Europe's governments are running out of options | World news | The Guardian

For the governments of Europe in the midst of the EU's worst-ever crisis, it is getting increasingly difficult to reconcile internationally ordained austerity packages with popular acquiescence in spending cuts, job losses and slashed budgets.

Whether using the euro or not, governments from the Baltic to the Balkans are struggling to stay in office while implementing the savage savings programmes dictated by technocrats from Brussels, Washington and Frankfurt.

The Romanian government's fall on Monday after weeks of civil unrest in Bucharest is but the latest example. In Greece, another uneasy coalition may be falling apart as it balks at meeting the severe terms of the troika of the European commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) needed to secure a second €130bn (£108bn) bailout in time to redeem a large tranche of its debt next month.

Athens will again be seething with rage on Tuesday as two of the biggest unions stage a 24-hour general strike. Trapped between the demands of their constituency and the dictates of international creditors, governments and political leaders all across Europe are running out of options.

Ex-ForMin, current Foreign Intelligence chief Mihai Razvan Ungureanu designated new Romania prime-minister - Top News - HotNews.ro

Former Foreign minister Mihai Razvan Ungureanu, who's been serving as chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, has been designated new prime minister of Romania following Emil Boc's withdrawal on Monday. Ungureanu said today that his key objective for the moment was the quick formation of a new government and pointed out his ideological options "were always Right-leaning".

Mihai Razvan Ungureanu said on Monday that serving as PM was a great responsibility that he undertook and that he had the experience of two institutions which, under his management, modernized and improved their performance - the Foreign Ministry and the Foreign Intelligence Service.

He said his political independence provided the necessary grounds for him to fulfill his term and promised to continue reform.

BBC "journalists" think Romania is an American state, with "sales tax"?

Boc raised a European tax called VAT to 24%.

Former spy boss moves to Deutsche Bank - The Local

Ernst Uhrlau, former head of Germany's foreign intelligence agency the BND, has been on the payroll of Germany's biggest bank since the start of February, just two months after his retirement.

A spokesman for the bank on Sunday confirmed a report in Der Spiegel news magazine that the former intelligence chief is now working as a freelance "global risk analyst" at the bank, and that this new job had been cleared by the Ronald Pofalla, chief of staff at the German chancellery.

The 65-year-old Uhrlau retired at the end of last year, when he reached the age limit for his office at the BND. He spent six years as president of the overseas intelligence agency and was also secret service coordinator for the German government.

Eight killed in Bulgarian floods as European cold snap continues | World news | The Guardian

Europe's bitterly cold weather has killed another 33 people, and melting snow caused a dam wall to break and flood a village in Bulgaria.

Four people drowned when the dam flooded the village of Bisser, in southern Bulgaria, after heavy rain and snow melting. Four more people died in Bulgarian floods when their cars were swept away by high waters.

"There are demolished houses and people in distress," the interior ministry said. Bulgaria warned neighbouring Greece and Turkey that two other dams were expected to overflow later on Monday.

Gas supplies to the European Union from Russia improved at the weekend but had not fully recovered, the European commission said, as Italy convened a crisis committee to handle what it called critical shortages of Russian gas.

Nine more people died in Poland, bringing the total to 62 since the end of January. Temperatures fell to -24C at night in north-eastern parts of the country.

In Croatia's Dalmatia region, more than 100 villages were cut off by snow, but rescuers reached some people on Sunday. In one village, a woman gave birth in her house with the help of a neighbour while a midwife from a nearby town gave them instructions by telephone. "The baby girl is fine and beautiful and I'll probably name her Snow White, given the circumstances," the mother, Marta Glavota, told the 24sata news website.

BBC News - Gas price rises as freezing weather bites across Europe

The price of gas around Europe has risen sharply due to increased demand as a result of the cold weather.

UK gas for next day delivery reached 93 pence per therm, the highest for more than six years.

It marks a rise of 24% in the UK price since Friday.

In addition, Italy has decided to ration the supply of gas to industrial customers after receiving insufficient gas from Russia to meet high levels of demand.

Prices have soared even higher in France, which is struggling to meet demand, reaching the equivalent of almost £1.02 per therm.

Companies supplying residential customers rarely buy gas on the next day market. But it is relied upon by some big commercial users.

DutchNews.nl - 'Cautious' optimism about 11-city skating race, but will it thaw?

There is a `cautious chance' that the famous Frisian 11-city skating race or Elfstedentocht will be held in the current cold snap, Wiebe Wieling, chairman of the race association, told a news conference on Monday morning.

The ice in the north of the province is `fantastic' but still not good enough in the south, Wieling said. 'That gives us cause for concern,' Wieling said.

The association is now looking at possible alternative routes. `But at the moment we are far from the necessary 15 cm of ice. In some places it is far too thin,' Wieling is reported as saying by news agency ANP.

Ice-clearing

According to the Telegraaf, hundreds of volunteers have been roped in to clear snow from the surface of the ice in an effort to promote thicker ice. Up to one third of the route will have to be cleared by hand, the paper says.

The ice needs to be at least eight centimetres thick to support machine-driven ice clearing equipment.

The 22 local ice association chiefs met on Sunday evening to discuss the prospects. There have been 15 of the grueling 200 kilometre races since the event first took place in 1909.

People need more money meaning more equality...and that's the case everywhere. For this to be done people do need more power...How to get there with politicians already in place??? Can they change over night with enough pressure put on them?

Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind...Albert Einstein

The Front National plays this victimisation game for the 500 signatures every presidential election. It's a tried and tested way of appearing to be the anti-establishment candidate that the big parties want to silence.

Le Pen will be on the ballot.

Austerity, moi? Nicolas Sarkozy spends £10k a day on food and keeps 121 cars under his palace

Germany and France have found another way to take away Greek sovereignty

France and Germany have come up with another torture instruments for the Greeks

This is fundamentally a story about mistrust. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are worried that a new Greek government might squander the funds of a second rescue programme. For that reason, they are now proposing to create a special escrow fund, earmarked to pay off Greek debt holders. This would enable them to withhold funds from Greece, without triggering an automatic default, the FT reports. It is hard to see why Greece should accept this. The article said the plan had the backing of the European Commission. Germany came up with this idea after the angry rejection of its proposal of a fiscal Kommissar. The article quotes a senior French official as saying: "This is a better idea than the proposal of a debt commissar...It is more acceptable.

France and Germany finally make it absolutely transparent that the "Greek rescue" is not a rescue of Greece, but using Greece as a conduit ro give money to their banks.

tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker

El Mundo [ES] via Presseurop: Why we've had enough of Greece

Yesterday the troika of the IMF, the European Central Bank and the European Commission had to threaten the Greek government with the torments of hell to get them to agree to lay off 15,000 civil servants in 2012 to lower the country's deficit. Greece has more than 700,000 public servants (out of a population of 11 million) and has promised to cut that number by 150,000 by the year 2015. But it is doing so with the alacrity of a turtle. In fact, it already had promised to slash 32,000 last year, but in the end trimmed only 2,000.

...

The Spanish government is no stranger to this. The EU leadership do not like the prospect of opening the exit door of the euro club, because after Greece would go Portugal, and nobody knows where the list could end. But they would also like the Greek politicians to take events more seriously. "We knew long ago that the Greeks are the way they are. The problem is not only economic but political," says a senior official.

And the way out does not seem to lie in threats, like the German threat to appoint a proconsul or the French idea of creating a separate account where the money to pay the interest can be deposited. The Greeks have never felt inferior to other Europeans. Although their economy is in ruins, their national self-esteem and pride are gigantic. They have, in fact, always distrusted the idea of Europe, unless it would mean that Brussels would fund their lifestyle. But all this was known almost from the day they entered the EU.

tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker

Nomad, what are the connotations of the following turns of phrase in Dutch?

Volkskrant: Neelie Kroes: Euro kan best zonder Athene

Kroes is er vooralsnog geen voorstander van als Griekenland de euro inruilt voor de drachme. 'Maar er is absoluut geen man overboord als we iemand missen uit de eurozone.' Ze beseft dat haar uitlatingen omstreden zijn en koren op de molen van de PVV die al langer bepleit de Europese geldkraan naar Athene dicht te draaien. Kroes: 'Misschien is mijn woordkeus niet helemaal gelukkig. Wat is een man overboord? Er wordt steeds gezegd: als je één land laat uitstappen of vraagt om uit te stappen, dan stort het hele bouwwerk in. Maar dat is gewoon niet waar.'

tens of millions of people stand to see their lives ruined because the bureaucrats at the ECB don't understand introductory economics -- Dean Baker