BRATISLAVA, Nov 19 (IPS) - As Slovaks mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism this week, former dissidents have lashed out at top political figures, including the prime minister, who they say are trying to paint the totalitarian regime of old in a positive light.

Some refused to join Prime Minister Robert Fico and other leading government officials for an official event this week marking the beginning of the Velvet Revolution which brought down the communist regime in then Czechoslovakia in 1989. They stayed away after it was revealed that former communist functionaries had been invited to speak.

The furore has sparked debate on how some former communist party chiefs, secret police officers and agents have prospered during the post-communist era while former political prisoners have seen no form of compensation for their persecution at the hands of the state.

Miroslav Kusy, former dissident and one of the most prominent Slovak figures of the revolution, told IPS: "I will not attend an event marking the fall of communism where ex-communists are going to talk to me about the fall of communism. It's as if fascists organised a celebration of an uprising against the Nazis.

"Bringing up the good points of communism is done all the time. It's like praising the good points of fascism - there was full employment and Hitler of course loved dogs. But the regime as a whole was sick and that applies to communism as well. To highlight its good side goes against normal, healthy, thinking."

Officials from a majority of EU states oppose Commission proposal to extend anti-dumping tariffs on leather shoes from China and Vietnam.

Trade diplomats from the European Union's member states today rejected a proposal by the European Commission to extend existing import duties on certain types of leather shoes produced in China and Vietnam.

The rebuff was delivered by trade diplomats on the EU's anti-dumping committee, a consultative body. No formal vote took place, but a headcount suggested that 15 member states were against the extension and 12 in favour.

The result is in no way legally binding on the Commission, but it is a political signal to the Commission to adjust its proposal before seeking the approval of member states' ministers.

Jan Peter Balkenende has returned to The Hague from last night's summit in Brussels to pick up where he left off. He says he never wanted the job of first president of Europe - and he didn't get it, losing out to his neighbour, Belgian Prime Minster Herman van Rompuy. But how damaged is he by the EU selection process?

Mr Balkenende returned from the summit with his head held high. Happy for Europe that a good team was chosen quickly, and happy for The Netherlands that he gets to finish his four-year term as prime minister. But insiders wonder if Mr Balkenende shouldn't be returning with his tail between his legs. It was no secret that he wanted to become Europe's first president, no matter how often he denied it, and his thwarted ambitions could damage his credibility.
 

Colourless mouse
Mr Balkenende won't be received with open arms in The Hague - and certainly not by Geert Wilders, leader of the opposition Freedom Party. "They've found an even more colourless mouse than Balkenende  to fill the job," sneered Mr Wilders, "It's a shame. I'd have been very happy to see him leave for Brussels, because that would have meant early elections as far as I'm concerned."

Mr Balkenende was having a tough time of it long before the Lisbon Treaty was ratified and the question arose of who would fill the new EU post. He leads an uneasy coalition government joining his own centre-right Christian Democrats with perennial rivals, the centre-left Labour Party. The financial crisis has only worsened a general feeling of disillusionment among the Dutch voting public.

Missteps
Mr Balkenende has not helped matters by making a number of political missteps.

The EU's Lisbon Treaty comes into force on 1 December - and with it the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The UK, Czech Republic and Poland have negotiated opt-outs from the Charter.

But here Damian Chalmers, Professor of EU Law at the London School of Economics (LSE), argues that the Charter repackages EU law that is already applied by the 27-nation bloc.

...

The Charter is possibly the most wide-ranging human rights treaty in the world today. There are civil rights, political rights, social rights, ecological entitlements, rights for the arts, consumer rights. The list is really extensive.

Whilst the Charter might set out many desirable things, the concern has always been that every one of these grounds gives the EU new reasons to intervene, be it to protect the environment, workers, or the right to asylum.

That scares those worried about national sovereignty and raises fears that the rights might be developed in a clumsy way.

Yet what the Charter actually does is far more limited. It does not give us the general right to challenge our police force, lawmakers or employers whenever they appear to breach these rights: the important catch is that it only binds EU institutions and member states when they are implementing EU law.

The European Commission, Parliament and Council can be reviewed for compliance with the Charter, but the UK government can only be reviewed when it applies EU law or transposes them. This is quite a limited array of circumstances.

She said that, back then, people generally had more respect for their country, nationality and history. And there were other positive things.

"Everyone had a job, and everyone had a house," she told me. "The problem was that we weren't allowed access to information. We weren't allowed to read writers who didn't have Ceausescu's approval. We weren't allowed to travel abroad, or have friends from abroad. On some days, we weren't allowed to drive."

And then there were the food rations, she said: no more than half a loaf of bread, not too much meat, or sugar, and so on.

While we spoke, Anca's husband, Vio, chopped potatoes and cooked them in a frying pan. Twenty years ago, if he'd been cooking at 7:00 pm, he would've been cooking by candlelight. That's because the communist government cut off electricity from 6:00 - 8:00 pm each night across the country to preserve energy.

Michel Barnier, former French foreign minister, is set to be put in charge of the European Union's single market, in a contentious move that followed a night of political horse-trading over top jobs in Brussels.

EU diplomats said France had secured for Mr Barnier the post of EU internal market commissioner as part of a deal that saw Lady Ashton, a British baroness, take on the role of Europe's foreign policy chief.

Downing Street fiercely denied any deal, amid claims by the opposition Conservatives in Britain that Mr Barnier could use his position to pursue a French agenda, stifling the single market and imposing regulations on the City of London.

"Our French partners have a different view on market issues that touch on Britain's vital economic interests," said William Hague, shadow foreign affairs spokesman, who believed Britain should have fought for the single market job.

José Manuel Barroso, European Commission president, is said by Brussels diplomats to be ready to give Mr Barnier the dossier, but it is not yet clear whether he will also have control over European bank regulation.

Mr Barroso is still pondering whether to hive off financial services into a separate Commission de-partment. But French diplomats insist Mr Barnier will have control over all asp-ects of the single market.

Focus on the big issues, not the bananas | Vaira Vike-Freiberga - Times Online

Yesterday was a good morning for Europe. Now, for the first time, it has a common voice on the international stage. It must use it well and use it sparingly. That means worrying less about detail and concentrating on the big issues -- a little less time worrying about the curvature of bananas and a little more devotion to energy security and the environment.

It also means addressing valid concerns that the European Union's governing structures should be more democratic. Choosing Herman Van Rompuy as first President of the European Union and Baroness Ashton of Upholland as High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy long before the sea bass and wild mushrooms were discreetly placed on the dinner table on Thursday evening in Brussels hardly assuages those concerns.

Making the selection somewhat more transparent would no doubt have enhanced the EU's democratic credentials. There is no reason why all candidates could not declare themselves publicly beforehand. The citizens of the EU's 27 states would surely have felt more confident if they had heard candidates set out their vision on television.

It isn't difficult to communicate with the public, especially with the new technologies available to us. I was surprised by the volume of response that my candidacy received on the internet; it showed that it is wrong to say Europeans don't care who is appointed.

A legal team is going to New York to prevent the use of evidence provided by Germany in seeking a death penalty. Berlin wants to ensure that promises made by the US are kept if the suspects are found guilty. 

A team of observers from the German government is going to New York to oversee the trial of five suspects accused of orchestrating the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Saturday.

The federal trial of the suspect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his four co-defendants was announced on November 13 by the US Justice Department. The government also asserted that it intends to seek the death penalty if the accused are found guilty.

Germany, which does not have a death penalty, provided evidence for the trial on the condition that it could not be used to support a death sentence. Several members of the al Qaeda cell that planned and executed the attacks of September 11 were previously based in the northern German city of Hamburg.

Demonstrators in Tirana are camping in a city square to demand a probe into election fraud and a recount. This will never happen, says the country's conservative prime minister. 

Supporters of Albania's opposition party have set up camp to demand a recount in the country's general election.

Socialist party members and supporters spent the night in tents outside the office of conservative Prime Minister Sali Berisha, after marching through the capital Tirana.

They demanded that a number of ballot boxes that were declared invalid in the June election should be opened. Demonstrators want a probe into allegations of vote rigging and a recount of the poll.

The protests follow an agreement by EU foreign ministers that Albania should be considered for membership of the union. The Balkan country has been told by European ambassadors that it must be more serious about fighting corruption.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has backed a call by President Dmitry Medvedev to modernize Russia's economy during a speech in St. Petersburg. In opening remarks, Medvedev also went after political corruption. 

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has publically backed President Dmitry Medvedev's call for radical economic modernization, amid rumors of a clash between the two leaders.

During his state-of-the-nation address on November 12, Medvedev urged Russia to end its dependence on oil and gas exports and modernize the economy, which some analysts interpreted as a challenge to Putin.

"I am sure that this call reflects the mood of all of Russian society," Putin said in a keynote speech to the annual congress of the ruling United Russia party in St. Petersburg.

"The crisis, with all its severity, has shown how costly it is for a country to reject innovation, have low work productivity, waste resources and have a slow bureaucracy," Putin said.

Gordon Brown rejected advice from Lord Mandelson to seek one of the big economic posts in the European Commission for Britain once it was clear that Tony Blair could not succeed in becoming Europe's first president, The Times has learnt. Instead he settled for the post of EU High Representative for Baroness Ashton of Upholland.

The Business Secretary and other ministers believed that one of the EU's three big financial jobs -- running the internal market and financial services, competition or trade -- would have served Britain's interests better than putting such an inexperienced figure into the foreign affairs role.

Instead Mr Brown allowed himself to be persuaded -- bounced according to some EU sources -- into accepting the foreign affairs job by a combination of Europe's Socialist leaders and José Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission.

There were also claims that, in exchange, Mr Brown did a deal with President Sarkozy to give the internal market portfolio to the French, sparking criticism from the Conservatives.

Calls from Angela Merkel told Tony Blair he would not get EU's top job

Tony Blair warned Gordon Brown a week ago that his campaign to become the first president of the European Council was doomed after a decisive intervention by the German chancellor Angela Merkel, according to senior Whitehall sources.

To the dismay of key ministers, who wanted Brown to push for Britain to take an economic portfolio in the European commission once Blair's hopes were dashed, Brown insisted on maintaining his candidacy until moments before Thursday's European summit.

The prime minister hailed the summit as a victory after Britain secured one of the two jobs created under the Lisbon treaty - the high representative for foreign policy taken by Britain's current European commissioner, Lady Ashton.

The summit concluded quickly on Thursday, but only after weeks of horse trading across the EU and a bitter row in London. Blair told Brown that his chances were over after a second - and decisive - phone call with Merkel late last week. Merkel told Blair she bore him no ill will but that the job would have to go to a leader from the dominant centre right.

'Europe has shown it wants to be a supersize Switzerland'

Thousands of Spanish farmers marched through central Madrid to the Agriculture Ministry on Saturday to demand government action on the falling prices and rising costs that are threatening to ruin their livelihoods.

REUTERS - Thousands of Spanish farmers thronged central Madrid on Saturday to demand government action to halt a slide in prices which they say is forcing them out of business.

Three leading Spanish farmers' unions said 100,000 members joined the march led by tractors and bands of bagpipers, which forced police to divert traffic as they made their way through the capital's historical centre to the Agriculture Ministry.

Depressed prices have prompted protests by farmers across Europe this year, and a demonstration last month brought traffic to a standstill in Paris for two hours.

The rally in Madrid followed a strike on Friday in which unions say hundreds of thousands of farmers downed tools across the country to block roads, line streets with tractors or sell produce at cost.

The "appalling" errors that contributed to Britain's failure in Iraq are disclosed in the most detailed and damning set of leaks to emerge on the conflict.

On the eve of the Chilcot inquiry into Britain's involvement in the 2003 invasion and its aftermath, The Sunday Telegraph has obtained hundreds of pages of secret Government reports on "lessons learnt" which shed new light on "significant shortcomings" at all levels.

They include full transcripts of extraordinarily frank classified interviews in which British Army commanders vent their frustration and anger with ministers and Whitehall officials.

Gordon Brown is facing demands to make Lord Mandelson foreign secretary in a row that risks tearing apart his government.

The business secretary is secretly pressing Brown to hold a cabinet reshuffle so he can achieve his life-long ambition of running the Foreign Office. Mandelson made the request after he was snubbed for the post of European Union foreign minister at last week's Brussels summit.

Mandelson's reshuffle call puts the prime minister in a perilous position as he struggles to retain the support of the most powerful figures in the cabinet.

If he bows to Mandelson's wishes, he risks alienating David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and his ally Ed Balls, the schools secretary, who is still eager for promotion. If he refuses Mandelson's demand, he risks losing his loyalty with potentially devastating consequences for the election.

The plotting and bungles that led to an obscure British bureaucrat heading the EU's foreign service were even greater than first thought. She now commands staff in 130 countries.

After a byzantine Brussels stitch-up, the appointment to one of the grandest jobs in the European Union was settled by text message. Early on Thursday evening Baroness Ashton, an obscure Labour quangocrat, received a text message from her mentor, Jose Manuel Barroso, the chairman of the European commission.

It told her she was to be the EU's first high representative for foreign affairs. The decision was such a shock that Ashton had been preparing to board the Eurostar to go home to London and had no acceptance speech prepared.

"Cathy [Ashton] was genuinely surprised," said one Brussels insider. So was the rest of the world, which had barely heard of her.

The moment encapsulated just how badly Gordon Brown had bungled his attempt to win EU posts for his favoured candidates. The prime minister had lobbied in vain for Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, and Geoff Hoon, the former chief whip, to be given the job. Ashton was effectively his third or even fourth choice.

Romanians are voting Sunday in the first round of a closely-fought presidential election amid hopes that the vote would break a political impasse that has hampered the country's access to much-needed international aid.

AFP - Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new president for a five-year term, amid a serious recession and an ongoing political crisis prompted by the fall of the government in mid-October.
  
The polls were due to open at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) until 9:00 pm.
  
Twelve candidates, all men, are running in this first presidential election since Romania entered the European Union in 2007.
  
But Sunday's vote was likely to lead to a run-off election on December 6 with the incumbent centre-right president, Traian Basescu, and his Social Democrat rival Mircea Geoana neck-in-neck in opinion polls.
  
Each expected to win between 30 and 32 percent of votes in the first round, both were clear front-runners ahead of the Liberal Crin Antonescu, opinion polls showed ahead of the election.