The European Parliament has voted overwhelmingly in favor of tightening rules regulating the 15,000 lobbyists that gravitate around the EU institutions. By an overwhelming majority, EU lawmakers adopted a report recommending a mandatory public register for lobbyists that seek to influence decisions at the European Union's institutions. The decision on Thursday ratifies the proposal made by the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee on Tuesday, April 1, in favor of the compulsory register for the lobbyists working to influence EU policies via the EU assembly, states and the bloc's executive European Commission. The report, drafted by Finnish conservative MEP Alexander Stubb before he became Finland's foreign minister, also calls for a code of conduct and sanctions for those who flaunt it.
By an overwhelming majority, EU lawmakers adopted a report recommending a mandatory public register for lobbyists that seek to influence decisions at the European Union's institutions.
The decision on Thursday ratifies the proposal made by the European Parliament's constitutional affairs committee on Tuesday, April 1, in favor of the compulsory register for the lobbyists working to influence EU policies via the EU assembly, states and the bloc's executive European Commission.
The report, drafted by Finnish conservative MEP Alexander Stubb before he became Finland's foreign minister, also calls for a code of conduct and sanctions for those who flaunt it.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs have voted to tighten up the rules governing the lobbyists, requiring those seeking to influence officials in the EU's three main institutions to register themselves and provide income details. The resolution, passed by an overwhelming majority of euro-deputies, suggests that lobbyists have to adhere to a code of conduct and face sanctions, such as being barred from an institution, if they flout the rules. MEPs want the rules to apply to the European Parliament, the European Commission, which is responsible for proposing EU laws, and the council of ministers, which represents member states. Once a lobbyist - defined as anyone "influencing the policy formulation and decision-making processes of the European institutions" - is registered in one of these institutions, then they will be automatically registered in the other two as well, according to the one-stop-shop proposal agreed by the euro-deputies.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - MEPs on Thursday rejected attempts by some sporting associations to establish new intellectual property rights specific to sporting events, and affirmed that governments must assure wide TV access to major events such as the Olympic Games and football's World Cup, which should be on free-to-air television. The European Parliament passed a report adopted by a large majority (518 in favour and 49 against, with nine abstentions) that calls for the European Commission - Europe's executive body - to develop clearer guidelines on how to apply EU rules in the area of sport. Sporting federations had been pushing for new copyright protections for football matches and other such events, while journalists' groups and media organisations had argued that such moves would threaten the freedom of the press to report on sport. "Governing bodies [have been] lobbying MEPs for newly invented 'IP rights', including the protection of the event as a whole, information and spin-offs arising from the event, none of which exists under existing intellectual property rights regimes," said Francisco Pinto Balsemao, chair of the European Publishers Council ahead of the vote. "This is unjustified protectionism and injurious to press freedom".
EUOBSERVER / COPENHAGEN - The Danish centre-right government has launched negotiations with opposition parties to agree on a strategy for scrapping opt-outs from the EU treaties, with the government hoping to abolish the derogations in two steps, according to Danish media reports. Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen is set to call for a referendum in September to remove the derogation from judicial and defence co-operation and at the same time announce a subsequent referendum on the euro. Denmark is not bound by first-pillar legislation on justice and home affairs and EU citizenship and does not take part in EU defence co-operation. Denmark is also not obliged to take part in the single currency and refused to abolish its national currency, the Krone, in a referendum in 2000. The liberal-conservative coalition government is eager to scrap the opt-outs and have the country participating fully in the EU.
(And once the UK's are gone, there will be no leg to stand on for future requests for opt-outs, hoepfully.) Member of the Anti-Fabulousness League since 1987.
BERLIN: Earlier this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats published a paper calling for a security strategy for Germany. This short document touched on all the challenges facing the country, including terrorism, energy security, nuclear proliferation and climate change. It also called for the establishment of a national security council that would oversee the domestic and counterintelligence security services, the Foreign and Development Aid ministries and other agencies that represent Germany's interests. With this document, a German political party for the first time initiated a debate over national interests and why Berlin, which oversees Europe's largest economy, needs a security strategy. But Merkel's coalition partners, the Social Democrats, and the opposition parties lambasted the document. They said that the chancellery would become like the White House and use the national security council to undermine Parliament and the Foreign Ministry. None of the critics talked about the real weaknesses of the document. The paper did not deal with the issue of hard power. It did not spell out under what circumstances the German Army, or for that matter, the European Union, should intervene in order to stop civilians being killed - like in Darfur, Sudan. What this shows is that neither Germany nor most of the 26 other EU member states are ready for a serious discussion about why the bloc needs a security doctrine: It would mean dealing with the issue of power.
BERLIN: Earlier this week, Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats published a paper calling for a security strategy for Germany. This short document touched on all the challenges facing the country, including terrorism, energy security, nuclear proliferation and climate change. It also called for the establishment of a national security council that would oversee the domestic and counterintelligence security services, the Foreign and Development Aid ministries and other agencies that represent Germany's interests.
With this document, a German political party for the first time initiated a debate over national interests and why Berlin, which oversees Europe's largest economy, needs a security strategy. But Merkel's coalition partners, the Social Democrats, and the opposition parties lambasted the document. They said that the chancellery would become like the White House and use the national security council to undermine Parliament and the Foreign Ministry.
None of the critics talked about the real weaknesses of the document. The paper did not deal with the issue of hard power. It did not spell out under what circumstances the German Army, or for that matter, the European Union, should intervene in order to stop civilians being killed - like in Darfur, Sudan.
What this shows is that neither Germany nor most of the 26 other EU member states are ready for a serious discussion about why the bloc needs a security doctrine: It would mean dealing with the issue of power.
n his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger describes how the New Labour government is destroying one of the the venerable features of "communal decency" in Britain - the local post office. Economies need to be made, though not in the pursuit of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.When I first came to live in Britain, much of ordinary life was premised on a sense of community. It was mostly undeclared; occasionally, it would become vivid, even heroic. Watching Durham miners, defeated but unbowed by hunger and debt, march back to the pit in 1985, led by their women, was a glimpse of Britain at its best. In spite of Thatcher and Blair, that communal decency survives, though you may have to look for it. A good place to look is a local post office.Local post offices, from the Highlands to the Pennines to the inner cities, are where precious parcels begin their epic journey to the other side of the world, and pensions, income support, child benefit and Incapacity Benefit are drawn, and Freedom Passes are issued, along with Lottery tickets and Mars Bars. I often walk down to my local post office just to browse, watching the kindness that Shailesh and Smita Patel hand out to the elderly, the awkward, the inarticulate, the harried. If an elderly person has failed to turn up on pension day, he or she will get a visit from Smita, with groceries. Smita has been doing this for most of 20 years.Their post office, in Abbeville Road, Clapham, is one of 169 London branches due to close in May. That is a fifth of all post offices in the capital. Some 2,500 post offices are expected to be shut in Britain by the end of 2009. This includes rural and remote areas, where the post office is quite literally the heart of a community. The Patels in Abbeville Road have had just six weeks to mount a campaign. They have collected 4,500 signatures and packed a local church hall. My neighbours have little doubt about what will happen to "Abbeville Village" if the post office's shutters come down. A proposed betting shop is Lambeth Council's idea of community - or yet another estate agent.The whole wilful destruction is a new Labour classic and shows why, in a nutshell, even the ever faithful have turned on them. Having already closed 6,000 post offices since it came to power in 1997, more than any other government, it issues press releases saying it wants to "help the Post Office modernise, restore profitability... invest in new products and look at innovative ways to deliver services". We know what this means. It was left to a member of the Scottish Parliament, Fergus Ewing, to say it: "Senior management are preparing the ground for a huge sell-off of the postal service."
Brown might as well say "There is no such thing as society". Cos everything he does ensures that anything that matters is wrecked. keep to the Fen Causeway
Serbia goes to the polls on Sunday. Serbs in Kosovo have also been called on to vote in their electoral districts. But those districts are now located in a different country -- Kosovo -- under UN administration. If Belgrade gets its wish, Kosovo's Serbs will be able to vote in Serbian parliamentary and local elections on Sunday, May 11. Serbian citizens who live in Kosovo -- or anywhere else for that matter -- have the right to vote just as those who live in the country do. But there's a catch: Serbia wants to hold elections in Kosovo. The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which oversees the former Serbian administration, rejects the idea, as do Kosovar Albanians, who see Belgrade as undermining their institutions. Serbian state local elections in Kosovo would not be recognized and would even be counterproductive if they weren't organized by UNMIK, according to Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija, one of the main parliamentary parties in Kosovo.
If Belgrade gets its wish, Kosovo's Serbs will be able to vote in Serbian parliamentary and local elections on Sunday, May 11. Serbian citizens who live in Kosovo -- or anywhere else for that matter -- have the right to vote just as those who live in the country do. But there's a catch: Serbia wants to hold elections in Kosovo.
The UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), which oversees the former Serbian administration, rejects the idea, as do Kosovar Albanians, who see Belgrade as undermining their institutions.
Serbian state local elections in Kosovo would not be recognized and would even be counterproductive if they weren't organized by UNMIK, according to Oliver Ivanovic, head of the Serb List for Kosovo and Metohija, one of the main parliamentary parties in Kosovo.
BELGRADE: As a rousing partisan battle song played and torches flared up across a giant stage, the nationalist prime minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, warned several thousand supporters this week they would be caving in to treason if they allowed a Serbia shorn of Kosovo to turn toward Europe and the West. "Where will we go as a nation if we don't defend Serbia as a state?" he asked the crowd, dressed in "Kosovo Is Serbia" T-shirts and gathered in Republic Square on Thursday night ahead of parliamentary elections here Sunday. "They are asking us to give up Kosovo," he said. "They are asking us to give up what we are. They say it is good for Serbia, but it is a lie. "It is treason. If we lose Kosovo, we can only be a caravan of gypsies and we are not a caravan of gypsies. We are a respected nation." Standing next to him, an emissary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia told the crowd to stand up against the illegal occupation of Kosovo by the West with the same bravery Serbia and Russia had displayed against Hitler's Germany.
BELGRADE: As a rousing partisan battle song played and torches flared up across a giant stage, the nationalist prime minister of Serbia, Vojislav Kostunica, warned several thousand supporters this week they would be caving in to treason if they allowed a Serbia shorn of Kosovo to turn toward Europe and the West.
"Where will we go as a nation if we don't defend Serbia as a state?" he asked the crowd, dressed in "Kosovo Is Serbia" T-shirts and gathered in Republic Square on Thursday night ahead of parliamentary elections here Sunday.
"They are asking us to give up Kosovo," he said. "They are asking us to give up what we are. They say it is good for Serbia, but it is a lie.
"It is treason. If we lose Kosovo, we can only be a caravan of gypsies and we are not a caravan of gypsies. We are a respected nation."
Standing next to him, an emissary of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin of Russia told the crowd to stand up against the illegal occupation of Kosovo by the West with the same bravery Serbia and Russia had displayed against Hitler's Germany.
Tanks and nuclear missile launchers rumbled through Moscow's Red Square yesterday for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia put on a display of power for its annual Victory Day parade. President Dmitri Medvedev, its new commander-in-chief, issued a warning against efforts to change international borders, saying that "irresponsible ambitions" risked war across whole continents. In an apparent swipe at the West over support for an independent Kosovo, Mr Medvedev said that Russia objected to attempts to "interfere in other states' affairs, not to mention attempts to revise borders". With his mentor Vladimir Putin, the new Prime Minister, standing behind him, Mr Medvedev went on: "We cannot tolerate disrespect for international law - the law that has been hard won by the entire international community, without which no safe life and fair world order is possible." May 9 is a public holiday in Russia marking the anniversary of the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany after a war that killed 26 million people in the Soviet Union. Mr Putin's parents survived the 900-day siege of Leningrad, but an elder brother did not.
Tanks and nuclear missile launchers rumbled through Moscow's Red Square yesterday for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as Russia put on a display of power for its annual Victory Day parade.
President Dmitri Medvedev, its new commander-in-chief, issued a warning against efforts to change international borders, saying that "irresponsible ambitions" risked war across whole continents. In an apparent swipe at the West over support for an independent Kosovo, Mr Medvedev said that Russia objected to attempts to "interfere in other states' affairs, not to mention attempts to revise borders".
With his mentor Vladimir Putin, the new Prime Minister, standing behind him, Mr Medvedev went on: "We cannot tolerate disrespect for international law - the law that has been hard won by the entire international community, without which no safe life and fair world order is possible."
May 9 is a public holiday in Russia marking the anniversary of the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany after a war that killed 26 million people in the Soviet Union. Mr Putin's parents survived the 900-day siege of Leningrad, but an elder brother did not.
Mr Medvedev went on: "We cannot tolerate disrespect for international law - the law that has been hard won by the entire international community, without which no safe life and fair world order is possible."
Now that's pretty rabid anti-Western rhetoric.
This WILL be seen as anti-Western, showing how twisted our policies have become.They can now be summed up by this: "we're the good guys" In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Western defence specialists pronounce themselves unimpressed by Russia's displays - described by one as "willy-waving". They snidely point out most hardware dates from the Brezhnev era; the conscript army is also mired in scandals over bullying of recruits. "If they wish to get out their old equipment and take it for a spin, they're more than welcome to do so," a Pentagon spokesman said this week when asked whether the Bush administration considered Russia a threat
BRUSSELS: Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium survived a showdown in Parliament on Friday, winning time to avert a fresh crisis for the linguistically divided nation and to forge a deal to give more powers to the regions. Flemish lawmakers, including Leterme's Christian Democrats, carried out their threat to advance a bill to redraw the electoral boundaries around Brussels after Leterme failed to persuade French-speaking parties to accept the demands of the Flemish. The Dutch-speaking Flemish majority pushed the bill onto the agenda in a vote in the early hours of Friday, but the session was suspended before debate could begin after French-speaking parties introduced stalling amendments. The legislation would strip tens of thousands of French-speakers of their right to vote for francophone parties, which had threatened to bring down the five-party government if the bill were passed.
BRUSSELS: Prime Minister Yves Leterme of Belgium survived a showdown in Parliament on Friday, winning time to avert a fresh crisis for the linguistically divided nation and to forge a deal to give more powers to the regions.
Flemish lawmakers, including Leterme's Christian Democrats, carried out their threat to advance a bill to redraw the electoral boundaries around Brussels after Leterme failed to persuade French-speaking parties to accept the demands of the Flemish.
The Dutch-speaking Flemish majority pushed the bill onto the agenda in a vote in the early hours of Friday, but the session was suspended before debate could begin after French-speaking parties introduced stalling amendments.
The legislation would strip tens of thousands of French-speakers of their right to vote for francophone parties, which had threatened to bring down the five-party government if the bill were passed.
