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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sat 13 Oct - 15:02
Eurobarometer fever
9 October 2012De Volkskrant Amsterdam
Cristina Sampaio
Opinion polls conducted by the European Commission continue to show that Europeans remains committed to the union — statistics then used to justify ongoing integration projects. Such an approach could be considered trivial if it didn't widen the gulf between citizens and the EU leaderships, warns a Dutch columnist.
René Cuperus
In Brussels I recently bumped into one of the creators of the illustrious Eurobarometer. One of these fresh, young, talented Europeans, the type present in abundance throughout the entire Europe neighbourhood in Brussels. I asked her man to woman why the Eurobarometer always happens to be so Europe-friendly. A little explanation. The Eurobarometer is the "Gallop poll" of Brussels. Under the auspices of the European Commission trends in public opinion in all EU member states are measured twice a year.
The results of the Eurobarometer play a big role. At vernissages in and around Brussels you are confronted with them at every turn. “You can claim that there is some disillusion with Europe in the member state the Netherlands, but the most recent Eurobarometer shows that 65 percent of the Dutch completely support the Europe 2020 strategy.” Huh?
I once joked that Charlemagne ran Europe with greater finesse than the eurocrats from their lofty heights in Brussels. They think one opinion poll is enough to gauge the support for their megalomaniac plans. There is plenty to say about Charlemagne, but he at least travelled through all the states of his empire and set up camp in different locations all the time.
After a couple of beers the woman from Brussels admitted that the Eurobarometer does entail some Europe-friendly massage. She and her five colleagues are presented with read-made questions by the various directorates-general of the European Commission, and “DG Communication” makes sure that the tone or voice of the presentation of the Eurobarometer is nicely europhile.
Barroso gallops on toward the great ideal
I immediately thought of that Eurobarometer when I cast my eyes upon the recent State of the Union Address of European Commission president José Manuel Barroso. This is the government statement of our uncrowned European government leader. When I saw his proposals I thought: either that man has been seized by a fit of overconfidence bordering on the insane, or his only source has been the Eurobarometer.
Only then could one see why Barroso, in the midst of the greatest crisis Europe has ever known, bangs the drum louder than ever for the formation of a European federation. You have to have some nerve to do that at a time when people are rightly disillusioned by the European Project – even if only because an entire generation of European youth is unemployed.
In his speech Barroso gallops on toward the great ideal of a post-national Europe. Nation states have to pretty much abolish themselves “it is the only way we will get the scale and efficiency we need to be a global player. It is the only way to safeguard our values, because it is also a matter of values in a changing world. Let's not be afraid of the words: we will need to move towards a federation of nation states.”
This Brussels wet dream is nothing less than a coup. There is no supporting base, either for a full-fledged European federation or for a European political union. Not on the part of the national political elites – just listen to the overwhelming silence in The Hague when it comes to the “view from Brussels”. Let alone that the population is in any way ready for this.
Brussels is abusing the euro crisis
True enough, people do not want a “Nexit” à la Wilders. There is no wish for the Netherlands to leave the EU. The recent elections showed that. Nevertheless, there is no support for the taciturn self-abolishment of the Netherlands either. Don't be alarmed but: the question “Dutch membership of the EU is a good thing” only received an affirmative answer from 44 percent of the Dutch in the last public opinion poll of the SCP.
How that percentage is divided is even more dramatic: 67 percent of those with a higher education support EU membership compared to 37 percent in the middle group and 26 percent among those with a lower education.
Barroso is playing an extremely dangerous game in his speech when he places “all pro-European forces” and “the nationalists and populists” diametrically across from each other. By doing so he is consciously committing a coup against people with medium- and lower-level education in Europe and he is turning the EU into a “minority project” for academics.
Brussels is abusing the euro crisis to push ahead with integration. What they are in fact doing is unleashing the greatest imaginable political backlash against the European Project. Long live Europe!
Translated from the Dutch by Kelly Boom
9 October 2012De Volkskrant Amsterdam
Cristina Sampaio
Opinion polls conducted by the European Commission continue to show that Europeans remains committed to the union — statistics then used to justify ongoing integration projects. Such an approach could be considered trivial if it didn't widen the gulf between citizens and the EU leaderships, warns a Dutch columnist.
René Cuperus
In Brussels I recently bumped into one of the creators of the illustrious Eurobarometer. One of these fresh, young, talented Europeans, the type present in abundance throughout the entire Europe neighbourhood in Brussels. I asked her man to woman why the Eurobarometer always happens to be so Europe-friendly. A little explanation. The Eurobarometer is the "Gallop poll" of Brussels. Under the auspices of the European Commission trends in public opinion in all EU member states are measured twice a year.
The results of the Eurobarometer play a big role. At vernissages in and around Brussels you are confronted with them at every turn. “You can claim that there is some disillusion with Europe in the member state the Netherlands, but the most recent Eurobarometer shows that 65 percent of the Dutch completely support the Europe 2020 strategy.” Huh?
I once joked that Charlemagne ran Europe with greater finesse than the eurocrats from their lofty heights in Brussels. They think one opinion poll is enough to gauge the support for their megalomaniac plans. There is plenty to say about Charlemagne, but he at least travelled through all the states of his empire and set up camp in different locations all the time.
After a couple of beers the woman from Brussels admitted that the Eurobarometer does entail some Europe-friendly massage. She and her five colleagues are presented with read-made questions by the various directorates-general of the European Commission, and “DG Communication” makes sure that the tone or voice of the presentation of the Eurobarometer is nicely europhile.
Barroso gallops on toward the great ideal
I immediately thought of that Eurobarometer when I cast my eyes upon the recent State of the Union Address of European Commission president José Manuel Barroso. This is the government statement of our uncrowned European government leader. When I saw his proposals I thought: either that man has been seized by a fit of overconfidence bordering on the insane, or his only source has been the Eurobarometer.
Only then could one see why Barroso, in the midst of the greatest crisis Europe has ever known, bangs the drum louder than ever for the formation of a European federation. You have to have some nerve to do that at a time when people are rightly disillusioned by the European Project – even if only because an entire generation of European youth is unemployed.
In his speech Barroso gallops on toward the great ideal of a post-national Europe. Nation states have to pretty much abolish themselves “it is the only way we will get the scale and efficiency we need to be a global player. It is the only way to safeguard our values, because it is also a matter of values in a changing world. Let's not be afraid of the words: we will need to move towards a federation of nation states.”
This Brussels wet dream is nothing less than a coup. There is no supporting base, either for a full-fledged European federation or for a European political union. Not on the part of the national political elites – just listen to the overwhelming silence in The Hague when it comes to the “view from Brussels”. Let alone that the population is in any way ready for this.
Brussels is abusing the euro crisis
True enough, people do not want a “Nexit” à la Wilders. There is no wish for the Netherlands to leave the EU. The recent elections showed that. Nevertheless, there is no support for the taciturn self-abolishment of the Netherlands either. Don't be alarmed but: the question “Dutch membership of the EU is a good thing” only received an affirmative answer from 44 percent of the Dutch in the last public opinion poll of the SCP.
How that percentage is divided is even more dramatic: 67 percent of those with a higher education support EU membership compared to 37 percent in the middle group and 26 percent among those with a lower education.
Barroso is playing an extremely dangerous game in his speech when he places “all pro-European forces” and “the nationalists and populists” diametrically across from each other. By doing so he is consciously committing a coup against people with medium- and lower-level education in Europe and he is turning the EU into a “minority project” for academics.
Brussels is abusing the euro crisis to push ahead with integration. What they are in fact doing is unleashing the greatest imaginable political backlash against the European Project. Long live Europe!
Translated from the Dutch by Kelly Boom
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sun 14 Oct - 12:48
Greece Will Probably Leave Euro Within Six Months, Borg Says
By Johan Carlstrom and Josiane Kremer - Oct 13, 2012 2:27 PM GMT+0100
As European Union leaders prepare for a summit next week devoted to saving the euro, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said Greece may quit the common currency within the next six months.
“It’s most probable that they will leave,” Borg said today on a conference call from Tokyo, where global finance officials have gathered for the annual meetings of theInternational Monetary Fund. “We shouldn’t rule out this happening in the next half-year.”
Enlarge image
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Anders Borg, Sweden's finance minister.
Anders Borg, Sweden's finance minister.Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Borg’s warning comes a day after the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize amid a financial crisis now in its third year and four days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel encountered rioters and anti-Nazi taunts on a trip to Athens. Merkel said she wants Greece to remain in the euro.
The so-called troika that oversees euro-area bailouts, comprised of officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, has resumed talks with Greek officials after a pause that provided Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s three-party coalition with backing to continue efforts to carve out 13.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion) of new budget cuts needed to unlock aid payments.
EU leaders meet in Brussels Oct. 18-19 to discuss their efforts to make the ECB Europe’s chief bank supervisor and plans to tighten economic and monetary ties within the bloc.
Aid Payment
Euro-area finance ministers on Oct. 8 saluted Greece’s determination to trim its budget and reshape its economy, while demanding that the government in Athens commit to a list of 89 policy steps before the summit and leaving open whether the next 31 billion-euro aid installment will be paid out in one go or dribbled out in smaller pieces.
Borg said a Greek euro exit probably wouldn’t have a major impact on the financial system, “since in practice everyone already understands which way the wind is blowing.”
Given Greece’s lack of competitive industry and inability to implement necessary reforms, “it’s a little bit hard to see how they’ll resolve this situation without stimulating competitiveness through a significantly lower exchange rate,”Borg said.
Borg has long been pessimistic about Greece’s future. In July, he said “some sort of default” was the most likely scenario for Greece. Last month, he said he couldn’t rule out a Greek euro exit within a year and that European banks were prepared for such an outcome.
‘Political Strength’
Citigroup’s Juergen Michels said in a note to clients yesterday that the likelihood of Greece quitting the euro in the next 12 to 18 months has dropped to 60 percent from 90 percent. He cited a change in attitude among core euro-area states.
Many investors “are betting that we won’t have the political strength” to defend the euro, Merkel said today in a speech to a regional convention of her Christian Democratic Union party held at Celle in the northern state of Lower Saxony.“I am determined to make the effort, even if it’s hard.”
The IMF said failure to sort out the European debt crisiswas contributing to an “alarmingly high” risk of a steeper slowdown in the world economy, already on course to expand this year by the least since the 2009 recession.
Borg today also renewed his opposition to the current proposal for common European bank supervision.
EU leaders in June embarked on plans to build a common supervisor as a step toward offering direct bank bailouts from the euro-area’s firewall fund. All 27 EU nations must approve the oversight proposal for it to move forward. Non-euro nations including Sweden have called for assurance their voices won’t be drowned out.
“The signal I’m getting from the other European countries and also from the ECB is that they see these problems and really want to find solutions,” Borg said. All countries should“participate on the same terms with the same influence
By Johan Carlstrom and Josiane Kremer - Oct 13, 2012 2:27 PM GMT+0100
As European Union leaders prepare for a summit next week devoted to saving the euro, Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said Greece may quit the common currency within the next six months.
“It’s most probable that they will leave,” Borg said today on a conference call from Tokyo, where global finance officials have gathered for the annual meetings of theInternational Monetary Fund. “We shouldn’t rule out this happening in the next half-year.”
Enlarge image
Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Anders Borg, Sweden's finance minister.
Anders Borg, Sweden's finance minister.Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Borg’s warning comes a day after the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize amid a financial crisis now in its third year and four days after German Chancellor Angela Merkel encountered rioters and anti-Nazi taunts on a trip to Athens. Merkel said she wants Greece to remain in the euro.
The so-called troika that oversees euro-area bailouts, comprised of officials from the European Commission, European Central Bank and IMF, has resumed talks with Greek officials after a pause that provided Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s three-party coalition with backing to continue efforts to carve out 13.5 billion euros ($17.5 billion) of new budget cuts needed to unlock aid payments.
EU leaders meet in Brussels Oct. 18-19 to discuss their efforts to make the ECB Europe’s chief bank supervisor and plans to tighten economic and monetary ties within the bloc.
Aid Payment
Euro-area finance ministers on Oct. 8 saluted Greece’s determination to trim its budget and reshape its economy, while demanding that the government in Athens commit to a list of 89 policy steps before the summit and leaving open whether the next 31 billion-euro aid installment will be paid out in one go or dribbled out in smaller pieces.
Borg said a Greek euro exit probably wouldn’t have a major impact on the financial system, “since in practice everyone already understands which way the wind is blowing.”
Given Greece’s lack of competitive industry and inability to implement necessary reforms, “it’s a little bit hard to see how they’ll resolve this situation without stimulating competitiveness through a significantly lower exchange rate,”Borg said.
Borg has long been pessimistic about Greece’s future. In July, he said “some sort of default” was the most likely scenario for Greece. Last month, he said he couldn’t rule out a Greek euro exit within a year and that European banks were prepared for such an outcome.
‘Political Strength’
Citigroup’s Juergen Michels said in a note to clients yesterday that the likelihood of Greece quitting the euro in the next 12 to 18 months has dropped to 60 percent from 90 percent. He cited a change in attitude among core euro-area states.
Many investors “are betting that we won’t have the political strength” to defend the euro, Merkel said today in a speech to a regional convention of her Christian Democratic Union party held at Celle in the northern state of Lower Saxony.“I am determined to make the effort, even if it’s hard.”
The IMF said failure to sort out the European debt crisiswas contributing to an “alarmingly high” risk of a steeper slowdown in the world economy, already on course to expand this year by the least since the 2009 recession.
Borg today also renewed his opposition to the current proposal for common European bank supervision.
EU leaders in June embarked on plans to build a common supervisor as a step toward offering direct bank bailouts from the euro-area’s firewall fund. All 27 EU nations must approve the oversight proposal for it to move forward. Non-euro nations including Sweden have called for assurance their voices won’t be drowned out.
“The signal I’m getting from the other European countries and also from the ECB is that they see these problems and really want to find solutions,” Borg said. All countries should“participate on the same terms with the same influence
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sun 14 Oct - 13:12
ECB Says Euro-Area Banking Supervision May Not Start Until 2014
By Jana Randow - Oct 13, 2012 1:51 PM GMT+0100
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) --The head of the European Central Banksaid that common banking supervision in the euro area may not become operational before 2014 even if legislation is in place at the beginning of next year.
“It’s very important that the council regulation enters into force Jan. 1 but that doesn’t mean supervision will be in place on Jan. 1 from an operational view point,” ECB PresidentMario Draghi told reporters in Tokyo today. “That may well take another year or so. We have to move in time, but we also have to move well.”
Enlarge image
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a news conference at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a news conference at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
The European Union on Sept. 12 unveiled proposals for bank oversight that require unprecedented cooperation between the ECB and national regulators. While the ECB would become the top-level supervisor of every lender in the 17-nation currency bloc, it would depend on national regulators for day-to-day supervision and ensuring that banks comply with European rules.
EU leaders called for a single bank supervisor in June as a condition of allowing euro-area banks direct access to the region’s firewall funds. While they set a start date of Jan. 1, 2013, the ECB is pushing for more time.
Policy makers including ECB Vice President Vitor Constancioand Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny indicated that it would be difficult for the ECB to assume supervisory control over the region’s banks before July.
‘More feasible’
“It’s demanding in July; if it happens by the end of the year it is still OK,” Constancio said in an interview on Oct. 10. “In a way it is more feasible. In some ways it would be easier to start January 2014, to coincide with CRD IV,” the European Union’s capital requirement legislation, he said.“It’s not essential, but it would help.”
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega urged European policy makers not to procrastinate.
“When all these mechanisms are up and running, we’ll have an excellent economy,” he said today. “It will be a marvel. The question is whether we will survive until then.”
Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen said today the ECB shouldn’t be made responsible for the health of financial institutions unless it can act to defend it.
“I only want to have this at the ECB if it’s fully operational from day one because we’re taking on reputational risk,” he said at a panel discussion today.
Conflict of Interest
Germany’s Bundesbank, the ECB’s largest shareholder, is wary of potential conflicts of interest between setting monetary policy and supervising banks. Board member Andreas Dombret said on Aug. 22 the ECB may jeopardize its independence if it has final responsibility in supervision.
The proposed common supervisor needs to be approved by all 27 European Union members. Non-euro members would be allowed to opt in. There also are proposed safeguards to keep the ECB from dominating disputes among the bloc’s supervisors.
“All countries that are asking to be part of the supervisory system should be part of the system, whether they’re in the euro or not,” Draghi said. “They should be there with equal rights. It’s nice to say but harder to do because there are certain legal issues that need to be resolved.”
Finance ministers from euro-area nations have emphasized the need for national regulators to continue to play a strong role after the ECB takes on its new duties.
“Much of the day-to-day oversight is in fact conducted by national supervisors,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said today. “But the key is the ECB-based euro-area supervisor has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that there are no empty sheets or black holes.”
“It doesn’t mean that the ECB-based supervisor on a daily basis would supervise 6,200 banks in the euro area,” he added.
By Jana Randow - Oct 13, 2012 1:51 PM GMT+0100
Oct. 13 (Bloomberg) --The head of the European Central Banksaid that common banking supervision in the euro area may not become operational before 2014 even if legislation is in place at the beginning of next year.
“It’s very important that the council regulation enters into force Jan. 1 but that doesn’t mean supervision will be in place on Jan. 1 from an operational view point,” ECB PresidentMario Draghi told reporters in Tokyo today. “That may well take another year or so. We have to move in time, but we also have to move well.”
Enlarge image
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi
Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a news conference at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo.
European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi attends a news conference at the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group in Tokyo. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg
The European Union on Sept. 12 unveiled proposals for bank oversight that require unprecedented cooperation between the ECB and national regulators. While the ECB would become the top-level supervisor of every lender in the 17-nation currency bloc, it would depend on national regulators for day-to-day supervision and ensuring that banks comply with European rules.
EU leaders called for a single bank supervisor in June as a condition of allowing euro-area banks direct access to the region’s firewall funds. While they set a start date of Jan. 1, 2013, the ECB is pushing for more time.
Policy makers including ECB Vice President Vitor Constancioand Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny indicated that it would be difficult for the ECB to assume supervisory control over the region’s banks before July.
‘More feasible’
“It’s demanding in July; if it happens by the end of the year it is still OK,” Constancio said in an interview on Oct. 10. “In a way it is more feasible. In some ways it would be easier to start January 2014, to coincide with CRD IV,” the European Union’s capital requirement legislation, he said.“It’s not essential, but it would help.”
Brazilian Finance Minister Guido Mantega urged European policy makers not to procrastinate.
“When all these mechanisms are up and running, we’ll have an excellent economy,” he said today. “It will be a marvel. The question is whether we will survive until then.”
Executive Board member Joerg Asmussen said today the ECB shouldn’t be made responsible for the health of financial institutions unless it can act to defend it.
“I only want to have this at the ECB if it’s fully operational from day one because we’re taking on reputational risk,” he said at a panel discussion today.
Conflict of Interest
Germany’s Bundesbank, the ECB’s largest shareholder, is wary of potential conflicts of interest between setting monetary policy and supervising banks. Board member Andreas Dombret said on Aug. 22 the ECB may jeopardize its independence if it has final responsibility in supervision.
The proposed common supervisor needs to be approved by all 27 European Union members. Non-euro members would be allowed to opt in. There also are proposed safeguards to keep the ECB from dominating disputes among the bloc’s supervisors.
“All countries that are asking to be part of the supervisory system should be part of the system, whether they’re in the euro or not,” Draghi said. “They should be there with equal rights. It’s nice to say but harder to do because there are certain legal issues that need to be resolved.”
Finance ministers from euro-area nations have emphasized the need for national regulators to continue to play a strong role after the ECB takes on its new duties.
“Much of the day-to-day oversight is in fact conducted by national supervisors,” European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said today. “But the key is the ECB-based euro-area supervisor has the ultimate responsibility to ensure that there are no empty sheets or black holes.”
“It doesn’t mean that the ECB-based supervisor on a daily basis would supervise 6,200 banks in the euro area,” he added.
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sun 14 Oct - 13:24
This is the biggest drawback of the EU is the time it takes to make decisions , secondly, this crisis has highlighted the discrepancies between the nations. The South seems to not have the same need to balance its books like the North has , will mass supervision resolve the problem ?......I don't think so.
I think the Euro might well be abandoned as a single currency in a few years, Greece is certainly not the only Country with problems .
I think the Euro might well be abandoned as a single currency in a few years, Greece is certainly not the only Country with problems .
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sun 14 Oct - 13:43
Merkel Sees No Alternative to ‘Arduous’ Euro-Area Overhaul
By Tony Czuczka - Oct 13, 2012 12:38 PM GMT+0100
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there’s no way around economic overhauls for euro-area countries struggling in the debt crisis and pledged to help them defend the joint currency.
Merkel said she will hold countries to commitments to make their economies more competitive and attract investors. “It’s arduous, but I see no other option that leads to a decent outcome,” she said in a speech to a regional convention of her Christian Democratic Union party today. “It isn’t some kind of pressure that were creating to make you suffer.”
While the euro area needs to regain the confidence of financial markets, Germany would bring on “the risk of a recession” if it refused financial aid to stem the crisis, she told delegates at Celle in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Many investors “are betting that we won’t have the political strength” to defend the euro, she said. “I am determined to make the effort, even if it’s hard.”
“Trust means that everyone fulfills their commitments,”she said. “Trust is good, but verification is better. That’s what I’ll continue to fight for in Europe, every day.”
CDU-led Lower Saxony, home to companies such as Volkswagen AG (VOW) and Continental AG (CON), holds state elections on Jan. 20.
By Tony Czuczka - Oct 13, 2012 12:38 PM GMT+0100
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said there’s no way around economic overhauls for euro-area countries struggling in the debt crisis and pledged to help them defend the joint currency.
Merkel said she will hold countries to commitments to make their economies more competitive and attract investors. “It’s arduous, but I see no other option that leads to a decent outcome,” she said in a speech to a regional convention of her Christian Democratic Union party today. “It isn’t some kind of pressure that were creating to make you suffer.”
While the euro area needs to regain the confidence of financial markets, Germany would bring on “the risk of a recession” if it refused financial aid to stem the crisis, she told delegates at Celle in the northern state of Lower Saxony.
Many investors “are betting that we won’t have the political strength” to defend the euro, she said. “I am determined to make the effort, even if it’s hard.”
“Trust means that everyone fulfills their commitments,”she said. “Trust is good, but verification is better. That’s what I’ll continue to fight for in Europe, every day.”
CDU-led Lower Saxony, home to companies such as Volkswagen AG (VOW) and Continental AG (CON), holds state elections on Jan. 20.
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Re: New EC Thread
fuzeta Sun 14 Oct - 20:25
Panda wrote:This is the biggest drawback of the EU is the time it takes to make decisions , secondly, this crisis has highlighted the discrepancies between the nations. The South seems to not have the same need to balance its books like the North has , will mass supervision resolve the problem ?......I don't think so.
I think the Euro might well be abandoned as a single currency in a few years, Greece is certainly not the only Country with problems .
I hope to goodness it is earlier than in a few years! God knows what destruction, poverty and mayhem it will cause if its allowed to go on for so long. I believe that once Greece goes others will follow, not immediately but sooner rather than later. Best thing, it is never going to work in a thousand years. Not unless they all become part of Germany anyway!!!!
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Sun 14 Oct - 21:19
fuzeta wrote:Panda wrote:This is the biggest drawback of the EU is the time it takes to make decisions , secondly, this crisis has highlighted the discrepancies between the nations. The South seems to not have the same need to balance its books like the North has , will mass supervision resolve the problem ?......I don't think so.
I think the Euro might well be abandoned as a single currency in a few years, Greece is certainly not the only Country with problems .
I hope to goodness it is earlier than in a few years! God knows what destruction, poverty and mayhem it will cause if its allowed to go on for so long. I believe that once Greece goes others will follow, not immediately but sooner rather than later. Best thing, it is never going to work in a thousand years. Not unless they all become part of Germany anyway!!!!
There was a rumour fuzeta months ago that Germany was busy printing Deutchmarks and that the Northern Countries, Finland, Norway, Germany and Sweden would form a breakaway , but that would never work IMO.
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Re: New EC Thread
fuzeta Sun 14 Oct - 22:06
Panda wrote:fuzeta wrote:Panda wrote:This is the biggest drawback of the EU is the time it takes to make decisions , secondly, this crisis has highlighted the discrepancies between the nations. The South seems to not have the same need to balance its books like the North has , will mass supervision resolve the problem ?......I don't think so.
I think the Euro might well be abandoned as a single currency in a few years, Greece is certainly not the only Country with problems .
I hope to goodness it is earlier than in a few years! God knows what destruction, poverty and mayhem it will cause if its allowed to go on for so long. I believe that once Greece goes others will follow, not immediately but sooner rather than later. Best thing, it is never going to work in a thousand years. Not unless they all become part of Germany anyway!!!!
There was a rumour fuzeta months ago that Germany was busy printing Deutchmarks and that the Northern Countries, Finland, Norway, Germany and Sweden would form a breakaway , but that would never work IMO.
I think that Norway and Sweden will stay well out of it and keep the Kroner. It seems to be serving them very well.
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Mon 15 Oct - 2:28
15 October 2012 Last updated at 00:15
Belgian Flemish separatists make gains at polls
The Flemish Nationalist Party's leader Bart de Wever won the mayoral election in Antwerp
Continue reading the main story
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Local elections in Belgium have resulted in widespread gains for the Flemish Nationalist Party (NVA), which wants to divide the country.
Early indications suggest that the party is now the biggest political force in Flanders, the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium.
Its leader, Bart de Wever, also won the race to become mayor of Antwerp, Europe's second-biggest port city.
The NVA's victory comes amid a growing separatist trend in Europe.
There have been growing calls for independence from nationalists in Catalonia in Spain and Scotland in the United Kingdom, as the eurozone crisis tests loyalties across the European Union.
The NVA believes that the wealthy Flemish-speaking region of Belgium should not be subsidising Wallonia, the poorer French-speaking part of the country.
Bart de Wever argues that the party is standing up for Belgium's Flemings, who make up 6 million people in a country of 11 million.
It is a position which helped them to win 27 out of 150 seats in the last general election in 2010, but also led to political paralysis when Mr de Wever could not come to an agreement with coalition partners.
The BBC's Maddy Savage in Brussels says he will now be looking to build on the party's success in local elections to take on Belgium's socialist Prime Minister Elio di Rupo in national elections in 2014.
Belgian Flemish separatists make gains at polls
The Flemish Nationalist Party's leader Bart de Wever won the mayoral election in Antwerp Continue reading the main story
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Local elections in Belgium have resulted in widespread gains for the Flemish Nationalist Party (NVA), which wants to divide the country.
Early indications suggest that the party is now the biggest political force in Flanders, the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium.
Its leader, Bart de Wever, also won the race to become mayor of Antwerp, Europe's second-biggest port city.
The NVA's victory comes amid a growing separatist trend in Europe.
There have been growing calls for independence from nationalists in Catalonia in Spain and Scotland in the United Kingdom, as the eurozone crisis tests loyalties across the European Union.
The NVA believes that the wealthy Flemish-speaking region of Belgium should not be subsidising Wallonia, the poorer French-speaking part of the country.
Bart de Wever argues that the party is standing up for Belgium's Flemings, who make up 6 million people in a country of 11 million.
It is a position which helped them to win 27 out of 150 seats in the last general election in 2010, but also led to political paralysis when Mr de Wever could not come to an agreement with coalition partners.
The BBC's Maddy Savage in Brussels says he will now be looking to build on the party's success in local elections to take on Belgium's socialist Prime Minister Elio di Rupo in national elections in 2014.
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Mon 15 Oct - 2:36
EU Wins Nobel: Gasps And Incredulity
There are mixed reactions as critics highlight the EU's failure in Yugoslavia and its current problems in the eurozone.
3:23pm UK, Friday 12 October 2012
EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso
There are mixed reactions as critics highlight the EU's failure in Yugoslavia and its current problems in the eurozone.
3:23pm UK, Friday 12 October 2012
EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso
Tim Marshall
Foreign Affairs Editor
The rewarding of this year’s Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union has been met with incredulity, praise, and humour.
There were gasps in the room as the Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland read out the citation saying: "The stabilising part played by the European Union has helped to transform a once torn Europe from a continent of war to a continent of peace."
Few would argue with that, but critics have pointed out some of the more negative stories concerning the EU.
There was a signal failure by the EU nations, and the EU as a whole, to prevent the wars in Yugoslavia from breaking out, or to stop them once the fighting started.
The award also comes at a time of instability in the EU due to the social fallout of the economic downturn, and particular the travails of the euro.
A third criticism is that the Nobel Peace Prize has been given to an organisation, not an individual.
It is hardly the first time this has happened, but whenever it does, the award usually receives less publicity as the media fails to engage with the nomination, as does the public.
Most of the criticism came from EU sceptics such as the Dutch politician Gert Wilders who said: "Nobel Prize for the EU. At a time Brussels and all of Europe is collapsing in misery. What next? An Oscar for Van Rompuy?"
A more nuanced view came from the former British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind, who suggested the prize should have been shared between the EU and Nato as it was Nato, in his view, which had been instrumental in keeping the post-war peace.
There was also widespread praise for the decision.
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl spoke for many when he said: "It is a wise and far-sighted decision. The Nobel Peace Prize 2012 for the EU is above all a confirmation for the European peace project."
The concept of the European Union grew out of the wreckage of World War II and the idea that France and Germany would bind each other together economically thus ensuring they could not go to war with each other.
In 1951 France, West Germany, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands signed the Treaty of Paris creating the European Coal and Steel Community.
In 1957 the Treaty of Rome turned this into the European Economic Community, which in 1967 became the European Community.
Since 2007 the organisation has been called the European Union and there are now 27 member states with a combined population of 500 million people.
The EU sends troops, police, and civilian experts to many conflict zones in peace-keeping missions.
It is the world's leading provider of aid to poor nations, and is the leading financier of the Palestinian Authority
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Panda Mon 15 Oct - 2:54
Vince Cable: Europe could be plunged into war if Euro collapses
Vince Cable has warned that Europe could be plunged into war if the crisis in the eurozone results in the collapse of the currency.
Vince Cable said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" Photo: PA
By Rosa Prince, Online political editor
5:17PM BST 14 Oct 2012
224 Comments
The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" and that there was "no automatic guarantee" that the continent would not disintegrate into conflict.
His comments come days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union in recognition for its success in warding off conflict since the Second World War.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr Cable said: "I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project - and there is a risk that could happen - the consequences would be absolutely incalculable.
"We tend to forget, until we were reminded last week of that Nobel Prize, the European project was constructed in order to rescue Europe from extreme nationalism and conflict. There is no automatic guarantee that won't return."
David Cameron has said that the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone will present an opportunity for Britain to renegotiate its relationship with the EU.
Related Articles
Last week, he suggested that this new settlement could be put to voters in the form of a referendum in order to get "fresh consent" for British membership.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is reported to have told friends that Britain should threaten to quit the EU unless extensive powers are repatriated from Brussels. He is said to believe that, unlike many within the EU, Britain is strong enough to prosper as a trading nation without the support of the single market.
On the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, agreed that the "mood" was hardening among Conservative MPs, adding: "The point that Michael is reflecting - and many of us feel - is that we are not satisfied with the current relationship.
"The mood has changed...because for the first time in a decade, those of us who are uncomfortable with the way that relationship has developed see an opportunity to renegotiate it.
"It makes sense for Britain to be in the single market but to reset the relationship so we have a balance of competences which works for Britain and the British people."
At the Cheltenham event, entitled Austerity, the euro and us, Mr Cable said, however, that it was difficult for Britain to influence the world on its own. He argued that that the euro was "very valuable" to Britain and should be supported.
"We will be heard very loudly if it does unravel," he said. "I think deep down there is enough common sense and a sense of survival to prevent this getting out of control.
"If it does, I'm afraid the consequences for us will be awful.
"We are only two per cent of the world economy. So what happens in China or the eurozone has massive implications for where we are.
"If they go badly wrong it will hurt us, regardless of what we do at home. I think we have to have a certain amount of humility of about what we can accomplish domestically, although we can keep trying."
Vince Cable has warned that Europe could be plunged into war if the crisis in the eurozone results in the collapse of the currency.
Vince Cable said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" Photo: PA
By Rosa Prince, Online political editor
5:17PM BST 14 Oct 2012
224 Comments The Liberal Democrat Business Secretary said that the potential consequences of the failure of the Euro were "incalculable" and that there was "no automatic guarantee" that the continent would not disintegrate into conflict.
His comments come days after the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the European Union in recognition for its success in warding off conflict since the Second World War.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Mr Cable said: "I think we need to take stock that if the eurozone were to unravel in a way that destroyed the European project - and there is a risk that could happen - the consequences would be absolutely incalculable.
"We tend to forget, until we were reminded last week of that Nobel Prize, the European project was constructed in order to rescue Europe from extreme nationalism and conflict. There is no automatic guarantee that won't return."
David Cameron has said that the ongoing crisis in the Eurozone will present an opportunity for Britain to renegotiate its relationship with the EU.
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Last week, he suggested that this new settlement could be put to voters in the form of a referendum in order to get "fresh consent" for British membership.
Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, is reported to have told friends that Britain should threaten to quit the EU unless extensive powers are repatriated from Brussels. He is said to believe that, unlike many within the EU, Britain is strong enough to prosper as a trading nation without the support of the single market.
On the BBC's Andrew Marr show, Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, agreed that the "mood" was hardening among Conservative MPs, adding: "The point that Michael is reflecting - and many of us feel - is that we are not satisfied with the current relationship.
"The mood has changed...because for the first time in a decade, those of us who are uncomfortable with the way that relationship has developed see an opportunity to renegotiate it.
"It makes sense for Britain to be in the single market but to reset the relationship so we have a balance of competences which works for Britain and the British people."
At the Cheltenham event, entitled Austerity, the euro and us, Mr Cable said, however, that it was difficult for Britain to influence the world on its own. He argued that that the euro was "very valuable" to Britain and should be supported.
"We will be heard very loudly if it does unravel," he said. "I think deep down there is enough common sense and a sense of survival to prevent this getting out of control.
"If it does, I'm afraid the consequences for us will be awful.
"We are only two per cent of the world economy. So what happens in China or the eurozone has massive implications for where we are.
"If they go badly wrong it will hurt us, regardless of what we do at home. I think we have to have a certain amount of humility of about what we can accomplish domestically, although we can keep trying."
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Panda Mon 15 Oct - 13:59
EU Girds for Summit as Nobel’s Glow Fades on Crisis Response
By Simon Kennedy, Jana Randow and Patrick Donahue - Oct 15, 2012 10:43 AM GMT+0100
European leaders, basking in praise for their rediscovered crisis-fighting skills and the award of a Nobel Peace Prize, meet this week as Greece seeks to justify renewed aid and Spain holds out on tapping a bailout.
The European Union’s leaders convene for an Oct. 18-19 summit in Brussels after a weekend in which international finance chiefs expressed some optimism that a firewall is in place to contain the euro’s turmoil and urged further action to quell the main threat to global growth.
Enlarge image
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
2:36
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- European Commission President Jose Barroso, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel offer their views on the EU's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. European Union Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn and European Parliament lawmaker Sharon Bowles also speak following the announcement today by Thorbjoern Jagland, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. (Source: Bloomberg/APTN)
With German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday ruling out a Greek exit, the 17-nation euro area faces the challenge of harnessing positive sentiment by resolving differences on aid for Greece and Spain before investors pounce again. Also contentious is how to knit euro nations more closely together amid spats over the timing and depth of a banking union.
“The summit will highlight how much remains to be done,”said Alex White, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London.“Our concern is that the removal of acute financial market stimuli may reduce the political incentive to deliver.”
That respite is the result of the European Central Bank’s bond-buying pledge last month and the enactment of a 500-billion euro ($648 billion) permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. Nerves are returning to markets as Spain’s 10-year bonds advanced for a second week after Standard & Poor’scut the nation’s debt rating to one level above non-investment grade.
Spanish Bonds
The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds rose 7 basis points to 5.674 percent in Madrid. The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.2963 as of 11:38 a.m. in Frankfurt.
In a weekend video address, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term.
“We’re now being tested by the markets on whether we can hold it together,” Merkel said in a video podcast. “For this, over the past two years we’ve established the instruments necessary to protect the euro area on a sustained basis.”
By Simon Kennedy, Jana Randow and Patrick Donahue - Oct 15, 2012 10:43 AM GMT+0100
European leaders, basking in praise for their rediscovered crisis-fighting skills and the award of a Nobel Peace Prize, meet this week as Greece seeks to justify renewed aid and Spain holds out on tapping a bailout.
The European Union’s leaders convene for an Oct. 18-19 summit in Brussels after a weekend in which international finance chiefs expressed some optimism that a firewall is in place to contain the euro’s turmoil and urged further action to quell the main threat to global growth.
Enlarge image
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
2:36
Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- European Commission President Jose Barroso, European Union President Herman Van Rompuy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel offer their views on the EU's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. European Union Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn and European Parliament lawmaker Sharon Bowles also speak following the announcement today by Thorbjoern Jagland, head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo. (Source: Bloomberg/APTN)
With German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble yesterday ruling out a Greek exit, the 17-nation euro area faces the challenge of harnessing positive sentiment by resolving differences on aid for Greece and Spain before investors pounce again. Also contentious is how to knit euro nations more closely together amid spats over the timing and depth of a banking union.
“The summit will highlight how much remains to be done,”said Alex White, an economist at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in London.“Our concern is that the removal of acute financial market stimuli may reduce the political incentive to deliver.”
That respite is the result of the European Central Bank’s bond-buying pledge last month and the enactment of a 500-billion euro ($648 billion) permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. Nerves are returning to markets as Spain’s 10-year bonds advanced for a second week after Standard & Poor’scut the nation’s debt rating to one level above non-investment grade.
Spanish Bonds
The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds rose 7 basis points to 5.674 percent in Madrid. The euro climbed 0.1 percent to $1.2963 as of 11:38 a.m. in Frankfurt.
In a weekend video address, Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke of the euro as “more than a currency” and said the monetary union’s leaders had finally established the mechanisms to hold the members together for the long term.
“We’re now being tested by the markets on whether we can hold it together,” Merkel said in a video podcast. “For this, over the past two years we’ve established the instruments necessary to protect the euro area on a sustained basis.”
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Panda Mon 15 Oct - 18:41
History
Yugoslavia syndrome threatens EU
15 October 2012De Volkskrant Amsterdam
Shooty
The north earns the money, while the south spends it – while this phrase is currently being bandied about in the eurozone, it was also widely heard a quarter of a century ago in the former Yugoslavia. European politicians would do well to remember, a Dutch journalist contends.
Olaf Tempelman
“We take ten minutes for lunch, while they spend three hours. You earn money here by working hard, and there by paying bribes. Our hard earned cash has been flowing southwards for years. The money is earned in the north, only to be squandered away in the south.”
The preceding litany may appear typical of a eurosceptic in northern Europe. However, I actually discovered it in an old notebook dating from 1990, when I travelled throughout the former Yugoslavia by train. The speaker was explaining to me the why the northern republics were keen to extract themselves from this “twisted” federation.
The former multiethnic state of Yugoslavia was in many respects a mini version of Europe. Wages in the north were as much as three or four times those in the south. In stark contrast to the north, the south suffered considerable unemployment. And in much the same manner as today’s Euro nations, there was a distinct sense of powerlessness in the former Yugoslavia towards “distant” authorities, which people felt did not really represent them. While the EU is faced with a democratic deficit, however, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – a communist multiethnic state conceived by Tito (1892-1980) – was in fact a single-party state.
While today’s northern Europeans curse Brussels, Slovenians and Croatians back then viewed Belgrade as synonymous with everything that was wrong: it’s Belgrade’s fault that our money is being drained away; Belgrade is a patronising, incompetent jumble of bureaucrats. The former Yugoslavia also had a single currency, the dinar, which was symbolic of those “distant authorities”. It was a widely held opinion that unification with the other peoples was simply an ideological project straight off the drawing board, and therefore an unnatural setup.
Destruction of Yugoslavia – anything but planned
The northern republics put up with paying contributions as long as prosperity continued, and as long as the inhabitants failed to notice much of their further entwinement with the other regions. This all changed in the nineteen eighties, however, when Tito passed away, an economic decline commenced, and the north was obliged to save the south from bankruptcy. The current northern European slogan “not one more cent to the garlic nations” is eerily similar to the Slovenian one of that time: “no more funds for the biftek (beefsteak) zone”.
The populist revolt apparent in a number of EU nations is also similar to that in Yugoslavia a quarter of a century ago. There are clears similarities between politicians like Le Pen or Wilders and Franjo Tudjman or Slobodan Milosevic. To a man, they made their breakthrough on the back of nationalist discourse which had previously been taboo. And each of them took advantage of people’s frustration at authorities’ attempts to wrest both power and money from “their people”.
There is no point in debating the point whether the Dutch freedom Party (PVV) or the True Finns have their sights set on ethnic cleansing. This was not Milosevic’s intention either: he was first and foremost simply an opportunist politician with a pretty short-term view. And while he bore quite considerable responsibility for the destruction of Yugoslavia, it was anything but planned.
Big shots in the European Union also appear to bear awkward similarities to the Titoist apparatchiks. Both seem rather unpleasantly surprised at signs of unpopularity, time after time. Both categories of administrators appear to have become enveloped in a sort of cocoon, which they are loathe to leave.
Diminishing democratic support for Europe
The Presidency of the European Council is similar to that of Yugoslavia in the nineteen eighties in terms of its rotation. The Yugoslav presidents had the same sort of standing in the federated republics that Herman Van Rompuy does among us, namely that of one who is appointed far from his own circles. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Eurogroup, is renowned for the following comment: “We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we've done it.” These are the sentiments of an administrator who fears the populace – if we first have to establish democratic support, then it will only lead to further delay and compromise.
However, diminishing democratic support for Europe could have a far more detrimental effect than simply delay. One lesson that can be learned from the collapse of Yugoslavia is that monetary union in an area where there is an economic divide between north and south is bound to face threat unless people are meant to feel jointly responsible for it in a manner that at least appears in some way democratic. In times of plenty, they have little difficulty accepting such unity. When times become hard, however, they are inclined to view it as the cause of the problems.
The most substantial difference between the former Yugoslavia and the European Union is that the latter comprises democratic nation states. Populists and nationalists can only survive in a field of opposing democratic forces. It has often been suggested that the federation might have actually survived, if only there were greater democratic support for it, it had a more democratic political system, scope for open debate and freedom of the press.
Elected politicians representing the European nation states could create this support and render monetary union something the inhabitants themselves opt for, rather than it being imposed upon them. Otherwise, every time there is a crisis or setback, the electorate will simply view – justifiably or not – all policy as something ‘imposed by Brussels’, much to the benefit of anti-European forces. And while this is unlikely to lead directly to the implosion of the EU, it will undoubtedly cause further dissatisfaction and obstruction, which can only be appeased if the merits are clearly evident and borne out by elected politicians.
Translated from the Dutch by Kelly Boom
Yugoslavia syndrome threatens EU
15 October 2012De Volkskrant Amsterdam
Shooty
The north earns the money, while the south spends it – while this phrase is currently being bandied about in the eurozone, it was also widely heard a quarter of a century ago in the former Yugoslavia. European politicians would do well to remember, a Dutch journalist contends.
Olaf Tempelman
“We take ten minutes for lunch, while they spend three hours. You earn money here by working hard, and there by paying bribes. Our hard earned cash has been flowing southwards for years. The money is earned in the north, only to be squandered away in the south.”
The preceding litany may appear typical of a eurosceptic in northern Europe. However, I actually discovered it in an old notebook dating from 1990, when I travelled throughout the former Yugoslavia by train. The speaker was explaining to me the why the northern republics were keen to extract themselves from this “twisted” federation.
The former multiethnic state of Yugoslavia was in many respects a mini version of Europe. Wages in the north were as much as three or four times those in the south. In stark contrast to the north, the south suffered considerable unemployment. And in much the same manner as today’s Euro nations, there was a distinct sense of powerlessness in the former Yugoslavia towards “distant” authorities, which people felt did not really represent them. While the EU is faced with a democratic deficit, however, the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – a communist multiethnic state conceived by Tito (1892-1980) – was in fact a single-party state.
While today’s northern Europeans curse Brussels, Slovenians and Croatians back then viewed Belgrade as synonymous with everything that was wrong: it’s Belgrade’s fault that our money is being drained away; Belgrade is a patronising, incompetent jumble of bureaucrats. The former Yugoslavia also had a single currency, the dinar, which was symbolic of those “distant authorities”. It was a widely held opinion that unification with the other peoples was simply an ideological project straight off the drawing board, and therefore an unnatural setup.
Destruction of Yugoslavia – anything but planned
The northern republics put up with paying contributions as long as prosperity continued, and as long as the inhabitants failed to notice much of their further entwinement with the other regions. This all changed in the nineteen eighties, however, when Tito passed away, an economic decline commenced, and the north was obliged to save the south from bankruptcy. The current northern European slogan “not one more cent to the garlic nations” is eerily similar to the Slovenian one of that time: “no more funds for the biftek (beefsteak) zone”.
The populist revolt apparent in a number of EU nations is also similar to that in Yugoslavia a quarter of a century ago. There are clears similarities between politicians like Le Pen or Wilders and Franjo Tudjman or Slobodan Milosevic. To a man, they made their breakthrough on the back of nationalist discourse which had previously been taboo. And each of them took advantage of people’s frustration at authorities’ attempts to wrest both power and money from “their people”.
There is no point in debating the point whether the Dutch freedom Party (PVV) or the True Finns have their sights set on ethnic cleansing. This was not Milosevic’s intention either: he was first and foremost simply an opportunist politician with a pretty short-term view. And while he bore quite considerable responsibility for the destruction of Yugoslavia, it was anything but planned.
Big shots in the European Union also appear to bear awkward similarities to the Titoist apparatchiks. Both seem rather unpleasantly surprised at signs of unpopularity, time after time. Both categories of administrators appear to have become enveloped in a sort of cocoon, which they are loathe to leave.
Diminishing democratic support for Europe
The Presidency of the European Council is similar to that of Yugoslavia in the nineteen eighties in terms of its rotation. The Yugoslav presidents had the same sort of standing in the federated republics that Herman Van Rompuy does among us, namely that of one who is appointed far from his own circles. Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the Eurogroup, is renowned for the following comment: “We all know what to do, we just don't know how to get re-elected after we've done it.” These are the sentiments of an administrator who fears the populace – if we first have to establish democratic support, then it will only lead to further delay and compromise.
However, diminishing democratic support for Europe could have a far more detrimental effect than simply delay. One lesson that can be learned from the collapse of Yugoslavia is that monetary union in an area where there is an economic divide between north and south is bound to face threat unless people are meant to feel jointly responsible for it in a manner that at least appears in some way democratic. In times of plenty, they have little difficulty accepting such unity. When times become hard, however, they are inclined to view it as the cause of the problems.
The most substantial difference between the former Yugoslavia and the European Union is that the latter comprises democratic nation states. Populists and nationalists can only survive in a field of opposing democratic forces. It has often been suggested that the federation might have actually survived, if only there were greater democratic support for it, it had a more democratic political system, scope for open debate and freedom of the press.
Elected politicians representing the European nation states could create this support and render monetary union something the inhabitants themselves opt for, rather than it being imposed upon them. Otherwise, every time there is a crisis or setback, the electorate will simply view – justifiably or not – all policy as something ‘imposed by Brussels’, much to the benefit of anti-European forces. And while this is unlikely to lead directly to the implosion of the EU, it will undoubtedly cause further dissatisfaction and obstruction, which can only be appeased if the merits are clearly evident and borne out by elected politicians.
Translated from the Dutch by Kelly Boom
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Re: New EC Thread
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15 October 2012 Last updated at 17:25
Theresa May tells MPs UK government wants EU law opt-out
Home Secretary Theresa May: "Discussions are ongoing as to what measures will be"
Continue reading the main story
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The government plans to exercise its right to opt out of 130 EU measures on law and order, Home Secretary Theresa May has told MPs.
She said current government thinking was to return control to the UK in two years under an opt-out agreed during Lisbon Treaty negotiations.
It would mean opting out of the European Arrest Warrant, which the Lib Dems supported at the last election.
Labour accused the government of having an "utterly confused" position.
Eurosceptic Tory MPs welcomed the announcement as a first step in the repatriation of powers to the UK.
The opt-out, agreed by the last government, means the government either has to pull out of all 130 EU crime and policing measures agreed before that treaty came in to force in 2009, or none of them.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Mrs May made it clear the government preferred the first option.
The government could subsequently opt back in to some of the measures, as long as the rest of the EU agreed.
However, Mrs May said discussions were ongoing as to what these measures would be.
She said: "It is the national interest that the government has taken this decision.
"The Government is clear that we do not need to remain bound by all of the pre-Lisbon measures.
"Operation shows that some pre-Lisbon measures are useful, some less so and some are now entirely defunct."
'Hokey cokey'
There would be no formal notification of the UK's decision to opt-out to the European Council until agreement was reached on a package for opting in, Mrs May said.
The Lib Dems are expected to push for the readoption of the European Arrest Warrant and renewed participation in EU-wide policing bodies.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the issue could lead to further tensions within the coalition as the arrest warrant was opposed by the Conservatives during the last election.
Tory opponents say it has led to unfair trials abroad for Britons while the Lib Dems say it has been used effectively to return suspects, including teacher Jeremy Forrest earlier this month.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the government's position as "utterly chaotic" because it was supporting an opt-out without being clear about which measures it would later want to opt back in to.
"It's like the government is playing is a giant game of hokey cokey and yet the fight against crime is at stake," she said.
Tory MP Dominic Raab, who wants powers returned to the UK, said the announcement showed the government wanted "focused cooperation not the blind loss of democratic control".
And fellow Conservative Michael Ellis congratulated Theresa May for "protecting the sovereignty of this country".
However, UKIP leader Nigel Farage was not convinced, describing the Home Secretary as "the modern day Grand Old Duke of York" in a statement.
He said: "She says she wants to opt out and then opt in again: I suspect nothing of substance will actually be achieved."
Responding to the home secretary's statement, the European Commission said: "This does not come as a surprise - the UK has right to request a block opt-out from police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.
"The UK has indicated it wishes to exercise its rights under the (Lisbon) treaty.
"The commission will assess the consequences. The treaties also provide the possibility for the UK to opt back in to some or all of those provisions."
Theresa May tells MPs UK government wants EU law opt-out
Home Secretary Theresa May: "Discussions are ongoing as to what measures will be"
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories
The government plans to exercise its right to opt out of 130 EU measures on law and order, Home Secretary Theresa May has told MPs.
She said current government thinking was to return control to the UK in two years under an opt-out agreed during Lisbon Treaty negotiations.
It would mean opting out of the European Arrest Warrant, which the Lib Dems supported at the last election.
Labour accused the government of having an "utterly confused" position.
Eurosceptic Tory MPs welcomed the announcement as a first step in the repatriation of powers to the UK.
The opt-out, agreed by the last government, means the government either has to pull out of all 130 EU crime and policing measures agreed before that treaty came in to force in 2009, or none of them.
In a statement to the House of Commons on Monday, Mrs May made it clear the government preferred the first option.
The government could subsequently opt back in to some of the measures, as long as the rest of the EU agreed.
However, Mrs May said discussions were ongoing as to what these measures would be.
She said: "It is the national interest that the government has taken this decision.
"The Government is clear that we do not need to remain bound by all of the pre-Lisbon measures.
"Operation shows that some pre-Lisbon measures are useful, some less so and some are now entirely defunct."
'Hokey cokey'
There would be no formal notification of the UK's decision to opt-out to the European Council until agreement was reached on a package for opting in, Mrs May said.
The Lib Dems are expected to push for the readoption of the European Arrest Warrant and renewed participation in EU-wide policing bodies.
BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said the issue could lead to further tensions within the coalition as the arrest warrant was opposed by the Conservatives during the last election.
Tory opponents say it has led to unfair trials abroad for Britons while the Lib Dems say it has been used effectively to return suspects, including teacher Jeremy Forrest earlier this month.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper criticised the government's position as "utterly chaotic" because it was supporting an opt-out without being clear about which measures it would later want to opt back in to.
"It's like the government is playing is a giant game of hokey cokey and yet the fight against crime is at stake," she said.
Tory MP Dominic Raab, who wants powers returned to the UK, said the announcement showed the government wanted "focused cooperation not the blind loss of democratic control".
And fellow Conservative Michael Ellis congratulated Theresa May for "protecting the sovereignty of this country".
However, UKIP leader Nigel Farage was not convinced, describing the Home Secretary as "the modern day Grand Old Duke of York" in a statement.
He said: "She says she wants to opt out and then opt in again: I suspect nothing of substance will actually be achieved."
Responding to the home secretary's statement, the European Commission said: "This does not come as a surprise - the UK has right to request a block opt-out from police and judicial co-operation in criminal matters.
"The UK has indicated it wishes to exercise its rights under the (Lisbon) treaty.
"The commission will assess the consequences. The treaties also provide the possibility for the UK to opt back in to some or all of those provisions."
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October 2012 Last updated at 00:10
Portugal reveals tough 2013 budget
Protesters outside parliament chanted "the people united will never be defeated"
Continue reading the main story
Eurozone crisis
The Portuguese government has revealed details of its draft budget for 2013, one of the harshest in the country's recent history.
Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar confirmed the average income tax rise would increase from 9.8% in 2012 to 13.2% next year.
Portugal was granted a 78bn-euro ($100bn; £63bn) bailout last year.
Mr Gaspar said the budget was the only way for the country to meet its targets under the bailout.
"We have no room for manoeuvre," he said.
"Asking for more time [under the bailout] would lead us to a dictatorship of debt and to failure."
He also announced spending cuts worth 2.7bn euros next year, which would include laying off 2% of the country's 600,000 public sector employees.
About 2,000 protesters gathered outside parliament on Monday to demand the resignation of the government, chanting: "The people united will never be defeated."
Acceptance of austerity measures has turned to anger
Mr Gaspar said the budget would allow Portugal to reduce its budget deficit to 4.5% in 2013. It must eventually get its deficit below the European Union target of 3% of GDP.
Portugal is currently experiencing its worst recession since the 1970s, with the unemployment rate above 15%, and predicted to rise to 16.4% next year.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Antonio Jose Seguro described the draft budget as "a fiscal atomic bomb".
Portugal's main trade union, the CGTP, said it was "an attack on the dignity of the people" and daily newspaper Diario Economico declared it "an insult to the Portuguese people".
Wages hit
As in Spain and Greece, Portugal has seen huge street protests against the austerity cuts that are needed to meet the demands of the bailout.
In September, the government decided not to raise social security contributions next year from 11% to 18% after protests against the proposed move.
A general strike is planned for 14 November.
The income tax rise in the budget amounts to a month's wages for many workers.
The budget also reduces Portugal's income tax brackets from eight to five, and there will be a one-off 4% surcharge tax on all workers' earnings in 2013.
Capital gains tax will increase from 25% to 28%.
The government expects the economy to shrink by at least 3% this year and by 1% next year, although many economists forecast a greater contraction in 2013.
Portugal reveals tough 2013 budget
Protesters outside parliament chanted "the people united will never be defeated"
Continue reading the main story
Eurozone crisis
- Q&A: European Stability Mechanism
- Six burning questions for Spain
- Q&A: What went wrong in Spain?
- How eurozone crisis affects you
The Portuguese government has revealed details of its draft budget for 2013, one of the harshest in the country's recent history.
Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar confirmed the average income tax rise would increase from 9.8% in 2012 to 13.2% next year.
Portugal was granted a 78bn-euro ($100bn; £63bn) bailout last year.
Mr Gaspar said the budget was the only way for the country to meet its targets under the bailout.
"We have no room for manoeuvre," he said.
"Asking for more time [under the bailout] would lead us to a dictatorship of debt and to failure."
He also announced spending cuts worth 2.7bn euros next year, which would include laying off 2% of the country's 600,000 public sector employees.
About 2,000 protesters gathered outside parliament on Monday to demand the resignation of the government, chanting: "The people united will never be defeated."
Acceptance of austerity measures has turned to anger Mr Gaspar said the budget would allow Portugal to reduce its budget deficit to 4.5% in 2013. It must eventually get its deficit below the European Union target of 3% of GDP.
Portugal is currently experiencing its worst recession since the 1970s, with the unemployment rate above 15%, and predicted to rise to 16.4% next year.
Opposition Socialist Party leader Antonio Jose Seguro described the draft budget as "a fiscal atomic bomb".
Portugal's main trade union, the CGTP, said it was "an attack on the dignity of the people" and daily newspaper Diario Economico declared it "an insult to the Portuguese people".
Wages hit
As in Spain and Greece, Portugal has seen huge street protests against the austerity cuts that are needed to meet the demands of the bailout.
In September, the government decided not to raise social security contributions next year from 11% to 18% after protests against the proposed move.
A general strike is planned for 14 November.
The income tax rise in the budget amounts to a month's wages for many workers.
The budget also reduces Portugal's income tax brackets from eight to five, and there will be a one-off 4% surcharge tax on all workers' earnings in 2013.
Capital gains tax will increase from 25% to 28%.
The government expects the economy to shrink by at least 3% this year and by 1% next year, although many economists forecast a greater contraction in 2013.
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Oslo’s call to Europe
15 October 2012La Repubblica Rome
Darío
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU is a double appeal, writes German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: to European leaders to save a Union that has broken down; and to its citizens, to show solidarity just as the crisis is undermining the European social model.
Jürgen Habermas
At the hour of the greatest crisis in its history the European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Among its reasons, the Nobel Committee congratulates the Union for having "helped transform Europe from a continent at war to a continent at peace."
Certainly, it would be difficult to imagine other reasons for giving out a Nobel Peace Prize. However, it’s the circumstances of the current crisis that shed light on the significance of giving this Nobel to the European Union, or more precisely the repercussions such a decision may have on the current state of the Union.
I interpret the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU at the moment when the Union has never been weaker as a petition directed at the European political elites – those same elites who, as we all see, are conducting themselves in the crisis today with neither courage nor vision.
The Nobel Peace Prize makes it clear to the governments that are presently steering the eurozone countries that they must step out from their own shadow and so move the European project forward. It is written in the text of the appeal in black and white, and at least three times.
A call for solidarity among its citizens
The Nobel Committee begins by praising the reconciliation and the building of peace in Europe after the Second World War. The text then discusses the efforts to build and promote democracy and freedom, as well as the liberalisations that the European Union promoted in the 1980s for Greece, Spain and Portugal, as it did in 1989-1990 for the countries of central and eastern Europe, which would join the Union later – efforts that Europe must now push ahead with in the Balkans.
The Nobel Committee salutes the courage that Europe was able to summon up to overcome historical hostilities and succeed in the civilising mission that is the enlargement of the European Union, which will one day extend to Turkey. But that’s not all. One had to wait to read the third reason of the Committee to discover the irony governing the bestowal of the Nobel Peace on the European Union.
The Nobel Committee refers to the economic crisis that is behind the "unrest and considerable social tensions" in the countries of the eurozone and that is pushing a Europe plagued by a weakness of leadership towards the edge of a rupture. What is at stake, if we read the text well, is the third major achievement of the Union: that is, its social model, grounded in the welfare state.
At the moment, we Europeans persist in remaining quietly and calmly on the threshold of a two-speed EU. That is why I also see the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union as a call for solidarity among its citizens, who must say what kind of Europe they want. Only by deepening the institutions of "Kerneuropa" – core Europe – will we tame the capitalism that has grown wild and stop the process of the internal destruction of the Union.
Translated from the Italian by Jean-Baptiste Bor
15 October 2012La Repubblica Rome
Darío
The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the EU is a double appeal, writes German philosopher Jürgen Habermas: to European leaders to save a Union that has broken down; and to its citizens, to show solidarity just as the crisis is undermining the European social model.
Jürgen Habermas
At the hour of the greatest crisis in its history the European Union has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Among its reasons, the Nobel Committee congratulates the Union for having "helped transform Europe from a continent at war to a continent at peace."
Certainly, it would be difficult to imagine other reasons for giving out a Nobel Peace Prize. However, it’s the circumstances of the current crisis that shed light on the significance of giving this Nobel to the European Union, or more precisely the repercussions such a decision may have on the current state of the Union.
I interpret the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the EU at the moment when the Union has never been weaker as a petition directed at the European political elites – those same elites who, as we all see, are conducting themselves in the crisis today with neither courage nor vision.
The Nobel Peace Prize makes it clear to the governments that are presently steering the eurozone countries that they must step out from their own shadow and so move the European project forward. It is written in the text of the appeal in black and white, and at least three times.
A call for solidarity among its citizens
The Nobel Committee begins by praising the reconciliation and the building of peace in Europe after the Second World War. The text then discusses the efforts to build and promote democracy and freedom, as well as the liberalisations that the European Union promoted in the 1980s for Greece, Spain and Portugal, as it did in 1989-1990 for the countries of central and eastern Europe, which would join the Union later – efforts that Europe must now push ahead with in the Balkans.
The Nobel Committee salutes the courage that Europe was able to summon up to overcome historical hostilities and succeed in the civilising mission that is the enlargement of the European Union, which will one day extend to Turkey. But that’s not all. One had to wait to read the third reason of the Committee to discover the irony governing the bestowal of the Nobel Peace on the European Union.
The Nobel Committee refers to the economic crisis that is behind the "unrest and considerable social tensions" in the countries of the eurozone and that is pushing a Europe plagued by a weakness of leadership towards the edge of a rupture. What is at stake, if we read the text well, is the third major achievement of the Union: that is, its social model, grounded in the welfare state.
At the moment, we Europeans persist in remaining quietly and calmly on the threshold of a two-speed EU. That is why I also see the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union as a call for solidarity among its citizens, who must say what kind of Europe they want. Only by deepening the institutions of "Kerneuropa" – core Europe – will we tame the capitalism that has grown wild and stop the process of the internal destruction of the Union.
Translated from the Italian by Jean-Baptiste Bor
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Tue 16 Oct - 15:24
The Meeting is underway in Brussels and besides the Greek problem, Spain, Cyprus and slovenia need help.
Sweden says Greece may default but Schauble says not.
Spain has been successful in the sale of Bonds with a lower yield.
Merkel is not opposed to Spain taking out a credit line rather then accepting a bail-out. With Catalonia and possibly
Andalusia wanting independance, if this is achieved the whole picture of Spain will change which is another reason for Rajoy not wanting a bail-out.
Sweden says Greece may default but Schauble says not.
Spain has been successful in the sale of Bonds with a lower yield.
Merkel is not opposed to Spain taking out a credit line rather then accepting a bail-out. With Catalonia and possibly
Andalusia wanting independance, if this is achieved the whole picture of Spain will change which is another reason for Rajoy not wanting a bail-out.
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Panda Tue 16 Oct - 16:43
Catalonia-Scotland
Spain, Britain and the forbidden fruits of independence
16 October 2012Financial Times London
British PM David Cameron (left) and his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy.
Ingram Pinn
While British PM David Cameron has signed off on a Scottish independence referendum for 2014, Spain rules out a similar vote in Catalonia as unconstitutional. One decision is politically mature, the other likely to fuel rising secessionist demands, argues Gideon Rachman.
Gideon Rachman
Arriving in Scotland a few years ago, I was greeted by a poster boasting that Glasgow has “the latitude of Smolensk and the attitude of Barcelona”. It was a vivid example of the mixture of comradeship and admiration with which Scots look towards Catalonia. Barcelona, the Catalan capital, has many things that Glaswegians covet: better weather, better food, better football. In a striking homage to Catalonia, the Scots even chose an architect from its capital, Enric Miralles, to design their new parliament building.
Now, however, Catalans have a reason to look enviously towards Scotland. On Monday it was confirmed that in 2014 Scotland will hold a referendum on independence. The Catalan government would dearly love to hold its own vote on independence, but is being determinedly blocked by the Spanish government in Madrid.
Spain is attempting to thwart the movement for Catalan independence through the use of a legalistic Catch-22. The central government says Catalan nationalists must respect Spain’s constitution. And that constitution makes it illegal to hold a referendum on independence.
The British are taking an approach that is simultaneously more pragmatic and bolder. Prime Minister David Cameron could easily have insisted that only the British government had the legal right to organise a referendum. Instead he has agreed to allow Scots to organise a vote on their nation’s future – on condition that independence should be the only question on the ballot.
On the grounds of both justice and prudence, the British government’s approach seems wiser. Mr Cameron, like Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, is a conservative and a patriot. Both men would be appalled to preside over the break-up of their nations. But the British government has recognised that, by winning power in Edinburgh, the Scottish Nationalists have earned the democratic right to hold a referendum on their longstanding goal of independence. There is no point in trying to find legalistic ways of thwarting them.
The British government’s approach, while risky, is also psychologically astute. Telling people that there is something that they are absolutely forbidden from doing is a sure way of stoking their desire to do that very thing. This principle – first established in the Garden of Eden – applies just as surely in modern Catalonia. By contrast, it may be slightly deflating for Scottish Nationalists that a recent opinion poll showed stronger support for Scottish independence in England than in Scotland itself.
Read article in full at Financial Times
Spain, Britain and the forbidden fruits of independence
16 October 2012Financial Times London
British PM David Cameron (left) and his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy.
Ingram Pinn
While British PM David Cameron has signed off on a Scottish independence referendum for 2014, Spain rules out a similar vote in Catalonia as unconstitutional. One decision is politically mature, the other likely to fuel rising secessionist demands, argues Gideon Rachman.
Gideon Rachman
Arriving in Scotland a few years ago, I was greeted by a poster boasting that Glasgow has “the latitude of Smolensk and the attitude of Barcelona”. It was a vivid example of the mixture of comradeship and admiration with which Scots look towards Catalonia. Barcelona, the Catalan capital, has many things that Glaswegians covet: better weather, better food, better football. In a striking homage to Catalonia, the Scots even chose an architect from its capital, Enric Miralles, to design their new parliament building.
Now, however, Catalans have a reason to look enviously towards Scotland. On Monday it was confirmed that in 2014 Scotland will hold a referendum on independence. The Catalan government would dearly love to hold its own vote on independence, but is being determinedly blocked by the Spanish government in Madrid.
Spain is attempting to thwart the movement for Catalan independence through the use of a legalistic Catch-22. The central government says Catalan nationalists must respect Spain’s constitution. And that constitution makes it illegal to hold a referendum on independence.
The British are taking an approach that is simultaneously more pragmatic and bolder. Prime Minister David Cameron could easily have insisted that only the British government had the legal right to organise a referendum. Instead he has agreed to allow Scots to organise a vote on their nation’s future – on condition that independence should be the only question on the ballot.
On the grounds of both justice and prudence, the British government’s approach seems wiser. Mr Cameron, like Mariano Rajoy, the Spanish prime minister, is a conservative and a patriot. Both men would be appalled to preside over the break-up of their nations. But the British government has recognised that, by winning power in Edinburgh, the Scottish Nationalists have earned the democratic right to hold a referendum on their longstanding goal of independence. There is no point in trying to find legalistic ways of thwarting them.
The British government’s approach, while risky, is also psychologically astute. Telling people that there is something that they are absolutely forbidden from doing is a sure way of stoking their desire to do that very thing. This principle – first established in the Garden of Eden – applies just as surely in modern Catalonia. By contrast, it may be slightly deflating for Scottish Nationalists that a recent opinion poll showed stronger support for Scottish independence in England than in Scotland itself.
Read article in full at Financial Times
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Retirement No Option for Older Workers in Europe’s Crisis
By Gregory Viscusi and Lorenzo Totaro - Oct 16, 2012 11:01 PM GMT+0100
One year from reaching that age, the biology researcher has no plans to stop working. Cutbacks to France’s retirement benefits, the European financial crisis and the cost of a recent separation have stretched out his horizons.
“Financially, retirement just isn’t an option,” said Guillaume at a street demonstration against job cuts at his employer, Sanofi SA (SAN), that he had traveled to Paris from his home in Toulouse to attend. “I’m looking at 66 at the earliest.”
Guillaume is part of a generation of European workers retiring later as the worst economic downturn in 70 years and higher retirement ages induce workers to stay longer. The proportion of over-55s in jobs has climbed even as unemployment rates have soared across the European Union.
While many economists say increased work for elders doesn’t reduce job opportunities for the young, deferred retirement has become a political issue for those who say otherwise, especially as youth unemployment in the EU exceeds 20 percent.
“They may not always be happy about it, but older people are staying in jobs longer than they used to,” said Eric Thode, senior expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung, a research institute based in Gutersloh, Germany. “Young people are taking the brunt of the crisis.”
Rising Everywhere
Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of those over 55 in employment rose in all 27 EU countries except Portugal andRomania, according to Eurostat, the European statistics agency. The trend appears to have continued most places into 2011, said Thode, based on employment reports.
It’s had political ramifications. Beppe Grillo, an Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. It also has won mayoral elections in northern Italy.
“Raising the retirement age to 67 means keeps the young out of the workforce,” Grillo wrote on his blog July 4.
The CGT, France’s largest union, said in an Aug. 29 statement about rising joblessness that “there will always be this much unemployment, precariousness and poverty until there is an ambitious jobs policy and the possibility for everyone to retire with a full pension at 60.”
In past decades, political leaders bought that argument. In economic downturns, older workers would lose their jobs first, often driven by government-inspired plans to push them into retirement to make room for younger workers.
State Pensions
This time around, countries are under pressure to reduce costs of state-funded pension programs. Leaders have increased the legal retirement age to reduce pension costs, passed anti-age discrimination laws and rolled back early-retirement plans, all to keep more seniors in their jobs.
When Carl Camden joined global temporary work agency Kelly Services Inc. (KELYA) as a senior vice-president 17 years ago, the biggest age group placed in both the U.S. and Europe was younger than 30. Now the largest segment is over 50 on both continents, said Camden, chief executive officer of the Troy, Michigan-based company.
“I do worry about the social fabric tearing apart,” he said in a phone interview. “I worry about social dynamics when economies aren’t growing fast enough to provide jobs for the young. There is a risk of generational conflict.”
End of Indexing
Italy in 1995 ended the indexation of pensions, causing them to lag behind the inflation rate and reducing an incentive to retire early. A 2008 law eliminated the possibility of retiring at 57 in certain cases. Prime Minister Mario Monti this year raised the number of years of work required for a pension and will lift the retirement age further to 66 from 65 by 2018.
The result: the percentage of people 50-64 in jobs reached 49.6 percent in 2011, up from 47.3 percent in 2008.
In France, most early retirement options were ended in 2003. Then in 2010 the minimum retirement age was lifted, to 62 from 60. President Francois Hollande returned the minimum retirement age to 60 after his May election, but only for those who started work as teenagers -- 110,000 people.
As in Italy, the proportion of older workers rose, to 56.5 percent of people 50-64 in the second quarter of 2012, up from 55.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, when France’s overallunemployment rate was at its lowest since 1983.
“Throughout the 2000s there were a series of reforms to the pension systems in France and Italy,” said Jean-Olivier Hairault, a professor at Sorbonne Paris 1 University. “The result is that they’ve had no choice but to stay in the labor force and keep seeking work.”
Record Unemployment
Three years after the euro region’s debt crisis began, the 17-nation bloc is headed into recession and the unemployment rate is 11.3 percent, the highest since the creation of the single currency.
The slow economy has given some older workers the worst of both worlds: They have to work longer, for less money. Antonio Di Florio, a 58-year-old assembly line worker at a Fiat SpA (F) car factory in Turin, was supposed to retire in April 2013 after 40 years of work with the carmaker.
Now, following Italy’s pension changes, his retirement is postponed until July 2015. Company production cutbacks have forced him to work part-time, reducing his monthly take-home to 850 euros ($1,109), 35 percent less than he earned before. One cutback victim: his 22-year-old daughter’s wedding.
“She likely won’t be able to have a honeymoon and we’ll have to rent the bridal gown rather than buying it,” Di Florio said in a phone interview yesterday. Still, he said, “I consider myself lucky to have a job, although one with a low salary.” One source of support: his older brother, who retired before Italy’s pension overhaul and thus gets full benefits.
Policy Choices
“Activity rates of elderly workers are more affected by policy choices, while young workers more at the whim of markets,” said Mathieu Plane, an economist at OFCE, a research institute associated with Paris-based graduate school Sciences Po. “The main adjustment to the crisis has come from companies not renewing the short-term contracts of younger workers.”
In the U.S, where the eligibility age for full Social Security retirement benefits is being gradually increased to 67 from 65, people are working longer as well. The proportion of those 65 years and older in the labor force rose to 18.6 percent in September from 13.6 percent that same month in 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Europe’s elderly haven’t avoided suffering. While the percentage of those over 55 in jobs has risen, so has the number of elderly unemployed. The unemployment rate for those over 50 was 6.5 percent in France in the second half of 2012, up from 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
No Going Home
Elderly unemployed on average stay jobless twice as long as the overall population because their skills are often outdated and their salary needs too high, Plane said. Nor do they have the option of returning to education or moving in with parents.
While pushing elderly workers into retirement may open jobs for younger people at the company level, it doesn’t necessarily work that way across a nation’s overall economy, said Thode at Bertelsmann.
“Countries that have high rates of senior employment also have high rates of youth employment,” he said, citing Germany and Sweden. “Other countries fail both groups.”
Anne-Sophie Parent, secretary general of Age Platform Europe, a Brussels-based advocacy group for seniors, says the elderly are likely to take the brunt of the next round of job losses as countries cut into their civil service.
“Seniors have been in more protected jobs, but now we are seeing cuts in civil service in all countries,” said Parent.“For those over 45 who lose their jobs, it’s over for them.”
Guillaume, the Toulouse biologist, plans to make sure he’s not one of those people. Sanofi, France’s biggest drugmaker, last month announced plans to cut 900 jobs in France over the next three years. If he loses his job, Guillaume says, he’ll go on unemployment benefits and look for another job, since retirement isn’t an option.
“The market for researchers isn’t great in France now, but I have no choice.” Guillaume said.
By Gregory Viscusi and Lorenzo Totaro - Oct 16, 2012 11:01 PM GMT+0100
- Guillaume always presumed he’d retire at about 60, just like his civil-servant father.
One year from reaching that age, the biology researcher has no plans to stop working. Cutbacks to France’s retirement benefits, the European financial crisis and the cost of a recent separation have stretched out his horizons.
“Financially, retirement just isn’t an option,” said Guillaume at a street demonstration against job cuts at his employer, Sanofi SA (SAN), that he had traveled to Paris from his home in Toulouse to attend. “I’m looking at 66 at the earliest.”
Guillaume is part of a generation of European workers retiring later as the worst economic downturn in 70 years and higher retirement ages induce workers to stay longer. The proportion of over-55s in jobs has climbed even as unemployment rates have soared across the European Union.
While many economists say increased work for elders doesn’t reduce job opportunities for the young, deferred retirement has become a political issue for those who say otherwise, especially as youth unemployment in the EU exceeds 20 percent.
“They may not always be happy about it, but older people are staying in jobs longer than they used to,” said Eric Thode, senior expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung, a research institute based in Gutersloh, Germany. “Young people are taking the brunt of the crisis.”
Rising Everywhere
Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of those over 55 in employment rose in all 27 EU countries except Portugal andRomania, according to Eurostat, the European statistics agency. The trend appears to have continued most places into 2011, said Thode, based on employment reports.
It’s had political ramifications. Beppe Grillo, an Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. It also has won mayoral elections in northern Italy.
“Raising the retirement age to 67 means keeps the young out of the workforce,” Grillo wrote on his blog July 4.
The CGT, France’s largest union, said in an Aug. 29 statement about rising joblessness that “there will always be this much unemployment, precariousness and poverty until there is an ambitious jobs policy and the possibility for everyone to retire with a full pension at 60.”
In past decades, political leaders bought that argument. In economic downturns, older workers would lose their jobs first, often driven by government-inspired plans to push them into retirement to make room for younger workers.
State Pensions
This time around, countries are under pressure to reduce costs of state-funded pension programs. Leaders have increased the legal retirement age to reduce pension costs, passed anti-age discrimination laws and rolled back early-retirement plans, all to keep more seniors in their jobs.
When Carl Camden joined global temporary work agency Kelly Services Inc. (KELYA) as a senior vice-president 17 years ago, the biggest age group placed in both the U.S. and Europe was younger than 30. Now the largest segment is over 50 on both continents, said Camden, chief executive officer of the Troy, Michigan-based company.
“I do worry about the social fabric tearing apart,” he said in a phone interview. “I worry about social dynamics when economies aren’t growing fast enough to provide jobs for the young. There is a risk of generational conflict.”
End of Indexing
Italy in 1995 ended the indexation of pensions, causing them to lag behind the inflation rate and reducing an incentive to retire early. A 2008 law eliminated the possibility of retiring at 57 in certain cases. Prime Minister Mario Monti this year raised the number of years of work required for a pension and will lift the retirement age further to 66 from 65 by 2018.
The result: the percentage of people 50-64 in jobs reached 49.6 percent in 2011, up from 47.3 percent in 2008.
In France, most early retirement options were ended in 2003. Then in 2010 the minimum retirement age was lifted, to 62 from 60. President Francois Hollande returned the minimum retirement age to 60 after his May election, but only for those who started work as teenagers -- 110,000 people.
As in Italy, the proportion of older workers rose, to 56.5 percent of people 50-64 in the second quarter of 2012, up from 55.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, when France’s overallunemployment rate was at its lowest since 1983.
“Throughout the 2000s there were a series of reforms to the pension systems in France and Italy,” said Jean-Olivier Hairault, a professor at Sorbonne Paris 1 University. “The result is that they’ve had no choice but to stay in the labor force and keep seeking work.”
Record Unemployment
Three years after the euro region’s debt crisis began, the 17-nation bloc is headed into recession and the unemployment rate is 11.3 percent, the highest since the creation of the single currency.
The slow economy has given some older workers the worst of both worlds: They have to work longer, for less money. Antonio Di Florio, a 58-year-old assembly line worker at a Fiat SpA (F) car factory in Turin, was supposed to retire in April 2013 after 40 years of work with the carmaker.
Now, following Italy’s pension changes, his retirement is postponed until July 2015. Company production cutbacks have forced him to work part-time, reducing his monthly take-home to 850 euros ($1,109), 35 percent less than he earned before. One cutback victim: his 22-year-old daughter’s wedding.
“She likely won’t be able to have a honeymoon and we’ll have to rent the bridal gown rather than buying it,” Di Florio said in a phone interview yesterday. Still, he said, “I consider myself lucky to have a job, although one with a low salary.” One source of support: his older brother, who retired before Italy’s pension overhaul and thus gets full benefits.
Policy Choices
“Activity rates of elderly workers are more affected by policy choices, while young workers more at the whim of markets,” said Mathieu Plane, an economist at OFCE, a research institute associated with Paris-based graduate school Sciences Po. “The main adjustment to the crisis has come from companies not renewing the short-term contracts of younger workers.”
In the U.S, where the eligibility age for full Social Security retirement benefits is being gradually increased to 67 from 65, people are working longer as well. The proportion of those 65 years and older in the labor force rose to 18.6 percent in September from 13.6 percent that same month in 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Europe’s elderly haven’t avoided suffering. While the percentage of those over 55 in jobs has risen, so has the number of elderly unemployed. The unemployment rate for those over 50 was 6.5 percent in France in the second half of 2012, up from 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
No Going Home
Elderly unemployed on average stay jobless twice as long as the overall population because their skills are often outdated and their salary needs too high, Plane said. Nor do they have the option of returning to education or moving in with parents.
While pushing elderly workers into retirement may open jobs for younger people at the company level, it doesn’t necessarily work that way across a nation’s overall economy, said Thode at Bertelsmann.
“Countries that have high rates of senior employment also have high rates of youth employment,” he said, citing Germany and Sweden. “Other countries fail both groups.”
Anne-Sophie Parent, secretary general of Age Platform Europe, a Brussels-based advocacy group for seniors, says the elderly are likely to take the brunt of the next round of job losses as countries cut into their civil service.
“Seniors have been in more protected jobs, but now we are seeing cuts in civil service in all countries,” said Parent.“For those over 45 who lose their jobs, it’s over for them.”
Guillaume, the Toulouse biologist, plans to make sure he’s not one of those people. Sanofi, France’s biggest drugmaker, last month announced plans to cut 900 jobs in France over the next three years. If he loses his job, Guillaume says, he’ll go on unemployment benefits and look for another job, since retirement isn’t an option.
“The market for researchers isn’t great in France now, but I have no choice.” Guillaume said.
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Panda Wed 17 Oct - 0:03
Germany Open to Spanish Precautionary Credit, Lawmakers Say
By Brian Parkin and Patrick Donahue - Oct 16, 2012 4:00 PM GMT+0100
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position.
The comments by Michael Meister, a deputy caucus leader ofChancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc, andNorbert Barthle, her party’s budget spokesman, indicate a rolling back of German resistance to a full sovereign bailout for Spain. Schaeuble cautioned Spain against seeking aid on top of its bank bailout as recently as last month.
Enlarge image
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position.
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
For Spain, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has said it won’t request aid until the terms are clearer, a precautionary credit line “would be a possible move,” Barthle said today in a text message. The 500 billion-euro ($650 billion) permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which came into force on Oct. 8, “envisages help for sectors in the economy with limited conditionality.”
The views of German lawmakers are critical because they would have to ratify any aid request under parliamentary rules. Spain has cited concern of German rejection for its reluctance so far to seek bailout funds, a condition for triggering European Central Bank help to lower borrowing costs.
‘Tail Risk’
Barthle’s comment is “important insofar as it removes a tail risk that the entire process would be subject to delay or ongoing bickering,” Michael Michaelides, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in a client note.
German bunds declined and Spanish bonds rebounded from morning losses after the comments. The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds fell 12 basis points to 5.72 percent at 4:33 p.m. in Berlin. The euro rose as much as 0.9 percent from yesterday’s close to $1.3061, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1.1 percent.
Germany is signaling more willingness to cooperate with its European Union partners on measures to staunch the debt crisis before EU leaders meet in Brussels on Oct. 18-19. Merkel stepped up her praise of Greek reform efforts today after Schaeuble reaffirmed a commitment to a so-called banking union and one of his deputies said Germany would consider EU proposals to strengthen the monetary union.
Credit Conditions
“We’d have to look at any application that Spain made, whether for a precautionary credit or a full program,” Meister said by phone. “The applicant will have to decide.” The terms attached would vary based on the nature of the request, he said.“But one thing is clear: Whatever is requested, it won’t be without conditions.”
The prospect of Spain requesting a sovereign bailout had receded this month as Rajoy was deterred by a perceived German reluctance to endorse any request. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Oct. 11 the Spanish government had to be sure aid would “materialize” before asking for it and that it would be backed by all European countries.
Schaeuble said in an interview on Sept. 13 that any request by Spain for outside aid on top of the 100 billion-euro rescue for its banks would risk more market turmoil. “‘I’m not in the camp that says ‘take the money,’” he said. Spain “would be daft” to ask for another bailout if it didn’t need one.
To be sure, Rajoy’s government has a communication problem even as it commits to “enormous” steps to cut the budget deficit and carry out structural reforms to strengthen the country’s competitiveness, Meister said.
“My impression is that the Spanish government is going to extreme lengths in terms of consolidation and extreme lengths on structural reforms -- but up to this point have done a very good job of hiding it from the broader public,” he said.
By Brian Parkin and Patrick Donahue - Oct 16, 2012 4:00 PM GMT+0100
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position.
The comments by Michael Meister, a deputy caucus leader ofChancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic bloc, andNorbert Barthle, her party’s budget spokesman, indicate a rolling back of German resistance to a full sovereign bailout for Spain. Schaeuble cautioned Spain against seeking aid on top of its bank bailout as recently as last month.
Enlarge image
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble
Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position.
Germany is open to Spain seeking a precautionary credit line from Europe’s rescue fund, two senior coalition lawmakers said, signaling a reversal of Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble’s public position. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
For Spain, where Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy’s government has said it won’t request aid until the terms are clearer, a precautionary credit line “would be a possible move,” Barthle said today in a text message. The 500 billion-euro ($650 billion) permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, which came into force on Oct. 8, “envisages help for sectors in the economy with limited conditionality.”
The views of German lawmakers are critical because they would have to ratify any aid request under parliamentary rules. Spain has cited concern of German rejection for its reluctance so far to seek bailout funds, a condition for triggering European Central Bank help to lower borrowing costs.
‘Tail Risk’
Barthle’s comment is “important insofar as it removes a tail risk that the entire process would be subject to delay or ongoing bickering,” Michael Michaelides, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc in London, said in a client note.
German bunds declined and Spanish bonds rebounded from morning losses after the comments. The yield on Spanish 10-year bonds fell 12 basis points to 5.72 percent at 4:33 p.m. in Berlin. The euro rose as much as 0.9 percent from yesterday’s close to $1.3061, while the Stoxx Europe 600 Index gained 1.1 percent.
Germany is signaling more willingness to cooperate with its European Union partners on measures to staunch the debt crisis before EU leaders meet in Brussels on Oct. 18-19. Merkel stepped up her praise of Greek reform efforts today after Schaeuble reaffirmed a commitment to a so-called banking union and one of his deputies said Germany would consider EU proposals to strengthen the monetary union.
Credit Conditions
“We’d have to look at any application that Spain made, whether for a precautionary credit or a full program,” Meister said by phone. “The applicant will have to decide.” The terms attached would vary based on the nature of the request, he said.“But one thing is clear: Whatever is requested, it won’t be without conditions.”
The prospect of Spain requesting a sovereign bailout had receded this month as Rajoy was deterred by a perceived German reluctance to endorse any request. Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Oct. 11 the Spanish government had to be sure aid would “materialize” before asking for it and that it would be backed by all European countries.
Schaeuble said in an interview on Sept. 13 that any request by Spain for outside aid on top of the 100 billion-euro rescue for its banks would risk more market turmoil. “‘I’m not in the camp that says ‘take the money,’” he said. Spain “would be daft” to ask for another bailout if it didn’t need one.
To be sure, Rajoy’s government has a communication problem even as it commits to “enormous” steps to cut the budget deficit and carry out structural reforms to strengthen the country’s competitiveness, Meister said.
“My impression is that the Spanish government is going to extreme lengths in terms of consolidation and extreme lengths on structural reforms -- but up to this point have done a very good job of hiding it from the broader public,” he said.
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Panda Wed 17 Oct - 9:12
Retirement No Option for Older Workers in Europe’s Crisis
By Gregory Viscusi and Lorenzo Totaro - Oct 17, 2012 8:46 AM GMT+0100
Jean-Luc Guillaume always presumed he’d retire at about 60, just like his civil-servant father.
One year from reaching that age, the biology researcher has no plans to stop working. Cutbacks to France’s retirement benefits, the European financial crisis and the cost of a recent separation have stretched out his horizons.
Enlarge image
Retirement No Option for Older Workers in Europe’s Crisis
Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
An office worker walks through the La Defense business district in Paris, France.
An office worker walks through the La Defense business district in Paris, France. Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
Enlarge image
Italian Comedian-Turned-Politician Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May.
Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
“Financially, retirement just isn’t an option,” said Guillaume at a street demonstration against job cuts at his employer, Sanofi SA (SAN), that he had traveled to Paris from his home in Toulouse to attend. “I’m looking at 66 at the earliest.”
Guillaume is part of a generation of European workers retiring later as the worst economic downturn in 70 years and higher retirement ages induce workers to stay longer. The proportion of over-55s in jobs has climbed even as unemployment rates have soared across the European Union.
While many economists say increased work for elders doesn’t reduce job opportunities for the young, deferred retirement has become a political issue for those who say otherwise, especially as youth unemployment in the EU exceeds 20 percent.
“They may not always be happy about it, but older people are staying in jobs longer than they used to,” said Eric Thode, senior expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung, a research institute based in Gutersloh, Germany. “Young people are taking the brunt of the crisis.”
Rising Everywhere
Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of those over 55 in employment rose in all 27 EU countries except Portugal andRomania, according to Eurostat, the European statistics agency. The trend appears to have continued most places into 2011, said Thode, based on employment reports.
It’s had political ramifications. Beppe Grillo, an Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. It also has won mayoral elections in northern Italy.
“Raising the retirement age to 67 means keeps the young out of the workforce,” Grillo wrote on his blog July 4.
The CGT, France’s largest union, said in an Aug. 29 statement about rising joblessness that “there will always be this much unemployment, precariousness and poverty until there is an ambitious jobs policy and the possibility for everyone to retire with a full pension at 60.”
In past decades, political leaders bought that argument. In economic downturns, older workers would lose their jobs first, often driven by government-inspired plans to push them into retirement to make room for younger workers.
State Pensions
This time around, countries are under pressure to reduce costs of state-funded pension programs. Leaders have increased the legal retirement age to reduce pension costs, passed anti-age discrimination laws and rolled back early-retirement plans, all to keep more seniors in their jobs.
When Carl Camden joined global temporary work agency Kelly Services Inc. (KELYA) as a senior vice-president 17 years ago, the biggest age group placed in both the U.S. and Europe was younger than 30. Now the largest segment is over 50 on both continents, said Camden, chief executive officer of the Troy, Michigan-based company.
“I do worry about the social fabric tearing apart,” he said in a phone interview. “I worry about social dynamics when economies aren’t growing fast enough to provide jobs for the young. There is a risk of generational conflict.”
End of Indexing
Italy in 1995 ended the indexation of pensions, causing them to lag behind the inflation rate and reducing an incentive to retire early. A 2008 law eliminated the possibility of retiring at 57 in certain cases. Prime Minister Mario Monti this year raised the number of years of work required for a pension and will lift the retirement age further to 66 from 65 by 2018.
The result: the percentage of people 50-64 in jobs reached 49.6 percent in 2011, up from 47.3 percent in 2008.
In France, most early retirement options were ended in 2003. Then in 2010 the minimum retirement age was lifted, to 62 from 60. President Francois Hollande returned the minimum retirement age to 60 after his May election, but only for those who started work as teenagers -- 110,000 people.
As in Italy, the proportion of older workers rose, to 56.5 percent of people 50-64 in the second quarter of 2012, up from 55.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, when France’s overallunemployment rate was at its lowest since 1983.
“Throughout the 2000s there were a series of reforms to the pension systems in France and Italy,” said Jean-Olivier Hairault, a professor at Sorbonne Paris 1 University. “The result is that they’ve had no choice but to stay in the labor force and keep seeking work.”
Record Unemployment
Three years after the euro region’s debt crisis began, the 17-nation bloc is headed into recession and the August unemployment rate was 11.4 percent, the highest since the creation of the single currency. For those under 25, the rate was 22.8 percent.
The slow economy has given some older workers the worst of both worlds: They have to work longer, for less money. Antonio Di Florio, a 58-year-old assembly line worker at a Fiat SpA (F) car factory in Turin, was supposed to retire in April 2013 after 40 years of work with the carmaker.
Now, following Italy’s pension changes, his retirement is postponed until July 2015. Company production cutbacks have forced him to work part-time, reducing his monthly take-home to 850 euros ($1,109), 35 percent less than he earned before. One cutback victim: his 22-year-old daughter’s wedding.
“She likely won’t be able to have a honeymoon and we’ll have to rent the bridal gown rather than buying it,” Di Florio said in a phone interview yesterday. Still, he said, “I consider myself lucky to have a job, although one with a low salary.”
Policy Choices
“Activity rates of elderly workers are more affected by policy choices, while young workers more at the whim of markets,” said Mathieu Plane, an economist at OFCE, a research institute associated with Paris-based graduate school Sciences Po. “The main adjustment to the crisis has come from companies not renewing the short-term contracts of younger workers.”
In the U.S, where the eligibility age for full Social Security retirement benefits is being gradually increased to 67 from 65, people are working longer as well. The proportion of those 65 years and older in the labor force rose to 18.6 percent in September from 13.6 percent that same month in 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Europe’s elderly haven’t avoided suffering. While the percentage of those over 55 in jobs has risen, so has the number of elderly unemployed. The unemployment rate for those over 50 was 6.5 percent in France in the second half of 2012, up from 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
No Going Home
Elderly unemployed on average stay jobless twice as long as the overall population because their skills are often outdated and their salary needs too high, Plane said. Nor do they have the option of returning to education or moving in with parents.
While pushing elderly workers into retirement may open jobs for younger people at the company level, it doesn’t necessarily work that way across a nation’s overall economy, said Thode at Bertelsmann.
“Countries that have high rates of senior employment also have high rates of youth employment,” he said, citing Germany and Sweden. “Other countries fail both groups.”
Anne-Sophie Parent, secretary general of Age Platform Europe, a Brussels-based advocacy group for seniors, says the elderly are likely to take the brunt of the next round of job losses as countries cut into their civil service.
“Seniors have been in more protected jobs, but now we are seeing cuts in civil service in all countries,” said Parent.“For those over 45 who lose their jobs, it’s over for them.”
Guillaume, the Toulouse biologist, plans to make sure he’s not one of those people. Sanofi, France’s biggest drugmaker, last month announced plans to cut 900 jobs in France over the next three years. If he loses his job, Guillaume says, he’ll go on unemployment benefits and look for another job, since retirement isn’t an option.
“The market for researchers isn’t great in France now, but I have no choice.” Guillaume said.
By Gregory Viscusi and Lorenzo Totaro - Oct 17, 2012 8:46 AM GMT+0100
Jean-Luc Guillaume always presumed he’d retire at about 60, just like his civil-servant father.
One year from reaching that age, the biology researcher has no plans to stop working. Cutbacks to France’s retirement benefits, the European financial crisis and the cost of a recent separation have stretched out his horizons.
Enlarge image
Retirement No Option for Older Workers in Europe’s Crisis
Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
An office worker walks through the La Defense business district in Paris, France.
An office worker walks through the La Defense business district in Paris, France. Photographer: Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg
Enlarge image
Italian Comedian-Turned-Politician Beppe Grillo
Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May.
Beppe Grillo, Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. Photographer: Giuseppe Cacace/AFP/Getty Images
“Financially, retirement just isn’t an option,” said Guillaume at a street demonstration against job cuts at his employer, Sanofi SA (SAN), that he had traveled to Paris from his home in Toulouse to attend. “I’m looking at 66 at the earliest.”
Guillaume is part of a generation of European workers retiring later as the worst economic downturn in 70 years and higher retirement ages induce workers to stay longer. The proportion of over-55s in jobs has climbed even as unemployment rates have soared across the European Union.
While many economists say increased work for elders doesn’t reduce job opportunities for the young, deferred retirement has become a political issue for those who say otherwise, especially as youth unemployment in the EU exceeds 20 percent.
“They may not always be happy about it, but older people are staying in jobs longer than they used to,” said Eric Thode, senior expert at Bertelsmann Stiftung, a research institute based in Gutersloh, Germany. “Young people are taking the brunt of the crisis.”
Rising Everywhere
Between 2000 and 2010, the percentage of those over 55 in employment rose in all 27 EU countries except Portugal andRomania, according to Eurostat, the European statistics agency. The trend appears to have continued most places into 2011, said Thode, based on employment reports.
It’s had political ramifications. Beppe Grillo, an Italian comedian-turned-politician, used anger over austerity and higher retirement ages to boost a political party that polls show could get as much as 18 percent of the vote nationwide in elections due by May. It also has won mayoral elections in northern Italy.
“Raising the retirement age to 67 means keeps the young out of the workforce,” Grillo wrote on his blog July 4.
The CGT, France’s largest union, said in an Aug. 29 statement about rising joblessness that “there will always be this much unemployment, precariousness and poverty until there is an ambitious jobs policy and the possibility for everyone to retire with a full pension at 60.”
In past decades, political leaders bought that argument. In economic downturns, older workers would lose their jobs first, often driven by government-inspired plans to push them into retirement to make room for younger workers.
State Pensions
This time around, countries are under pressure to reduce costs of state-funded pension programs. Leaders have increased the legal retirement age to reduce pension costs, passed anti-age discrimination laws and rolled back early-retirement plans, all to keep more seniors in their jobs.
When Carl Camden joined global temporary work agency Kelly Services Inc. (KELYA) as a senior vice-president 17 years ago, the biggest age group placed in both the U.S. and Europe was younger than 30. Now the largest segment is over 50 on both continents, said Camden, chief executive officer of the Troy, Michigan-based company.
“I do worry about the social fabric tearing apart,” he said in a phone interview. “I worry about social dynamics when economies aren’t growing fast enough to provide jobs for the young. There is a risk of generational conflict.”
End of Indexing
Italy in 1995 ended the indexation of pensions, causing them to lag behind the inflation rate and reducing an incentive to retire early. A 2008 law eliminated the possibility of retiring at 57 in certain cases. Prime Minister Mario Monti this year raised the number of years of work required for a pension and will lift the retirement age further to 66 from 65 by 2018.
The result: the percentage of people 50-64 in jobs reached 49.6 percent in 2011, up from 47.3 percent in 2008.
In France, most early retirement options were ended in 2003. Then in 2010 the minimum retirement age was lifted, to 62 from 60. President Francois Hollande returned the minimum retirement age to 60 after his May election, but only for those who started work as teenagers -- 110,000 people.
As in Italy, the proportion of older workers rose, to 56.5 percent of people 50-64 in the second quarter of 2012, up from 55.4 percent in the first quarter of 2008, when France’s overallunemployment rate was at its lowest since 1983.
“Throughout the 2000s there were a series of reforms to the pension systems in France and Italy,” said Jean-Olivier Hairault, a professor at Sorbonne Paris 1 University. “The result is that they’ve had no choice but to stay in the labor force and keep seeking work.”
Record Unemployment
Three years after the euro region’s debt crisis began, the 17-nation bloc is headed into recession and the August unemployment rate was 11.4 percent, the highest since the creation of the single currency. For those under 25, the rate was 22.8 percent.
The slow economy has given some older workers the worst of both worlds: They have to work longer, for less money. Antonio Di Florio, a 58-year-old assembly line worker at a Fiat SpA (F) car factory in Turin, was supposed to retire in April 2013 after 40 years of work with the carmaker.
Now, following Italy’s pension changes, his retirement is postponed until July 2015. Company production cutbacks have forced him to work part-time, reducing his monthly take-home to 850 euros ($1,109), 35 percent less than he earned before. One cutback victim: his 22-year-old daughter’s wedding.
“She likely won’t be able to have a honeymoon and we’ll have to rent the bridal gown rather than buying it,” Di Florio said in a phone interview yesterday. Still, he said, “I consider myself lucky to have a job, although one with a low salary.”
Policy Choices
“Activity rates of elderly workers are more affected by policy choices, while young workers more at the whim of markets,” said Mathieu Plane, an economist at OFCE, a research institute associated with Paris-based graduate school Sciences Po. “The main adjustment to the crisis has come from companies not renewing the short-term contracts of younger workers.”
In the U.S, where the eligibility age for full Social Security retirement benefits is being gradually increased to 67 from 65, people are working longer as well. The proportion of those 65 years and older in the labor force rose to 18.6 percent in September from 13.6 percent that same month in 2002, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Europe’s elderly haven’t avoided suffering. While the percentage of those over 55 in jobs has risen, so has the number of elderly unemployed. The unemployment rate for those over 50 was 6.5 percent in France in the second half of 2012, up from 4.9 percent in the first quarter of 2008.
No Going Home
Elderly unemployed on average stay jobless twice as long as the overall population because their skills are often outdated and their salary needs too high, Plane said. Nor do they have the option of returning to education or moving in with parents.
While pushing elderly workers into retirement may open jobs for younger people at the company level, it doesn’t necessarily work that way across a nation’s overall economy, said Thode at Bertelsmann.
“Countries that have high rates of senior employment also have high rates of youth employment,” he said, citing Germany and Sweden. “Other countries fail both groups.”
Anne-Sophie Parent, secretary general of Age Platform Europe, a Brussels-based advocacy group for seniors, says the elderly are likely to take the brunt of the next round of job losses as countries cut into their civil service.
“Seniors have been in more protected jobs, but now we are seeing cuts in civil service in all countries,” said Parent.“For those over 45 who lose their jobs, it’s over for them.”
Guillaume, the Toulouse biologist, plans to make sure he’s not one of those people. Sanofi, France’s biggest drugmaker, last month announced plans to cut 900 jobs in France over the next three years. If he loses his job, Guillaume says, he’ll go on unemployment benefits and look for another job, since retirement isn’t an option.
“The market for researchers isn’t great in France now, but I have no choice.” Guillaume said.
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Wed 17 Oct - 9:24
MOODY'S DOESN'T DOWNGRADE SPAIN
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone financial crisis, and other key events in the global economy.
The big news this morning is that Spain has not been downgraded to junk status.
After months of deliberations, ratings agency Moody's has decided to affirm Spain at Baa3 -- the lowest 'investment grade' rating -- with a negative outlook.
The decision is a rare piece of good news for Mariano Rajoy's government as it continues to inch towards a request for financial aid.
Mariano Rajoy. Photograph: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty Images
Moody's said three "positive developments" were behind its decision.1) the European Central Bank's decision to buy unlimited bonds of a country in distress (if it signs up for an aid programme), 2) the fact Spain is pushing on with economic reforms, 3) progress on restructuring Spain's banking sector.
The news has already sent the euro to a one-month high against the US dollar, above $1.31.
We'll be tracking all the reaction to Moody's decision this morning.
Also coming up...a Portuguese bond sale, new economic forecasts from Germany, and fresh UK unemployment data (full agenda to follow). And it's the final day before the EU Summit begins in Brussels.
07:40 BST
Updated at 07:46 BST
Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of the eurozone financial crisis, and other key events in the global economy.
The big news this morning is that Spain has not been downgraded to junk status.
After months of deliberations, ratings agency Moody's has decided to affirm Spain at Baa3 -- the lowest 'investment grade' rating -- with a negative outlook.
The decision is a rare piece of good news for Mariano Rajoy's government as it continues to inch towards a request for financial aid.
Mariano Rajoy. Photograph: PIERRE-PHILIPPE MARCOU/AFP/Getty ImagesMoody's said three "positive developments" were behind its decision.1) the European Central Bank's decision to buy unlimited bonds of a country in distress (if it signs up for an aid programme), 2) the fact Spain is pushing on with economic reforms, 3) progress on restructuring Spain's banking sector.
The news has already sent the euro to a one-month high against the US dollar, above $1.31.
We'll be tracking all the reaction to Moody's decision this morning.
Also coming up...a Portuguese bond sale, new economic forecasts from Germany, and fresh UK unemployment data (full agenda to follow). And it's the final day before the EU Summit begins in Brussels.
07:40 BST
Updated at 07:46 BST
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Wed 17 Oct - 17:17
European integration
We need a referendum on the future of Europe
17 October 2012Il Foglio Milan
Kazanevski
The European project, as it has been constructed so far by the elites and their "benevolent paternalism", has run up against its limits. The next step towards political union cannot be taken without a direct consultation with the citizens, writes the director of the Italian geopolitical magazine Limes.
Lucio Caracciolo
Between "less interdependence" and "more integration", the needle of the scale is tipping toward the former. Is this inclination definite? Certainly not. If there is no guarantee that a United States of Europe will ever see the light of day, it is neverthless not written that the conflicts within Europe that have triggered the euro crisis will lead to the break-up of the EU – or worse, to a war.
The urgency of the problems is forcing us to think about them clearly and coldly, to abandon our prejudices and our consoling visions, and to use our imaginations not to misrepresent the present but to picture the future. Most importantly, any proposed European project must make it through a public debate and with the consent of the European peoples affected.
It is no longer possible to create a Europe without Europeans. It is they who must decide if they want to create this Europe, and, if necessary, how. By such a Europe I understand a sovereign geopolitical state. A democratic European state, with limits and institutions that need to be defined. In practice, that goes beyond the letters of the international treaties among Europeans.
The consent of the peoples of Europe
Today, it is the member states that say what the European Union is, and, in particular, what it is not. That leads to a double loss of legitimacy for democracy: at the national level, where parliaments have sunk to a historical nadir, where the legitimacy of governments fades from day to day and where political parties are nothing more than shadows of their former selves; at the community level, with a discredited Commission that, defying ridicule, displays a semblance of executive power, flanked by a Parliament elected from national lists, which defends national interests, and whose powers are very different from those that the Western tradition assigns to legislatures.
The beneficiaries of this situation are anti-democratic or frankly racist forces that use Europe as a bogey-man to harvest political fruit and attract voters. Built on the ruins of the world wars to ensure peace, foster progress and advance freedom, the European ideal has produced the opposite. Collateral damage: the Europe Union is undermining its values and devaluing what it was meant to protect.
Several remedies that are very different may be able to bridge the divide between interdependence and integration. To work, each of them needs the consent of the peoples of Europe. The time has come to ask Europeans if they want to bring their country into a union – yes or no. By referendum. And not by one of these national consultations in which the voters of a Member State approve or reject (in the latter case, voters are called to the polls solely to approve the text) a treaty that is unreadable and, therefore, that remains unread.
A force for democracy in the world
This referendum among the twenty-seven Member States of the European Union (from next year, twenty-eight), which should take place at the same time and under the same rules throughout the European community, would pose the fundamental question: "Are you for or against the emergence of a European State comprising all member states of the European Union or of some of these states (specify which)?"
It would, of course, be a consultative ballot. But the voices in chorus of hundreds of millions of Europeans would have a powerful knock-on effect on the choices of the political leaders at the national level.
Whatever the outcome, we would finally have a clear picture of the degree of Europhilia among Europeans. Which is something that the Europhiles have always carefully avoided. It should, however, be clear by now that if we can one day unify Europe or a part of Europe for good, to make of it a force for democracy in the world, it will happen only on the ashes of Europeanism. On the ashes of its complacent paternalistic reflexes and its fundamentally elitist and undemocratic culture. The result is that, 55 years after the Treaty of Rome, not only do we not have a unified Europe, but we are exciting base emotions and tearing out the liberal and democratic roots of its member countries.
This article is an excerpt from the chapter “Europe for the Europeans", published in the Nomos & Khaos 2012 report from the Italian research institute Nomisma.
We need a referendum on the future of Europe
17 October 2012Il Foglio Milan
Kazanevski
The European project, as it has been constructed so far by the elites and their "benevolent paternalism", has run up against its limits. The next step towards political union cannot be taken without a direct consultation with the citizens, writes the director of the Italian geopolitical magazine Limes.
Lucio Caracciolo
Between "less interdependence" and "more integration", the needle of the scale is tipping toward the former. Is this inclination definite? Certainly not. If there is no guarantee that a United States of Europe will ever see the light of day, it is neverthless not written that the conflicts within Europe that have triggered the euro crisis will lead to the break-up of the EU – or worse, to a war.
The urgency of the problems is forcing us to think about them clearly and coldly, to abandon our prejudices and our consoling visions, and to use our imaginations not to misrepresent the present but to picture the future. Most importantly, any proposed European project must make it through a public debate and with the consent of the European peoples affected.
It is no longer possible to create a Europe without Europeans. It is they who must decide if they want to create this Europe, and, if necessary, how. By such a Europe I understand a sovereign geopolitical state. A democratic European state, with limits and institutions that need to be defined. In practice, that goes beyond the letters of the international treaties among Europeans.
The consent of the peoples of Europe
Today, it is the member states that say what the European Union is, and, in particular, what it is not. That leads to a double loss of legitimacy for democracy: at the national level, where parliaments have sunk to a historical nadir, where the legitimacy of governments fades from day to day and where political parties are nothing more than shadows of their former selves; at the community level, with a discredited Commission that, defying ridicule, displays a semblance of executive power, flanked by a Parliament elected from national lists, which defends national interests, and whose powers are very different from those that the Western tradition assigns to legislatures.
The beneficiaries of this situation are anti-democratic or frankly racist forces that use Europe as a bogey-man to harvest political fruit and attract voters. Built on the ruins of the world wars to ensure peace, foster progress and advance freedom, the European ideal has produced the opposite. Collateral damage: the Europe Union is undermining its values and devaluing what it was meant to protect.
Several remedies that are very different may be able to bridge the divide between interdependence and integration. To work, each of them needs the consent of the peoples of Europe. The time has come to ask Europeans if they want to bring their country into a union – yes or no. By referendum. And not by one of these national consultations in which the voters of a Member State approve or reject (in the latter case, voters are called to the polls solely to approve the text) a treaty that is unreadable and, therefore, that remains unread.
A force for democracy in the world
This referendum among the twenty-seven Member States of the European Union (from next year, twenty-eight), which should take place at the same time and under the same rules throughout the European community, would pose the fundamental question: "Are you for or against the emergence of a European State comprising all member states of the European Union or of some of these states (specify which)?"
It would, of course, be a consultative ballot. But the voices in chorus of hundreds of millions of Europeans would have a powerful knock-on effect on the choices of the political leaders at the national level.
Whatever the outcome, we would finally have a clear picture of the degree of Europhilia among Europeans. Which is something that the Europhiles have always carefully avoided. It should, however, be clear by now that if we can one day unify Europe or a part of Europe for good, to make of it a force for democracy in the world, it will happen only on the ashes of Europeanism. On the ashes of its complacent paternalistic reflexes and its fundamentally elitist and undemocratic culture. The result is that, 55 years after the Treaty of Rome, not only do we not have a unified Europe, but we are exciting base emotions and tearing out the liberal and democratic roots of its member countries.
This article is an excerpt from the chapter “Europe for the Europeans", published in the Nomos & Khaos 2012 report from the Italian research institute Nomisma.
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Re: New EC Thread
Badboy Wed 17 Oct - 20:47
NOT SURE IF ALREADY MENTIONED,APPEARS GREECE MIGHT NOT RECEIVE 31.5 BILLION EUROS(READ MY GUARDIAN LATE BECAUSE I LEFT IT AT HOME.
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Re: New EC Thread
Panda Fri 19 Oct - 18:01
October 2012 Last updated at 14:37
EU summit: France says bank deal helps eurozone fusion
Comments (280)
The BBC's Gavin Hewitt reports on the winners and losers in the deal
Continue reading the main story
Eurozone crisis
The French president says a deal to start building a banking union on 1 January will enable the eurozone to speed up economic integration.
"Thanks to this we can advance more quickly and with more assurance," Francois Hollande said in Brussels.
He was speaking after EU leaders agreed to set up a single banking supervisor for the 17-nation eurozone - a key step towards a banking union.
But Mr Hollande also said EU states "need different speeds" of integration.
"We should have a council of the eurozone to meet on a regular basis... We need different speeds - that's agreed by everyone now, and there are even some moving backwards," he told a news conference.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted again that "quality takes precedence over speed" in setting up the banking union.
New ECB clout
It has been agreed that the European Central Bank (ECB), as supervisor-in-chief, will have the power to intervene in any of the eurozone's 6,000 banks.
The deal appears to be a compromise between France and Germany, who earlier disagreed over the timing and over the number of banks the ECB would oversee.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
Gavin Hewitt Europe editor
A legislative framework is to be in place by 1 January, with the supervisory body starting work later in 2013.
The timetable remains important, because only when the body is fully operational will the eurozone's new rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), be able to recapitalise struggling banks directly, without adding to a country's sovereign debt pile.
A priority is to rescue weak banks in Spain, where a recent audit put the bailout requirement at 59.3bn euros (£48.3bn; $77.4bn).
But the Greek crisis also looms large, as the EU awaits a key report from the "troika" of international lenders - the ECB, European Commission and International Monetary Fund.
Mr Hollande insisted that "Greece's presence in the eurozone should not be questioned any more" and Mrs Merkel said the Greek government was "really making an all-out effort" to reform its economy.
Meanwhile, Spain's main trade unions have called a general strike for 14 November, coinciding with similar protests in Portugal and Greece.
Continue reading the main story
Banking union - Three-stage plan
'Ambitious roadmap'
Berlin wanted to apply the brakes over the banking union and much wrangling lies ahead, the BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says.
Mrs Merkel insisted on Friday that "the right sequence is important" and added: "It's already quite an ambitious roadmap."
Germany had been at odds with the European Commission over the scope of the proposed ECB supervision. All the eurozone banks will be included - but Germany had wanted it limited to the biggest, "systemic" banks.
Previously, the German government has expressed a desire to retain supervisory responsibility within Germany over the country's Landesbanks - state-owned banks that play a key role in the economies and state finances of Germany's federal regions.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the 27 EU leaders had agreed to set up "a Single Supervisory Mechanism [SSM], to prevent banking risks and cross-border contagion from emerging".
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
"Once this is agreed, the SSM could probably be effectively operational in the course of 2013," he said.
With new supervisory powers the ECB would be able to act early on to prevent a systemically dangerous accumulation of debt on a bank's balance sheets.
UK concerns
ECB supervision will not extend to the UK - Europe's main financial centre, but outside the euro.
However, the BBC's Business editor Robert Peston says there is now a serious risk that the UK will always be outvoted when decisions are taken on the regulation of banking and finance in the EU as a whole.
It is more than a theoretical possibility that the interests of the UK and City of London in shaping financial rules will be systematically ignored or overridden, he says. The UK also wants safeguards to protect the powers of the Bank of England.
Mrs Merkel said the agreement was that "banks must be supervised in a differentiated way. That means that some will be direct... at the ECB level and others indirectly, via the national authorities."
She also said that ECB President Mario Draghi had told her it would be some months before the ECB was ready to take on its new role.
Fraught with complications
The leaders agreed that the ECB's new supervisory function would be strictly separated from its role in setting monetary policy.
The banking union plan is fraught with legal complications, as it would give more powers to the ECB and possibly weaken those of national regulators.
There is speculation that it could lead to treaty changes - something that has caused big headaches for the EU in the past.
The EU Commission said the arrangement would be "as inclusive as legally possible for non-euro members to join if they want to".
EU summit: France says bank deal helps eurozone fusion
Comments (280)
The BBC's Gavin Hewitt reports on the winners and losers in the deal
Continue reading the main story
Eurozone crisis
The French president says a deal to start building a banking union on 1 January will enable the eurozone to speed up economic integration.
"Thanks to this we can advance more quickly and with more assurance," Francois Hollande said in Brussels.
He was speaking after EU leaders agreed to set up a single banking supervisor for the 17-nation eurozone - a key step towards a banking union.
But Mr Hollande also said EU states "need different speeds" of integration.
"We should have a council of the eurozone to meet on a regular basis... We need different speeds - that's agreed by everyone now, and there are even some moving backwards," he told a news conference.
Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel insisted again that "quality takes precedence over speed" in setting up the banking union.
New ECB clout
It has been agreed that the European Central Bank (ECB), as supervisor-in-chief, will have the power to intervene in any of the eurozone's 6,000 banks.
The deal appears to be a compromise between France and Germany, who earlier disagreed over the timing and over the number of banks the ECB would oversee.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
End Quote
Compromising and fudging is the way business often gets done in Brussels”
Gavin Hewitt Europe editor A legislative framework is to be in place by 1 January, with the supervisory body starting work later in 2013.
The timetable remains important, because only when the body is fully operational will the eurozone's new rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), be able to recapitalise struggling banks directly, without adding to a country's sovereign debt pile.
A priority is to rescue weak banks in Spain, where a recent audit put the bailout requirement at 59.3bn euros (£48.3bn; $77.4bn).
But the Greek crisis also looms large, as the EU awaits a key report from the "troika" of international lenders - the ECB, European Commission and International Monetary Fund.
Mr Hollande insisted that "Greece's presence in the eurozone should not be questioned any more" and Mrs Merkel said the Greek government was "really making an all-out effort" to reform its economy.
Meanwhile, Spain's main trade unions have called a general strike for 14 November, coinciding with similar protests in Portugal and Greece.
Continue reading the main story
Banking union - Three-stage plan
- Single supervisory mechanism (SSM)
- Joint resolution scheme to wind down failing banks
- Joint deposit guarantee scheme
'Ambitious roadmap'
Berlin wanted to apply the brakes over the banking union and much wrangling lies ahead, the BBC's Europe editor Gavin Hewitt says.
Mrs Merkel insisted on Friday that "the right sequence is important" and added: "It's already quite an ambitious roadmap."
Germany had been at odds with the European Commission over the scope of the proposed ECB supervision. All the eurozone banks will be included - but Germany had wanted it limited to the biggest, "systemic" banks.
Previously, the German government has expressed a desire to retain supervisory responsibility within Germany over the country's Landesbanks - state-owned banks that play a key role in the economies and state finances of Germany's federal regions.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy said the 27 EU leaders had agreed to set up "a Single Supervisory Mechanism [SSM], to prevent banking risks and cross-border contagion from emerging".
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
End Quote Sofia Palma Rodrigues Portuguese journalist
What the media do not do enough is study the reasons we are in this crisis”
"Once this is agreed, the SSM could probably be effectively operational in the course of 2013," he said.
With new supervisory powers the ECB would be able to act early on to prevent a systemically dangerous accumulation of debt on a bank's balance sheets.
UK concerns
ECB supervision will not extend to the UK - Europe's main financial centre, but outside the euro.
However, the BBC's Business editor Robert Peston says there is now a serious risk that the UK will always be outvoted when decisions are taken on the regulation of banking and finance in the EU as a whole.
It is more than a theoretical possibility that the interests of the UK and City of London in shaping financial rules will be systematically ignored or overridden, he says. The UK also wants safeguards to protect the powers of the Bank of England.
Mrs Merkel said the agreement was that "banks must be supervised in a differentiated way. That means that some will be direct... at the ECB level and others indirectly, via the national authorities."
She also said that ECB President Mario Draghi had told her it would be some months before the ECB was ready to take on its new role.
Fraught with complications
The leaders agreed that the ECB's new supervisory function would be strictly separated from its role in setting monetary policy.
The banking union plan is fraught with legal complications, as it would give more powers to the ECB and possibly weaken those of national regulators.
There is speculation that it could lead to treaty changes - something that has caused big headaches for the EU in the past.
The EU Commission said the arrangement would be "as inclusive as legally possible for non-euro members to join if they want to".
Panda- Platinum Poster
-
Number of posts : 30555
Age : 67
Location : Wales
Warning :
Registration date : 2010-03-27
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