Domestic interests are beginning to set policy as German Chancellor Angela Merkel positions herself to vie for re-election in September. That means disappointments for some of Germany's international partners. Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, together with their preferred coalition partner the Free Democrats, may be attracting a solid majority in recent public-opinion polls. But Merkel is surely aware of how volatile the political situation is in these economically troubled times. So the chancellor, experts say, is already realigning her government's policies to appeal to the home-front. The most recent example came last weekend, when Merkel led opposition to a proposed 180 billion euro ($226 billion) aid package for eastern European economies at an EU summit in Brussels. "The concerns in the German population about jobs and the economic outlook are huge," Klaus-Peter Schoeppner, the head of polling group Emnid, told Reuters news agency. "Against that backdrop, I really don't see a way for Merkel to explain to the voters that Germany must help out other countries, whether they are in the euro bloc or outside."
Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, together with their preferred coalition partner the Free Democrats, may be attracting a solid majority in recent public-opinion polls. But Merkel is surely aware of how volatile the political situation is in these economically troubled times.
So the chancellor, experts say, is already realigning her government's policies to appeal to the home-front. The most recent example came last weekend, when Merkel led opposition to a proposed 180 billion euro ($226 billion) aid package for eastern European economies at an EU summit in Brussels.
"The concerns in the German population about jobs and the economic outlook are huge," Klaus-Peter Schoeppner, the head of polling group Emnid, told Reuters news agency. "Against that backdrop, I really don't see a way for Merkel to explain to the voters that Germany must help out other countries, whether they are in the euro bloc or outside."
The EU could soon be off limits for seal products. European parliamentarians have voted to outlaw these goods, with the exception of traditional Inuit hunting. Opponents say the ban may break international trade rules. The European Parliament's internal market committee has voted to strictly ban trading throughout the EU in products derived from seals. A report approved by the committee on Tuesday, March 3, said the ban would cover seal products, as well as meat, oil, blubber, organs and fur skins. The parliament said in a statement that it had reacted to concerns by non-governmental organizations and public opinion in most member states about seal killings. "A clear majority of citizens across the European Union are horrified by the cruel clubbing to death of thousands of seals every year," said Arlene McCarthy, the committee's chair. "They do not want these products on sale in the EU and today, the internal market committee has backed citizens' demands for a ban."
The European Parliament's internal market committee has voted to strictly ban trading throughout the EU in products derived from seals. A report approved by the committee on Tuesday, March 3, said the ban would cover seal products, as well as meat, oil, blubber, organs and fur skins.
The parliament said in a statement that it had reacted to concerns by non-governmental organizations and public opinion in most member states about seal killings.
"A clear majority of citizens across the European Union are horrified by the cruel clubbing to death of thousands of seals every year," said Arlene McCarthy, the committee's chair. "They do not want these products on sale in the EU and today, the internal market committee has backed citizens' demands for a ban."
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will meet her European counterparts in Brussels this evening for a "transatlantic dinner" ahead of the Nato ministerial meeting on Thursday set to focus on Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and Russia. "She will convey on behalf of the Obama administration our commitment to revitalising Nato, listening to our allies and consulting, hearing their views and building strategies together," Kurt Volker, the US permanent representative to Nato told EUobserver. Hillary Clinton is set to ask for a greater European commitment in Afghanistan The informal get-to-know-each-other meeting will also see non-Nato foreign ministers from Finland, Sweden and non-EU nation Switzerland attend. Renewed commitment to the Nato operation in Afghanistan, which the Obama administration has put high on its agenda, is set to dominate the talks. Ms Clinton will likely also be faced with questions regarding the planned US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic after reports that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Moscow offering to back down from the project in return for Russian support against Iran's nuclear programme.
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - US secretary of state Hillary Clinton will meet her European counterparts in Brussels this evening for a "transatlantic dinner" ahead of the Nato ministerial meeting on Thursday set to focus on Afghanistan, Eastern Europe and Russia.
"She will convey on behalf of the Obama administration our commitment to revitalising Nato, listening to our allies and consulting, hearing their views and building strategies together," Kurt Volker, the US permanent representative to Nato told EUobserver.
Hillary Clinton is set to ask for a greater European commitment in Afghanistan
The informal get-to-know-each-other meeting will also see non-Nato foreign ministers from Finland, Sweden and non-EU nation Switzerland attend.
Renewed commitment to the Nato operation in Afghanistan, which the Obama administration has put high on its agenda, is set to dominate the talks.
Ms Clinton will likely also be faced with questions regarding the planned US missile defence shield in Poland and the Czech Republic after reports that President Barack Obama sent a secret letter to Moscow offering to back down from the project in return for Russian support against Iran's nuclear programme.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Women earn an average of 17.4 percent less than men across the EU's 27 member states, with the greatest gender pay difference seen in Estonia, EU statistics released ahead of international women's day show. Part of a campaign to raise awareness of a situation that has changed little in recent years, EU studies show the discrepancy is largely due to an undervaluation of women's work, stereotyping and problems with balancing work and private life. Women account for just a quarter of government ministers in the EU The situation is most acute in Estonia, where men on average earn almost a third (30.3%) more, followed by Austria, Slovakia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Germany. At the other end of the scale, the pay gap is lowest in Italy (4.4%), Malta (5.2%) and Poland (7.5%). However, these countries also show relatively low participation of women in the workforce. "Tackling [the situation] requires action at all levels and a commitment from everyone concerned, from employers and trade unions to national authorities and every citizen," said EU social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Women earn an average of 17.4 percent less than men across the EU's 27 member states, with the greatest gender pay difference seen in Estonia, EU statistics released ahead of international women's day show.
Part of a campaign to raise awareness of a situation that has changed little in recent years, EU studies show the discrepancy is largely due to an undervaluation of women's work, stereotyping and problems with balancing work and private life.
Women account for just a quarter of government ministers in the EU
The situation is most acute in Estonia, where men on average earn almost a third (30.3%) more, followed by Austria, Slovakia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Cyprus and Germany.
At the other end of the scale, the pay gap is lowest in Italy (4.4%), Malta (5.2%) and Poland (7.5%). However, these countries also show relatively low participation of women in the workforce.
"Tackling [the situation] requires action at all levels and a commitment from everyone concerned, from employers and trade unions to national authorities and every citizen," said EU social affairs commissioner Vladimir Spidla.
More women in the workplace could help lift the European Union out of recession and limit the impact of future financial crises, an EU official said. The gender gap in Germany is especially high, statistics show. "Discrimination produces inefficiency," said European Equals Opportunity Commissioner Vladimir Spidla at the launch of a European campaign against the gender pay gap on Tuesday, March 3. "It is precisely during times of crises that we should be most active." Some 58 percent of women and 72 percent of men of working age in the EU were employed -- with 31 percent of women and 7 percent of men in part-time jobs, according to an EU employment report. Spidla quoted a series of studies showing that a more active participation by women in the workplace helps make businesses more efficient and avoid riskier investments.
"Discrimination produces inefficiency," said European Equals Opportunity Commissioner Vladimir Spidla at the launch of a European campaign against the gender pay gap on Tuesday, March 3. "It is precisely during times of crises that we should be most active."
Some 58 percent of women and 72 percent of men of working age in the EU were employed -- with 31 percent of women and 7 percent of men in part-time jobs, according to an EU employment report.
Spidla quoted a series of studies showing that a more active participation by women in the workplace helps make businesses more efficient and avoid riskier investments.
When Thomas and Zibi came to Britain, jobs were easy to come by. Now they are sleeping in a tent, victims of a recession that has destroyed the livelihoods of thousands of migrant workersThomas and his brother Zibi were trying to keep themselves warm at their riverbank home yesterday by huddling round a small, smoky fire built from green sticks. A pot of water bubbled away and all around the trees and undergrowth, which only partially concealed their makeshift shelters from curious passers-by, were festooned with clothes and plastic bags.
Thomas and his brother Zibi were trying to keep themselves warm at their riverbank home yesterday by huddling round a small, smoky fire built from green sticks. A pot of water bubbled away and all around the trees and undergrowth, which only partially concealed their makeshift shelters from curious passers-by, were festooned with clothes and plastic bags.
The school is in the centre of the most densely-populated-by-Polish-immigrants area of allegedly the most densely-populated-by-Polish-immigrants city in the UK.
It's a been a long time since we had a child leave, whose space wasn't snapped up by the following Monday.
National security services have raided the headquarters of Naftogaz, Ukraine's state energy company, in what they said was part of a criminal investigation.The agents, who were armed and wore masks, were searching for documents in connection with an investigation into an alleged diversion of gas worth $900m, a spokeswoman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. Marina Ostapenko said Naftogaz knew that the SBU would be taking documents from its headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine's capital, adding that the raid was "within the framework of the law". Naftogaz was involved in a gas pricing dispute with Gazprom, Russia's state energy company, in January, which led to severe energy shortages across Europe for two weeks.
National security services have raided the headquarters of Naftogaz, Ukraine's state energy company, in what they said was part of a criminal investigation.The agents, who were armed and wore masks, were searching for documents in connection with an investigation into an alleged diversion of gas worth $900m, a spokeswoman for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said.
Marina Ostapenko said Naftogaz knew that the SBU would be taking documents from its headquarters in Kiev, Ukraine's capital, adding that the raid was "within the framework of the law".
Naftogaz was involved in a gas pricing dispute with Gazprom, Russia's state energy company, in January, which led to severe energy shortages across Europe for two weeks.
Fresh charges of money laundering and fraud against former oligarchThe Russian former oligarch Mik-hail Khodorkovsky appeared in court in Moscow yesterday at the start of hearings in a new criminal case that could send him back to prison for 20 more years. The former chief of the Yukos oil company, Mr Khodorkovsky was Russia's richest man until his arrest in 2003. Dressed in jeans and a black sweater, with his grey hair cropped short, he made his first public appearance in the Russian capital since being sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005. Alongside him was his former business partner, Platon Lebedev, who is also serving an eight-year sentence. Both face new charges of money-laundering and embezzlement.Security was tight at the Khamovnichesky Court, a scruffy building overlooking the Moscow River in the centre of the capital. The road had been closed to pedestrians and police patrolled the street with sniffer dogs ahead of Mr Khodorkovsky's arrival. The initial hearings were closed to the press, with television cameras allowed into the main courtroom for just a few minutes before proceedings started at midday. There were chaotic scenes outside the court during the hour before, with journalists jostling for admission, and lawyers for the defence elbowing their way through to get into the court.
The Russian former oligarch Mik-hail Khodorkovsky appeared in court in Moscow yesterday at the start of hearings in a new criminal case that could send him back to prison for 20 more years. The former chief of the Yukos oil company, Mr Khodorkovsky was Russia's richest man until his arrest in 2003.
Dressed in jeans and a black sweater, with his grey hair cropped short, he made his first public appearance in the Russian capital since being sentenced to eight years in prison in 2005. Alongside him was his former business partner, Platon Lebedev, who is also serving an eight-year sentence. Both face new charges of money-laundering and embezzlement.
Security was tight at the Khamovnichesky Court, a scruffy building overlooking the Moscow River in the centre of the capital. The road had been closed to pedestrians and police patrolled the street with sniffer dogs ahead of Mr Khodorkovsky's arrival. The initial hearings were closed to the press, with television cameras allowed into the main courtroom for just a few minutes before proceedings started at midday. There were chaotic scenes outside the court during the hour before, with journalists jostling for admission, and lawyers for the defence elbowing their way through to get into the court.
Meeting with a number of Russian gazillionaires in various fancy settings (I was able to try out a number of nice Parisian restaurants) has left me with the pleasant feeling that they are not that different from us, in fact.
But Khodorkhorvski did impress more than others. Beyond being smart and determined, he was clearly more disciplined. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
Did Medvedev Give Khodorkovsky A Lift To His Trial? THE MEETING SOUNDS LIKE A SCREENWRITER'S DREAM: incarcerated ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, flying across Siberia to the former's trial in Moscow -- on the latter's presidential plane. Strange as it seems, eyewitnesses who saw the plane before takeoff believe it really happened. Khodorkovsky, whose oil company was gutted by the Kremlin after he expressed political aspirations in 2003, has been in a Siberian prison since 2005. On February 19, President Medvedev paid an official visit to Chita, a Siberian city not far from the prison. The next day, Khodorkovsky arrived in Moscow to stand trial. Witnesses say the plane used to transport Khodorkovsky bore the presidential standard along with the logo of the private government airline reserved for top Kremlin officials. There has been no official confirmation from the government that the president gave Khodorkovsky a lift to his trial, but it would be foolish to expect one.
THE MEETING SOUNDS LIKE A SCREENWRITER'S DREAM: incarcerated ex-oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, flying across Siberia to the former's trial in Moscow -- on the latter's presidential plane. Strange as it seems, eyewitnesses who saw the plane before takeoff believe it really happened.
Khodorkovsky, whose oil company was gutted by the Kremlin after he expressed political aspirations in 2003, has been in a Siberian prison since 2005. On February 19, President Medvedev paid an official visit to Chita, a Siberian city not far from the prison. The next day, Khodorkovsky arrived in Moscow to stand trial. Witnesses say the plane used to transport Khodorkovsky bore the presidential standard along with the logo of the private government airline reserved for top Kremlin officials. There has been no official confirmation from the government that the president gave Khodorkovsky a lift to his trial, but it would be foolish to expect one.
"You repatriate some of the billions you stashed, and your late appeal might be successful".
"...and my bank account number is....." "Any economic unit can emit money. The serious problem is to get it accepted" Hyman Minsky
TATARSZENTGYORGY, Hungary: Thousands of people, mostly Roma, joined the funeral procession Tuesday of a young boy and his father who were shot dead last week in the latest in a series of attacks on Roma in Hungary. A crowd of about 5,000, which also included politicians from parliamentary parties and civil rights activists, gathered around the graves of the two victims in the village of Tatarszentgyorgy, 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, southeast of Budapest. Black-clad mourners wept and when the coffin was lowered into the grave in the small hillside cemetery, the world-famous 100-member Gypsy Symphony Orchestra started to play. "We seek the forgiveness of the mourning family and...our Gypsy brethren whom for 500 years we have owed an embrace," the Hungarian Methodist pastor Gabor Ivanyi, who is not Roma, said as he addressed the gathering. "We are a deeply moved and ashamed people." The killings last Monday were the latest in a series of more than a dozen attacks on Roma in Hungary in which seven people have died over the past year.
TATARSZENTGYORGY, Hungary: Thousands of people, mostly Roma, joined the funeral procession Tuesday of a young boy and his father who were shot dead last week in the latest in a series of attacks on Roma in Hungary.
A crowd of about 5,000, which also included politicians from parliamentary parties and civil rights activists, gathered around the graves of the two victims in the village of Tatarszentgyorgy, 65 kilometers, or 40 miles, southeast of Budapest.
Black-clad mourners wept and when the coffin was lowered into the grave in the small hillside cemetery, the world-famous 100-member Gypsy Symphony Orchestra started to play.
"We seek the forgiveness of the mourning family and...our Gypsy brethren whom for 500 years we have owed an embrace," the Hungarian Methodist pastor Gabor Ivanyi, who is not Roma, said as he addressed the gathering. "We are a deeply moved and ashamed people."
The killings last Monday were the latest in a series of more than a dozen attacks on Roma in Hungary in which seven people have died over the past year.
EU governments Tuesday agreed to slap tariffs on US biodiesel, the International Herald Tribune reports diplomats as saying. Europe has repeatedly complained that American biodiesel is subsidised twice, both by the US and EU states. The EU commission is to set the tariff level some time next week.
Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Strasbourg, 03.03.2009 - "Italy has today ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights. This Protocol bans the death penalty in all circumstances, and Italy is the 41st European country to take this important step which consolidates the death penalty-free zone throughout Europe." Council of Europe Directorate of Communication
Statement by Terry Davis, Secretary General of the Council of Europe
Strasbourg, 03.03.2009 - "Italy has today ratified Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights. This Protocol bans the death penalty in all circumstances, and Italy is the 41st European country to take this important step which consolidates the death penalty-free zone throughout Europe."
Council of Europe Directorate of Communication
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After waiting for the Obama administration to take office, European states have started floating names for the next NATO secretary general to replace Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, whose mandate ends on 31 July. Although there is less than a month to go until the 60th anniversary NATO summit in Strasbourg/Kehl, member states are still in the early stage regarding the nomination of the next NATO chief, Herman Schaper, the Dutch ambassador to the alliance, told EUobserver. Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's (r) mandate is associated with George W. Bush's (l) presidency "We waited for the Obama administration and only started two to three weeks ago to invite countries to present their candidate. At this moment there is no official candidate," Mr Schaper explained. Asked about the chances for an Eastern European secretary general, Mr Schaper said that there were already two names floated from Poland and Bulgaria - foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski and former top diplomat Solomon Passy, respectively.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - After waiting for the Obama administration to take office, European states have started floating names for the next NATO secretary general to replace Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, whose mandate ends on 31 July.
Although there is less than a month to go until the 60th anniversary NATO summit in Strasbourg/Kehl, member states are still in the early stage regarding the nomination of the next NATO chief, Herman Schaper, the Dutch ambassador to the alliance, told EUobserver.
Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's (r) mandate is associated with George W. Bush's (l) presidency
"We waited for the Obama administration and only started two to three weeks ago to invite countries to present their candidate. At this moment there is no official candidate," Mr Schaper explained.
Asked about the chances for an Eastern European secretary general, Mr Schaper said that there were already two names floated from Poland and Bulgaria - foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski and former top diplomat Solomon Passy, respectively.
Given how the elites are increasingly of a class separate from us, hows about they make it official and disappear somewhere they don't bother us. keep to the Fen Causeway
Protests seems to have an effect tough. A free fox in a free henhouse!
