Petition [EN] Pétition [FR] Petición [ES] Petiţie [RO] Ψήφισμα [EL] Petice[CZ] Petition [DE] Petizione [IT] Petycja [PL] Petitie [NL] Petíció [HU] Petição [PT] Namninsamling [SV] Underskriftindsamling [DA] Petícia [SK] Achainí [GA] Peticija [LT] Петиция [RU] Eskaera [EU] Petskribo [EO] Petició [CA] Athchuinge [GD]
Poland has opted to become a full member of the EU and NATO-linked military club, Eurocorps, in a move designed to spur on the creation of a significant European defence capability. Warsaw from 2009 is to pledge 3,000 soldiers to the existing 60,000-strong Eurocorps force, hold 15 officer-level posts and forward a deputy director to the Strasbourg-based outfit, Polish media report. The club currently consists of full members France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg as well as eight junior partners, including Poland, who each contribute a handful of technical staff. Eurocorps is not an EU institution. It was set up as an independent Franco-German project in 1992 to help support EU, NATO and UN operations, seeing active service in Bosnia, Kosovo and Afghanistan so far. The organisation has strong political links to the EU, however. Its badge is a sword superimposed on a map of Europe and the EU's golden stars. A Eurocorps unit hoisted the EU flag and played the EU anthem outside the EU parliament in Strasbourg on "Europe Day" last week.
The European Union bureaucracy is on a roll: After imposing restrictions on how tobacco, alcohol and food products can be advertised, it has set its sights on gas-guzzling cars. But German manufacturers and media conglomerates warn the financial impact could be devastating. Only a select few VIPs are allowed to park on the paved lot directly next to the entrance to the enormous Berlaymont building in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Commission. The luxury sedans lined up in the parking lot include Audis, BMWs, Jaguars and Mercedes. The chauffeurs keep the engines running in the winter to stay warm, and in the summer to keep their energy-consuming air-conditioning systems going. The contents of the Berlaymont's parking lot are especially impressive on Wednesdays, when European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the 26 European Union commissioners gather around the conference table on the 14th floor. They often discuss climate protection, and what ought to be done to promote it.
The European Union bureaucracy is on a roll: After imposing restrictions on how tobacco, alcohol and food products can be advertised, it has set its sights on gas-guzzling cars. But German manufacturers and media conglomerates warn the financial impact could be devastating.
Only a select few VIPs are allowed to park on the paved lot directly next to the entrance to the enormous Berlaymont building in Brussels, the headquarters of the European Commission. The luxury sedans lined up in the parking lot include Audis, BMWs, Jaguars and Mercedes. The chauffeurs keep the engines running in the winter to stay warm, and in the summer to keep their energy-consuming air-conditioning systems going.
The contents of the Berlaymont's parking lot are especially impressive on Wednesdays, when European Commission President José Manuel Barroso and the 26 European Union commissioners gather around the conference table on the 14th floor. They often discuss climate protection, and what ought to be done to promote it.
"We commissioners travel a lot," says one of them, "and we need large, comfortable and fast cars." <...> French and Italian makers of small cars are likely to welcome the plan with open arms. German automakers and the advertising industry that depends on them, on the other hand, are about to go on the warpath. Such restrictions, they argue, mean they might as well cancel their advertising altogether. <...> Wernhard Möschel, a law professor at the University of Tübingen in southwest Germany, is incensed over the way the EU's producers of rules and regulations treat the consumer "as a pathological idiot in need of supervision, as someone who can't tell the difference between red and white wine." <...> And now this "moral terrorism," as Holger Krahmer, a liberal member of the European Parliament, calls it, is about to reach what is perhaps Europe's most sensitive and possibly most important industrial product:
French and Italian makers of small cars are likely to welcome the plan with open arms. German automakers and the advertising industry that depends on them, on the other hand, are about to go on the warpath. Such restrictions, they argue, mean they might as well cancel their advertising altogether. <...>
Wernhard Möschel, a law professor at the University of Tübingen in southwest Germany, is incensed over the way the EU's producers of rules and regulations treat the consumer "as a pathological idiot in need of supervision, as someone who can't tell the difference between red and white wine." <...>
And now this "moral terrorism," as Holger Krahmer, a liberal member of the European Parliament, calls it, is about to reach what is perhaps Europe's most sensitive and possibly most important industrial product:
The article makes an interesting point at the end: why do all these proposed regulations only apply to advertising in Europe? Are non-Europeans somehow more qualified than Europeans to decide what they eat, drink, smoke and drive? A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
But snark about non-Europeans being more qualified than Europeans to decide what they consume.
The last two paragraphs in the article are:
In fact, a broad majority of officials on both the Commission and in the European Parliament is convinced that the tenacious pursuit of more and more protections against calories, alcohol and the dangers of driving is both popular and an ethical obligation. At least, that is, as far as Europeans are concerned. Everyone else in the world can drive at high speeds, smoke and drink to their hearts' content. In fact, to encourage the rest of the world to drink more European wine, Brussels generously subsidizes colorful, happy liquor ads in foreign markets.
At least, that is, as far as Europeans are concerned. Everyone else in the world can drive at high speeds, smoke and drink to their hearts' content. In fact, to encourage the rest of the world to drink more European wine, Brussels generously subsidizes colorful, happy liquor ads in foreign markets.
Of course, wine is far less addictive and destructive than opium.
In March 1839 the Emperor appointed a new strict Confucianist commissioner, Lin Zexu, to control the opium trade at the port of Canton. <...> In 1839 Lin took the extraordinary step of presenting a letter directly to Queen Victoria questioning the moral reasoning of the royal government. Citing what he understood was a strict prohibition of the opium trade within England, Ireland, and Scotland, Lin questioned how Britain could then profit from the drug in China.
In 1839 Lin took the extraordinary step of presenting a letter directly to Queen Victoria questioning the moral reasoning of the royal government. Citing what he understood was a strict prohibition of the opium trade within England, Ireland, and Scotland, Lin questioned how Britain could then profit from the drug in China.
It is, however, a disingenuous side-swipe in that final paragraph, which is really complaining about Europeans being (yet again) tyrannised by Brussels (while freedom reigns elsewhere in the world).
Freedom for the consumer to make up her/is own mind, how noble. In fact the article's true thrust sponsors freedom for large corporations to sell deleterious goods any way the admen tell them they will sell.
The difference between "red and white wine", the example is telling because it addresses a certain consumer and a specifically prestige-bearing product and savoir-faire. Meanwhile, obesity is rising among children and among lower income groups, tobacco and alcohol abuse cause problems, again, rather more among social groups whose prime interest is not exactly wondering whether it should be red or white with this evening's dinner.
But the strategy of the article is to build resentment against regulation of advertising by flattering the reader's self-image as a free-spirited, savvy consumer on an open market, mischaracterising regulation as bureaucratic red tape (a standard strawman), and railing about hypocrites in Brussels (brother to the previous strawman).
The article bears the mark of its sponsor: the German automobile industry. It is exporting well in the Eurozone thanks to wage depression. It firmly opposes regulation concerning mileage and GHG emissions. Previous promises to self-regulate on these questions have not been kept, but advertising regulation that might favour smaller, lower consumption-and-emissions cars must be resisted. Which is what this piece is all about.
PS Your point about opium is well taken. But (don't know the details) I suppose the British Empire shucked off its responsibility by using colonial companies to force the opium trade on China, in a similar way to what I suggest in my first paragraph. Back then was, of course, the first wave of globalisation. And finally, the EU's authority outside its borders derives only from the soft power of setting standards within its very large marketplace. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
But I don't read the final paragraph as a complaint about Europeans being deprived of freedom which the rest of the world gets to enjoy.
Rather, I think it is pointing out the moral dubiousness of imposing regulations to protect "people", where "people" only means those who have EU passports. The implication is that the moral basis ("ethical obligation") for these regulations is weak.
The inconsistency is easily remedied either by getting rid of the regulations, or by making them apply to markets outside Europe as well as within. Of course, I favor the latter approach.
Interestingly, despite the article's implication that European companies are free to seduce consumers outside of Europe with ads for cigarettes, booze, cars, and so forth, I was surprised to find that no European car companies are mentioned in this (granted, short) article, "Car makers pour advertising dollars into China". Even so,
Volkswagen's high-end line, climbed 25 percent to 30,188, while Bentley sales soared 137.8 percent to 126 units. ... Sales of imported BMW sedans, including the much-more expensive 7 Series flagship cars, jumped 83.9 percent. ... Mercedes-Benz also reported strong growth, with sales up 40 percent in China. Global auto makers report soaring Q1 China sales_English_Xinhua
Sales of imported BMW sedans, including the much-more expensive 7 Series flagship cars, jumped 83.9 percent. ...
Mercedes-Benz also reported strong growth, with sales up 40 percent in China.
Global auto makers report soaring Q1 China sales_English_Xinhua
which utterly jibes with what I see every day on the streets of Hangzhou.
And finally, the EU's authority outside its borders derives only from the soft power of setting standards within its very large marketplace.
I think I must not be reading your point correctly, but surely the EU can impose laws and regulations on the activities of EU-based companies even outside its borders, right? A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
I think I must not be reading your point correctly, but surely the EU can impose laws and regulations on the activities of EU-based companies even outside its borders, right?
No, not really: unlike the US, the EU doesn't seem to consider itself entitled to regulate the acts of legal entities based in other countries in those countries. It's very likely Volkswagen China Inc that is adveristing and selling there.
Everyone else in the world can drive at high speeds, smoke and drink to their hearts' content.
The main point in it (to me) is that elsewhere people are free, (while in Europe, as the entire article has underscored, they are told what to do like children). Compared to this, the final point about EU companies applying (or profiting by) local laws outside the EU, seems to me, as I said, a side-swipe.
As to your reading re "moral dubiousness", then we'd have to say that it was morally dubious to abolish the death penalty in one country (or state of the US) because it didn't apply to citizens elsewhere. That democracy and the rule of law themselves were morally dubious, because they don't apply to all people, everywhere.
I think you did misread me: I was pointing out that corporations can and do establish subsidiaries or sister companies that are based in the countries they want to do business in, or in tax or corporate havens, and those companies operate under the law of the land they're set up in. To what extent the original corporation can be monitored and held to account for the activities of foreign-based companies it can take care to be legally separate from, seems moot. Not that I'd personally be against it. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
I understand better now: just as the EU cannot impose democracy, the rule of law, the abolition of the death penalty on countries outside its borders, it cannot impose business regulations on companies operating outside its borders (even if they are based within Europe).
Still, in order to be eligible for subsidies, the EU must make it a condition for European companies (and their overseas subsidiaries and partners) to follow the same advertising and marketing regulations that they are bound to within Europe. Otherwise, I feel such inconsistency does undermine the "ethical obligation" supposedly behind these regulations to protect consumers (unless we admit that people outside the EU are not worth protecting, too). A language is a dialect with an army and navy.
it cannot impose business regulations on companies operating outside its borders (even if they are based within Europe).
No: when they are not based within Europe.
Do you know of any country (since, in this case, EU legislation must be transposed into each member state's legislation, it's the countries that have sovereignty) that can legislate on business activities in another sovereign state?
Yes, of course the EU can bring pressure to bear in other ways. And should. But, when a major trading area improves regulation within its borders, that looks to me like progress, not an ethically dubious position re the rest of the world. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
From breakfast cereal to Coca-Cola, everything is being classified as being either good or bad for citizens, who apparently have lost the ability to make that judgment on their own.
If only citizens were also allowed to make that judgement about 'reform' and financial policy.
Or does SPIEGEL ONLINE believe that's different?
"We commissioners travel a lot," says one of them, "and we need large, comfortable and fast cars." <...>
Do the commissioners travel from Brussels to their respective member states by car? For local travel Brussels has an excellent mass transit network, Belgium is not bad either, there is high-speed rail... When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
The pernicious advertising of food that creates helath problems, but is immensely profitable, the relentless pushing of cheap and nasty alcohols (I could go on at length how eurofizz lager was sold to the British public during the 70s and 80s), not to create choice but, like some form of advertising NewSpeak, to actually restrict the ability of the consumer to choose anything else.
And they know this. The article points to the EU commissioners justification of their use of cars as natural and reasonable to underline that this is exactly what has already happened.
A ban of the ads and a tax on the use of the things. keep to the Fen Causeway
...or we could pursue the utopian dream of actually educating people to ignore advertising.
In cruel and unusual concert, Italy's new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation's enemy number one: the Gypsies. Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe's perennial outsiders. To little avail: the Pope's appeal for a spirit of welcome and acceptance was met with a hail of angry rejection in blogged comments on news websites. But what will remain scorched in the nation's memory - as a mark of shame, or a beacon pointing the way forward, depending on how you see it - are the flaming structures of the Gypsy camp burnt in the Ponticelli district of Naples on Wednesday. Residents of the former communist stronghold on the northern outskirts of Naples have been raising hell about the camp since Saturday, when a woman claimed a Gypsy girl had entered her flat and tried to steal her baby.
In cruel and unusual concert, Italy's new government, its police and paramilitary carabinieri, and even its gangsters, have turned their joint might against the nation's enemy number one: the Gypsies.
Yesterday Pope Benedict XVI and a small number of left-wingers raised lonely voices in central Naples against the national hardening of hearts towards Europe's perennial outsiders. To little avail: the Pope's appeal for a spirit of welcome and acceptance was met with a hail of angry rejection in blogged comments on news websites.
But what will remain scorched in the nation's memory - as a mark of shame, or a beacon pointing the way forward, depending on how you see it - are the flaming structures of the Gypsy camp burnt in the Ponticelli district of Naples on Wednesday.
Residents of the former communist stronghold on the northern outskirts of Naples have been raising hell about the camp since Saturday, when a woman claimed a Gypsy girl had entered her flat and tried to steal her baby.
a woman claimed a Gypsy girl had entered her flat and tried to steal her baby
Roma steal babies, Jews want Christian children's blood, witches have succubus teats, burning is the answer, I feel sick. When locusts move on, they leave nothing behind
The camps were assaulted throughout Naples which has provoked an exodus of Rom. It is suspected that the camorra may be behind the acts of arson, as a way of "siding with the people."
In the meantime throughout Italy there are police operations against camps, very much a show since no more than a few dozen will be expulsed. It reminds me of all these ineffectual "get-tough" theatrics that Poniatowski and Pasqua pulled off to inaugurate their tenures as Interior Ministers in France.
Napolitano does not approve of a decree law on expulsions as expected. And of course any decree law would likely violate European law.
Some of the police operations are reportedly done with the collaboration of Romanian authorities but this would simply be in coincidence with all the "get-tough" staging. The idea would be to arrest some alleged Romanian criminals at large so as to beef up statistics at the end of the day.
Both Milan and Rome want an extraordinary Commissar for the Rom "problem." A lot of hot air for a Rom population esteemed at 7000 in Rome.
Full english translation: http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87592 The admirable group who saw this coming: http://www.everyonegroup.com/
I think Italy has enough problems and, however much the politicians colluded with their creation, think it would be better if they concentrated on those in preference to a bit of blaming the auslander. keep to the Fen Causeway
The EU has also declared that there will be no modification of Schengen as Frattini proposed.
This whole "show of macho muscle" will appease the acolytes in Italy and also enflame anti-European sentiment. It's just what this government is aiming at. Consensus, demagogy, a spineless Europe.
We'll see how this plays out, but Austria had its voting rights in the Council suspended for less than this. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. — John M. Keynes
As we said other day, there's this schism between fact and the perception of reality. Even the left perceives danger where there isn't any. It looks like the apotheosis of consumerism. Ever see a commercial with a clochard scratching himself in the background? People want to live in a commercial hype world where the unsightly is banned. The disenfranchised are a menace, It's a mass of underproletariat at the gates of the empire that aspire to possess gadgets. They're the danger, the menace. They can steal your cell phone, your hifi, your baby.
So show off all this military might and make police blitzes against an "enemy" that doesn't exist. And of course at that point just stop front paging this crime crap so that people perceive that they're safer. A winner. Berlusconi for life. If he could only rule Europe and show all those wimpy fags in Strausbourg want it means to be a real hunk.
...and of course if a particularly brutal crime does occur despite all this macho crap it will be Europe's fault, never theirs.
By the way, page 3 today. Corriere. A small paragraph barely visible: An Italian raped a Romanian.
The latest tally is around 400 arrests throughout Italy. M-T Fernandez de la Vega, 2° in command in Zapatero's gevernment has condemned Italy's acts qualifying them as violent, racist and xenophobic.
PARIS: Hundreds of thousands of French teachers and civil servants staged a one-day strike throughout the country Thursday to protest government plans to cut jobs in the public sector. While the unions and the government differed sharply over the numbers taking part, many thousands of teachers, students, parents and civil servants stayed off the job. For example, union leaders said that at least 60 percent of the 740,000 teachers in France were on strike; the government said the figure was 34.4 percent, while 24.8 percent of 2.5 million state employees were on strike. In Paris, organizers said 50,000 people had demonstrated, while the police said the figure was closer to 18,000. There were also large demonstrations in Marseille, Toulouse and Strasbourg. It was another test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's resolve in his efforts to cut down the large civil service to reduce budget deficits and create more competition in the economy. There will be more strikes to come, including one on May 22 called by the powerful transport unions, which will probably halt train, airline and subway service across the country.
PARIS: Hundreds of thousands of French teachers and civil servants staged a one-day strike throughout the country Thursday to protest government plans to cut jobs in the public sector.
While the unions and the government differed sharply over the numbers taking part, many thousands of teachers, students, parents and civil servants stayed off the job.
For example, union leaders said that at least 60 percent of the 740,000 teachers in France were on strike; the government said the figure was 34.4 percent, while 24.8 percent of 2.5 million state employees were on strike.
In Paris, organizers said 50,000 people had demonstrated, while the police said the figure was closer to 18,000. There were also large demonstrations in Marseille, Toulouse and Strasbourg.
It was another test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's resolve in his efforts to cut down the large civil service to reduce budget deficits and create more competition in the economy. There will be more strikes to come, including one on May 22 called by the powerful transport unions, which will probably halt train, airline and subway service across the country.
It was another test of President Nicolas Sarkozy's resolve in his efforts to cut down the large civil service to reduce budget deficits and create more competition in the economy.
Can someone explain to me how reducing the number of teachers would create more competition in the economy, unless the State has decided to give up on being the provider of education.
'Competition' means 'important people get stuff, unimportant people don't.'
It's about constricting the availability of services, not about providing them.
Of course the debate has moved on to that "minimum service" concept in general (on the line that "public service should not be at the whim of corporatist unions) and to the political debate of who would pay for such an obligation (which becomes quickly a constitutional debate about what are the rights of obligations of cities vs cnetral government, and a partisan one as more cities are controlled by the left). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU finance ministers have given their political blessing to an overhaul of the bloc's rules on savings tax, in a bid to clamp down on tax havens. The move to change the EU's Savings Tax Directive - which came into force in 2005 - comes by way of pressure from Germany in response to a massive tax fraud, reported in February, which involved Liechtenstein and some 1,400 individuals, including 600 German citizens. The persons had set up funds in the tiny principality in order to avoid taxes in their home countries, prompting Berlin to urge other European countries to force banks and financial institutions in tax havens to disclose information about their clients based in EU member states. Following the meeting of national finance chiefs in Brussels on Wednesday (14 May), EU tax commissioner Laszlo Kovacs signalled that he would amend the current rules in a way advocated by Germany, improving the exchange of information between banks and extending the scope of the directive.
Guardian - Polly Toynbee - Goodbye, good times. Now Labour has to show just whose side it is on
That might be politically survivable if Labour could honestly say the pain was fairly shared. That's exactly what European finance ministers debated fiercely on Wednesday. Executive pay was, said the EU monetary affairs commissioner, "scandalous" when so many employees have their pay pegged in the name of keeping inflation down. Luxembourg's prime minister, who chairs the Eurozone finance ministers, said these "excesses" in pay and bonuses were "a social scourge" that had fuelled the banking crisis. Germany and the Netherlands are introducing new taxes on high bonuses, pressing for EU-wide action. Germany urges a €1m ceiling on what a company can deduct from tax for any employee's pay. Britain, of course, will have none of it, and Alistair Darling sat through the debate in silence. When Brown introduced his policy package as a recipe for "opportunity-rich Britain", one Labour wag remarked that Britain was indeed a land of opportunity for the rich.
We know whose side they're on. keep to the Fen Causeway
(Written by the "City Editor", an approoriate label, I suppose) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
EUOBSERVER / KIEV - Ukraine has been celebrating Europe Day in several of its cities this week, while calling for closer ties with the EU and for a clearer recognition of its European identity. But for ordinary Ukrainians, the real priority is for the EU to let them travel freely within its borders. At the moment, Ukrainians need a visa to travel to EU countries and the process for getting one is lengthy and expensive. Their frustration with the situation increased when their neighbours, Hungary, Slovakia and Poland joined the EU's borderless zone in December and put in place the same entry requirements as other Schengen countries such as France, Germany and Spain. By contrast, most EU citizens have been allowed to travel to Ukraine without a visa since July 2005. Bulgarians and Romanians, as the newest members of the bloc, were granted the same waiver in January.
Now it may be unavoidable, because the price of free movement within is that the perimeter border is more policed, but at the same time, it's disrupting existing families and trading flows.
We should not be surprised that it can create great resentment for those on the "other side" of the new border.
The dispute between Germany's conservative Christian Democrats and left-leaning Social Democrats over what foreign and security policy strategy to follow reveals a deep divide between the partners in Angela Merkel's government. Neither side can impose its will on the other, resulting in gridlock and crippling Germany's influence in the world. Who's in charge of Germany's foreign policy? When it comes to dealings abroad, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel often speak with very different voices. George W. Bush has given up. He is tired of and no longer sees any sense in talking to a wall. The wall in this case is conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU). The United States president has stopped asking her to send additional troops to fight in southern Afghanistan. In the course of long conversations with the German chancellor, Bush has learned that there are simply political limits to what she can do. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also had to come to terms with the reality that she can't take the kinds of decisions he would like to see without risking a breakup of her "unstable" coalition government. There are also many in Merkel's junior coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), whose patience is wearing thin. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier finds himself explaining to senior party officials one day and to members of his parliamentary group the next why his efforts to engage in a dialogue with Syria, conduct negotiations with Russia or promote an opening towards Cuba are not moving forward. "What good do my proposals do if I can't get any backing from the Christian Democrats," Steinmeier complained to one SPD source.
The dispute between Germany's conservative Christian Democrats and left-leaning Social Democrats over what foreign and security policy strategy to follow reveals a deep divide between the partners in Angela Merkel's government. Neither side can impose its will on the other, resulting in gridlock and crippling Germany's influence in the world.
Who's in charge of Germany's foreign policy? When it comes to dealings abroad, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel often speak with very different voices. George W. Bush has given up. He is tired of and no longer sees any sense in talking to a wall. The wall in this case is conservative German Chancellor Angela Merkel of the Christian Democrats (CDU). The United States president has stopped asking her to send additional troops to fight in southern Afghanistan. In the course of long conversations with the German chancellor, Bush has learned that there are simply political limits to what she can do. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has also had to come to terms with the reality that she can't take the kinds of decisions he would like to see without risking a breakup of her "unstable" coalition government.
There are also many in Merkel's junior coalition partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), whose patience is wearing thin. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier finds himself explaining to senior party officials one day and to members of his parliamentary group the next why his efforts to engage in a dialogue with Syria, conduct negotiations with Russia or promote an opening towards Cuba are not moving forward. "What good do my proposals do if I can't get any backing from the Christian Democrats," Steinmeier complained to one SPD source.
crippling Germany's influence in the world
Economicially Germany is still one of the most powerful and influential industrial nations in the world, let alone europe. In terms of influence, trade is still its mighty diplomatic tool and with this it speaks louder than nearly everybody.
What influence is crippled ?
George W. Bush has given up....The United States president has stopped asking her to send additional troops to fight in southern Afghanistan
Ah, so according to this neoconpoop, influence in the world consists of donning the leaden anchor of subservience to American Imperialism. No wonder he's all of a fluster. If he loves the US so much, why doesn't he just bugger off there and then we'd all be happy ? keep to the Fen Causeway
Wikipedia: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Ellemann-Jensen doctrine is a Danish idea specifically aimed at promoting small countries' ability to gain influence in the world order. The doctrine is not a written document but rather inspired by the former Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen's term of office in which he promoted the notion that a small country can gain influence by supporting those greater countries that share the same values and ideas, which the small country itself embraces. Uffe Ellemann-Jensen led the European recognition of the renewed independence of the three Baltic countries in 1991, when Denmark was the first country to re-establish diplomatic relations with the three countries.
The Ellemann-Jensen doctrine is a Danish idea specifically aimed at promoting small countries' ability to gain influence in the world order.
The doctrine is not a written document but rather inspired by the former Danish Foreign Minister Uffe Ellemann-Jensen's term of office in which he promoted the notion that a small country can gain influence by supporting those greater countries that share the same values and ideas, which the small country itself embraces.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen led the European recognition of the renewed independence of the three Baltic countries in 1991, when Denmark was the first country to re-establish diplomatic relations with the three countries.
And it is likely that, like Japan, its disinclination to become involved in military corporate wars and the pointless holes in the ground into which national treasure is shovelled in the name of Political Penis competitions has, in no small measure, contributed to that economic success. keep to the Fen Causeway
Otherwise you are "French" (ie treasonous and irrelevant - they wish) In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
As former head of the International Monetary Fund, German President Horst Köhler is well qualified to comment on the global financial crisis. In an interview, he described financial markets as a "monster" and said the global financial system "came close to collapse." German President Horst Köhler: "We came close to a collapse of the global financial markets." Capitalism -- at least in its dreaded red-in-tooth-and-claw Anglo-Saxon variety -- is not cool in Germany, it seems. All across the political spectrum, it is hard to find any German politician with a good word to say about financial markets, hedge funds and the dreaded speculators -- especially in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis (more...). Franz Müntefering, the former chairman of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), added a new term to the German political lexicon in 2005 when he described private equity firms as "locusts." Current SPD leader Kurt Beck warned of the dangers of neo-liberalism in a 2007 essay (more...) for the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Even an über-capitalist like Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann commented recently that the markets were incapable of resolving the financial crisis by themselves (more...). Now Germany's President Horst Köhler has entered the fray in a hard-hitting interview with the weekly magazine Stern. Coining a term which is likely to become as popular as the infamous locusts, Köhler, who belongs to Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, said that the search for profits has turned the markets into a "monster."
As former head of the International Monetary Fund, German President Horst Köhler is well qualified to comment on the global financial crisis. In an interview, he described financial markets as a "monster" and said the global financial system "came close to collapse."
German President Horst Köhler: "We came close to a collapse of the global financial markets." Capitalism -- at least in its dreaded red-in-tooth-and-claw Anglo-Saxon variety -- is not cool in Germany, it seems. All across the political spectrum, it is hard to find any German politician with a good word to say about financial markets, hedge funds and the dreaded speculators -- especially in the wake of the ongoing global financial crisis (more...).
Franz Müntefering, the former chairman of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), added a new term to the German political lexicon in 2005 when he described private equity firms as "locusts." Current SPD leader Kurt Beck warned of the dangers of neo-liberalism in a 2007 essay (more...) for the respected Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Even an über-capitalist like Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann commented recently that the markets were incapable of resolving the financial crisis by themselves (more...).
Now Germany's President Horst Köhler has entered the fray in a hard-hitting interview with the weekly magazine Stern. Coining a term which is likely to become as popular as the infamous locusts, Köhler, who belongs to Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, said that the search for profits has turned the markets into a "monster."
Capitalism -- at least in its dreaded red-in-tooth-and-claw Anglo-Saxon variety -- is not cool in Germany, it seems.
In the temporary version adopted in the past 20 years, rather. A "capitalist" American coming out of the 70s would not recognize today's version, and would not find it "cool" either.
Let's start calling it a "temporary accident" In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Public debt in eurozone countries should be monitored more strictly, as high-debt states may undermine the stability of the whole monetary union, Dutch finance minister Wouter Bos has said, in remarks echoing earlier warnings that future expenditure arising from aging populations could pose a risk to the survival of the euro. Speaking at the Brussels Economic Forum on Thursday (15 May), Mr Bos argued that policymakers in the single currency area should "put the focus on sustainable debt positions on an equal footing with the existing focus on annual budgetary results." He warned that with a greater burden on public budgets due to rising pensions and healthcare costs, coupled with a diminishing working-age population, "three-percent annual deficits are really no longer permissible and in many cases even balanced budgets may be inadequate." "Large debts have to be purged and sustainability guaranteed," he stressed, adding that otherwise the euro area may suffer, as "doubts about sustainability will push up the cost of capital" in the monetary union.
"Large debts have to be purged and sustainability guaranteed," he stressed, adding that otherwise the euro area may suffer, as "doubts about sustainability will push up the cost of capital" in the monetary union.
Or the euro area could opt for more aggressive progressive taxation, with much higher taxes on speculation.
Anyone who says 'But that will slow down the economy' needs to be asked how much slower it can get when the current system almost crashed, and was only bailed out with government support.
Estonia has signed a deal with six other NATO members to make it the military alliance's leading expert on Internet-based warfare: It is a move seen as recognizing its surviving a major Web-based attack a year ago. At a ceremony at NATO's headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, May 14, Estonia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia in which the seven countries agreed to fund and man a cyber-defense research and training center in Tallinn. The signing ceremony paves the way for NATO as a whole to recognize it as a "center of excellence" and to use it as a main source of cyber-defense expertise. Full NATO accreditation is expected by the end of the year, officials said. "Missiles are no longer needed to shut down infrastructure; this can be achieved in cyberspace. Therefore, we must be innovative in our defense," Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told German news agency DPA ahead of the signing ceremony.
At a ceremony at NATO's headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday, May 14, Estonia signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovakia, Lithuania and Latvia in which the seven countries agreed to fund and man a cyber-defense research and training center in Tallinn.
The signing ceremony paves the way for NATO as a whole to recognize it as a "center of excellence" and to use it as a main source of cyber-defense expertise. Full NATO accreditation is expected by the end of the year, officials said.
"Missiles are no longer needed to shut down infrastructure; this can be achieved in cyberspace. Therefore, we must be innovative in our defense," Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves told German news agency DPA ahead of the signing ceremony.
Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely leader in the race to harness the sun's energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems, which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world's total installations. And it is the third-largest producer of solar cells and modules, after China and Japan. Now, though, with so many solar panels on so many rooftops, critics say Germany has too much of a good thing -- even in a time of record oil prices. Conservative lawmakers, in particular, want to pare back generous government incentives that support solar development. They say solar generation is growing so fast that it threatens to overburden consumers with high electricity bills. <...> In the former East Germany, where scores of state-subsidized industries were shuttered after reunification in 1990, the solar industry is a welcome tonic for a depressed region. Signet Solar, an American maker of photovoltaic modules that use thin-film technology, chose to build its first factory and research center near Dresden. <...> "To develop a technology, you've got to create an industry," said Mr. Milner, the chief executive of Q-Cells, referring to the German success story. "You can wait and wait and wait for costs to come down, but it takes too long."
Now, though, with so many solar panels on so many rooftops, critics say Germany has too much of a good thing -- even in a time of record oil prices. Conservative lawmakers, in particular, want to pare back generous government incentives that support solar development. They say solar generation is growing so fast that it threatens to overburden consumers with high electricity bills. <...>
In the former East Germany, where scores of state-subsidized industries were shuttered after reunification in 1990, the solar industry is a welcome tonic for a depressed region. Signet Solar, an American maker of photovoltaic modules that use thin-film technology, chose to build its first factory and research center near Dresden. <...>
"To develop a technology, you've got to create an industry," said Mr. Milner, the chief executive of Q-Cells, referring to the German success story. "You can wait and wait and wait for costs to come down, but it takes too long."
It's a relatively long article, spelling out the Christian Democrats' concerns about rising costs of building more solar capacity, as well as the much lower cost projections of one "Eicke R. Weber, a prominent physicist". It also mentions the suspicion among pro-solar advocates that "Germany's power companies [are] behind the effort to change the law":
"Solar energy is more decentralized, so the industry sees more competition from solar than from wind," said Carsten Körnig, the managing director of the German Solar Energy Association.
