments in "old Europe" to garrisons in the United States, with more frequent, shorter deployments to newer areas, like Eastern Europe.

Gen. Bantz Craddock, the chief of U.S. European Command, told the Senate Armed Serviced Committee Thursday the drawdown of U.S. troops in Europe from roughly 100,000 to 60,000 is causing him concern.

Labels: Afghanistan, Europe, US Troops

Putin's tough talk spurs Europe to unite - by Judy Dempsey

BERLIN -- As he prepares for crucial meetings with top European Union officials that start today, President Vladimir V. Putin is finding out that his confrontational policies toward several European countries have unexpectedly united the 27-member bloc, diplomats said.

"Unless there is a major shift during the summit, Putin has miscalculated," said a top EU diplomat involved in the meeting in Samara, Russia, that will include Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, and José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission president.

Norway - Building standards: Domesticating solar power - by Tonje Berg-Dawson

The energy coming from the sun is 15.000 times greater than what we humans consume. Each year. The energy gifted from the sun is many times larger than the earths total energy reserves. It seems foolish to pass up a good thing, especially when the good thing is a perfect source of energy.

The market for solar energy in the EU, and around the world, is growing rapidly. Germany is now the worlds most developed solar energy country. But it is not carved in stone that it has to stay that way. The Nordic region is the only place in the world where the sun shines at midnight. Of course the sun is ours for the taking.

Labels: Europe, Norway, Solar Energy

Wolfowitz hanging on by his nails: A View From the Other Side of the Atlantic - by Michael Goldfarb

From this side of the Atlantic it is abundantly clear. Six years into the most disastrous presidency in modern American history, the political class in Washington - first through fourth estates - still don't get it. They can no longer operate imperiously in a vacuum sealed tight by America's unrivaled power.

Their wish is no longer the world's command. The Wolfowitz saga proves as much. Don't be fooled by the well-orchestrated fight-back that has played out on the opinion pages of the big American newspapers over the last month and this week on the BBC's airwaves. The "Save Wolfie So He Can Save the World" campaign is organized by an odd combination of the usual right-wing sources and people who should know better. The right-wing sources say the pressure on Wolfowitz is a dastardly plot by those weak-kneed Europeans who have never forgiven Wolfie for his role in planning the Iraq War. The people who should know better, like former Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, pay homage to the caring Wolfowitz they have come to know in the field.

But no matter what the apologists say, the hot-air inflating the scandal and the pressure for Wolfowitz to resign are not about payback for Iraq. It is about something they - the Washington crowd - just don't get. You can't preach anti-corruption and be seen not to practice what you preach.

Labels: Corruption, Wolfowitz, World Bank

Sarkozy pledges to end EU's paralysis as he meets Merkel

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged to help end the European Union's "paralysis" and signaled an energetic approach to foreign policy, hours after taking office Wednesday. "I did not want just to make a symbolic gesture; I wanted to express my wish that we get to work straight away," Sarkozy told reporters after embracing German Chancellor Angela Merkel warmly on his arrival at her office in Berlin. "It is urgent to act," he said. "The first matter of urgency is to get the European Union out of its current paralysis."

Merkel said Germany and France would work closely together on the issue, and voiced confidence that next month's EU summit "will move us forward a step." Merkel made her first foreign trip to Paris the day after she took office in November 2005. "For France, Franco-German friendship is sacred," Sarkozy said. Turning to Merkel, he said: "I have great confidence in you, and great friendship for you."

Labels: European Unity, France, Germany

German MEP slams Britain's stance on EU consitution

Britain's opposition to plans for a revamped European Union treaty threatens to split the bloc, the head of the European parliament's constitutional affairs committee charged Wednesday. Jo Leinen, a German socialist MEP, said Britain's stance was complicating the negotiation process and "endangering consensus and a resolution in June".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of June, plans to present the 27 EU nations with plans to replace the original EU constitution before the German mandate expires.

Labels: EU CONSTITUTION, European Unity

National security consequences of oil dependency - Ariel Cohen, Ph.D.

The United States is the largest oil importer in the world, bringing in 13.5 million barrels per day (mbd), which accounts for 63.5 percent of total U.S. daily consumption (20.6 mbd).[1] Oil from the Middle East--specifically, the Persian Gulf--accounts for 20 percent of U.S. oil imports, and this dependence is growing. By 2017, the U.S. will be importing approx­imately 68 percent of its oil needs. Oil consumption represents 40 percent of America's energy needs, pri­marily used in ground and air transportation. The dependence of the U.S. and the global economy on oil is growing, which can have dire consequences for the economic well-being of the United States, its national security, and the American way of life.

The EU, including its Brussels appa­ratus, is split, since Germany is already deferential to Russia's energy interests. German companies such as E.ON are in partnerships with Gazprom to develop gas fields and downstream operations in Russia and Europe. It is also possible that the U.S. State Department may intervene with Bucharest to prevent a proposed Gazprom pipeline from Tur­key from crossing Romanian territory. Clearly, the two small U.S. military bases in Romania and Bul­garia and the proposed missile defense base and radar in the Czech Republic and Poland are not going to stop Russian expansion. Pipelines are much more effective tools of foreign policy than missiles.

Labels: Energy, Oil

EU Worried About Political, Legal Situation In Romania

The European Union expressed concern with the political and legal situation Romania confronts with only four months after the accession, Deutsche Welle said Tuesday, citing several German papers. Romania’s former justice minister Monica Macovei said in an interview for Die Welt on Tuesday that she is ashamed “for the Romanian parliament and government,” Deutsche Welle said.

Labels: Corruption, Political, Romania

Bulgaria: "Stylish Sofia" - by Carol Pucci

In the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, the "S" stands for style. The latest trend is the open-air lounge furnished with couches upholstered in suede and living room-style coffee tables.

Sofia's a bargain as big cities go. It would be stretching it to call it the next Prague, but there's plenty of churches, museums, markets, parks and gardens to easily fill two days, and lots of stylish restaurants and cafes.

Sofia's history comes together in its mix of Christian Orthodox, Islamic and Jewish churches. There is a Banya Bashi mosque, built by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century. Facing the mosque is Sofia's Jewish quarter where an Israeli investor has restored a historic indoor market, called the Hali, filled with shops selling wine, olives, bread and cheeses. Behind the market is a Jewish synagogue.

Labels: Bulgaria, Religious tolerance

Serbia Approves Pro-Democracy Government - by Dusan Stojanovic

Serbia's parliament approved a new pro-democracy government Tuesday, overcoming efforts by anti-Western ultranationalists to derail the vote and force new elections.

The 133-106 endorsement of the coalition government came only a half hour before a midnight deadline to approve the government or call new elections. Parliamentary elections in January produced no clear winner, and months of bickering followed.

Labels: Democracy, Serbia

Euro zone Q1 GDP growth slips but outstrips U.S. - by Brian Love

Euro zone economic growth lost some of its pace in the first quarter of 2007, but maintained an edge over the United States despite a tax rise in Germany which was the biggest since World War Two.

Economists responded positively to official estimates on Tuesday that growth slowed to 0.6 percent in the 13-nation euro currency area from 0.9 percent the previous quarter, and predicted at least one more interest rate rise from the European Central Bank.

Labels: EU Economy, US Economy

Germany/EU: Right-Wing Crimes By Youths on the Rise, Schaeuble Says - by Patrick Donahue

The number of criminal acts committed by right-wing extremist groups in Germany rose almost 15 percent last year as a greater number of violent-ready youths joined their ranks, Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said. The number of violent political acts by right-wing groups with an ``extremist background'' climbed 9.3 percent in 2006, Schaeuble told reporters at a briefing in Berlin. Neo-Nazis are present on 11 of 16 state-level boards of the anti-immigrant National Democratic Party, sometimes chairing them, he said.

The National Democrats gained six seats in the parliament of the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania last September, making it the second state organization to enter a regional parliament after Saxony. The NPD campaigned using election posters with the slogans such as ``Work Instead of Emigration'' and ``Tourists Welcome, Asylum Cheats Out.'' Another anti-immigrant party, the German Peoples' Union, won a parliamentary seat in the city-state Bremen on May 13.

Labels: EU, Germany, Right-Wing

Big boost for European cinema - by Ali Jafar

2006 was a bumper year for European cinema, according to a report published by the The Council of Europe's European Audiovisual Observatory. Some 926 million cinema tickets were sold across the EU last year, a 3.6% jump on 2005, with European pics accounting for a 28% share of admissions, up from 25% the previous year.

European film production also was up by 47 features on 2005 to a total of 862 films.

Labels: Cinema, Europe, Film Production

EU, Russia Play Down Differences, But Hurdles Remain

German Foreign Minister Steinmeier met Russian President Putin on Tuesday in a last-ditch bid to rescue a looming EU-Russia summit amid spiraling tensions over a host of issues.

Russia's Kommersant daily said Steinmeier would be unable "to save the summit from collapse," while the Vedomosti daily called the Samara meeting "senseless."

"The EU-Russian summit will either be a relative failure or a scandalous failure. There will definitely be no negotiations on a partnership agreement. The participants may not even be able to agree on a joint declaration," the daily said.

Labels: EU, Russia

US government fans homeland terrorism fear - by Larry Chin

"What the world must continue to take seriously is not a threatened strike by "terrorists", but the violent desperation of a stumbling New World Order that 1) compounds its criminal despair by continuing to commit terrorism and "run" terror groups to achieve its political purposes (the foremost being energy and resource conquest), 2) engage in terroristic provocations (foment backlash, or "blowback"), 3) wittingly and unwittingly creates new insurgencies and opposition from victimized populaces and occupied nations. As it was on the morning of 9/11, all eyes must remain locked on the guilty parties in Washington---the political criminals who are "above the law", armed with the power to manipulate, control and exterminate broad sections of humanity, within the US homeland and abroad."

Labels: Manipulation, US

LA Daily News - Zombies aside, the rage is evident in Europe - Bridget Johnson

Rage has popped up around Europe, in the form of vicious reactions and bloodlust that has seemed so foreign to countries that have tried to pride themselves on a modern mix of liberalism, tradition and tolerance. The rage surfaced in reaction to the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as French president.

Peaceful protests are one thing, but many discontents opted for breaking shop windows and burning cars night after night. We're told this is just a youth reaction to feelings of inequality and not having jobs and being bored. We're told that the French government is to blame for this rage, rather than the perpetrators themselves.

It's the rage that drove Mohammed Bouyeri to approach filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004 and proceed to shoot him several times, nearly decapitate him and stab him in the chest. Pinned to a knife left in van Gogh's chest was a note threatening Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, van Gogh's partner in the making of his short film "Submission," which decried the treatment of women in Muslim societies.

But zombiedom aside, it's easy to see the rage spreading through Europe beyond the silver screen - and terrifying to see how infectious it seems.

Labels: Europe, Revolution, Youth

New Danube Bridge Between Bulgaria and Romania Gets Go-ahead

Bulgarian authorities on Sunday gave the formal go-ahead for the building of a new bridge over the Danube. The bridge will connect the northwest town of Vidin with Kalafat in Romania, shortening the land route from Sofia to northern and western Europe by more than 300 km.Currently, only one bridge linking Rousse and Giurgiu, 250km northeast of Bulgaria’s capital, connects the two countries along their 500km river border. Facing that longer route, most Bulgarians prefer to travel to Europe via Serbia.

The completion of the new bridge, scheduled for 2010, is expected to redirect a significant part of the traffic now using the Serbian route.

Labels: Bulgaria, Romania

AerCap Holdings announces order of ten additional new Airbus A330-200

Global aviation company AerCap Holdings N.V. has announced an agreement with Airbus Industrie to increase the order of Airbus A330-200 aircraft placed in December 2006 from 20 to 30 aircraft. No value was disclosed. The agreement will bring AerCap's total order book of brand new aircraft to 107.

Labels: Airbus A330, Aircraft Industry

Tony Blair new President World Bank?

World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz may finally be removed from his job over the way he handled a salary increase involving his girlfriend, once a Bank employee. Since the bank's top job normally goes to an American, some European nations are expected to argue quietly that in exchange for Mr. Wolfowitz leaving, President George Bush be offered a compromise: The presidency could go to a non-American for the first time, but one he probably could live with -- departing British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Adrian Wooldridge, the Washington bureau chief of the Economist magazine, says he has heard a lot of rumors about Mr. Blair's interest in the job and his departure as prime minister in late June would make the timing for a transfer just about perfect.

Mr. Blair is scheduled to arrive in Washington this Wednesday for talks with Mr. Bush. If the World Bank's governing board comes out with an expression of no confidence in Mr. Wolfowitz, the World Bank post could become a subject on the agenda of the Iraq duo?

Labels: Tony Blair, World Bank

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary seeks EU parliament accord on passenger data transfers

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff will try to convince European Union parliamentarians on Monday that data gathered about airline passengers arriving in the United States which he says can be crucial to prevent terror attacks.

A maximum of 34 pieces of data — such as passenger names, addresses, seat numbers, and credit card and travel details — are transferred to U.S. authorities within 15 minutes of a flight's departure for the United States."Some in the U.S. seem to be thinking that the legitimate goal to fight terrorism justifies all means, but many people in the EU appear to think the contrary," Greek EU parliamentarian Stavros Lambrinidis said at a recent hearing on passenger data in the European Parliament.

Labels: EU, Privacy Laws, US

Christian Conference Focuses on Muslims in Europe

Christians from across Europe gathered in Leicester earlier in the month to engage in the issue of being Muslim within Europe. The Joint Committee for Relations with Muslims in Europe of the Conference of European Churches and the Council of European Bishops’ Conferences met from 3 to 6 May at St Philip’s Centre in Leicester, a Christian centre for study and engagement in a multi-faith society. The committee met two Muslim groups currently engaged in interfaith dialogue made up of seven men and three women from the Muslim community in Leicester and the staff from the Islamic Foundation in Markfield, Leicestershire.

Discussions with the groups focussed on the issues of being Muslim within Europe and the training of Imams and Christian clergy.

Labels: Christians, Europe, Muslims

Race to Succeed Bush Already Rivets Attention Around Europe and the rest of the World by ames G. Neuger and Gemma Daley

From Australia's outback to the salons of Europe to the eateries of Sao Paulo, the early start to the U.S. presidential campaign is captivating the public. The spread of the global electronic village is one reason. Another is the star appeal of the candidates best known outside the U.S.: onetime White House resident Hillary Clinton, rising star Barack Obama, war hero John McCain and 9/11 redeemer Rudy Giuliani.

Clinton is the favorite of more conventional bettors, too. Ladbrokes Plc, the world's largest publicly traded bookmaker, is quoting 2-1 odds on Hillary Clinton the first lady turned senator, with Giuliani at 7-2, Obama at 4-1 and McCain at 6-1.

Labels: Europe, Hillary Clinton, Politics

While the Internet represents a real technical revolution, its social and cultural effects, however, seem ambiguous. The view of two experts: Dominique Wolton, who reminds us of the limits of any medium to resolve by itself the problems of communication between people, and Philippe Quéau, who stresses the need to establish a new form of global regulation to ensure fairness and human development in view of the profound inequalities in access to information. People have forever been trying to communicate, and frequently transfer their concern to improve this often disappointing communication to the methods. Thus in the course of a single century, from the telephone to the radio, from television to the computer, and today to the Internet, the methods have continued to improve communication to the extent that many believe the problem has been solved.

Yet the long history of communication reveals four facts: Each new method resolves a previous communication problem, but creates others. No method supplants the previous one, it is just added to others. Communication methods, designed to cut back on the journeys people have to make, have actually had the opposite effect, creating the need for people to meet physically. No one method has been sufficient in itself to change human and social relations radically.

Labels: The Internet, World Economy