Policies challenge 'open Europe' Ségolène Royal's popularity in some of the big power centres of the European Union has been sinking almost as fast as her recent poll ratings in France.
Ségolène Royal's popularity in some of the big power centres of the European Union has been sinking almost as fast as her recent poll ratings in France.
Let's perpetuate the idea that her polls are "falling". She has been a couple of points below Sarkozy for the past month, but that can hardly be called 'falling'. Never mind.
Her manifesto for a "New France" came as confirmation to her critics that her interventionist and protective economic outlook could stand in the way of the open, free-market economy being championed in Brussels.
The above sentence is factual, but it's hard not to get the feeling that the FT somehow approves those "critics". Opposition to neoliberalism is illegitimate and cannot be tolerated is the message I get.
The "open Europe" tendency has been gaining the upper hand, reflected by the appointment of José Manuel Barroso as European Commission president in 2004, backed by Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and Tony Blair, British prime minister.
Merkel was Chancellor when Barroso was chosen? That's new... Nice re-writing of history to claim that Germany is on the "right" side of the debate.
And that claim to the "open Europe" moniker - as opposed to what? Soon we'll need a "pro-choice" to face off the "pro-life" moniker. so let's oppose "fair Europe" to "open Europe".
For example, Ms Royal's promise to merge EDF and Gaz de France into a single nationalised utility hardly smacks of the kind of deregulated and competitive energy market being promoted by Mr Barroso.
It sure doesn't, and yet it delivers lower prices. Funny, that.
"She doesn't look very reformist," said Gerrit Zalm, Dutch finance minister, in an FT interview this week. (...) But a Sarkozy victory could offer the EU a route out of the impasse on its stalled constitution: he wants to ratify a slimmed-down treaty by parliamentary vote, bypassing the French public who rejected the text in a referendum.
(...)
But a Sarkozy victory could offer the EU a route out of the impasse on its stalled constitution: he wants to ratify a slimmed-down treaty by parliamentary vote, bypassing the French public who rejected the text in a referendum.
Yep, because "bypassing the French public" sure is "open".
Sigh. Grrr. Gah. Meh. Words fail. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
EU condemns member states over renditions European governments "turned a blind eye" to the illegal transportation of alleged terrorists through their countries to face possible torture, a hard-hitting European parliament report concluded yesterday. After a heated debate, the Strasbourg assembly voted to "condemn extraordinary rendition as an illegal instrument used by the US in the fight against terrorism [and] condemn the acceptance and concealing of the practice . . . by the secret services and governmental authorities of certain European countries". It said the innocent victims, such as Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen wrongly sent to the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, should be compensated. While the starkest criticism of the UK, Ireland and Poland was rejected after lobbying by national governments, the report contained some damning conclusions. (...) The report, approved by 382 votes to 256 with 74 abstentions, said that 1,245 Central Intelligence Agency operated flights stopped over at European airports between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005. It said the UK, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Ireland allowed CIA flights to stop over without proper controls. Austria, Italy and Sweden failed to protect residents from torture who were seized at US insistence.
European governments "turned a blind eye" to the illegal transportation of alleged terrorists through their countries to face possible torture, a hard-hitting European parliament report concluded yesterday.
After a heated debate, the Strasbourg assembly voted to "condemn extraordinary rendition as an illegal instrument used by the US in the fight against terrorism [and] condemn the acceptance and concealing of the practice . . . by the secret services and governmental authorities of certain European countries". It said the innocent victims, such as Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen wrongly sent to the detention centre at Guantánamo Bay, should be compensated.
While the starkest criticism of the UK, Ireland and Poland was rejected after lobbying by national governments, the report contained some damning conclusions. (...)
The report, approved by 382 votes to 256 with 74 abstentions, said that 1,245 Central Intelligence Agency operated flights stopped over at European airports between the end of 2001 and the end of 2005.
It said the UK, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Ireland allowed CIA flights to stop over without proper controls. Austria, Italy and Sweden failed to protect residents from torture who were seized at US insistence.
Open Europe all right. Open to torture. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
