Slovakia's prime minister Robert Fico, surrounded by a scrum of TV cameramen and photographers, withdrew the first 100 euros from a cash machine in the Slovak Parliament building in the opening minutes of 2009. Outside in the streets of Bratislava there were lavish fireworks displays and scenes of jubilation as Slovaks celebrated the adoption of the single European currency.Slovakia is the 16th European Union member to join the Eurozone, and the first - not counting the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia - in the former Soviet bloc. New EU members have to adopt the euro - it's required under the terms of membership - so it's a question of when, not if.But with Germany, Austria and Slovakia already using the euro and Poland hoping to follow suit in January 2012, the Czech Republic forms something of a hole in the centre of Europe. So far the present centre-right government has refused to set a firm target date for adoption. But that could be about to change, after this surprise announcement from prime minister Mirek Topolanek on Czech Television."Look - we are the first government that has actually done something towards adopting the euro. The public spending deficit for 2008 will be around 1.3 percent. Inflation is going to fall. It is self-evident that we will meet the Maastricht criteria. And after discussions with Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek and others, I can say with certainty that on November 1st, 2009, this government will announce the date for euro adoption."
Slovakia is the 16th European Union member to join the Eurozone, and the first - not counting the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia - in the former Soviet bloc. New EU members have to adopt the euro - it's required under the terms of membership - so it's a question of when, not if.
But with Germany, Austria and Slovakia already using the euro and Poland hoping to follow suit in January 2012, the Czech Republic forms something of a hole in the centre of Europe. So far the present centre-right government has refused to set a firm target date for adoption. But that could be about to change, after this surprise announcement from prime minister Mirek Topolanek on Czech Television.
"Look - we are the first government that has actually done something towards adopting the euro. The public spending deficit for 2008 will be around 1.3 percent. Inflation is going to fall. It is self-evident that we will meet the Maastricht criteria. And after discussions with Finance Minister Miroslav Kalousek and others, I can say with certainty that on November 1st, 2009, this government will announce the date for euro adoption."
(Hehehe, Topolánek is annoying President Václav "EUrealist" Klaus...) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Some 71 percent of respondents were against joining the euro, with only 23 percent in favour, the ICM survey for BBC Radio found. People were unswayed by the recent rockiness of the pound, which has plummeted to almost parity with the euro after the Bank of England slashed interest rates to fend off recession. The poll found that 69 percent of people felt such fluctuations made no difference to whether Britain should join the single currency and 14 percent said it actually made them less inclined. Only 15 percent said the pound's fall made them keener on ditching sterling for the euro.
People were unswayed by the recent rockiness of the pound, which has plummeted to almost parity with the euro after the Bank of England slashed interest rates to fend off recession.
The poll found that 69 percent of people felt such fluctuations made no difference to whether Britain should join the single currency and 14 percent said it actually made them less inclined.
Only 15 percent said the pound's fall made them keener on ditching sterling for the euro.
It is simply impossible to have a reasoned discussion about the pros and cons of such subjects when any such debate would be filtered through an almost universal filter of vilification. keep to the Fen Causeway
I have truckloads of others, may turn them into a weekend photo diary sometime. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
The Old Town of Kremnica is a late middle-age/early new age walled town that was preserved because the town escaped major wars and was stuck in development during the industrial era.
That church is something very special: it was originally most likely a castle tower for a minor count, before Kremnica was chartered as a free mining city. (The opposite, the conversion of a Romanesque cathedral into a castle, was more frequent.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Donjon du Capitole, Toulouse You're clearly a dangerous pinko commie pragmatist.
"Gazprom has sent today a short-notice warning threatening to reduce Russian gas transit volumes by 52 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) in one of the major routes ... If this threat comes true this transit route to the EU would be practically excluded and out of operation," Naftogaz said in a statement issued in Kiev and Brussels. The volume of 52 mcm/d is close to the winter consumption of a medium-sized country such as Hungary (population 10 million). "This situation simply proves the fact that Gazprom is not capable to be compliant with its commitments versus the EU countries. This Gazprom decision is a direct threat to the EU's and Ukraine's energy security impacting detrimentally the whole gas transport system in Europe," the statement said.
"Gazprom has sent today a short-notice warning threatening to reduce Russian gas transit volumes by 52 million cubic meters per day (mcm/d) in one of the major routes ... If this threat comes true this transit route to the EU would be practically excluded and out of operation," Naftogaz said in a statement issued in Kiev and Brussels.
The volume of 52 mcm/d is close to the winter consumption of a medium-sized country such as Hungary (population 10 million).
"This situation simply proves the fact that Gazprom is not capable to be compliant with its commitments versus the EU countries. This Gazprom decision is a direct threat to the EU's and Ukraine's energy security impacting detrimentally the whole gas transport system in Europe," the statement said.
Naftogaz reiterated its claims that Russia was deliberately violating its supply obligations to EU countries, something denied on Sunday by Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov. "Gazprom is providing gas at the entry to the Ukrainian gas transport system in full accordance with the transit contract and the requests of European consumers," Kupriyanov said.
Russian natural gas deliveries to Romania dropped by 30% to 40% starting Friday night as the dispute between Russia and Ukraine over Kiev's unpaid debt to Moscow unfolded. The situation may lust until Sunday, January 4, the head of Romanian gas transport company Transgaz Ioan Rusu told Romanian news agency NewsIn. For the time being, the diminishing gas imports from Russia has not been felt by business or private consumers as the difference was covered from domestic resources.The volume of Romania's daily natural gas imports usually amounts to 10 million cubic meters and it dropped by 3 million cubic meters on Friday evening, Rusu said. He assured Romania was ready to deal with a drop in gas deliveries as it can use its own reserves.
Importer RWE Transgas has reported a five percent drop in natural gas supplies to the Czech Republic from Russia. According to the firm, the drop is related to an ongoing dispute between Russia and Ukraine. A spokesman called the development the "first signal of the Russia-Ukraine crisis in the Czech Republic", adding there would be no effect on Czech customers thanks to reserves and alternative supplies from Norway. Russia cut off shipments to Ukraine on January 1 in a dispute over prices and on Saturday energy giant Gazprom charged that Ukraine was illegally siphoning off supplies intended for EU countries. Others who have seen a drop in supplies include Hungary and Poland.
Czech MEP Jan Zahradil, of the Civic Democrats, has dismissed as "aggressive rhetoric" a call by Bernd Posselt, the leader of the Sudeten German Landsmannschaft, for the Czech Republic to rescind the Beneš decrees. The decrees led to the expulsion of Czechoslovakia's Sudeten German population of around 2.5 million after World War II. On Friday Mr Posselt said the Czech Republic should take advantage of its EU presidency to lift the decrees and, in his words, "come to terms with its own history". But Mr Zahradil responded by saying that the Czech EU presidency would definitely not deal with matters which he said had already been addressed - and closed - on bilateral as well as multilateral levels.
(The decrets in question were issued by and named for by then Czech President Edvard Beneš right after WWII. The contentious ones declared the collective guilt of ethnic Germans and Hungarians and ordered their expropriation and expulsion. This ethnic cleansing was actually followed through to the most part against Sudetengermans. The decrees are still in the law books, as Sudetengerman collective guilt became part of national myth and there is fear of restitution laims; the EU sidestepped this issue during the accession talks.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
