EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden has said it needs Jose Manuel Barroso to be given full and clear backing for a second term as commission president or its term as EU presidency country, beginning in July, will be weakened. Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt dismissed proposals - said to come from France - that Mr Barroso be given interim backing next week until October when the commission's current term expires and a new set of institutional rules is possibly in place. 'Yes I am' a candidate for a second term, says Jose Manuel Barroso (r) "We intend to elect Mr Barroso as president of the commission ... but it should be a full mandate," said Mr Reinfeldt, on Tuesday (9 June). He said a half endorsement while the EU waits to see ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is completed would "put pressure on the capacity of the Swedish presidency" to react to major issues such as the financial crisis and climate change - with the latter due at an international CO2-reduction agreement by the end of the year.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Sweden has said it needs Jose Manuel Barroso to be given full and clear backing for a second term as commission president or its term as EU presidency country, beginning in July, will be weakened.
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt dismissed proposals - said to come from France - that Mr Barroso be given interim backing next week until October when the commission's current term expires and a new set of institutional rules is possibly in place.
'Yes I am' a candidate for a second term, says Jose Manuel Barroso (r)
"We intend to elect Mr Barroso as president of the commission ... but it should be a full mandate," said Mr Reinfeldt, on Tuesday (9 June).
He said a half endorsement while the EU waits to see ratification of the Lisbon Treaty is completed would "put pressure on the capacity of the Swedish presidency" to react to major issues such as the financial crisis and climate change - with the latter due at an international CO2-reduction agreement by the end of the year.
Big whooping surprise. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
what a way to run things, sigh. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - Romania's two newly elected right-wing extremist MEPs may not take up their seats in the EU assembly, as one has been ordered by court not to leave the country and the other one wants to show "solidarity" with his colleague. A court in Bucharest ruled on Tuesday that newly elected MEP George "Gigi" Becali, a millionaire football-club owner known for his burlesque TV appearances, is not allowed to leave the country as he is charged with ordering his bodyguards to capture and threaten three men who tried to steal his car. Extremist leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor says he will give up his MEP mandate in solidarity with his colleague The court had earlier agreed to release Mr Becali from pre-trial detention under electoral rules which guaranteed his freedom during the run-up to last weekend's European Parliament election. He is also under investigation in a separate case for trying to bribe a football team playing against his club's main rival to the tune of €1.6 million.
EUOBSERVER/BRUSSELS - Romania's two newly elected right-wing extremist MEPs may not take up their seats in the EU assembly, as one has been ordered by court not to leave the country and the other one wants to show "solidarity" with his colleague.
A court in Bucharest ruled on Tuesday that newly elected MEP George "Gigi" Becali, a millionaire football-club owner known for his burlesque TV appearances, is not allowed to leave the country as he is charged with ordering his bodyguards to capture and threaten three men who tried to steal his car.
Extremist leader Corneliu Vadim Tudor says he will give up his MEP mandate in solidarity with his colleague
The court had earlier agreed to release Mr Becali from pre-trial detention under electoral rules which guaranteed his freedom during the run-up to last weekend's European Parliament election.
He is also under investigation in a separate case for trying to bribe a football team playing against his club's main rival to the tune of €1.6 million.
Analysis of the results of European elections from a national perspective often overlooks the impact that the new balance of power will have on the structure of the majorities that control the policies of the Union. When the new parliament is inaugurated on 14 July, the traditional EPP and PES grand coalition may be laid to rest, and its demise will likely be accompanied by an end to long-standing cross-party deals on economic directives and the appointment of commissioners. It would be unwise to under-estimate the potential for change in a Parliament which has in the past provided the venue for some highly innovative political experiments. It could even be argued that it was the alliance between the European Peoples' Party and the socialists in Strasbourg that provided the inspiration for the German CDU-SPD grand coalition. Notwithstanding the relatively disappointing performance of Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in Italy, the victory of the EPP has confirmed the rise of the centre-right in Europe, and social policies will certainly change as a result. The decline of the PSE and the extreme left will put an end to the secular majority formed by the socialists along with the ALDE (liberals), Greens and the GUE (left), to marginalize the Christian Democrats of the EPP on the occasion of votes on ethical issues such as homosexual union, or the use of stem cells. But the EPP, which is still 100 votes short of an absolute majority of 369 seats out of 736, will not have complete control.
Analysis of the results of European elections from a national perspective often overlooks the impact that the new balance of power will have on the structure of the majorities that control the policies of the Union.
When the new parliament is inaugurated on 14 July, the traditional EPP and PES grand coalition may be laid to rest, and its demise will likely be accompanied by an end to long-standing cross-party deals on economic directives and the appointment of commissioners. It would be unwise to under-estimate the potential for change in a Parliament which has in the past provided the venue for some highly innovative political experiments. It could even be argued that it was the alliance between the European Peoples' Party and the socialists in Strasbourg that provided the inspiration for the German CDU-SPD grand coalition.
Notwithstanding the relatively disappointing performance of Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom party in Italy, the victory of the EPP has confirmed the rise of the centre-right in Europe, and social policies will certainly change as a result. The decline of the PSE and the extreme left will put an end to the secular majority formed by the socialists along with the ALDE (liberals), Greens and the GUE (left), to marginalize the Christian Democrats of the EPP on the occasion of votes on ethical issues such as homosexual union, or the use of stem cells. But the EPP, which is still 100 votes short of an absolute majority of 369 seats out of 736, will not have complete control.
One of the big surprises of the European election came from Scandinavia. On 7.1% of the vote, the Pirate party is setting sail for Brussels, with the aim to legalise file sharing on the Internet, and presenting itself as a defender of citizens rights. In Sweden, the question of file sharing had been on the agenda for public debate since 2005. On the Web, a growing number of Internet users wanted politicians to take an interest in the issue. For Rick Falkvinge, it was obvious that file sharing -- an activity in which he had been involved for over 20 years -- should be legal. At the same time, he was also aware that the politicization of file sharing amounted to a historic opportunity to put Sweden on the cutting edge of political change. But the politicians would not listen. What was needed was a more forceful method of attracting their attention. "You cannot convince politicians of anything if it doesn't affect them personally. So we had to target their power base directly and threaten their jobs." On the evening of 1st January 2006, he hastily threw together a website for a new political party, and left a link in a chat room. The next day, he went to work as usual to his job as a departmental head in a research institute. The Pirate Party had been born.
One of the big surprises of the European election came from Scandinavia. On 7.1% of the vote, the Pirate party is setting sail for Brussels, with the aim to legalise file sharing on the Internet, and presenting itself as a defender of citizens rights.
In Sweden, the question of file sharing had been on the agenda for public debate since 2005. On the Web, a growing number of Internet users wanted politicians to take an interest in the issue. For Rick Falkvinge, it was obvious that file sharing -- an activity in which he had been involved for over 20 years -- should be legal. At the same time, he was also aware that the politicization of file sharing amounted to a historic opportunity to put Sweden on the cutting edge of political change. But the politicians would not listen. What was needed was a more forceful method of attracting their attention. "You cannot convince politicians of anything if it doesn't affect them personally. So we had to target their power base directly and threaten their jobs."
On the evening of 1st January 2006, he hastily threw together a website for a new political party, and left a link in a chat room. The next day, he went to work as usual to his job as a departmental head in a research institute. The Pirate Party had been born.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU commissioners, impressive justice campaigners or just young and splashy, they are the famous women who scored big in the European elections. She always wears Dior and has made a name for herself as France's first justice minister with an immigrant background. Rachida Dati, the 43-year old single mother who went back to work five days after giving birth to her daughter, secured a safe victory for Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The party scored 27.8 percent of the votes, eleven percentage points ahead of the rival Socialist party. Meglena Kuneva has won her seat as a MEP but could be sent again as EU commissioner. A big winner in the French elections was also the Green Eva Joly, second on the Europe Ecologie list after Daniel Cohn-Bendit. A Norwegian-French magistrate specialised in financial affairs, the 65-year old Ms Joly played a key role in exposing high-level corruption in the French state-owned oil giant, Elf Aquitaine. Ms Joly said she hoped to gain a majority in the new EU legislature to seriously combat fiscal paradises and for "more justice between the North and the South." Earlier this year she was employed by the Icelandic government to investigate the possibility of fraud and embezzlement in the financial crisis which paralysed the country since 2008.
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - EU commissioners, impressive justice campaigners or just young and splashy, they are the famous women who scored big in the European elections.
She always wears Dior and has made a name for herself as France's first justice minister with an immigrant background. Rachida Dati, the 43-year old single mother who went back to work five days after giving birth to her daughter, secured a safe victory for Nicolas Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). The party scored 27.8 percent of the votes, eleven percentage points ahead of the rival Socialist party.
Meglena Kuneva has won her seat as a MEP but could be sent again as EU commissioner.
A big winner in the French elections was also the Green Eva Joly, second on the Europe Ecologie list after Daniel Cohn-Bendit. A Norwegian-French magistrate specialised in financial affairs, the 65-year old Ms Joly played a key role in exposing high-level corruption in the French state-owned oil giant, Elf Aquitaine. Ms Joly said she hoped to gain a majority in the new EU legislature to seriously combat fiscal paradises and for "more justice between the North and the South."
Earlier this year she was employed by the Icelandic government to investigate the possibility of fraud and embezzlement in the financial crisis which paralysed the country since 2008.
She always wears Dior
And note that this is the first and apparently most important fact here.
For writer and critic George Steiner, the café made Europe. In the light of disappointing turnout for this year's European elections, La Vanguardia laments the disappearance of these places of debate. There's a lot more to a cup of coffee than a break and a stimulant. The very blackness of this bracing brew holds a refreshing sensation, the beat that begins the day, the highlight of lunch, or the passing of idle hours. It represents the illusion of opening up the doors of perception, clearing up confusion, or providing a painless panacea for the occasional indisposition. "Let's have coffee" remains an excellent and concise formula to express the desire for a get-together replete with confidences, closeness - in a word: sociability. "A little cup of coffee", we say with a touch of tenderness. The important thing is to utter this magic word, which gives meaning to a social engagement and fosters the culture of conversation. At a talk he gave in Amsterdam five years ago entitled "The Idea of Europe", George Steiner ventured a seemingly frivolous assertion: "As long as cafés are still around, the idea of Europe will endure." So in view of the massive abstention and electoral autism exhibited in the latest elections - only 43.1% voted, 59.6% didn't bother, beating the 2004 record for abstention - I can't help wondering what has become of the great European café.
For writer and critic George Steiner, the café made Europe. In the light of disappointing turnout for this year's European elections, La Vanguardia laments the disappearance of these places of debate.
There's a lot more to a cup of coffee than a break and a stimulant. The very blackness of this bracing brew holds a refreshing sensation, the beat that begins the day, the highlight of lunch, or the passing of idle hours. It represents the illusion of opening up the doors of perception, clearing up confusion, or providing a painless panacea for the occasional indisposition. "Let's have coffee" remains an excellent and concise formula to express the desire for a get-together replete with confidences, closeness - in a word: sociability. "A little cup of coffee", we say with a touch of tenderness. The important thing is to utter this magic word, which gives meaning to a social engagement and fosters the culture of conversation.
At a talk he gave in Amsterdam five years ago entitled "The Idea of Europe", George Steiner ventured a seemingly frivolous assertion: "As long as cafés are still around, the idea of Europe will endure." So in view of the massive abstention and electoral autism exhibited in the latest elections - only 43.1% voted, 59.6% didn't bother, beating the 2004 record for abstention - I can't help wondering what has become of the great European café.
Hey, cafes are still thriving around here. What is this Steiner guy talking about? The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter
I can't help wondering what has become of the great European café.
it's gone online, duh.
he's obviously never been to ET! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Starbucks regulars should take a close look at their credit card statements. The coffee giant admits it double-charged more than a million customers during two days last month.
