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Prime-minister Herman Van Rompuy (Christian Democrat), who’s name is widely circulating as the first European President, attended a Bilderberg dinner at Hertoginnendal, Brussels last night.

A UKIP petition demanding a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU has been launched in the biggest-ever call to arms on the right to have a say over Europe. People will be given the chance to sign up to the petition online, by post or in the street at UKIP stalls run by party supporters. UKIP Leader Nigel Farage said: "This is a real chance for the people of Great Britain to show whoever forms the next Government that they are sick of being lied to and that they want a say over our continuing membership of the European...

How does EU President compared to US President? See for yourself

European Union leaders have named two relatively unknowns to be the first permanent EU president and foreign minister. Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy will be the new president and EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton was appointed foreign policy chief. Both names were approved by consensus Thursday at a summit in Brussels. Diplomats say both are compromise candidates with little foreign policy experience. Britain had been insisting on a famous name - specifically former British Prime Minster Tony Blair - to be president. Other members wanted someone who they say would be less divisive as the EU looks for a...

Tony Blair was out of the running as Europe's first president on Thursday after Gordon Brown dropped the former Prime Minister as his candidate. The Prime Minister made the decision after accepting that Mr Blair had no chance of winning the new post. Instead, he was backing another Briton - Baroness Cathy Ashton, the EU trade commissioner - to become the EU's foreign affairs chief, his spokesman said. She had earlier won support from European Socialist parties for the foreign policy job, making her front-runner for the post, the second top job being allocated by EU leaders at a summit...

The poetry-loving favourite to become the first president of Europe, Herman Van Rompuy, is also a hard-line opponent of Turkey's bid to join the European Union because it is an Islamic country. Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's Prime Minister, has in the past spoken out against Turkish EU membership because, he warned, it would dilute Europe's Christian heritage. His position on the issue is so strong that he has won the support of Vlaams Belang, the controversial far-right Flemish anti-immigrant party in Belgium.

The world is becoming unsafer by the day. Before the end of November, half a billion new terrorists will be added to the list kept by the US government. On November 30, one day before the Lisbon Treaty is scheduled to take effect, the ministers of justice of the EU's 27 member states will sign yet another security agreement with the US. It is supposed to be an essential weapon in the global “War on Terror” the US claims to be fighting. Under the new agreement, the US government will get access to all the banking data of all Europeans....

Why Europe Feels Rejected by Obama By JOHN VINOCUR Why would an American president not come to a celebration marking the fall of the Berlin Wall, and with it, the triumphant end of the Cold War — one of the high points of the United States’ and Europe’s common 20th-century history? Whatever the exact answer — and it could be that a fatigued Barack Obama didn’t want the physical strain of a trans-Atlantic trip days before a weeklong tour of Asia — his absence from the Nov. 9 ceremonies in Germany has reinforced Europe’s fear that it has become an...

ROME, November 17, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski and the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church have both hit out at a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) attempting to ban the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools. At the same time, a general revolt against the ruling in municipalities all over Italy has been started by public officials, who are now ordering the display of crucifixes in schools, and levelling fines for non-compliance. The November 3rd ECHR ruling, made in response to a complaint by an Italian secularist campaigner, said that the display...

A chemical tanker with a crew of 28 North Koreans has been hijacked by pirates near Somalia, the European Union's naval force says. The MV Theresa VIII, a Singaporean-operated tanker, was taken on Monday in the south Somali Basin, 180 nautical miles north west of the Seychelles. The vessel had been heading for the Kenyan port city of Mombasa, but was diverted north, the naval force said. The EU naval force (Navfor) operates in the region to protect shipping. Somali pirates, using "mother ships" to launch their small-boat attacks on vessels, have extended their range to an area off the...

The fight over homosexual propaganda in schools taking place between the Lithuanian and European Parliaments escalated this week with the Lithuanian Parliament (Siemas) calling on its government to file suit against the Europeans in the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU). The argument began with passage of a Lithuanian "Law on the Protection of Minors against the Detrimental Effect of Public Information" which prohibits promotion of "homosexual, bisexual, polygamous relations" among children under the age of 18. While the Lithuanian president subsequently vetoed the measure, the Siemas overturned his veto and the law is slated to go into...

What was once venerated is now, in many ways, dismissed and even despised. Matthew Arnold, the great Victorian poet, marked the turning moment. He had early intimations of “the way we live now,” a way largely evacuated of its Christian allegiances, certainly – in the public sphere – evacuated of the regard and respect that the profession of Christianity once automatically evoked. “The Sea of Faith/ Was once, too, at the full,” he wrote, before going on in lines of immense power to record: But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the...

www.catholicnewsagency.com Italian mayors respond to Strasbourg ruling by hanging more crucifixes in schools Rome, Italy, Nov 12, 2009 / 01:49 pm (CNA).- A number of Italian officials have responded to the ruling by the European Human Rights Court that ordered schools in Italy to remove crucifixes from the classrooms by taking unprecedented measures to preserve the Christian symbol. According to the Italian daily “Avvenire,” the mayor of Sezzadio, Pier Luigi Arnera, has leveled a fine of 500 euros against anyone who removes a crucifix from a public place. Arnera explained that the displaying of the crucifix in “places other...

If Government Run Health Care and High Taxes are so great, why have so many tennis legends fled their home countries for the United States, or European Countries with lower/no taxes? 1. Bjorn Borg, 11-time Grand Slam Champion from Sweden, lives in tax free Monaco 2. Martina Navratilova, 18-time Grand Slam Champion from Czechoslovakia, now a US citizen 3. Steffi Graf, 22-time Grand Slam Champion from Germany. Lives in the US. 4. Monica Seles, 9-time Grand Slam Champion from Yugoslavia, now a US citizen. 5. Ivan Lendl, 8-time Grand Slam Champion from Czechoslovakia, now a US citizen 6. Mats Wilander,...

VIENNA, Austria, NOV. 6, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Real religious freedom is not freedom from religion, says a historian writing in response to this week's European court decision discouraging crucifixes in Italian schools. Martin Kugler, an expert for the human rights network Christianophobia.eu in Vienna, offered 12 theses to unveil the mistaken thinking of the court, which decided in favor of an atheist mother who protested the crucifix in her children's school. Kugler explained: "The right to religious freedom can only mean its exercise -- not the freedom from confrontation. The meaning of 'freedom of religion' has nothing to do with creating...

Europe Cracks Down on Home School Parents MUNICH, Germany - Increasing custody cases in Europe are proof that officials there have declared war against home schooling and parental rights, according to some residents.In Sweden, police burst onto a plane and took 7-year-old Dominic Johansson from his parents as they were about to leave the country.Months earlier, they told school officials they were going to home school Dominic, prompting officials to open an investigation. In a similar case in Germany, the government abducted 7-year-old Dan Schulz while the family was sleeping. He can be heard on tape screaming that he...

Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP, has resigned as European legal spokesman only two months after taking up the post in protest at his party's stance on the Lisbon Treaty. Mr Hannan, a leading Eurosceptic, became the Tory spokesman on legal affairs in the European Parliament in September. But last night on his Telegraph blog, Mr Hannan, the Conservative MEP for South East England, said he would be returning to the back benches in order to campaign for direct democracy that will see power in the hands of individual citizens.

Mr Klaus was the last head of state to sign the Treaty. It now has legal force across the European Union's 27 countries. "I announce that I signed the Lisbon Treaty at 15.00 [2pm GMT] today," said Mr Klaus, speaking in the Czech capital, Prague. He had signalled he would put pen to paper after getting a British-style opt-out to the Charter of Fundamental Rights at an EU summit in Brussels last week. Gordon Brown earlier welcomed the final ruling by the Czech constitutional court that the Lisbon Treaty would not damage Czech sovereignty. Like other European leaders, the British...

This update is Italy's reaction to the "European Court: No Crucifixes in Italian Schools" article. Way to go guys! Italy, Vatican in uproar over court crucifix ruling By Philip Pullella ROME (Reuters) – The European Court of Human Rights ruled on Tuesday that crucifixes should be removed from Italian classrooms, prompting Vatican anger and sparking uproar in Italy, where such icons are embedded in the national psyche.

The president of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, has signed the EU's Lisbon Treaty, the final step in the charter's ratification.

LONDON (AFP) – David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, widely tipped to be the next prime minister, is to drop plans for a referendum on the European Union's key reforming Lisbon Treaty, a newspaper said Tuesday. Cameron is set to announce he will abandon a pledge to hold a vote on the treaty if his party wins the country's general election due by next June, the Daily Telegraph said. A referendum had threatened to cause a headache for the European Union amid delays over the introduction of the treaty in the 27-nation bloc, which must be ratified by all...

Conservative government will not give a referendum on the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty. The Tory party leader’s admission, which could come as early as Tuesday, will bring accusations that he has broken clear promises to grant a popular vote on the treaty. Mr Cameron gave voters an “iron-clad” promise in 2007 that a Conservative government would hold a popular vote on Lisbon. And, in May this year, he said: "A progressive reform agenda demands that we redistribute power from the EU to Britain and from judges to the people. We will therefore hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty." But...

BRUSSELS (AFP) – A Norwegian warship inspecting fishing boats off the coast of Somalia for suspected pirate activity was caught in heavy gunfire in the early hours of Sunday, a European Union naval commander said. The Norwegian sailors, cruising just off the north-eastern Somali coast, were fired upon in the dead of night by a dhow with between five and seven men on board and armed with heavy weaponry and Kalashnikov rifles, he added. ..... "The boarding party returned fire in self-defence -- and retreated to 1,000 metres (yards), because their main job was to escort a World Food Programme...

European heads of state will formally recommend this week that rich countries should hand over around €100bn (£90bn) a year to nations such as India and Vietnam by 2020 to help them cope with the impact of global warming. The pledge is expected to come at the end of a two-day summit of European leaders on Thursday and Friday, and before negotiations on a new climate treaty in Copenhagen in December. ..... China and India have called for rich countries to hand over 1% of their GDP.

England is a strange place these days. A sort of political volcano has exploded, and the significance of it is not clear. According to pretty well everyone with access to free speech, fascism has erupted. The British National party has been making surreptitious headway for some time now, but restricted to winning a seat on some local council here or there. Suddenly in elections for the European parliament in Brussels, the BNP got about 900,000 votes, entitling it under proportional representation to two seats. One of those seats goes to Nick Griffin, the BNP leader. [....] Griffin has only one...

Sick Berlusconi to Miss EU Summit Mr Berlusconi is to go back on trial next month, accused of tax fraud Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has a bout of scarlet fever and will miss this week's EU summit in Brussels, his foreign minister says. The minister, Franco Frattini, said he would attend instead of Mr Berlusconi. Italian media reports say Mr Berlusconi, 73, has a mild form of the fever, which can result in a sore throat, high temperature and rash. He is thought to have caught it from one of his grandchildren. Doctors have advised him not to travel...

BELGRADE -- The average highest income tax rate in EU countries is almost double that of Serbia, Belgrade daily Blic writes. At the same time, a lower rate is applied only in Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. According to valid legislation, a Serbian citizen will pay about EUR 146,000 to the state out of each million they earn – half the figure that a Cypriot citizen would pay in taxes. In Denmark, the number would reach over half a million euros, says the newspaper. Saša Radulović, an independent investment consultant who has worked in Germany, Canada and the...

Spain Jobless Rate Stays At 17.9% Spain's unemployment rate is the highest in the EU Spain's unemployment rate has remained at 17.9% in the third quarter, the highest in the European Union. The number of jobless now stands at 4.1 million, the country's statistics agency said. The Spanish unemployment rate had risen for the previous eight quarters after its construction and debt-fuelled economic boom ended suddenly. Separately, a survey showed German business confidence rose for a seventh consecutive month in October. [snip]Posted last week: Spain Tips Into Depression

HUA HIN, Thailand — Asian leaders will pledge to overcome their differences and push towards the formation of an EU-style community as they wrap up an annual summit in Thailand on Sunday. Human rights issues, border disputes and signs of apathy over a meeting that was twice delayed by protests have at times marred the gathering of leaders from a region that contains more than half the world's population. But plans to increase the region's global clout by building closer ties eventually dominated the three-day meeting of Southeast Asian nations along with China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New...

EU Member Godfrey Bloom on the scam of Global Warming.

Tony Blair could be crowned first President of Europe at a special summit of EU leaders next month. Diplomatic sources say French President Nicolas Sarkozy is pushing for an extraordinary meeting in Brussels to install the former prime minister in the new £275,000-a-year post...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8LHOdZGRdo

Free Trade: Europe just walked off with the second-biggest trade deal in history with South Korea, bringing a fresh $26 billion to both economies and extending their clout globally. It's a prize that could have been ours. Welcome to the new America, the land of the left behind. As the Obama administration dithers for the eighth straight month about three pending free-trade treaties, those dust clouds you see are Europe taking off and running with the big one — South Korea. Late Thursday, Europe completed a free-trade pact with Korea in which 99% of all tariffs will be scrapped within...

German 'Wise Men' Fear Credit Crunch In 2010 Germany's leading institutes have warned that the pace of economic recovery is "unsustainable" and that the country's banks may face a fresh crisis over the next year as bad debts surface in earnest. By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, International Business Editor Published: 7:31PM BST 15 Oct 2009 The Wise Men said Germany's economy would contract by 5pc this year 'There is still a significant risk of further shocks to the international financial system,' said a joint report by the five 'Wise Men', a panel that advises the government. Emergency action by the European Central...

The Czech Cabinet meets in emergency session today to consider how to persuade their stubborn President to sign the Lisbon treaty — under intense pressure from Paris and Berlin to complete the ratification as soon as possible. With President Klaus demanding a last-minute amendment as the price of his signature — the final approval required in the 27-nation European Union — the Government is locked in a trial of strength with its head of state and on the brink of a constitutional crisis. If it supports his demands the treaty might have to be reopened amid lengthy delays, possibly allowing...

Recently Turkish PM Erodgan canceled a joint military exercise with Israel, to show Turkey's support of Palestine. His next move was to tell the people of Turkey to have more children. I am sure that neither of these actions have anything to do with the worldwide jihad. Nah....could never happen with "moderate" Turkey.

Revelling in the fuss he was causing, Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, calmly tucked into a plate of steamed shellfish on the terrace of the elegant Adriatic hotel in the Albanian seaside resort of Durres last week. In faraway Brussels furious diplomats were calling for his impeachment and even his country’s expulsion from the European Union because of his obstinate refusal to sign the Lisbon treaty. Klaus, now the only European leader holding out against ratifying the document, made it clear he did not give a damn. European leaders were told he was not available to take...

“If the president is obstructing the democratic process and opposing the decision of parliament as well as the will of the people, he is moving beyond the law and will need to face the consequences,” a German diplomat told The Sunday Times. Jiri Oberfalzer, a member of the Czech senate and Klaus’s closest ally, said Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president, had already threatened the Czechs with expulsion from the EU. “Ideas of changing the constitution just to get rid of the president only shows how weak our young democracy is,” said Oberfalzer, a Eurosceptic. The political hot potato now lands...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljAANHPkrAE&NR=1

Turkey and Armenia signed a landmark peace accord on Saturday to restore ties and open their shared border after a century of hostility stemming from the First World War mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman forces. But in an indication of the many pitfalls that lie ahead of its implementation, the ceremony was marred by a three-hour delay due to last-minute disagreements on statements, forcing U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to engage in intense discussions to salvage a deal. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian signed the Swiss-mediated deal in Zurich at a ceremony...

Vaclav Klaus, the anti-EU president of the Czech Republic, today moved to re–open the union's ill-starred Lisbon treaty, stirring exasperation in Brussels, Berlin, and Paris by demanding that Prague be granted exemptions from parts of the reform blueprint. snip . . . Member states and Brussels are desperate to get the treaty in place before the UK election next year, to lessen the chances of a referendum on the document in Britain. The Conservative party leader, David Cameron, has pledged to stage a referendum if he takes office with the treaty not fully ratified.

WARSAW (Reuters) - Polish President Lech Kaczynski will sign the European Union's Lisbon Treaty into law on Sunday October 11, a presidential aide said on Thursday. Poland and the Czech Republic are the only countries in the 27-member EU still to ratify the treaty after Irish voters overwhelmingly backed the document in a referendum last Friday. The treaty aims to streamline EU decision-making. It has to be ratified by all 27 member states to come into force. "The president keeps his word. He said he will sign the treaty with no delays if the Irish say 'yes'. On Sunday he...

Sept. 22: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair The reluctant vote in favor of further European integration by the Irish this weekend may usher Tony Blair into a new role as titular head of the European Union — despite most of Europe being reluctant to have him. The former prime minister is the leading candidate to become the European Union president for a want of alternatives rather than any enthusiasm. With the Irish having finally ratified the Lisbon treaty, all that remains is for the Czech and Polish presidents to sign it and authorize the creation of two new...

n a contest watched closely in Europe but largely ignored in America, the Irish voted on Friday to approve the Lisbon Treaty. The European establishment is celebrating what is supposed to become a stronger European Union. But the fat (Czech) lady has yet to sing. Five years ago members of the EU advanced a continental constitution to create a consolidated government in Brussels, with a president and foreign minister, increased "competencies," or responsibilities, for the EU, and fewer national vetoes over other issues. But in 2005 the Dutch and French peoples voted no. After that democratic debacle, the Eurocratic elite...

TONY Blair is set to be made the first President of Europe in weeks, The Sun can reveal. He will be nominated by EU leaders in Brussels if, as expected, Ireland backs the hated Lisbon Treaty in tomorrow's referendum. A senior Government source said: "If we get a 'Yes' vote it will all move very, very quickly. Tony could be named by the end of October." The leaders of the EU's 27 nations, not the voters, will choose the president. Former PM Mr Blair would not formally take up the powerful position until all EU countries ratified the Treaty. Even...

Just when you might think capitalism’s global crisis would breathe new life into the left, it’s looking increasingly divided and tired. The reelection of Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany a week ago is highlighting a conservative surge in her country and Europe’s other powerhouse economies - Britain, France, and Italy - where the center-right is either firmly in power or about to get there. What happened? Much of the answer lies in the nature of modern European politics, where even the most ardent conservatives can still embrace social welfare policies that would seem leftist to Americans. And in recent years,...

Pope Benedict XVI went to the Czech Republic — repeatedly de­scribed as a “ religious wasteland” in the European press — to remind Czechs and all Europeans of the continent’s Christian roots which, he said, must be remembered and nour­ished if Europe is to have a future. Reporters for the major Europe­an newspapers pointed out that the Pope went to the former Soviet sat­ellite to mark the 20th anniversary of the “Velvet Revolution,” which saw the overthrow of the Commu­nist government in November 1989, and to celebrate the September 28 feast day of St. Wenceslaus, the na­tion’s patron. The press...

Ireland voted strongly in favour of the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, overturning a stunning No vote and taking a key step towards ending the 27-nation bloc's deadlock, ministers said Saturday. Europe Minister Dick Roche told AFP he expected "overwhelming" backing for the treaty in a second referendum, called after a June 2008 No vote, while Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin predicted a "convincing win." The No camp conceded defeat even before official results were published, after informal exit polls pointed to a 60 per cent vote in favour of the treaty -- designed to streamline decision-making in the expanding European...

The Irish Yes to the Lisbon Treaty has been greeted with whoops of joy by the European establishment from Cork to Cracow. But the long battle over Lisbon is not over. The spotlight now falls on the Czech Republic and its President, Vaclav Klaus. EU elites may have successfully defeated democracy for the fifth time – they overrode the Danish No to Maastricht in 1992, the Irish No to Nice in 2001, and the Dutch and French Nos to the European Constitution (the forerunner of Lisbon) in 2005. But the Lisbon Treaty still remains unratified in two Central European states...

Bloodied by the recession, and struggling under 20 billion euros of public debt, Ireland has reversed its earlier rejection of the controversial treaty It was lashing with rain but that wasn't the full reason Paul Callaghan was finding it hard to muster up the enthusiasm to mark his X. "I'm here because I have a vote and, basically, I've been told what to do with it," he said gloomily as he stood outside one of Dublin's polling stations in O'Connell Street on Saturday afternoon. "Look at the state we are in now," he said. "A year ago I had a...