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The latest draft of the fiscal compact to be discussed today (23 January) and tomorrow by European finance ministers increases the isolation of Britain by excluding London from taking part in euro summits and rejecting the UK’s objections over the new role of the Court of Justice. After the first agreement on the fiscal compact, EU diplomats scrambled for weeks over the issue of the participation of member states to the newly institutionalised euro summits, which the new treaty says will be held “at least twice a year”. The most radical option on the table was to exclude non-eurozone members...

Russian ship, allegedly carrying tons of weapons, made a dash for Syria after Cypriot officials allowed it to leave their waters, Turkish officials said Thursday.

David Cameron has three weeks to decide whether to bless a new eurozone treaty or use Britain’s veto and place the country in a “very grave position”, a senior observer warned last night. Peter Ludlow, president of the European Strategy Forum think tank, said Germany and France are confident they will secure a deal to save the long‑term future of the euro by the end of this month. That would mean tougher financial rules for members of the eurozone and the use of existing EU institutions to enforce them, a move Mr. Cameron has indicated is a step too far....

Seen from Belgrade, Zagreb or Sarajevo, the economic and institutional crisis that has struck the European Union has a certain air of déjà-vu. Serbian daily Politika remarks on the similarities with the years preceding the break-up of the federation founded by Tito. Excerpts. by Momcilo Pantelic Relatively speaking, the European Union (EU) is beginning in many ways to resemble Tito’s Yugoslavia. As it stands, there is no lack of reasons to compare the incomparable. For example, at a time when the EU is attempting to reinforce centralised control of its periphery, its foundations are being threatened by excessive nationalism and...

British PM David Cameron on Friday (6 January) vowed to do "everything possible" to prevent EU institutions from being used in a new fiscal treaty the UK has refused to join, but admitted there were legal difficulties in pursuing that path. The treaty negotiations resumed on Friday among 26 member states, with the UK participating as an observer. The text would allow the EU commission, acting "on behalf" of other signatories to the pact, to take deficit sinners to the European Court of Justice.Cameron, whose veto on EU treaty changes in December led to the creation of this new intergovernmental...

“Europe seeks power to place weak states in ‘administration’", leads the Irish Times. Reporting that “the Commission wants the Brussels authorities to be given the power to place distressed eurozone countries in a form of EU ‘administration’”, the Dublin daily notes that “Germany has resisted [this initiative] for months.” For Dutch daily De Volkskrant, this may lead to increasingly stringent recommendations, to mandatory reports, stress tests for banks, inspections by the men from the Commission and, in severe cases, an obligatory loan from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and placement under trusteeship, or even the stripping of subsidies. De...

Experts close to the Kremlin have put some flesh on a recent project of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to create a "Eurasian Union" made up of Russia and other post-Soviet states. Putin, who is expected to again become Russia's president next year, outlined his geopolitical ambitions, according to a report in the daily Izvestia. A round table in Moscow, organized by the ruling United Russia part, put flesh on those ideas, the Russian media reported today (17 October). Apart from countries of the former USSR, the "Eurasian Union" should bring together nations that are historically or culturally close to...

Gathered around Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy, a small group of unelected EU officials have been assigned the task of governing the eurozone and removing leaders who fail to toe the line, writes the British conservative weekly The Spectator. Fraser Nelson The Old Opera House in Frankfurt – once Germany’s most beautiful postwar ruin and now its most stunning recreation – has become a symbol of European rebirth. And it was here, last month, that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy met the EU’s bureaucratic elite in what would, in another era, be described as a putsch. They had grown tired...

Cash-strapped Cyprus yesterday (5 October) secured a massive financial loan from Russia, a country with serious financial interests on the island. Cyprus, whose president Demetris Christofias is the only Communist to lead an EU member and eurozone country, will hold the bloc's presidency in the second half of 2012. Cyprus' Council of Ministers approved an agreement with the Russian Federation for a €2.5 billion loan with a yield of 4.5%, government spokesman Stephanos Stephanou announced, according to the Famagusta Gazette. Since the deadly blast at Cyprus' main power station on 11 July, which wiped out 53% of electricity production, the...

Russia has sent two nuclear-powered submarines to patrol Eastern Mediterranean waters around Cyprus and enforce the island's right to explore for undersea oil and gas in its territorial seas, according to information from Defencenet.gr, citing a Russian FM spokesman.

Former Czech Prime Milos Zeman may face criminal charges for calling Islam an ”anti-civilization” enemy whose type of thinking he compared with the Nazis. Speaking at an international conference on Europe last month, Zeman stated, “The enemy is the anti-civilization spreading from North Africa to Indonesia. Two billion people live in it and it is financed partly from oil sales and partly from drug sales.” The former prime minister, who is known for strong statements and insulting speeches, last week compared the manner and strength of Muslim beliefs in the Koran with the followers of Nazism, who he noted believed...

In the world’s collective consciousness, the word “Nazi” is synonymous with evil. It is widely understood that the Nazis’ ideology—nationalism, anti-Semitism, the autarkic ethnic state, the Führer principle—led directly to the furnaces of Auschwitz. It is not nearly as well understood that Communism led just as inexorably, everywhere on the globe where it was applied, to starvation, torture, and slave-labor camps. Nor is it widely acknowledged that Communism was responsible for the deaths of some 150 million human beings during the twentieth century. The world remains inexplicably indifferent and uncurious about the deadliest ideology in history. For evidence of this...

AFP - Three EU energy majors on Friday agreed to take a 50-percent stake in a Black Sea natural gas link Russia is developing for Europe's growing market in competition to one backed by the United States. The partners said Italy's ENI will get a 20-percent stake in South Stream's offshore operator while Germany's Wintershall and the French firm EDF will each keep 15 percent. The remaining 50-percent share will belong to Gazprom -- the Russian energy monopoly and world's largest gas producer that is developing routes to bypass nations such as Ukraine with which it suffers price disputes. "The...

Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin called on the European Union on Saturday to make a clear commitment to a common economic policy that would aid debt-ridden countries and keep the euro zone crisis from spreading. "The European Union should focus on saving its countries. Weakness and giving up on someone will create additional risks," Kudrin said while attending a conference on Russia's reforms in St. Petersburg. "Perhaps the price is great, but if we don't (save the countries) we will be faced with a greater crisis, which will detonate in other countries, including ours." Russia, the holder of the world's...

It's gotten so obvious that even the New York Times has taken notice. Europe is no longer governed by old-fashioned electoral democracies. That fact is even acknowledged by the European Union, which admits that, yes, Europe does have a "democracy deficit." Czech President Vaclav Klaus has seriously compared the EU to the Soviet Union. The cynics now call it the EuroSoviet Union.

A diplomatic row between Lithuania and Austria erupted after Austrian authorities released a former KGB officer implicated in a 1991 massacre in Vilnius. Mikhail Golovatov was arrested at Vienna airport on July 14 but released after 24 hours and allowed to travel to Moscow. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman said Austrian authorities had decided that the arrest warrant issued by Vilnius, which alleges crimes against humanity, lacked details of the man's suspected criminal actions. Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Asta Skaisgiryte Liauskiene said the country had recalled its ambassador from Vienna and delivered a protest note. ...

The current economic crisis leaves future governments with one major priority – debt management 'IT IS exciting. It is also terrifying". Such was the crisp summation on BBC Radio 4 yesterday on a story all but blotted out by the Murdoch-phone-hacking-BSkyB affair: the deepening financial crisis across the eurozone. Italy, the latest to enter the ring of fire, with the cost of servicing its debt pushed close to unsustainable levels, has now brought forward a €40 billion (£335.2bn) austerity package to be approved by its parliament today. This may help Italy in the interim - though it only moves the...

Temperatures were approaching freezing last November when a stern Vladimir Putin delivered a trademark tirade at a business forum in Berlin's venerably posh Hotel Adlon, steps from the Brandenburg Gate. Captains of industry sat stony faced as the Russian prime minister, reminding them Germany was phasing out nuclear power, said they had nowhere to turn but Russia, which was already supplying 40 percent of the country's demand for natural gas from its vast deposits. Otherwise, "how will you heat your houses?" he mocked. "Even for firewood, you'd have to go to Siberia." The immediate object of Putin's ire was a...

STOCKHOLM, JUne 27, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In accordance with a national school curriculum that seeks to fight the “stereotyping” of gender roles, a preschool in the Sodermalm district of Stockholm has incorporated a gender-free pedagogy that eliminates any reference to gender completely. Staff at the “Egalia� preschool avoid using words like “him� or “her� and instead address the 30 or so boys and girls, aged 1 to 6 years, as “friends.� “Society expects girls to be girlie, nice and pretty, and boys to be manly, rough and outgoing,” Jenny Johnsson, a 31-year-old teacher at the taxpayer-funded school told the Daily...

Lithuania is torn apart over what stance to take toward its own gay population. As the country grapples with how much tolerance it will tolerate, it is facing strong pressure from the EU. ­Local deputies have recently voted for the draft law banning “homosexual propaganda”. The European Parliament reacted immediately, lancing those who disapprove of what many see as the agitation of homosexuality in schools and, what is even more surprising, in kindergartens. The struggle escalated in 2009 when the National Association of Parents and Families petitioned the Lithuanian Ministry of Labor and Social Security, complaining about a teaching technique...

This article was co-authored by Craig RuckerAs the UN wrapped up its recent climate conference in Bonn, Germany, talks organizer Christiana Figueres proclaimed that climate change is the “the most important negotiation the world has ever faced.” Faced with real problems – financial meltdowns, unemployment, war and genuine human suffering – the world no longer agrees. It’s a good thing human productivity doesn’t threaten the global thermostat the way the UN would have us believe. If it were, we’d be cooked. Countries rich and poor are backing away from commitments they made years ago during rosier economic times, before the...

A smiling Dominique Strauss-Kahn was freed with no bail Friday after a hearing where prosecutors said they would not drop attempted rape charges against the French bigwig. The accused sexual predator, due back in court July 18, walked out of court with his biggest legal victory since his May 14 arrest for assaulting a midtown Manhattan hotel maid. With sources saying the case was disappearing amid a series of lies by the accuser, prosecutors acknowledged their witness had "substantial credibility issues."

Germany has warned the conservative Hungarian government that its new constitution, passed by parliament on Monday (18 April), is not compatible with European Union values. "We are observing the developments in Hungary with great attention and some worry," German deputy foreign minister Werner Hoyer said in an emailed statement. "The media law adopted at the start of the year shows an attitude towards fundamental rights which - despite some amendments - is hardly compatible with European Union values." ...The Hungarian parliament approved the document 262 votes to 44, with the Socialist and green parties boycotting the vote and the far-right...

Koussa fled Libya to Britain on March 30, seeking refuge after quitting Gaddafi's government, reportedly to show his support for the Libyan rebel uprising and to protest against attacks by Gaddafi's forces on civilians. He was questioned by Scottish police over the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, but has not been under any travel restrictions. In a statement issued Thursday, Britain's Treasury said Koussa had been deleted from the EU financial sanctions list, removing a freeze on his assets. "We have done that -- it sends a powerful signal to other potential defectors that, if they are currently on a list, they...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - France threatened to harm a flagship EU policy for post-Soviet countries shortly after the Russia-Georgia war unless the Union forgave Russia for its invasion, a freshly leaked US cable says. The November 2008 dispatch from the US embassy in Stockholm reports that Johan Frisell, a Swedish diplomat, told US charge d'affairs Robert Silverman that France pressured Poland and Sweden into lifting the Union's only post-war sanction on Russia. "France threatened to stall the Eastern Partnership initiative if the Swedes and others opposed to 'business as usual' with Moscow refused to resume EU-Russia talks, according to Frisell,"...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - As dead bodies pile up on the streets of Tripoli and blocked phone lines hamper the EU evacuation effort, the latest EU figures show that EU countries just two years ago granted over €160 million of export licences to Libya for small arms and electronic jamming kit. The Union's latest report on arms exports, out in January and covering 2009, says that EU countries granted €687.6 million worth of Libya licences just two years before the massacre. Figures for actual shipments are incomplete. With the UK's Associated Press agency reporting on Tuesday (22 February) that the...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A cache of secret US cables on the 2008 Russia-Georgia war paints a vivid picture of how the EU was split into 'Russia-friendly' and 'Russia-hostile' clubs, with German diplomats "parroting" Russian arguments and Latvia suggesting that Nato should consider sending arms to Georgia. The cache of around 120 cables from US embassies around Europe covering the period from 7 August, when the war 'officially' began, until 19 August, about one week after it ended, was published on Wednesday (1 December) on the website of the WikiLeaks-affiliated magazine Russian Reporter. One cable dealing with an extraordinary meeting...

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has said that he does not rule out the creation of a currency union between the Russian Federation and the European Union some time in future. He was speaking during a joint news conference following his talks with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. As to this kind of currency union, he said, we understand, of course, that any currency union is a result of the combination of economies, of economic development. Things should grow ripe, the Russian Prime Minister said.

No more tariffs. No more visas. Vastly more economic cooperation between Russia and the European Union. That's the vision presented by Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "We propose the creation of a harmonious economic community stretching from Lisbon to Vladivostok," Putin writes. "In the future, we could even consider a free trade zone or even more advanced forms of economic integration. The result would be a unified continental market with a capacity worth trillions of euros." The proposal comes as Putin travels to Germany for a two-day visit. On Wednesday, Russia and the EU agreed to eliminate tariffs on raw...

The entire European Project is now at risk of disintegration, with strategic and economic consequences that are very hard to predict. In a speech this morning, EU President Herman Van Rompuy (poet, and writer of Japanese and Latin verse) warned that if Europe’s leaders mishandle the current crisis and allow the eurozone to break up, they will destroy European Union itself. “We’re in a survival crisis. We all have to work together in order to survive with the euro zone, because if we don’t survive with the euro zone we will not survive with the European Union,” he said. Well,...

The pre-eminence of the British Parliament in deciding national law will be placed on the statute book for the first time, Foreign Secretary William Hague said today. - The move will not alter the existing relationship between British and European Union law, but it will make it explicitly clear that EU directives take effect in the UK only by the will of Parliament, which can be withdrawn at any time. At present, the principle of parliamentary sovereignty is enshrined in Common Law. As the UK has no written constitution, it has not – unlike other EU members including Germany –...

Baroness Ashton has drawn up a secret plan to take direct control of running Bosnia with new European Union powers to target Serb hardliners accused of challenging the state and blocking political reform. A confidential paper, tabled by Europe's foreign minister this week, has urged the creation of a powerful European envoy this autumn, based in Sarajevo, to push through a new constitutional order for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Key to the political reforms, demanded as a condition of EU entry for Bosnia, is a strengthening of a multi-ethnic federal state, mainly controlled by Muslims and Croats, at the expense of...

The president of Cyprus said Saturday the island's authorities are not to blame for the disappearance of an alleged fugitive Russian spy. Dimitris Christofias said that 54-year-old Christopher Metsos "appears to have fled" the island, but insisted Cypriot authorities acted appropriately in handling the case. His comments come the day after Cyprus's justice minister said he believes Metsos had fled the country. Metsos is wanted in the United States on charges that he supplied money to the spy ring that operated under deep cover in America's suburbs. He disappeared on Wednesday, a day after a Cypriot court freed him on...

(Reuters) - A man suspected of being the 11th member of a U.S. spy ring allegedly working for Russia has been arrested and released on bail in Cyprus, police said on Tuesday. Robert Christopher Metsos, 55, was arrested at Cyprus's Larnaca airport as he tried to leave the island for Budapest early on Tuesday, police said. A magistrate released Metsos on bail of 20,000 euros ($24,410) bail to reappear in court within 30 days, when an extradition hearing will start. "Based on the (Interpol) red notice we received, he is wanted for money laundering and espionage," police spokesman Michalis Katsounotos...

Russia -- which holds over 40 percent of its forex reserves in Euros -- trusts and believes in the single European currency and is sure its current woes are only temporary, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. "We trust and believe" in the Euro, Putin told AFP in an interview this week in the southern Russian Black Sea resort city of Sochi. "We would not hold such a huge amount of our currency reserves in the European currency if we did not." The European Union is by far Russia's biggest trading partner and Moscow has warily eyed the financial problems that...

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Germany and Russia have called on the EU to create a new foreign minister-level security forum to handle issues such as Transnistria. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev made the proposal at a joint press conference following bilateral talks in Meseberg castle, 40km north of the German capital, on Saturday (5 June). "There is now a committee of ambassadors in Brussels that deals with security issues," Ms Merkel said, referring to EU Council's Political and Security Committee (PSC). "This committee could be further developed, so that there is regular and ongoing contact not...

ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (Reuters) - Russia and the European Union condemned on Tuesday Israel's use of deadly force in the storming of an aid flotilla and urged the opening of crossings into Gaza. In a joint declaration during a Russia-EU summit in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton demanded a "full and impartial inquiry". "The death of people is irreparable and absolutely unjustified," Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told a news conference with EU leaders. EU President Herman Van Rompuy called the deaths "inexplicable". "We regret the loss of life,...

WHAT have the following places got in common? America, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Britain, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, the Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Vietnam. Clearly the size of the market is not the determinant. China and Russia don’t appear, but Luxembourg does. It is not about prosperity: Iceland—which, believe it or not, is still one of the richer countries in the world—is out, whereas Vietnam is in. Political freedom or the rule of law are not the binding factors. The Philippines and...

Berlin - In the last days of April 1945, Vladimir Zhilkin was a young officer fighting his way through the terrified suburbs of Berlin, as the Soviet military juggernaut closed in on Adolf Hitler. "We came through Karlshorst, and got to the power station at Rummelsberg," he says, clear-eyed and decked out in medals and uniform at a ceremony in Berlin to mark the 65th anniversary of the end of World War II. "There were retreating German soldiers preparing to dynamite the power station, but we stopped them at the last minute. The people there had asked us to leave...

Corruption: The carbon trading system being pushed here has spawned crime and fraud across the pond. Cap-and-trade is not about saving the planet. It's about money and power, and absolute power corrupting absolutely. All across Europe authorities have been conducting raids, rounding up individuals involved in a new version of Climate-gate. This time the data aren't corrupted. Europe's Emissions Trading System is. The system is so sick, it's turned out to be a scam built upon a scam. Twenty-five people have been arrested in raids by British and German authorities as part of a pan-European crackdown on carbon credit VAT...

Gordon Brown on Sunday said the large economies were close to agreeing a global tax on banks that would cost the financial sector billions of pounds a year but played down expectations that a deal could be struck at the next Group of 20 meeting in June. The UK prime minister, who held talks with Angela Merkel, German chancellor, last week, said the scene was set for a ­“global responsibility levy”. He said Britain, France and Germany were now broadly agreed on the need for a levy, and he hoped the US would come on board. “Britain, France and Germany...

Europe could meet all its electricity needs from renewable sources by mid-century, according to a report released Monday by services giant PricewaterhouseCoopers. A "super-smart" grid powered by solar farms in North Africa, wind farms in northern Europe and the North Sea, hydro-electric from Scandinavia and the Alps and a complement of biomass and marine energy could render carbon-based fuels obsolete for electricity by 2050, said the report. The goal is achievable even without the use of nuclear energy, the mainstay of electricity in France, it said. Over all, about 50 percent of Europe's energy demand is met with imported fuels.

Sweden’s National Public Employment Agency (Arbetsförmedlingen) has decided not to appeal its fine for discriminating against a Muslim man who had his benefits withdrawn after refusing to shake the hand of Jeanette Löding, the female CEO of a firm with which he was seeking employment. We have worked hard so that women and men can be seen as equals in the workplace. If feels like we have slipped back a few steps here," Jeanette Löding, CEO of Melament AB told The Local on Wednesday regarding the court's decision. The agency explained that it had decided to accept the Stockholm District...

Strasbourg: Polish gays can inherit 02.03.2010 12:39 Poland’s homosexuals have the right to inherit from their partners, the European Court of Human Rights has ruled. The court in Strasbourg decided that the authorities of the north western city of Szczecin as well as the district court had broken the European Convention on Human Rights by making it impossible for Piotr Kozak to inherit an apartment from his deceased partner. The authorities tried to evict Kozak from his flat and the court in Szczecin ruled that the man did not secure the right to the apartment because in case of common-law...

BRUSSELS/KIEV, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Viktor Yanukovich will meet European Union leaders next Monday on his first foreign trip as Ukraine's president, opting to visit Brussels before Russia, EU officials said on Tuesday. "I will receive the President of Ukraine here in Brussels next Monday; I think it's the first visit he makes outside his country after his election," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told a news briefing. There was no immediate confirmation by Yanukovich, who has been closely linked with Russia but has been careful to avoid appearing too close to Moscow and has called for gradual integration...

Russia was preparing on Monday for closer political and economic ties with Ukraine following Viktor Yanukovich’s likely victory. But Moscow was hesitant to comment on the result, wary of the possibility that Mr Yanukovich’s slender majority, could be contested by Yulia Tymoshenko. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin, Russia’s prime minister, said: “We won’t make a statement until the results are announced. We should wait until the vote count is completed.” Moscow-based analysts said Mr Putin would not repeat the blunder of 2004, when he hailed Mr Yanukovich’s victory in a fraudulent election that triggered the Orange Revolution. But Sergei Markov,...

The traditionally conservative Serbian Orthodox Church will back the country's bid to join the European Union, but remains opposed to the independence of Kosovo, the church's new leader said on Thursday. The Orthodox Church is an important moral force in Serbian society and politicians often seek its support, including on issues such as the EU accession bid. Irinej, 80, was elected last week as patriarch of the church with an estimated 11 million people of Orthodox background in Serbia, neighboring countries, the United States, Australia and Western Europe. "We hope that Europe will respect our identity, our cultural heritage, our...

WARSAW, Poland — History suggests that when Russia and Germany announce a deal that is slightly too sweet, Poland has reason to be wary. Which is why the Polish foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, acidly dubbed a plan to build an underwater natural gas pipeline from Russia’s Siberian gas fields to Germany’s Baltic coast “the Molotov-Ribbentrop pipeline,” a reference to the pact between the Nazis and the Soviets to carve up Poland on the eve of World War II. The Russians and Germans hail the $11 billion project as “a new benchmark for cooperation between the European Union and Russia.” The...

A new-look leadership structure designed to streamline the European Union begins in earnest on Friday when Spain assumes the rotating presidency alongside the bloc's first president, Herman Van Rompuy. But as Spain's prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Van Rompuy and the head of the EU commission José Manuel Barroso jostle for position at the bloc's top table, critics say that the situation is risks becoming more hydra than hybrid. .... Van Rompuy's position was created under the terms of the EU's Lisbon Treaty, which also creates the role of a foreign policy and security supremo, a post that the...

With a Conservative Government the favourite to take power in Britain next year, Baroness Ashton of Upholland is racing against time to establish a pan-European diplomatic service before David Cameron can clip its wings. Some European leaders and MEPs want the new External Action Service (EAS) that she will oversee to become a federal Foreign Office for the EU with full consular powers, making it Europe’s pre-eminent presence around the world. But the battle is on to shape it before a possible change of government in Britain. “We would like everything in place before David Cameron becomes Prime Minister,” said...