Ex-prime minister Tony Blair is the UK candidate for president of the European Council, Europe Minister Baroness Kinnock has apparently confirmed.

At a briefing for journalists in Strasbourg, Lady Kinnock said the UK was supporting Mr Blair for one of the most powerful posts in the EU.

Asked if this had been discussed with Mr Blair, she said the government "would not do that without asking him".

The post depends on Irish backing of the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum.

But this is the first time a UK government minister has publicly announced Tony Blair is a candidate for the job.

Lithuania's Parliament has approved a censorship bill that sharply curbs the spreading of public information that lawmakers say could harm the mental, physical, intellectual and moral development of youngsters. 

The bill bans 19 examples of "detrimental" information that supporting lawmakers consider harmful to the development of Lithuania's minors. The bill prohibits any information that encourages homosexual, bi-sexual or polygamous relations. It also bans information which "subverts family relations and degrades its values". This includes the distribution of images of heterosexual intercourse, death and severe injury.

The bill's amendments, cover a broad range of other topics, including the paranormal, foul language and bad eating habits.

Lithuania's outgoing president Valdas Adamkus, who retired on Sunday, had been highly critical of the bill and vetoed it in June. Under Lithuania's constitution, at least 71 votes were needed to override his veto, a threshold passed with ease. On Tuesday, 86 of the Baltic state's 141 lawmakers voted in favor of the bill, six were against. Adamkus's successor, President Dalia Grybauskaite, cannot re-impose a veto.

Homosexuality is frowned upon by many in Lithuania. The vast majority of the population of 3.3 million is Roman Catholic.

The European Union's top diplomat Javier Solana confirmed on Tuesday that the EU Commission would allow citizens of Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia to travel to the bloc without visas from the beginning of next year. 

Speaking to reporters in the Macedonian capital Skopje, Solana promised improved travel conditions for citizens of the three Balkan countries.

"I bring good news for your country and the citizens," Solana said as he arrived in Macedonia as a part of his tour of western Balkans.

Solana arrived from Belgrade, where on Monday he also promised Serbian citizens "good news" about visa-free travel.

"In a few days you will receive very good news on the visa regime liberalization for the Serbian people," Solana said after meeting with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

Poland's Jerzy Buzek has been elected the European Parliament's first president from the former-communist east. The right man for the job, says his predecessor Hans-Gert Poettering in an interview with Deutsche Welle.  

What were some of the positive and negative aspects of your presidency of the European Parliament?

I believe that the last two and a half years were very successful and good years. We managed to pass the climate change legislation through the European Parliament in December 2008, which was, I believe, the most important achievement. Basically, the debate about the fight against climate change began in March 2007during the German EU presidency under Chancellor Angela Merkel. We concluded the legislative process in December 2008 under the French presidency, and we worked very closely with the respective presidencies in order to finalize the legislation.

The Czech government has called for EU solidarity after Canada decided to stop its visa-free regime with Prague due to an increasing number of Czech Roma applicants for asylum in Canada.

Two years after abolishing visa requirements for Czechs as a new member nation of the European Union, Canada re-introduced the visa obligation for all visitors from the country on Tuesday (14 July), following several diplomatic warnings about the likely move.

Czech PM Jan Fischer (r) has lobbyied the European Commission on the issue

Although aware of the problem of asylum seekers of Roma origin and Ottawa's plans to tackle it, Czech officials stated that the decision was one-sided and unfair and should be protested by all of Europe.

As a response Prague withdrew its ambassador to Canada and imposed visas for Canadian diplomats. Imposition of visas for all Canadian citizens would need to be agreed in co-operation with other EU states.

But the Czech government has also officially requested the European Commission to invoke the bloc's solidarity procedure which could theoretically result in a decision by all 27 EU member states to introduce visa to Canada.

He didn't have an eye patch or a wooden leg, but a Scandinavian pirate still made a big entrance as he arrived at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Dozens of photographers and journalists greeted Christian Engström as he arrived for his first day as a Euro MP.
 
Dressed casually in jeans and loafers, the former computer programmer was the first member of the Swedish Pirate Party to take his seat in the chamber, where he plans to use his five-year term to promote internet file-sharing rights in Europe.
 
Despite the overwhelming attention, Mr Engström didn't seem in the least bit intimated by his first taste of the world of politics as he took his maiden steps through the rounded glass-and-steel building in the Alsatian city.

"I expected the attention. I think it's because of the issues we represent.

"Internet politics is a new area and it's important to all of Europe. And obviously, the internet does not have any borders," he said stressing the need for more rights in the digital environment.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso has expressed concern at a judgement by Germany's constitutional court on the Lisbon Treaty, fearing it could undermine the "European project."

The possible implications of the 147-page ruling is slowly becoming clear after the initial relief expressed in Brussels that the EU's new treaty was given the green light.

The German judgement has raised concerns in Brussels

Germany's judges on 30 June said the Lisbon document is compatible with the country's constitution but said parliament should have the final say if the EU wanted to extend the competences beyond what is contained in the treaty.

They also criticised the European Parliament - set to gain greater co-legislative powers under the treaty - as not being representative of the will of the European people but rather a body representing member states.

In addition, the judges ruled that Germany's highest court should have final say on interpretation of EU law allowing it to overturn judgements by the bloc's highest court, the European Court of Justice (ECJ).

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Political group leaders in the European Parliament are on Thursday set to decide to put a vote on Jose Manuel Barroso's bid for a second term as European commission president on September's plenary agenda.

The move follows a gentleman's agreement between the three biggest groups in the parliament, the centre-right EPP, the Socialists and the Liberals.

Mr Barroso - currently working on political guidelines for the next commission programme  "Tomorrow we will set the date for a vote in September," said Joseph Daul, head of the EPP, on Wednesday (15 July), whose group is the key supporter of Mr Barroso.

Mr Daul also sought to reassure the Portuguese politician that the political group still fully supports him as debate within parliament's walls about his candidacy is getting increasingly strident.

"Our candidate is Mr Barroso. We stick by him through thick and thin."

The EU's High Representative for foreign affairs has just announced that he will leave his post this autumn. Forever dependent on member states' goodwill, his record is a mixed one, reports Gazeta Wyborcza.

On one occasion, at an EU summit press conference which continued until well after midnight, I remember seeing Javier Solana nod off on the platform next to Angela Merkel. When she finally passed him the  microphone, he did not know what was happening, and fell back on telling stories, before finally saying "enough is enough." A few days ago in an interview with the Spanish daily ABC, he used the "enough" word again -- "It's time to go. Ten years is more than enough" -- and confirmed that he would not be seeking a further mandate. Officially, he will be leaving in October, but everyone is already wondering who will be the "new" Solana.

For diplomats, journalists, and EU political analysts, Spain's Solana is not just a former foreign minister, an ex-general secretary of NATO, or the current coordinator of EU foreign policy -- he is the "so-called head" of Europe's "so-called diplomatic service." That may sound like a lot of "so-calleds," and it certainly is. But bear in mind that in the field of EU foreign policy, many things remain on the level of "so-called" -- not least, our so-called embassies, so-called unity, and so-called firmness -- while real diplomacy is conducted by EU member states, who jealously guard their territory. Throughout his ten-year tenure, Solana has proved to be a skillful navigator of the world of "so-called" diplomacy, making his mark as the face and the ears of the Union, and even -- as we saw with the Iranian nuclear programme -- its negotiator. And, there is no denying the enormous amount of work he has contributed as Europe's tireless emissary. In a decade of service to the Union, he must have spent two years on planes -- putting out fires in the Balkans, and in the Middle East, and keeping alive hopes for a meaningful European commitment in unstable regions of the world.

Prices across the eurozone were lower in June than a year earlier, Eurostat, the EU's statistical office confirmed on Wednesday, reflecting lower oil and petrol prices rather than a sustained move to deflation.

Across the eurozone, prices were 0.1 per cent lower in June than a year earlier, with the fastest drop in prices recorded in Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Luxembourg, confirming an earlier "flash estimate" from Eurostat.

Although the European Central Bank will be concerned to see inflation falling so rapidly below its target of "below but close to 2 per cent", it will be reassured that persistent deflation is not yet a likelihood because of a one-off fall in petrol prices affecting the overall inflation rate.

The funding shortfall faced by the UK's defined benefit pension schemes broke back through the £200 billion barrier during June, figures have shown. The deficit of the 7,400 defined benefit schemes, including final salary pensions, widened to £200.1 billion during the month, after dipping below the £200 billion mark for one month in May.

The current shortfall represents a dramatic turnaround from the collective £13 billion surplus the schemes had in June last year, according to pensions safety net the Pension Protection Fund.

Pension schemes have faced a double whammy of falling asset values and rising liabilities during the past year. The cost of their liabilities to members has soared by 21% during the past 12 months due to lower gilt yields. At the same time, falling equity markets have slashed the value of the schemes' assets by 5.5%.

A total of 6,461 pension schemes now face a funding shortfall, representing 88% of all defined benefit schemes.

Hat tip naked capitalism

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

A prominent Russian human rights campaigner who worked to expose government-backed kidnappings in Chechnya is believed to have been murdered after being kidnapped herself there on Wednesday, Russian investigators said.

The investigators said they believed they had located the body of the woman, Natalia Estemirova, an employee with the Russian human rights group Memorial, according to a statement by the prosecutor general's investigative wing. The body, found in neighboring Ingushetia, had gunshots to the head and chest. Ms. Estemirova's passport was found at the scene.

[...]

Ms. Estemirova worked for years helping families uncover details about kidnapped relatives. She was the recipient of several international awards, and in 2007 was the first to win the Anna Politkovskaya Award, named for the Russian investigative journalist, who also worked to uncover abuses in Chechnya before she was shot to death in October 2006.

Italy's centre-right government on Wednesday proposed a tax amnesty aimed at repatriating billions of euros - the bulk believed to be held in Swiss bank accounts - on the most favourable terms yet offered to tax evaders by a European Union member state.

The amnesty will be the third offered by Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right government following packages in 2001 and 2003, which brought €46bn back to Italy and earned the government €2.1bn in revenues.