A German initiative to strengthen European ties to resource-rich Central Asia begins to bear fruit. Representatives from the two regions will meet to discuss possible cooperation on energy security. A main aim of the Paris meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18, is to establish lasting partnerships on security issues between the EU and the five Central Asian states Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. Against the background of the situation in the Caucasus and Afghanistan the two sides will hold consultations on combating terror, the fight against human and drug trafficking, as well as on energy and environmental security.
A main aim of the Paris meeting on Thursday, Sept. 18, is to establish lasting partnerships on security issues between the EU and the five Central Asian states Kyrgystan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
Against the background of the situation in the Caucasus and Afghanistan the two sides will hold consultations on combating terror, the fight against human and drug trafficking, as well as on energy and environmental security.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the EU for proceeding too slowly with Ankara's accession talks and called on the bloc to play fair with his country. "Before our membership process started, opening and closing chapters was not an issue. Chapters were opened and closed. But now we are struggling for this," Mr Erdogan said at a dinner with ambassadors and heads of foreign missions in Ankara, Turkish media report. Turkey's PM Erdogan - "If you see us as a burden, then say so." Turkey has been an EU candidate country since 1999 and started accession talks in October 2005. It has so far opened just six out of the 35 negotiation chapters that have to be concluded before it becomes an EU member, with the French EU presidency planning to open two more before the end of the year. The Turkish premier said the EU "is not as fast as Turkey in regards with negotiation chapters," calling on the EU to proceed in the same way with all candidate countries.
Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised the EU for proceeding too slowly with Ankara's accession talks and called on the bloc to play fair with his country.
"Before our membership process started, opening and closing chapters was not an issue. Chapters were opened and closed. But now we are struggling for this," Mr Erdogan said at a dinner with ambassadors and heads of foreign missions in Ankara, Turkish media report.
Turkey's PM Erdogan - "If you see us as a burden, then say so."
Turkey has been an EU candidate country since 1999 and started accession talks in October 2005.
It has so far opened just six out of the 35 negotiation chapters that have to be concluded before it becomes an EU member, with the French EU presidency planning to open two more before the end of the year.
The Turkish premier said the EU "is not as fast as Turkey in regards with negotiation chapters," calling on the EU to proceed in the same way with all candidate countries.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU policies applied to the Western Balkans - such as a regional free trade area - are inspiring the "Eastern Partnership" with Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and "hopefully" Belarus, participants at a conference organized Wednesday (17 September) by the German Konrad Adenauer think-tank learned. Free trade should be the way to Europe for eastern countries, as in the Balkans Initially a Polish-Swedish proposal endorsed in June by all member states, the Eastern Partnership is designed to deepen ties with the "European neighbours" to the east, balancing the 'Mediterranean Union' with the southern "neighbours of Europe," as Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski put it. The Georgian conflict sped up the process of drafting the eastern policy by the European Commission, with president Jose Manuel Barroso scheduled to sketch out the main features already at the EU summit on 15 October. "We might be inspired by the experience with the Western Balkans that countries which perhaps didn't work so well together in the past, will do so in specific areas like energy or transport. We should put forward the idea of creating a free trade area between these countries - something which worked quite well in the Balkans," Gunnar Wiegand, director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia within the European Commission, explained.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU policies applied to the Western Balkans - such as a regional free trade area - are inspiring the "Eastern Partnership" with Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and "hopefully" Belarus, participants at a conference organized Wednesday (17 September) by the German Konrad Adenauer think-tank learned.
Free trade should be the way to Europe for eastern countries, as in the Balkans
Initially a Polish-Swedish proposal endorsed in June by all member states, the Eastern Partnership is designed to deepen ties with the "European neighbours" to the east, balancing the 'Mediterranean Union' with the southern "neighbours of Europe," as Polish MEP Jacek Saryusz-Wolski put it.
The Georgian conflict sped up the process of drafting the eastern policy by the European Commission, with president Jose Manuel Barroso scheduled to sketch out the main features already at the EU summit on 15 October.
"We might be inspired by the experience with the Western Balkans that countries which perhaps didn't work so well together in the past, will do so in specific areas like energy or transport. We should put forward the idea of creating a free trade area between these countries - something which worked quite well in the Balkans," Gunnar Wiegand, director for Eastern Europe, Southern Caucasus and Central Asia within the European Commission, explained.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation. Seventy four percent of people in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland said they were "religious." Italy (89%) and Poland (87%) topped the German NGO's "Religion Monitor" chart, with France at the lower end on 54 percent. Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe More than half of Europeans regularly practice their faith and 61 percent pray, with church attendance higher in Poland than in Italy and with Roman Catholics describing themselves as more highly religious than Protestants. "The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe," the survey said. "The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated."
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Europeans remain strongly religious but like to keep faith out of politics while cultivating an open mind to various forms of spirituality, according to a new survey by the Bertelsmann Foundation.
Seventy four percent of people in Germany, France, the UK, Italy, Austria, Poland and Switzerland said they were "religious." Italy (89%) and Poland (87%) topped the German NGO's "Religion Monitor" chart, with France at the lower end on 54 percent.
Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe
More than half of Europeans regularly practice their faith and 61 percent pray, with church attendance higher in Poland than in Italy and with Roman Catholics describing themselves as more highly religious than Protestants.
"The Christian faith still has a strong influence in Europe," the survey said. "The role which [religion] plays in tying together the countries of the European Union should not be underestimated."
"Contrived Hypothesis Enunciating Ridiculous Premii with Equally Contrived Poll" Never underestimate their intelligence, always underestimate their knowledge.
Frank Delaney ~ Ireland
MOSCOW: Russia deepened its relations with Georgia's two breakaway regions on Wednesday, even as the Bush administration was intensifying its warnings that Russia was "on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance." Brushing aside international protests, President Dmitri Medvedev signed separate treaties with the regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, guaranteeing them protection in case of attack. The treaties also allow Russia to build military bases and station additional troops in the territories. Those steps, if put into effect, would violate the European-brokered cease-fire that ended Russia's war with Georgia last month. In Washington, the administration's criticism of Russia is reaching new intensity in remarks prepared for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In a speech she is to deliver before the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, Rice will challenge Russia in some of the most stinging language she has used in office.
MOSCOW: Russia deepened its relations with Georgia's two breakaway regions on Wednesday, even as the Bush administration was intensifying its warnings that Russia was "on a one-way path to self-imposed isolation and international irrelevance."
Brushing aside international protests, President Dmitri Medvedev signed separate treaties with the regions, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, guaranteeing them protection in case of attack.
The treaties also allow Russia to build military bases and station additional troops in the territories. Those steps, if put into effect, would violate the European-brokered cease-fire that ended Russia's war with Georgia last month.
In Washington, the administration's criticism of Russia is reaching new intensity in remarks prepared for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In a speech she is to deliver before the German Marshall Fund on Thursday, Rice will challenge Russia in some of the most stinging language she has used in office.
Dmitrii Medvedev, the Russian president, says he is not afraid of a new cold war. Should anyone be? The recent conflict in Georgia and the surging rhetorical battle between Moscow and Western leaderships have revived ugly twentieth-century memories. But it is perhaps worth recalling German unification chancellor Otto von Bismarck's warning that Russia is never as strong or as weak as it looks. As we approach the spectre of a new cold war, however, we can rest confident that Russia's strength is of the exaggerated quality. Last week, Russian bombers landed in Venezuela. After mauling its former colony of Georgia, Russia is now reaching out to a Latin American well-wisher, whose leader spoke positively of its actions and just severed diplomatic relations with Washington. Ugly shadows of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we are told, loom over the tranquil Caribbean.
Should anyone be?
The recent conflict in Georgia and the surging rhetorical battle between Moscow and Western leaderships have revived ugly twentieth-century memories.
But it is perhaps worth recalling German unification chancellor Otto von Bismarck's warning that Russia is never as strong or as weak as it looks. As we approach the spectre of a new cold war, however, we can rest confident that Russia's strength is of the exaggerated quality.
Last week, Russian bombers landed in Venezuela. After mauling its former colony of Georgia, Russia is now reaching out to a Latin American well-wisher, whose leader spoke positively of its actions and just severed diplomatic relations with Washington.
Ugly shadows of the Cuban Missile Crisis, we are told, loom over the tranquil Caribbean.
have condi rice show up in fuck-me jackboots, armed with stinging comments like a dominatrix animé to an already 'shock-doctrined' situation.
compensating for not being asked to be VP!
condaleezer, and the catwalk-to-chaos combo.
hopefully the russians don't take her rhetorical bear-baiting seriously, i don't think anyone else does.
let her incendiaries fall harmlessly into a puddle of silence, any response would validate this clumsy, callow apology for diplomacy.
we finally have articulate, intelligent russian leaders to negotiate with, and this is the best we 'westerners' can offer?
boggles the mind... ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
A series of shocks, including fears of a new Cold War, caused share prices to fall even before this week's turmoil. Foreign investors may not return soon. Traders work in the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) in Moscow. Is history repeating itself? That's surely a question many Russians must be asking themselves. Almost exactly 10 years after the financial crash of 1998, Russian markets are once again in turmoil. On Sept. 16, Moscow's largest stock exchange, MICEX, fell by a jaw-dropping 17.5 percent, the largest one-day loss in a decade, while the rival RTS exchange was down by 11.5 percent. The free fall continued on Sept. 17, causing Russia's stock market regulator to suspend trading on both exchanges. The Russian central bank pumped a record $14.1 billion into the financial system, while the Finance Ministry said it would provide $44.9 billion in short-term loans to the country's biggest banks. Compared with the gyrations in Moscow, the 5 percent declines in other global markets look pretty mild. What's more, the collapse in Russia is not simply a knee-jerk response to bad news elsewhere. Well before this week's chaos on Wall Street, the Russian stock market was imploding. Since the beginning of July, the RTS has lost 64 percent of its value, equivalent to some three-quarters of a trillion dollars.
A series of shocks, including fears of a new Cold War, caused share prices to fall even before this week's turmoil. Foreign investors may not return soon.
Traders work in the Moscow Interbank Currency Exchange (MICEX) in Moscow. Is history repeating itself? That's surely a question many Russians must be asking themselves. Almost exactly 10 years after the financial crash of 1998, Russian markets are once again in turmoil. On Sept. 16, Moscow's largest stock exchange, MICEX, fell by a jaw-dropping 17.5 percent, the largest one-day loss in a decade, while the rival RTS exchange was down by 11.5 percent.
The free fall continued on Sept. 17, causing Russia's stock market regulator to suspend trading on both exchanges. The Russian central bank pumped a record $14.1 billion into the financial system, while the Finance Ministry said it would provide $44.9 billion in short-term loans to the country's biggest banks.
Compared with the gyrations in Moscow, the 5 percent declines in other global markets look pretty mild. What's more, the collapse in Russia is not simply a knee-jerk response to bad news elsewhere. Well before this week's chaos on Wall Street, the Russian stock market was imploding. Since the beginning of July, the RTS has lost 64 percent of its value, equivalent to some three-quarters of a trillion dollars.
Foreign investors may not return soon.
Today trading on MICEX stopped once again because of 18% gain of the index. Thank God, foreign investors (tm) are back!
Is history repeating itself? That's surely a question many Russians must be asking themselves.
Must be the segment of population confusing deficit with surplus. Like pro-Western (tm) ex-politician Nemtsov who was advising population to dump roubles and buy dollars.
Amid growing outrage over the planned bailout of a subsidiary and a mistaken money transfer, pressure is mounting on Germany's KfW development bank. Amid the damaging fallout from the US banking crisis, German state development bank KfW has come under increased criticism from several of its own supervisory board members. One lawmaker has called for the "total reform" of KfW in the wake of a major payment error, while another has raised doubts about the costly bailout of crippled subsidiary IKB. Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Could the IKB bailout be less than certain? Late Thursday, Sept. 18, the KfW board is slated to meet in Berlin for a formal vote to approve the sale of IKB Deutsche Industriebank, a subsidiary of KfW that was hit hard in by subprime mortgage exposure in the US, to US financial investor Lone Sta
Amid the damaging fallout from the US banking crisis, German state development bank KfW has come under increased criticism from several of its own supervisory board members.
One lawmaker has called for the "total reform" of KfW in the wake of a major payment error, while another has raised doubts about the costly bailout of crippled subsidiary IKB.
Bildunterschrift: Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: Could the IKB bailout be less than certain?
Late Thursday, Sept. 18, the KfW board is slated to meet in Berlin for a formal vote to approve the sale of IKB Deutsche Industriebank, a subsidiary of KfW that was hit hard in by subprime mortgage exposure in the US, to US financial investor Lone Sta
Hundreds of billions of euros from a German government-owned bank went down the drain with Lehman Brothers on Monday after a strange deal that has left many people scratching their heads. Why would a German bank transfer €300 billion to an American Wall Street firm after it filed for bankruptcy? German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück says he's as baffled as anyone. The German Finance Ministry declared itself shocked -- shocked! -- on Wednesday at the news that a state lending bank, KfW, had transferred €300 million ($426 million) to Lehman Brothers in New York on Monday, just after the investment bank collapsed. "What we have had to read today is astonishing and exasperating," Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig told reporters. "We expect a swift explanation of such a technical failure, which is inexplicable to us." The trouble is, KfW is overseen by the Finance Ministry, among other elements of the German government, and the country's finance minister, Peer Steinbrück, holds ultimate responsibility for the bank's health. Ratings agency S&P said KfW's sudden exposure to such a loss would not hurt the bank's credit; but KfW was already burdened by the collapse of another German bank, IKB, in the wake of the subprime crisis last winter. KfW was IKB's largest shareholder, and it oversaw a deal -- on behalf of the public -- to sell the bank to American investors at the firesale price of €100 million. The bargain basement sale, however, came only after taxpayers were required to pay billions to bail IKB out.
Hundreds of billions of euros from a German government-owned bank went down the drain with Lehman Brothers on Monday after a strange deal that has left many people scratching their heads. Why would a German bank transfer €300 billion to an American Wall Street firm after it filed for bankruptcy?
German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück says he's as baffled as anyone. The German Finance Ministry declared itself shocked -- shocked! -- on Wednesday at the news that a state lending bank, KfW, had transferred €300 million ($426 million) to Lehman Brothers in New York on Monday, just after the investment bank collapsed.
"What we have had to read today is astonishing and exasperating," Finance Ministry spokesman Torsten Albig told reporters. "We expect a swift explanation of such a technical failure, which is inexplicable to us."
The trouble is, KfW is overseen by the Finance Ministry, among other elements of the German government, and the country's finance minister, Peer Steinbrück, holds ultimate responsibility for the bank's health. Ratings agency S&P said KfW's sudden exposure to such a loss would not hurt the bank's credit; but KfW was already burdened by the collapse of another German bank, IKB, in the wake of the subprime crisis last winter. KfW was IKB's largest shareholder, and it oversaw a deal -- on behalf of the public -- to sell the bank to American investors at the firesale price of €100 million. The bargain basement sale, however, came only after taxpayers were required to pay billions to bail IKB out.
Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of Justice, yesterday Thursday said he had refused a request by the public prosecutor in Rome for permission to charge the comedienne and satirist Sabina Guzzanti with insulting Pope Benedict XVI. Ms Guzzanti had said during a left wing rally in Rome in July that because of the Church's stand on homosexuality the Pope would go to Hell, where he would be tormented by "very active poofter devils".
Angelino Alfano, the Italian Minister of Justice, yesterday Thursday said he had refused a request by the public prosecutor in Rome for permission to charge the comedienne and satirist Sabina Guzzanti with insulting Pope Benedict XVI.
Ms Guzzanti had said during a left wing rally in Rome in July that because of the Church's stand on homosexuality the Pope would go to Hell, where he would be tormented by "very active poofter devils".
Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing an ambitious challenge from her deputy. A new poll shows that Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, is Germany's most popular politician at a time when the country's two leaders are at each other's throats.Their protracted face-off risks emulating the US election for sheer duration. But whereas John McCain and Barack Obama are opponents, Mr Steinmeier and Mrs Merkel are supposed to be allies, leading the so-called grand coalition government of the Left-wing Social Democrats and Right-wing Christian Democratic Union. Mr Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, even has the official title of vice-chancellor, Mrs Merkel's number two. But the façade of co-operation in the grand coalition has been crumbling fast, ever since Mr Steinmeier orchestrated a putsch earlier this month within his own party to claim the role of its official candidate for the chancellorship.
A new poll shows that Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, is Germany's most popular politician at a time when the country's two leaders are at each other's throats.
Their protracted face-off risks emulating the US election for sheer duration. But whereas John McCain and Barack Obama are opponents, Mr Steinmeier and Mrs Merkel are supposed to be allies, leading the so-called grand coalition government of the Left-wing Social Democrats and Right-wing Christian Democratic Union.
Mr Steinmeier, Germany's foreign minister, even has the official title of vice-chancellor, Mrs Merkel's number two.
But the façade of co-operation in the grand coalition has been crumbling fast, ever since Mr Steinmeier orchestrated a putsch earlier this month within his own party to claim the role of its official candidate for the chancellorship.
The strained relationship between Poland's president and government is set to come come under further pressure after the Polish defence ministry said it would decorate an air force pilot for defying the country's president, Lech Kaczynski. Defence minister, Bogdan Klich, said that the pilot, who was in command of the presidential flight at the time, would receive the Silver Cross for the Defence of Homeland after he refused to obey an order from President Kaczynski to land at the Georgian capital of Tbilisi at the height of August's Georgian-Russian conflict. The Polish Air Force airliner, carrying the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and the Latvian prime minister, was on its way to an airfield in Azerbaijan, from which the passengers would travel to Tbilisi by car, when President Kaczynski told the pilot to divert to Georgia. "The pilot was determined to stick to arrangements made earlier and uphold his duties for the safety of his passengers," said Mr Klich. "You have to remember that he was responsible for not only 40 people but three presidents and one prime minister. "We had no idea whether an aircraft could fly to Tbilisi, and whether it could land there," he continued. "There was a risk it could have been shot down."
Defence minister, Bogdan Klich, said that the pilot, who was in command of the presidential flight at the time, would receive the Silver Cross for the Defence of Homeland after he refused to obey an order from President Kaczynski to land at the Georgian capital of Tbilisi at the height of August's Georgian-Russian conflict.
The Polish Air Force airliner, carrying the presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and the Latvian prime minister, was on its way to an airfield in Azerbaijan, from which the passengers would travel to Tbilisi by car, when President Kaczynski told the pilot to divert to Georgia.
"The pilot was determined to stick to arrangements made earlier and uphold his duties for the safety of his passengers," said Mr Klich. "You have to remember that he was responsible for not only 40 people but three presidents and one prime minister.
"We had no idea whether an aircraft could fly to Tbilisi, and whether it could land there," he continued.
"There was a risk it could have been shot down."
By donning nuns' black and white habits street walkers hope to make the tough new legislation so confusing that it becomes unworkable... "We'll dress as nuns so that the police will arrest scantily dressed girls outside discos or other women with their cleavage on show," said Pia Covre, of the Committee for the Rights of Prostitutes. "The idea of wearing gowns or habits down to the feet is to confront the decrees which limit even the freedom of what you can wear," she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "In Florence, for example, the mayor has forbidden girls from walking up and down and we are thinking of going around on bicycles instead." Meanwhile police in Rome have issued more than 100 prostitutes and 40 of their clients with spot fines of 200 euros (£158) since the new decree was introduced on Tuesday.
"We'll dress as nuns so that the police will arrest scantily dressed girls outside discos or other women with their cleavage on show," said Pia Covre, of the Committee for the Rights of Prostitutes.
"The idea of wearing gowns or habits down to the feet is to confront the decrees which limit even the freedom of what you can wear," she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
"In Florence, for example, the mayor has forbidden girls from walking up and down and we are thinking of going around on bicycles instead." Meanwhile police in Rome have issued more than 100 prostitutes and 40 of their clients with spot fines of 200 euros (£158) since the new decree was introduced on Tuesday.
