EU-DIGEST

Greenlanders Vote on Autonomy as Slump Clouds Independence Plan - by Christian Wienberg

Greenlanders vote today on a proposal to wrest more autonomy from Denmark, an effort at increasing control over their natural resources that may founder in the face of the global economic slump. The referendum, which polls show is likely to be approved, would give the 56,000 mainly native Inuit citizens of Greenland full control over deciding whether they want to secede from Denmark. Currently, the government in Copenhagen would have to approve such a move. It would also for the first time mandate a division of income from natural resources with Denmark, which has ruled the territory since the 18th century.“The prospects that Greenland will become a natural resource-based economy certainly haven’t improved,” said Lars- Emil Johansen, former premier of Greenland, and one of the lawmakers who drafted the bill that’s up for vote. Greenland is also rich in diamonds, iron ore, lead, zinc and uranium. Greenland entered the then European Community -- now the European Union -- with Denmark in 1973. It quit the bloc in 1985 in a dispute over fishing quotas, making it the only region to ever withdraw from the EU, which now has 27 members. Passage of today’s referendum would presage a vote on full independence, government officials and trade union leaders say.

Premier Hans Enoksen has said Greenland may hold a referendum on full independence by 2020, while SIK, Greenland’s biggest labor union, has said it wants a vote in 2012.

Labels: Denmark, EU, Greenland, Political

35th anniversary

A special EU-Digest report on the 35th anniversary of Eurobarometer

EU-35 years of successful Eurobarometer polling

To mark this important event, the European Commission (with the support of the EC Representation in Paris), in cooperation with the French Presidency, the European Parliament and Sciences Po is organizing the anniversary conference in Paris today November 21 and tomorrow.

The main objective of Eurobarometer as a polling tool, founded in 1973, is to identify and analyze trends in public opinion in all Member States and in the Candidate Countries. The Paris conference aims to discuss the role of public opinion polls in developing a European public sphere. The conference will focus on several crucial topics, like: the upcoming EP elections, lessons learned from European referenda, public debate on tomorrow's Europe, Eurobarometer's methodological challenges.

The event today brings together representatives of significant influence and expert knowledge from EU institutions, EU member states, politicians, academics and journalists. Among the many confirmed keynote speakers are: Margot Wallström, Jean-Pierre Jouyet, Nicole Fontaine, Jacques Santer, Noëlle Lenoir, Henning Christophersen, Gijs de Vries, Thierry Saussez, and Jacques-René Rabier.

Labels: EU, Eurobarometer, France, Green Policy, Political, Polling

Labels: EU, Integration, Political

"Pentecostalism is the largest self-organized movement of urban poor in the world," according to the U.S. urban specialist Mike Davis. His opinions on this religious movement tend to be rejected outright by many leftist intellectuals. However, Davis is convinced that "many people on the left have made the mistake of assuming that Pentecostalism is a reactionary force—and it's not." "Pentecostals not only get many people away from alcohol, but also occasionally get them to give up drug trafficking and delinquency. And they do it without pressure. However, Pentecostals are also a social and political force, not just religious. In an historical irony, the largest left party on the Latin American continent, the Workers Party (PT), created by the Catholic Church and other entities, came into power with a Pentecostal vice president, José Alencar.

The vice president's Brazilian Republican Party (PRB), created in 2005 and linked to the Universal Church, is the fastest growing political force in the country. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God to which he belongs controls 70 television and 50-plus radio stations, a bank, several newspapers, and has 3,500 temples. Its Record TV Network vies for the largest audience against the legendary Globo Network and earns a billion dollars a year.

"It's a question of giving people alternatives and hopes for a better future". Of the 550 total legislative representatives in Brazil, 61 are Pentecostals, and 91 call themselves militant Catholics. "Anyone living in the urban peripheries of today's Brazil, can confirm that this is an important phenomenon. Many participants in the Homeless Workers Movement are also members of the local Pentecostal church. We cannot forget that religion played an important role in the formation of our left," says Marco Fernandes, an historian and social psychologist who participates in the Homeless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Teto, MTST).

Labels: Christianity, Economy, Latin America, Pentacostals, Political

A Quick Fix: The Candidates and Energy Independence - by John Becket

To get the recent $700 billion bailout passed, some "sweeteners" were added to the package by the Senate to attract votes from certain constituencies. Among them were $18 billion in tax breaks for businesses and individuals who want to make their homes and businesses more energy efficient and/or invest in green technology. Lacking an overall strategy and insufficient funds for the job, the "sugar high" will have little lasting impact. So goes the quest for "energy independence" touted by Congress and the presidential candidates. While Congress steadfastly declines to increase taxes on an oil industry making record profits — taxes which could be used to develop alternative energy — Europe and other nations, including China, forge far ahead in weaning themselves from dependence on petroleum. While the government stumbles all over itself to hand hundreds of billions to reckless speculators, only grudgingly does it support alternative energy. And although Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is likely to be more supportive of alternative energy than Republican John McCain, neither party's platform includes the sort of aggressive plan that America really needs.

The U.S., meanwhile, has nothing like a Minister for Sustainable Development. What passes as energy policy in America is a piecemeal, stops-and-starts approach that is often ill-conceived and just as often more rhetoric than action. In late 2007, Congress called for the nation to pursue 25 percent renewable energy by 2025. But Dan Arvizu, director of the U.S. Department of Energy's Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory, told a Harvard University audience such a goal is laughable to Germany, where 25 percent is a business-as-usual mark. One hundred percent renewable by 2025, Arvizu said, is cited by the Germans as their "stretch goal." In fact, Arvizu said, U.S. public investment in renewable energy research has fallen 78 percent since 1978. To put things into proper perspective, the $150 billion total cost of alternative energy Obama's proposal is only about one-fifth of what Congress recently approved for the Wall Street bailout and one-quarter of this year's defense budget. What Obama is pledging to spend each year is slightly more than what the US is currently spending each month for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Labels: Barack Obama, John McCain, Political, US elections

Europe should step up by standing down - by Jim O'Nei

Europe should lead by example -- offering the world the benefit of its deep experience of financial diplomacy and volunteering to take the first steps forward. Given that Europe managed to construct EMU, the Maastricht Treaty, and the stability and growth pact that underlines the euro, it should be relatively easy for Eurozone experts to help devise a system for judging G7 type membership. Unless European countries take the initiative on global financial institutional reform, it will remain a lost cause.

Labels: EU, Political

The Hour of Europe - by Anne Applebaum

Way back in 1991, when an otherwise forgettable foreign minister of Luxembourg infamously pronounced that sentence, it seemed to portend great things. "This is the hour of Europe": That meant that in the post-Cold War world, Europeans, not Americans, would resolve the conflicts that were about to become the Bosnian war, and maybe a lot of other things, too. Yet he was wrong. Those Balkan conflicts were eventually "resolved," up to a point, not by Europe but by the United States and NATO. European influence in Washington dwindled -- and then dwindled further during the Bush administration, which mostly treated the very idea of "Europe" as a kind of pointless distraction.

As the election draws closer, the anxiety will grow. In a strange sense, Bush's catastrophic diplomacy was a gift to Europe's politicians. "Bush allowed them to explain away radical Islam as an understandable, even legitimate, response to the hypocrisies and iniquities of American policy," one British columnist wrote this week. Bush also allowed them to blame American "unilateralism" for their own lack of initiative, to use bad American diplomacy as an excuse for doing nothing.

Labels: EU, Europe, Political

Labels: EU, Political

Why both Europeans and Americans need a strong Europe

Make no mistake, the European Union has the potential to be a top global power. But while Europeans have such formidable assets at their disposal there is a strong reluctance to unify in the areas of foreign, security and defence policy, which is further augmented by displays of a certain timidity in some European states, which, consequentially, causes divergences with the duties and obligations that come with being a global power. If foreign countries, and especially autocratic regimes, do not respect, let alone fear, the Europeans, their international clout will not match their material assets and their adversities will be emboldened, damaging European interests all over the world. Europeans must gain the will to turn up in diplomatic forums and say, when necessary: “We are the European Union, and we are willing to make things very difficult for you if you refuse to comply with our wishes.” What is required, then, is ‘global power’ thinking: an understanding across the whole Union that the European Union is becoming—and must be—a global power.

Labels: EU, Political, US

Labels: EU, Political

Labels: EU, Political

Labels: Cuba, EU, Political

Merkel tops EU-wide poll

A poll by Harris Interactive found most European citizens consider German Chancellor Angela Merkel to be the most influential leader in Europe

Asked about concrete leaders, Europeans strongly favour Angela Merkel, who leads the chart in European countries. She is considered to be the most influential leader in Europe by 38% of the French, 29% of the Germans, 30% of the Spanish, 27% of the Italians and 18% of the British. Nicolas Sarkozy scores 18% in his own country, 10% in Germany, 16% in Spain, 13% in Italy and 9% in Great Britain. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has a modest rating of 1% in France, 3% in Germany, 7% in Spain and 11% in Italy.

A big difference is obvious regarding the perceptions of the Americans, who consider Brown the most influential leader in Europe with 23%, compared with 8% for Merkel and 9% for Sarkozy.

Note EU-Digest: the poll clearly shows how ignorant of the American population is in general when it comes to any knowledge of world wide politics.

Labels: EU, Merkel, Political

Sweden demands EU role for leaders of future presidency countries - by Lucia Kubosova

Swedish Prime Minister Frederik Reinfeldt has said the EU should outline a list of co-chairing tasks for leaders of future presidency countries after the new post of EU president is established. Speaking to journalists after his address to the European Parliament on Tuesday (19 February), the Mr Reinfeldt suggested that if there is no role for EU leaders in the future, it could have a negative impact on their engagement with the bloc's agenda.

Mr Reinfeldt, for his part, insisted that enlargement is "close to the hearts of the Swedish people," arguing it should not be marred by "critical voices" from some quarters. "Without continuing enlargement, we would run the risk of instability on our own continent. Enlargement is the most important strategic instrument for disseminating the values that European cooperation is founded on," he said. "We demolished one wall in Europe. We should not start building a new wall against Turkey or other European countries." Some criticised the fact that different countries publicly hold very different positions on EU membership hopefuls. "You should speak to your colleague Sarkozy about Turkey," said the leader of the Socialists, Martin Schulz. "It can't go on like this, with different prime ministers sending different messages" to candidate countries, said the German MEP.

Labels: EU, Political, Sweden

Castro - a political icon resigns

For the complete report from the BBC click on this link

End of Castro's half century in power - by Michael Voss

The news that Fidel Castro is stepping down as president after almost 50 years in power came in the middle of the night, through the online edition of the official Communist party newspaper Granma.

Under the headline "Message from the Commander in Chief", the 81-year-old revolutionary leader wrote: "I will not aspire to nor accept - I repeat, I will not aspire to nor accept - the post of President of the Council of State and Commander in Chief." This effectively marks the end of an era. Mr Castro has ruled this Caribbean island since the revolution in 1959. Most Cubans have known no other leader or system, with more than 70% of the population born after the revolution.

Mr Castro pursued an egalitarian society, with free health-care and education. Mr Castro handed temporary power to his brother Raul a year-and-a-half ago after undergoing emergency surgery. A year-and-a-half later and Raul Castro appears to be firmly in control. But in a keynote speech last year Raul Castro told the nation that "structural and conceptual" changes were needed to get the island's faltering economy back on its feet. All of this has raised widespread expectations that major economic changes at least are on the way. In recent months Raul Castro has initiated a wide-sweeping internal debate over what changes people want to see.

Andrew Johnston from Leeds in the UK writes: "Castro led a regime that successfully looked after the basic needs of its people for 50 years, and he did it in the face of an American embargo. When one looks at the sorry state of the other countries in 'America's back-yard' one can only salute a man who was able to look after his own in defiance of the world's greatest military super-power. One of the last towering giants of politics will be lamented in this age of clown Prime Ministers and buffoon Presidents".

Labels: Cuba, Elections, Fidel Castro, Political

On Dec. 20, three days after his resignation as secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Christos Zahopoulos jumped from the fourth floor of his flat in Athens city centre. He has partly recovered but is going to face serious long-term health problems. The following day, Giannis Andrianos, press officer for Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, handed judicial authorities a DVD showing Zahopoulos engaging in intercourse with an ex-employee of the ministry. He claimed the DVD was given to him by a journalist. The material suggested that Zahopoulos attempted suicide because he was being blackmailed by Tsekou, who wanted permanent employment in the ministry. The ministry employs thousands of workers on seasonally updated contracts for long periods; as a result they face continuing insecurity about their employment status.It is still unclear who brought the DVD to the press officer of the PM, and for what purpose. But the situation has exposed an all-out war among big media tycoons connected to shadowy interests attached to political power. This has led to widespread expression of disenchantment with political life in the country. The government's handling of the case is particularly damaging Prime Minister Karamanlis who had made Zahopoulos, an old friend, his personal choice for the post. Karamanlis's New Democracy (ND) party has sought to present Karamanlis as a leader determined to fight corruption and to revive political ethics.

Labels: EU, Greece, Political, Sex

Waving Goodbye to Hegemony - by PARAG KHANNA

Turn on the TV today, and you could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1999. Democrats and Republicans are bickering about where and how to intervene, whether to do it alone or with allies and what kind of world America should lead. Democrats believe they can hit a reset button, and Republicans believe muscular moralism is the way to go. It’s as if the first decade of the 21st century didn’t happen — and almost as if history itself doesn’t happen. But the distribution of power in the world has fundamentally altered over the two presidential terms of George W. Bush, both because of his policies and, more significant, despite them. Maybe the best way to understand how quickly history happens is to look just a bit ahead.

In Europe’s capital, Brussels, technocrats, strategists and legislators increasingly see their role as being the global balancer between America and China. Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a German member of the European Parliament, calls it “European patriotism.” The Europeans play both sides, and if they do it well, they profit handsomely. It’s a trend that will outlast both President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, the self-described “friend of America,” and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, regardless of her visiting the Crawford ranch. It may comfort American conservatives to point out that Europe still lacks a common army; the only problem is that it doesn’t really need one. Europeans use intelligence and the police to apprehend radical Islamists, social policy to try to integrate restive Muslim populations and economic strength to incorporate the former Soviet Union and gradually subdue Russia. Each year European investment in Turkey grows as well, binding it closer to the E.U. even if it never becomes a member. And each year a new pipeline route opens transporting oil and gas from Libya, Algeria or Azerbaijan to Europe. What other superpower grows by an average of one country per year, with others waiting in line and begging to join?

Labels: Globalization, Political, US

Government talks continue in Belgium; Central Bank chief warns about financial outlook

Would-be premier Yves Leterme soldiered on Sunday trying to form a government amid warnings from the central bank chief that the 168-day political stalemate was jeopardizing the country's financial outlook. In a rare interview in the weekend edition of the Flemish daily De Morgen, Central Bank Gov. Guy Quaden said projected budget surpluses totaling €2.5 billion (US$3.7 billion) in 2007 and 2008 may not be realized due to the deadlock between Dutch- and French-speaking parties in the government talks.

He said last year's budget was in balance and that the bank forecast a surplus of 0.3 percent of gross domestic product for this year, and 0.2 percent for next year.

Labels: Belgium, Economy, EU, Political

Why Pax Americana is failing everybody - by David Olive

Its global ubiquity has bred regional resentment toward the U.S.. It too often has yielded unsatisfactory outcomes. And it is an increasingly perilous burden on the American people. The U.S. tab for the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan is officially placed between $2.4 trillion (U.S.) and $3.5 trillion (U.S.), depending on the duration of those obligations. To put that in perspective, as recently as 2000 the national debt accumulated during the entire history of the republic was about $5 trillion (U.S.). In a well-reasoned essay titled "The Case for Restraint" in the November-December edition of The American Interest, U.S. political scientist Barry Posen grades America's persistent attempts to impose its vision on the world. "Since the end of the Cold War 16 years ago, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have been running an experiment with U.S. grand strategy," writes Posen, the Ford International Professor of Political Science and director of the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

"The theory to be tested has been this: Very good intentions, plus very great power, plus action can transform both international politics and the domestic politics of other states in ways that are advantageous to the United States, and at costs it can afford. The evidence is in: The experiment has failed. Transformation is unachievable, and costs are high."

Labels: Diplomacy, Political, US

The End of the West? by Charles Kupchan

"The American era appears to be alive and well. The U.S. economy is more than twice the size of the next biggest—Japan's—and the United States spends more on defense than the world's other major powers combined. China is regularly identified as America's next challenger, but it is decades away from entering the top ranks. The terrorist attacks in New York and Washington certainly punctured the sense of security that arose from the end of the Cold War and the triumph of the West, but they have done little to compromise U.S. hegemony. Indeed, they have reawakened America's appetite for global engagement. At least for the foreseeable future, the United States will continue to enjoy primacy, taking on Islamic terrorism even as it keeps a watchful eye on China. That encapsulates the conventional wisdom—and it is woefully off the mark. Not only is American primacy far less durable than it appears, but it is already beginning to diminish. And the rising challenger is not China or the Islamic world but the European Union, an emerging polity that is in the process of marshaling the impressive resources and historical ambitions of Europe's separate nation-states.

The EU's annual economic output has reached about $8 trillion, compared with America's $10 trillion, and the euro will soon threaten the dollar's global dominance. Europe is strengthening its collective consciousness and character and forging a clearer sense of interests and values that are quite distinct from those of the United States.

Editorial note EU-Digest: Mr. Kupchan's theory would make sense if the European political establishment would be able to move away from their policies of inward looking self-interest and be able to convey the need for unity and Pan-European patriotism to the citizens of the EU. At this moment in time there still seems to be a complete disconnect between the popular conception of what the EU stands for and its long term goals and the EU leadership. Indeed, if this major hurdle can be overcome the sky will be the limit of what the EU will be able to achieve as a world power in its own right.

Labels: EU, Political, US

People power - Eastern European Governments now face demanding voters

The gloomy story of east European politics goes like this. Politicians are out of touch and voters don’t care; outside pressure can be safely ignored; reform stalls or goes backwards. That certainly has seemed the case in many new member states of the European Union, and in countries queuing to join. It looks like the story of Georgia now. But the real trend may be a different one: voters are increasingly impatient with inept, heavy-handed or corrupt governments. Last month Polish voters threw out the brusque and incompetent Law and Justice party, overturning their own reputation for cynicism and apathy in the process.

Labels: Eastern Europe, EU, Political

Exit polls delayed in Polish election

Warsaw - Exit poll results are to be delayed by nearly two hours in Poland's Sunday parliamentary election until 10:55 pm (2055 GMT), Poland's State Elections Commission (PKW) announced Sunday. A shortage of ballots at polling stations in the capital Warsaw resulted in extended voting hours, precipitating the extra campaign blackout of one hour, fifty-five minutes.Polish media had originally planned to release exit

at the official close of voting.

Labels: Elections, EU, Poland, Political

Iraqi government in deepest crisis - Sam Dagher

Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.

Labels: Iraq, Political

Poll: over 40% of Canadian teens think America is "evil" - by Arthur Weinreb

several Canadian newspapers including the National Post as well as the Global Television Network commissioned a series of polls to determine how young people feel about the issues that were facing the country’s voters.

n one telephone poll of teens between the ages of 14 and 18, over 40 per cent of the respondents described the United States as being "evil". That number rose to 64 per cent for French Canadian youth. This being Canada, the amount of anti-Americanism that was found is not surprising. What is significant is the high number of teens who used the word "evil" to describe our southern neighbor. As Misty Harris pointed out in her column in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix, evil is usually associated with serial killers and "kids who tear the legs off baby spiders."

Labels: Canada, Political, USA

Labels: EU, Political

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

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

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

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

Moscow No Match for Kiev-by Fyodor Lukyanov

For Russians the current political imbroglio in Kiev was similar to the struggle for power that took place in Moscow in September and October 1993. On the outside, the two episodes look almost identical. In both cases, the heads of state lost patience with endless opposition from the parliament and opted to call for new elections.

But a focus on these impressive similarities is misleading. The current situation in Kiev differs fundamentally from the earlier events in Moscow.

The first difference is that Russia had just experienced a critical socio-economic crisis, so the struggle for power in Moscow played out amid a mix of potentially explosive political forces. Despite numerous problems, today's Ukraine is a developing state. The second is that there were almost no systemic avenues in place in the Russian system in 1993 by which different political groupings could pursue their interests.The current collision of political forces in Kiev is but the latest in a series of showdowns to determine the direction the country will take.

Labels: Political, Russia, Ukraine

A simple model of Europe and America

"Because European government works better, Europeans demand more of it and get more of it. American liberals look at Europe and see (sometimes) better results per dollar spent. They then conclude that America should be more like Europe, whereas in reality America would end up spending more to get more bad American government. They also conclude that defenders of the American market-based order simply ignore the evidence before their eyes, evidence which supposedly shows the superiority of social democracy.

Market-oriented types look at Europe and think it is on the verge of collapse, when it isn’t. They can’t imagine that it doesn’t, in every way, have American-style government failure. Europe benefits more from America being American than America does from Europe being European. Ideas — America’s strong point — are more likely to be international public goods than good governance — Europe’s strong point."

Labels: Economy, EU, Political, US

Berlusconi's party votes against supporting Italian military effort in Afghanistan and splits opposition against Prodi - by Stephen Brown

Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi may have scored an "own goal" by not supporting an Afghan peace mission in a senate vote which, instead of showing how weak the government is, split the centre right in two. Berlusconi's coalition, ousted by Romano Prodi's alliance in 2006, looked closer to what the media dubbed a "divorce" on Wednesday when the Christian Democrats (UDC), who broke ranks in Tuesday's vote, asked to meet the head of state - alone.

UDC leader Pierferdinando Casini, a centrist who has long been a thorn in Berlusconi's side, said he trusted opposition supporters would realise "that in the senate, Berlusconi made a serious mistake - an own goal" over the vote.

Labels: Berlusconi, EU, Italy, Political, Prodi

Europe at crossroads - "Eastern Europe's inflexibility towards EU unity"

On its 50th anniversary, the EU can claim quite a positive record. But anyone can see that the integration process has come to a halt. The two expansion waves have taken a hefty toll on political unification. It’s not just the practical difficulty of finding a single voice for 27 governments. Most importantly, EU attempts to wean itself from American hegemony have been seriously undermined. London is not alone in this effort anymore. Rather, it is spearheading a group of states that lend it greater political weight.Eastern European states such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary do not just fall behind British diplomacy; often, they are the ones to take the first step. They often make claims and objections without any will to negotiate in a constructive fashion. It’s not just that they are strangers to the EU’s consensus-building habits. Their inflexibility comes mostly from a feeling of superiority drawn from their US alliance.

The EU has two options. One is to fall back on familiar tactics and small, often rhetorical steps that lead nowhere. The second is to cut ties altogether and implement a policy of so-called “reinforced cooperation” with ad hoc partnerships in projects that could inject the Union with a fresh momentum. The eurozone is a precedent and could be the model for a core of states.

Labels: Britain, Eastern Europe, EU, inflexibility, Integration, Poland, Political, US

Turkey's Erdogan warns the EU: Make your decision, don't wear yourselves out

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made some sharp comments in reference to the EU's stance on Turkey's quest for full membership, saying yesterday before his ruling AKP group in Ankara, "Don't wear yourselves or us out. If you have some thoughts, make some decisions on them, and let us all continue down our roads."

Erdogan also noted "The EU is on a serious search for solutions to problems such as security, energy, expansion, and an ageing population. In fact, Turkey is in a key role in terms of being able to help the EU with these problems. We know that there have been many difficulties down this road, and that there will continue to be these difficulties. But just as we have managed to obtain our rights up until today, we will continue in the same way from now on. We are not expecting favors from anyone. We simply want whatever we have a right to. If the EU thinks negatively about Turkey, it needs to make its decision, and we will continue on our way."

Labels: Energy, EU, Integration, Political, security, Turkey

"EU launches new Central Asia policy in Kazakhstan = by Andrew Rettman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU has said 'the time is right' for new engagement in Central Asia after a high-level meeting in Kazakhstan saw joint agreement to hold more such talks in future, with the German EU presidency hoping the dialogue will lead to political reform but with human rights groups on alert over Europe's real agenda in the energy-rich region.

Labels: EU, Kazakhstan, Political

In the new Europe, unity is the best defense

The American plan to install the forward edge of its anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic has raised memories of the great Cold War struggle over Washington's decision to deploy medium-range nuclear missiles in Europe.

The shield, moreover, is really intended largely as a defense of the United States by the United States and so only deepens the perception among many Europeans of American arrogrance and selfishness. The Bush administration has made it worse by not doing more to consult either its long time allies in NATO or its former rival Russia.

But as ever, Europe has confused the situation further by its inability to agree on any position, or speak with a single or even a few voices. Part of the problem apparently is that "Old Europe" resents "New Europe's" desire to make the Americans happy.

Europe needs to know that it's not being used as a pawn in some larger chess game between Washington and Iran. Europe should remind President George W. Bush of his long ago offer to bring the Russians into a missile defense effort. The Cold War is over, but the best defense is still a common defense.

Comment EU-Digest: "The majority of the EU members should make clear to the new Eastern European member states and Great Britain that democracy in the EU means majority, not minority rule. Maybe its time to get rid of the rotten apples before the whole EU basket gets infected."

Labels: EU, Missile Crises, Political, USA

EU constitution can help meet challenges - - by HANS-GERT PÖTTERING

"From the vantage point of 50 years on from the Rome treaties, I look back with pride, and I look forward with cautious optimism. From the modest beginnings of European unification's pioneering days, there has emerged, with unprecedented rapidity, a European Union of 27 states and almost 500 million people."

Labels: Economics, EU 50, Europe, Political