- Jake If you only spend 20 minutes of the rest of your life on economics, go spend them here.
One of the big debates during this fall has been the debate over the swedish implementation of IPRED, in particular clauses on giving the copyright industries legislative support for running blackmail scams. The standard argument as to why this was proposed was for a long time the governments cry: EU makes us do it!
The case of Promusicae vs Telefónica has gained quite some reputation and that argument was smashed, though I suspect it will linger. In particular as everything points to the bill being passed before christmas despite pretty overwhelming negative public opinions. The Greens and the Left party (think Linke) are on the side of information freedom here, though the issues are mainly pushed by the Pirate party. The Soc Dems tend to land on that side to, but that is mainly because they are in opposition, they supported the directive when they were in power.
In general, EUs public image is taking a beating here, and the green-red are those that stand mainly to gain in polls from it. To counter this and increasing support for the ugly party (mainly protestvotes agianst the establishment) the largest ruling party - Moderaterna - is going to run on a nationalistic platform in the EP elections.
So I expect the Greens and left to continue on a EU sceptic course, as the votes are there. Though the Greens do - after internal referendum - no longer propose Sweden leaving the EU. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
