Re: New EC Thread

[Panda]

Herman Van Rompuy attacks Cameron's plans to claw back powers from
Brussels


David Cameron was warned last night by the president of the European Council
that he may not be able to claw back powers from Brussels.








(L-R): European Union President
Belgian Herman Van Rompuy and British Prime Minister David Cameron Photo:
AFP/PA





7:30AM GMT 01 Mar 2013







In a confrontational speech, Herman Van Rompuy suggested no other EU leaders
are likely to support plans to rewrite the terms of Britain's membership in the
EU then put the changes to a referendum.


Mr Van Rompuy, president of the EU Council of Ministers, told a London
conference that the issue raised by the Prime Minister's recent speech promising
an ''in/out referendum'' under a future Tory Government was ''not just a matter
between London and Brussels.''


He said: ''The wish to redefine your country's relationship with the Union
has not gone unnoticed.


''I cannot speak on behalf of the other presidents and prime ministers but I
presume they neither particularly like it nor particularly fear it.''



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Mr Van Rompuy also told the event that there was no impending need for treaty
change but denied suggestions by Lord Mandelson that that meant he had ''shot Mr
Cameron's fox''.

But the nuclear option of exit would affect relationships between the UK and
all the other EU member states individually and not just if and when it happens
but, potentially, from now on.

''How do you convince a room full of people, when you keep your hand on the
door handle? How to encourage a friend to change, if your eyes are searching for
your coat?'' he asked in a keynote address at conference at Guildhall in the
City of London on ''Prospects for Revival in the Eurozone - and what place for
Britain in Europe''.

Addressing the Policy Network EU conference Mr Van Rompuy, who chairs all
summits of EU leaders - the next in a fortnight - continued: ''Leaving the (EU)
club altogether is legally possible'' but it would be ''a most complicated and
unpractical affair.

''Just think of a divorce after forty years of marriage. 'Leaving is an act
of free will but it doesn't come for free.''

He said the common challenge was to improve the way ''our Union'' works.

He said that, on a possible EU referendum, other EU leaders would ''first
listen, and then talk''.

On the Eurozone Mr Van Rompuy said: ''It is finally sinking in that the euro
is here to stay. The eurozone is again a club with a queue - not at the exit,
but at the entrance.''

But he warned there was no room for complacency about the single currency or
the wider state of the EU economy, insisting mending the eurozone remained his
top priority.

Mr Van Rompuy insisted: ''We are not witnessing the birth pangs of a federal
'Euroland'. Evolution not revolution.''

Earlier, the European Commission's vice-president argued Britain should focus
on reforming the European Union, not seek to repatriate powers or ''undo the
community''.

Olli Rehn said that Britain has been ''stronger'' over the past 40 years due
to its membership of the EU and it is in British citizens' interests for it to
remain an ''active player'' in the 27-nation bloc, rather than ''watching from
the sidelines''.

Mr Cameron promised a renegotiation of UK membership if the Conservatives win
the 2015 general election, followed by a referendum on whether Britain should
stay in the EU.

Mr Rehn said: ''We have before us many more far-reaching choices, in the
eurozone and in the wider European Union. ''In that context, I believe it is
firmly in Britain's interest to use its energy for reforming Europe rather than
seeking to undo our community, which would leave us all weaker.

''In a nutshell, why not focus on reform rather than repatriation?''

He added: ''It is in everyone's interests for Britain to be an active player
here. This is a game in which, if I were a British citizen, I would want my
country to be playing as a midfield playmaker rather than watching from the
sidelines. No one ever scored goals sitting on the bench.

''For 40 years now, Britain has been stronger thanks to its membership of the
European Union. More dynamic economically. More equitable socially. More
influential in world affairs.''

Mr Rehn said that the EU too was ''stronger'' because of Britain's
contribution and that the single market owes a great deal to the UK's ''liberal
instincts''.

[Panda]

Russell Investments, which advises funds with $2.4 trillion in assets, will reclassify Greece to an emerging from a developed market, an unprecedented step taken after a recession reduced the nation’s economy by 20 percent.
Greece, which was raised to developed market status by the adviser in 2001, has failed one or both of Russell Indexes’economic and operational risk assessments each year since 2011, according to a note on the company’s website. The relegation will force managers to buy and sell shares to align holdings with their funds’ criteria.
“Since the country began revealing unsustainable levels of public debt in 2009, it has been in an unfortunate economic tailspin that at times has threatened to pull apart the entire European Monetary Union,” according to a statement from Mat Lystra, Russell’s senior research analyst. While bailouts byEurope have eased its debt burden, “more than loan repayments will follow the diffusing of the crisis, since any opportunities in the Greek economy have become inherently riskier exposures for global investors,” Russell said.
Greece is the first country Russell has cut to emerging from developed market status, according to Michael Gelormino, a spokesman in New York.
Reclassifications are rare and require three years of“sustained changes in economic criteria,” Russell Indexes said in the statement. Bank of Greece Governor George Provopoulossaid on Feb. 25 that unemployment will increase this year after averaging 24.5 percent in 2012. While the country’s benchmark ASE Index of equities has doubled since reaching a three-decade low in June, it remains down 81 percent since October 2007.
’Negative Stigma’

“Any index provider’s downgrading of a market’s categorization is a consequential decision, and Russell does not take this action lightly,” the Seattle-based company said.“Although the size of the Greek market has declined significantly in the past three years, there are still costs associated with this change for indexers of developed andemerging markets. Additionally, a negative stigma may attach to any developed market that loses its advanced designation.”
In determining whether to reclassify a market, Russell assesses how it compares with other countries in terms of per-capita income, total market capitalization, the size of its individual companies and the level of trading volume, among other things.
Coca Cola Hellenic Bottling Co. SA (EEEK), the world’s second-largest Coca-Cola bottler, is in the process of moving its listing to the London Stock Exchange in an effort to boost trading volume. MSCI Inc. (MSCI), another index adviser, put the Greek market under review for downgrade last June and said the migration of Coca Cola HBC worsened its changes of remaining a developed market. MSCI’s decision is expected later this year.
Two Bailouts

The combined value of Greek stocks is about $48 billion, about the same as Pakistan and less than Mexico, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The total will probably fall belowVietnam’s $41 billion in capitalization after the removal of Coca-Cola HBC, the data show.
Greece has received two bailouts from the euro area andInternational Monetary Fund worth 240 billion euros ($313 billion) and conducted the world’s biggest sovereign debt restructuring since it triggered the region’s debt crisis in 2009. The aid has been tied to measures to cut the country’s deficit and reform its economy.
The nation is gradually exiting from its crisis, with confidence building and deposits returning, even as it faces another difficult year in 2013, Provopoulos said Feb. 25 in a speech at the central bank’s annual shareholder meeting. The country’s economy, which entered a recession in 2008, will continue to contract this year before beginning its recovery in 2014, he said.
Russell’s country classifications are announced each year in March and any changes become effective at the conclusion of its annual index reconstitution process in late June.

[malena stool]

David Cameron was warned last night by the president of the European Council that he may not be able to claw back powers from Brussels.

Mr Cameron should grow a pair and tell Herman Van Rompuy that there are two very old English words he should try to understand....

[Panda]

David Cameron was warned last night by the president of the European Council that he may not be able to claw back powers from Brussels.

Mr Cameron should grow a pair and tell Herman Van Rompuy that there are two very old English words he should try to understand....

malena, I don't think it is as simple as that, even if the public votes for a referendum Britain cannot easily break their acceptance of the Treaty . The only way out is if the present crisis escalates until the EU is broken up.

[malena stool]

I don't really see the problem Panda. We are free to trade with who we wish as are the others in the EU. We have no monetary ties other than we give huge amounts for which we see nothing in return, only vast flocks of European immigrants who demand and receive the rights and benefits we have paid for.

While we have the millstone of the EU around our necks we are hamstrung when trying to rebuild our economy... No contest to my way of thinking... Britain comes first.

[Panda]

Italy: Merkel’s Europe hits the skids in Rome

27 February 2013Il Sole-24 Ore Milan

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Tom Janssen
The voters rejected the tutelage of Mario Monti and Angela Merkel, sabotaging the Chancellor's strategy of postponing the euro crisis until after Germany's September elections. To avoid a complete disintegration of the European consensus, the integration process must get back on track now.

Adriana CerretelliAngela Merkel has done everything she could to clear away the danger of new outbreaks of instability in Europe in the lead-up to the German elections in September.
In Italy, she played the Monti card to the full – without going beyond declarations of esteem – anxious as she is to avoid the boomerang effect that caught her on the hop when her unequivocal support of Nicolas Sarkozy helped contribute to his defeat at the polls.
After that, she was forced to deal with his successor, François Hollande. And to keep the markets calm, she even went as far as removing the penalties for France's failure to hold to its commitments to reduce its deficit, formalising the new softening of the rules in a letter to the European Commission – which merely confirms the de facto state of affairs in Greece, Portugal and Spain.
The Chancellor's strategy has not worked. The response of the voters in Italy has dramatically reopened the wound of instability, both inside and outside Italy. As expected, the markets are back on the attack. Europe is trembling and, to limit the damage, is dreaming of putting our country back under trusteeship, of sending it back for good to the outer orbit of countries that are already being closely watched – Greece & Co.
Challenging a united Europe

In reality, the crisis of the electoral hysterics in Italy has moved far beyond the national dimension of discontent and is now pushing the notion of a united Europe, always slipping away, hard up against some awkward truths. It is, rather, pushing its nose into the badly stirred soup of European unity, and the many lumps in the broth are beginning to pop to the surface.
That could put the euro to the test once again. Not so much because of the new eruption of the Italian question, but because Italy, the third-largest economy of the euro club, has touched on the problems of the single currency that the Union, until now, has tried to patch up in a hurry – or rather, hastily to sweep under the carpet.
The vote on Sunday and Monday certainly speaks volumes about the general exasperation with austerity and taxes in a country knocked low by the recession and unemployment. It expresses above all the revolt against the mandarins of a system that, having decided to enter the circle of the single currency, failed to make the choices it had to make to stay in it. There was no modernisation. There was no self-reform. There was no liberalisation to become more competitive and in tune with its partners. This system created in the Italians the illusion that the country could still muddle on by as it always had, perpetuating monopolies, from the smaller to the juiciest, without ever paying the price.
The Italians are not the only ones in Europe, though, who failed to weigh up the consequences of getting into the single currency. This is what has given rise to the dilemma of "More Europe, or less Europe", and "To be or not to be in the euro." It's not a dilemma solely for the Italians. It is, though, a taboo subject much more widespread among the euro club members and those who want to enter the club than one would believe.
Festering sore

This sore has continued to fester for four years during the crisis, while the club seems unable to come up with any answer other than the dogma of austerity and the shock reforms forced by the Germans, yet without having the shock absorbers of growth and still less those of intra-European solidarity. Not to mention the refusal to go through the normal democratic process – in the name, of course, of a technocratic option that is supposedly more efficient.
All this while the north-south divide is getting worse and while Europe and its industries continue to lose ground on the global market. The sacrifices are pleasing no one. And even less so those who, more or less everywhere, note that "Europe has the money to save the banks but not to restore growth and employment."
The markets, on the other hand, need some certitude about the future and integrity of the euro before they will calm down again. Will the guarantee offered by the President of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, be enough for that? And until when, now that Italy risks opening Pandora's box and letting everyone get a very look indeed at the many unresolved problems of the euro and the EU?
Accelerate euro integration

While the popular consensus on Europe is crumbling all across the continent, the single currency, ironically, needs to resist its internal troubles and accelerate its integration by ratifying the triple union in banking, budgeting and policy. It needs to decide once and for all if it will truly accept and see through to the end, a shared destiny at all levels and under the German model, which is now dominant and pervasive.
The German elections and the European elections in 2014 have temporarily put the debate and the negotiations on ice, pushing back for a few months the moment of truth, putting off the choices among the too many contradictions that Europe is made of. But the worries remain, and they are even growing in many parts of Europe. Even in France under François Hollande.
Will the easing of discipline conceded by Angela Merkel be enough to calm the markets and hold on until September without major upsets? Italy has sounded the alarm, a thundering alarm. It would be dangerous to ignore it. For Europe and for everyone.

[Panda]

I don't really see the problem Panda. We are free to trade with who we wish as are the others in the EU. We have no monetary ties other than we give huge amounts for which we see nothing in return, only vast flocks of European immigrants who demand and receive the rights and benefits we have paid for.

While we have the millstone of the EU around our necks we are hamstrung when trying to rebuild our economy... No contest to my way of thinking... Britain comes first.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that malena, various treaties have been signed , Britain can't just say "I'm out". I think the EU does have certain restrictions on trading for Countries outside the EU, also Britain is the 3rd Largest Financial contributor which the EU would not want to lose without a fight. Britain does not owe any loyalty to the EU we have never been very popular and to the way the EU is biased , incompetent and very expensive to run or control we would be better out than in.

[Claudia79]

I BELIEVE THERE HAVE BEEN PROTESTS IN PORTUGAL TODAY ABOUT AUSTERITY.
UNEMPLOYMENT IS 23% THERE.

17,6% is the right unemployment rate.

[malena stool]

I don't really see the problem Panda. We are free to trade with who we wish as are the others in the EU. We have no monetary ties other than we give huge amounts for which we see nothing in return, only vast flocks of European immigrants who demand and receive the rights and benefits we have paid for.

While we have the millstone of the EU around our necks we are hamstrung when trying to rebuild our economy... No contest to my way of thinking... Britain comes first.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that malena, various treaties have been signed , Britain can't just say "I'm out". I think the EU does have certain restrictions on trading for Countries outside the EU, also Britain is the 3rd Largest Financial contributor which the EU would not want to lose without a fight. Britain does not owe any loyalty to the EU we have never been very popular and to the way the EU is biased , incompetent and very expensive to run or control we would be better out than in.

I would think the vast majority of the UK population would vote with their feet given the chance Panda. Cameron knows this and is hanging out his offer of a referendum as long as possible.

Strangely neither I nor any of my friends or colleagues voted to go into the EU, in fact I have never spoken to anyone who did, giving rise to my doubting the accuracy or truth of the stated 67% 'for joining' out of a 65% turnout.

[Panda]

I don't really see the problem Panda. We are free to trade with who we wish as are the others in the EU. We have no monetary ties other than we give huge amounts for which we see nothing in return, only vast flocks of European immigrants who demand and receive the rights and benefits we have paid for.

While we have the millstone of the EU around our necks we are hamstrung when trying to rebuild our economy... No contest to my way of thinking... Britain comes first.

I think it's a bit more complicated than that malena, various treaties have been signed , Britain can't just say "I'm out". I think the EU does have certain restrictions on trading for Countries outside the EU, also Britain is the 3rd Largest Financial contributor which the EU would not want to lose without a fight. Britain does not owe any loyalty to the EU we have never been very popular and to the way the EU is biased , incompetent and very expensive to run or control we would be better out than in.

I would think the vast majority of the UK population would vote with their feet given the chance Panda. Cameron knows this and is hanging out his offer of a referendum as long as possible.

Strangely neither I nor any of my friends or colleagues voted to go into the EU, in fact I have never spoken to anyone who did, giving rise to my doubting the accuracy or truth of the stated 67% 'for joining' out of a 65% turnout.

Ted Heath led us to believe we were joining "A Common Market", we never had it spelled out what the treaties successive Governments signed were about . The EU was meant to be initially a Trade Agreement but over the years the EU has taken over and with all these different Countries having different languages, cultures, Sovereignty, it was only natural they would be unequal Partners . Strangely enough it was Germany and either France or Italy who were the first to break the 3% GDP rule. It is also a known fact that the EU Accounts havn't been signed off for years because the Auditors couldn't balance the Books.

[malena stool]

Much of the trouble is caused by successive governments and ministers signing up and not understanding what they were signing. Let's face it half of our cabinet members are not fit for purpose and haven't a clue what their remit is, they will just do as they're told by their secretaries. The other half are complete bottom wipes, in my opinion for what it's worth. I certainly wouldn't put my life in any of their hands were they physicians in a working practice.

[Panda]

Much of the trouble is caused by successive governments and ministers signing up and not understanding what they were signing. Let's face it half of our cabinet members are not fit for purpose and haven't a clue what their remit is, they will just do as they're told by their secretaries. The other half are complete bottom wipes, in my opinion for what it's worth. I certainly wouldn't put my life in any of their hands were they physicians in a working practice.

I don't know if you watched the Tony Blair videos on Youtube that I posted, they are very informative, Tony really thought he was God.!!! One of the first things he did was do away with regular meetings with Civil servants. That was a big mistake because the Civil Servants are not affected by Elections and know far more than any Politician. I used to love "Yes minister."

[Panda]

Brave Ireland is the poster-child of EMU cruelty and folly


Ireland has done everything demanded by the EU’s creditor powers, and
seemingly survived.








Ireland has endured a fiscal
squeeze of 16pc of GDP. Photo:
AFP






By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

7:44PM GMT 03 Mar 2013

99 Comments




It has endured a fiscal squeeze of 16pc of GDP. It has stabilized the
colossal debts left from taking on the gambling losses of Anglo Irish Bank at EU
behest, that is to say from shielding German, British, Dutch and Belgian lenders
from systemic contagion at a critical moment.


It has clawed its way back to market credibility, issuing bonds at
respectable rates. “Our last issue of routine 3-month treasury bills was at
0.26pc, not quite what Germany gets but very low,” said finance minister Michael
Noonan.


It was spared serious contagion from last week’s anti-austerity revolt in
Italy, evidence of sorts that the Celtic Tiger is off the sick
list. Deo volente, it will be the first of the EMU victim states to regain its
sovereignty by early next year and escape control of the EU-IMF Troika, though
it will answer to inspectors for another 20 years and the yet unborn will be
paying off the €67bn of Troika indenture until 2042.


“If measured in terms of what the Troika expects, we have been very
successful,” said Mr Noonan.


Other measures are less cheerful. The EU’s latest survey on “poverty and
social exclusion” shows that the number of children at risk in Ireland has
reached 37.6pc, worse than Italy (32pc), Greece (31pc), Spain (30pc) or Portugal
(29pc).



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There is a fascinating twist to the data, a glimpse of what 1930s deflation
can do to the social structure of an indebted society. Just 12.9pc of Ireland’s
elderly are at risk of poverty, lower than in Germany, Austria, Belgium or
Britain.

Budget-busting pensions granted in the good times have risen in real terms.
So have savings. But young families that took out 100pc mortgages at the peak of
the bubble face debt servitude after a 58pc fall in Dublin property prices, if
they can keep their jobs. “What we need here in Ireland is a good dose of
inflation,” confided one official.

European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso was in Dublin last week to
celebrate Ireland’s heroic fortitude. Brussels needs a poster-child for its
theory of “expansionary fiscal contraction” and discerns one in the Gaelic
mists.

“The Irish economy is turning the corner. It shows that the bailout
programmes can work”, he said, citing fresh figures that show a dead-cat bounce
in jobs last Autumn before Europe crashed back into recession.

Whether or not Ireland’s economy is in fact turning the corner is a subject
of hot debate, but what is crystal clear is that none of the Club Med countries
trapped in depression can easily replicate the Celtic come-back.

Ireland will export as much as India this year, and more than Brazil, fruit
of an industrial policy dating back to the early 1990s that has made the country
a hub for global pharma, software, medical equipment, and financial services. It
will rack up a very German current account surplus above 4pc of GDP.

Exports make up 106pc of GDP, compared to 35pc for Portugal, 30pc for Spain
30pc, 29pc for Italy, and 21pc for Greece. Ireland has a much higher trade
gearing than Club Med peers, and that is what has kept the country afloat
despite a 26pc collapse in domestic demand. Growth was 1.5pc in 2011 and 0.9pc
in 2012, better than the EU average.

The export story is by now well-known. The global drug giants almost all have
plants in Ireland, employing 44,000 people and producing half the country’s
merchandise exports, though this may be losing its edge. The country is facing a
“Patent Cliff” as a clutch of drugs - such as Pfizer’s statin pill Lipitor -
come off patent in the US. It is the reason why Irish exports slipped 15pc in
December.

Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of household names have
regional headquarters in Dublin, whether drawn by a corporation tax of 12.5pc or
by the critical mass of a high-tech skills. How much value is added to the Irish
economy is an open question. Google rotates some 45pc of its global revenues
through Ireland under transfer pricing schemes.

Even so, Ireland is clearly a different animal from the Greco-Latins. It
never had a seriously misaligned currency within EMU. It had a misaligned
monetary policy that set off a credit bubble. Real interests set in Frankfurt
averaged minus 1pc from 1998 to 2007 (compared to plus 7pc in the early 1990s).
As Irish eurosceptics foretold, the effects were ruinous.

The country has since deflated the froth. The gap in unit labour costs with
the EMU-core has been closed again, at least on paper. “We have cut costs right
through the economy with an internal devaluation of 15pc or 16pc,” said Mr
Noonan.

One can quibble with the claims. Nearly all the gain in labour costs has been
in the non-tradeable public sector - nurses, policemen, teachers - where wages
have been slashed 14pc, with another 5.5pc to come. Productivity levels have
been flattered by the annihilation of the building industry. “Private wages have
declined only modestly,” says the IMF in its latest report.

Yet the point remains that Spain has not begun to see this level of
deflationary shock. Were it to try with such a closed economy, it would tip into
free-fall, push the jobless rate above 30pc, and cause the debt trajectory to
spin out of control. As for Italy, its unit labour costs rose as fast as
Germany’s last year. Its deflation lies ahead.

Club Med can take no comfort from Ireland’s success, but is even Ireland
itself out of the woods? The budget deficit is still 8pc of GDP five years into
the ordeal, and public debt is already nearing the limits of viability at 121pc
of GDP this year.

Dublin has pencilled in a 3pc deficit by 2015, but dissidents say 6pc is more
likely. The IMF warns that a “stagnation” scenario of 0.5pc growth a year into
the middle of the decade would cause the debt ratio to spiral up to 146pc by
2021.

That is a serious risk as Europe persists in botching macro-economic policy,
and US austerity threatens the fragile world expansion later this year.

As you can see from this chart, investment has collapsed to 10pc of GDP.



^{Source: CSO/National Treasury Management Agency}


This is the lowest in recorded Irish history and the currently the lowest in
the EU. “If this does not recover over the next couple of years, I’ll be
worried”, said Rossa White from the National Treasury Management Agency.

Indeed, it is the crux of the matter. Spending has been slashed through the
muscle and into the bone. This presumably is what Laszlo Andor, the EU
employment commissioner, was talking about last week when he decried a
slash-and-burn policy in the name of competitiveness that is tipping the crisis
economies into a “downward spiral” and making it even harder to cut control
debts. Are his colleagues in the Berlayment listening to him?

A mass exodus of 40,000 to 50,000 each year to the four corners of the Irish
Diaspora have kept unemployment down to 14.1pc, but 60pc of those left on the
rolls have been out of work for over year -- the highest rate in Europe -- and
that is where the “hysteresis” effects of lasting damage bites hardest. It
steals from growth from the future by degrading work skills.

Irish trade union chief David Begg was speaking with poetic licence last week
when he accused the Troika of doing more damage to Ireland than the British
Empire ever did in eight hundred years, snapping that the English had at least
left some “beautiful Georgian buildings.” Needless to say, he has not forgotten
the Wexford massacre and the potato famine, and nor have we at this newspaper.
Yet he made his point.

“When we meet the Troika, we tell them that austerity is not working, and
they tell us that it is. It is a dialogue of the deaf,” he said.

Mr Begg said he had come to realise that EMU is constructed in such a way
that the “entire burden of cost adjustment” falls on workers if there is
macro-shock. He is right. An internal devaluation is achieved by forcing
unemployment to such excruciating levels that it breaks the back of labour
resistance to pay cuts. It is the polar opposite of a currency devaluation that
spreads the pain. Note that Iceland’s unemployment is just 5.4pc today, and
Britain’s is 7.7pc.

“Such a callous disregard for distributional justice - which we have
witnessed in this country over the last five years - is a fatal flaw,” he said.


“For much of its history, European integration has proceeded on the basis of
a ‘Permissive Consensus’. European citizens thought it was a good thing, or at
least did no harm. I doubt that view is still current. From what I hear in the
circles in which I move, today’s labour movement is disaffected from the
European project,” he said.

“What will happen when people eventually realise that they are trapped in a
spiral of deflation and debt. We may reach the tipping point,” he said.

Europe’s labour movement is the dog that has not barked in this long crisis.
Bark it will.

[Panda]

A very good Article, I particularly liked this analogy

“When we meet the Troika, we tell them that austerity is not working, and
they tell us that it is. It is a dialogue of the deaf,” he said.

[Panda]

Portugal: The social earthquake rumbles ever louder

5 March 2013Expresso Lisbon

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Anti-austerity protesters in Lisbon on March 2
AFP
More than a million people of all ages took to the streets of Portugal on March 2 to demand an end to austerity. The growing discontent could bring down the political system that has been in place since the fall of the dictatorship.

Daniel OliveiraUltimately, September 15 was just a passing episode. In the end, everything did not boil down to just the Single Social Tax, which was followed by the fiscal massacre. Ultimately, the vast majority of Portuguese are not waiting on the mood swings of the CDS [Christian Democratic Party, a member of the coalition] or waiting for the president of the Republic, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, to shake off his profound lethargy, or for what has come to be called the internal opposition of the PSD [the centre-right Social Democratic Party of Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho] to believe that its time has come. Ultimately, people took to the streets in the middle of an inspection by the visiting troika to show that they are not the "good people" that one of its bureaucrats seemed to believe live here.
Despite the obvious antipathy that the entire political class appears to deserve these days, the protests of March 2 were not anti-political. They were, rather, marked with more sadness and blighted hopes than those of September. But they are not – not yet, away – desperate. They were entirely political demonstrations, framed in all their symbolism by democratic sentiments. And that, considering the social situation we are living through and the institutional stalemate we are facing, is extraordinary. This may be explained, perhaps, only by the fact that our democracy is still relatively young.
I say “still” because, if the opposition fails to provide an answer to this revolt by coming up with a credible alternative – and not restricting itself to preparing for another spell in power or trying to capitalise on the support for the next elections – the next step could be quite different.
I am convinced that if something new appears on the electoral spectrum next year and proves able to enthuse the Portuguese or to capture their attention, the result would be surprising. That "something" could be positive – but it is more likely to be inconsistent, or even politically dangerous.
Protesting pensioners

One thing leaps out when you look at the Saturday demonstrations: their make-up in terms of age groups. Observers noted a lot of retirees in the crowds, more so than in the protests of September 15. It is on the retirees that the problems of the country concentrate most forcefully – the problem of having been born and raised in a country that is socially, economically and culturally backward. And the problem of carrying, more than all the others, the burden of this backwardness.
One such burden is the miserable pensions, which most of them take as overwhelming evidence of the line that Passos Coelho follows, and that he wants the country to stick to – that we have a welfare state that is far too generous. It's an idea that can spring only from the mind of someone who knows the country only through his party headquarters and the corporate offices of his friends.
One of the things talked about most on Saturday was the children who emigrate, who are unemployed, who are desperate. And the lack of prospects for their grandchildren. In a society such as Portugal, where the family is a kind of complementary welfare state (or even the main one), the old gather the suffering of all the generations under their roof. And they are, themselves, the most sacrificed.
Propelled into the street

Some of the retirees who took to the streets Saturday were participating in a demonstration for the first time in their lives. In other words, they lived through the dictatorship, the 1974 revolution, the PREC [Processo Revolucionário Em Curso], the ongoing revolutionary process – that is to say, the transition to democracy] and through our young democracy without ever having made use of this right. And it is only now, at more than 60 years of age and after almost 40 years of democracy, that they feel propelled into the street.
We live in a time of peaceful revolt that still fits inside the political system, as we know it today. But that system has entered its decadent phase. If the political world persists in not responding to the mood of the country, unpredictable events will take place. I believe (or at least I hope) that they will take place within the spirit of democracy and without imperilling it. After two years of austerity and misery, however, everything can change. In the social protests, much has already changed. It is not only merely a corporatist embodiment of union and partisan structures, and it is no longer even dominated by them. Whether this is good or bad I do not know. It's just how it is.
If the opposition fails to embody a credible alternative, and if the main party of the Portuguese right starts to fall apart, then the first to seize this moment, whether they are serious players or populists, comedians or statesmen, may provoke a political earthquake. Because the social earthquake is already here. Without, apparently, stirring the institutions and parties to react.
On the web

• Original article at Expresso pt
  
• Diário de Notícias article pt
  

Debt crisis Portuguese expecting more cuts

“The Portuguese believe the government is preparing to make cuts in health, education and social security,” but instead, they want cuts in public-private partnerships, debt interest and defence. These were the results of a Portuguese survey published on March 5, by Diário de Notícias.
The Portuguese government and the troika of lenders – the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund – which will be in Lisbon until the end of this week for the seventh review of the bailout programme – are preparing new cuts in public spending, totalling around €4bn.
A total of 57 per cent of respondents believe these cuts should be in public-private partnerships, while 36 per cent want a reduction in on the debt interest repayments, and 33 per cent want a drop in national defence spending.
============================
Portugal was very good initially at sticking to the austerity plan, has seen many of their Undergraduates leaving the Country to find work in former Portugese Colonies like Angola and like other Countries has had enough. There is a great danger that anarchy will rule in Portugal, Spain, Greece , maybe Italy and Governments will collapse. The problem is, even if Merkel postponed the 3% GDP until the World economy improves where are the export orders coming from for these Countries to improve their income?

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The Eurogroup supports an extension of the loan, the reinvigorated Ireland"

March 5, 2013
The Irish Times

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The Irish Times, March 5, 2013Eurozone finance ministers approved on 4 March, a project to extend the deadline for the repayment of the loans that the country has entered into, making it more "easy return on market".
The Finance Ministers of the 27 Member States of the EU will discuss this proposal on 5 March.
The country should repay more than 30 billion euros by 2020 and, like the Portugal, he asked in January the troika - EU, ECB and IMF - agree to a postponement.
On the web

• Original - The Irish
  

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Portugal, a country emptied’

5 March 2013
Público

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Público, 5 March 2013In its 23rd anniversary edition, Público draws a portrait of "a country in danger of dying of old age, in a Europe in demographic decline."
In 2012, 90,026 babies were born in Portugal and 107,287 people died. The net Portuguese population therefore fell by 17,261, a depressing record that the daily suggests demonstrates the level of crisis shaking the country, where fear of the future leads young couples to have only one child and forces many people to emigrate.
In the last five years, 300,000 to 400,000 people left the country and Portuguese women had on average only 1.3 children.
On the web

• Original article at
  

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Italian election may have a silver lining

28 February 2013
Presseurop

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The Italian election results have been met with astonishment on the other side of the Alps. However, Europe’s leaders should in fact be heaving a sigh of relief: Angela Merkel and company were only a few decimal points away from coming face to face with Silvio Berlusconi at the next European summit. The resurrection of Il Cavaliere and the resounding collapse of Mario Monti, the candidate backed by Brussels and Berlin, has prompted plenty of ironic comment in the European press about the consequences of Angela’s “blessing”, which regularly turns out to be a death warrant for those who receive it. It is almost touching when you consider that just a few days before the vote, Democratic Party (PD) leader Pier Luigi Bersani and Monti were bickering over which one of them the chancellor wanted to see as head of government in Rome, without so much as a thought for the possibility that a majority of Italians, who were after all the ones to decide on the matter, would not want either of them.
Slavoj Žižek has recently drawn attention to the growing distaste for democracy, which is increasingly criticised as a danger to economic stability. Many were convinced that pressure and intimidation would be enough to convince the Italian electorate not to rock the boat and vote for the right candidates, and even mentioned the possibility of a second election if the results of the first one proved to be unsatisfactory. However, Italy is not about to hold another vote, at least not for the moment. There is a simple reason for this: in all probability, the main beneficiary of a second ballot would be the Five Stars Movement (M5S) led by Beppe Grillo, a man who, even more than Berlusconi, is now troubling the sleep of European leaders. To show that he is no less blinkered than his rival, the social democratic candidate for the German chancellery, Peer Steinbruck impulsively expressed his horror at the news that Italy had decided to elect “two clowns”.
However, on close inspection there are plenty of glad tidings in these elections. As the director of La Stampa, Mario Calabresi, recently pointed out they have remedied what was considered to be one of the major problems in an old dysfunctional country: today Italy has one of the youngest parliaments in Europe, with a high proportion and new faces, and many of those who encumbered its benches over the last 20 years have been given their walking papers. In one way or another, the enormous pressure for a renewal that has been held back since time immemorial has finally opened a breach.
Credit for this change is largely due to M5S, which, in spite of the controversial personality of its leader and the often unacceptable tone of his rants, offered a platform to dozens of young outsiders who would otherwise have been excluded from institutional politics. These new recruits deserve respect: they are not robots remote-controlled by Grillo and, once they take their seats in parliament, they will have the right to cast their votes in secret.
Standing back from their leader’s commitment to make no agreements with anyone, many M5S voters have already expressed their willingness to support a possible PD government. And of all of the mistakes made by Bersani, calling on them rather than accepting the offer of a grand coalition with Berlusconi, is certainly not the worst.
A minority government led by the PD with support from M5S could be something very new in a Europe ruled by armour plated coalitions, which prioritise governability and a consensus with Brussels over all other values. It could become a laboratory in which decisions will not be guided by the imperative of a display of stability for the sacrosanct markets, but one that could nurture an ongoing dialectic that is vital to democracy. Above and beyond these considerations, it is perhaps the only way to reconcile the contradictory needs of a society as dramatically fragmented as Italy, and more generally the societies in most European states.
None of this will be a cakewalk. The M5S programme includes points, like the reduction in the cost of politics, which will certainly be well received in Europe. However, there are others that are potentially explosive: to cite just one, a referendum on the single currency. Having said that, after four years of crisis, it would be naive to expect that the conflict which has been brewing in the European Union and its member states could be resolved by a mild-mannered drawing room debate.
As Adriana Cerretelli recently wrote in Sole 24 Ore, “Angela Merkel has done all she can to clear her path to German elections in September of the danger of fresh bouts of European instability.” However, she has obviously failed in this initiative, and the mountains of dust that have built up under the carpet are now threatening to overturn the table. The time has come for a new period of confrontation, which openly deals with problems in the public domain, instead of confining them to to the rarefied and essentially opaque proceedings of intergovernmental meetings behind closed doors.
Berlin and its allies can no longer count on loyal supporters in Italy, or in Spain where the entire political system is hanging by a thread, and run the risk of having no voice in those countries. The dialectic of austerity and contrasting predictions as to the future of the European Union should now be aired in public for the benefit of Europe’s citizens. Given this context, the European elections in 2014 offer an ideal opportunity for a campaign on the level of the entire continent, on the lines recently proposed by Andre Wilkens, in which the real weight of ideas and political positions can be measured in open debate. This is probably the last chance to save the facade of European consensus, before it crumbles and falls, taking the entire building with it.

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Italy: Berlusconi Given 12 Month Prison Sentence


The former Italian PM, 76, is expected to appeal the
sentence, which would enable him to remain free under Italian law.


12:28pm UK,
Thursday 07 March 2013

Mr Berlusconi is awaiting verdicts in a number of other
cases

• 
  

;



Former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been
sentenced to a year in prison over the publication of leaked transcripts from a
police wiretap in one of his newspapers.

Mr Berlusconi, who faces two more verdicts this month for tax fraud and
having sex with an underage prostitute, can appeal the conviction and so doing
suspend the sentence under Italian law.

Italian sentencing guidelines indicate that people aged over 75 and with
sentences of less than two years do not have to actually go to prison.

Mr Berlusconi, a billionaire media tycoon, is 76.

He stood accused of violating secrecy laws after his Il Giornale daily
published transcripts in 2005 that were widely seen as an attempt to discredit a
senior member of the centre-left Democratic Party ahead of elections in
2006.

The leaks were about the attempted takeover of BNL bank by insurance giant
Unipol.

Mr Berlusconi's brother Paolo, editor of Il Giornale, was sentenced to two
years and three months.

Silvio Berlusconi also faces a verdict possibly as early as March 18 in a
trial in which he is accused of having sex with a then 17-year-old prostitute
when he was prime minister.

He is also accused of abusing the power of his office by putting pressure on
police to release her from custody.

A verdict in his appeal trial against a tax fraud conviction from last year
in which he was also sentenced to a year in prison is also expected around March
23.

Italian court dates are often changed at the last minute and Mr Berlusconi's
lawyers have tried to slow down all the trials, invoking "legitimate impediment"
because of his duties as an MP.

The verdict will not prevent Mr Berlusconi from taking office in a new
government.

His centre-right coalition finished third in recent parliamentary elections
that saw no clear winner. Talks on forming a new administration are expected to
begin March 20.









=====================

What kind of Italian Justice is this? The cases against him happened a long time ago and they are tried when Berlesconi is 76....too old to go to Jail. !!!
If he is not ousted from Parliament there really is no hope for Italy . the population voted for him because he promised to abandon the 3% GDP rule for borrowing money, will they have scruples now and force his resignation?

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Portugal: ‘Eleven banks suspected of combining loan rates’

7 March 2013
Presseurop Diário de Notícias

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Diário de Notícias, 7 March 2013The Competition Authority raided a number of Portugal’s largest banks as part of an inquiry into allegations of interest and mortgage rate-fixing.
The operation, which was three weeks in the planning, came after the Authority received information suggesting banks had shared sensitive data. The banks raided have denied sharing data, which would be in breach of antitrust laws.
If the banks are found to have breached these regulations, they face fines of up to 10 per cent of their annual turnover.

• Diário de Notícias article (€) pt
  

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Spain: ‘Corrupt Unió officials will go to prison as a warning to politicians’

7 March 2013
Presseurop El Mundo

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El Mundo, 7 March 2013Businessman Fidel Pallerols and two officials of the Unió Democrática political party (part of the regional coalition led by the CiU) have been found guilty of illegal political party financing, misappropriation of funds and will face prison.
On March 6, a Barcelona court rejected an deal previously agreed between the prosecution and the defence to limit sentences in the case to a maximum of two years, which would have allowed the accused to avoid serving time behind bars. In his ruling the judge explained that it was intended to "intimidate citizens and politicians" tempted by corruption.
According to a poll conducted by Spain’s Centre for Sociological Research (CIS), corruption is now the second-ranked issue that worries the Spanish, just after unemployment

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Ireland: Debt breathing space but no salvation

7 March 2013
Irish Independent

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The EU has agreed an extension for Ireland and Portugal to give them more time to repay their bailout loans. Meeting on March 5, the 27 finance ministers hailed their “successful steps” towards re-entering the markets.
Under the deal, the troika of the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund will agree a new repayment schedule for a significant chunk of Ireland’s €40bn in bailout loans that had been due to be repaid before 2016. However, for Irish Independent columnist David McWilliams, the deal is little more than a “gentleman’s default” designed to buy time. He warns –

The Irish economy may emerge from the bailout unreformed and weaker, unlike the original plan. [...] We can see that the EU needs a victory in Ireland because its entire "austerity works" strategy is based on Ireland squeezing itself out of the bailout next year. [...] All that has happened is the debt pack is reshuffled to avoid a principal default but the economy is not just fragile but less able to take on the challenges of the globalisation.
In a sense this might be the worst of all worlds – a fictitious victory based on kicking the debt problem out to future generations.
===================================================
Ireland was doing very well managing it's debt but like the other Countries has a Housing problem in that the downturn meant Homeowners could not repay their loans which affected the Banks . The indebtedness of all these Countries will be passed on to future generations so you have to wonder where it will all end.

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Spain: EU probes Valencian football funding

8 March 2013
Presseurop El País

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"Brussels investigates Spanish football," headlines El País, revealing that European Commission competition watchdogs are investigating three Valencia football teams – Valencia, Hércules and Elche – who listed the regional government, controlled by the centre-right Popular Party, as a guarantor against some €118m in bank loans. The clubs proved unable to pay their debts to Bankia, Banco de Valencia and CAM, which were later nationalised, meaning the government in Valencia – one of Spain’s most indebted regions – was forced to repay the loans.
If European Commission declares the financial aid irregular and in violation of competition law, the clubs will have to pay back the money, "which could leave them bankrupt," writes El País, adding that debts of all the country’s football clubs total €3.6bn –

For years there has been a wide variety of [public] financial supports that allowed the development of what Brussels has called "the Spanish football bubble”. [...] The respect for Spanish football is at its peak, but economically there are serious doubts about the future of many clubs [and] this apparent paradox between the clubs’ tremendous success and their disastrous economic situation has sparked suspicion in Europe."

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Croatia-Slovenia: ‘Finally! The obstacles have been cleared. In 114 days, we will be in the EU.’


8 March 2013
Presseurop Jutarnji List

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Jutarnji List, 8 March 2013Croatia and Slovenia concluded an agreement on March 7 to settle a banking dispute that has divided the two countries for 20 years, clearing the way for Croatia’s accession to the EU on July 1, 2013.
According to the memorandum, which will now be signed by the heads of government from both countries on March 11 in Ljubljana, negotiations on the long standing financial wrangle will continue under the auspices of the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. For its part, Croatia has pledged to abandon on-running legal action against the Slovenian bank, Ljubljanska Banka.
Between now and the end of March, the Slovenian parliament is set to ratify the treaty on Croatian accession to the EU, which has already been approved by 21 of the EU’s 27 member states.
On the web

• Original article at Jutarnji List hr
  

==============================================
This is one of the comments and I agree entirely.!!! It just shows how mad the EU is to allow new Members until this crisis is over.

"Whether the enthusiasm will continue to Croatians, I doubt it. EU enlargement the EU has supplied primarily economically weak countries. Their politicians hoped by their country's accession especially access to funding streams filled Brussels. Their populations had expectations that their standard of living with the membership raises automatically. If the expectations are disappointed, then can also enthusiasm for the EU noticeably. The realization that the EU create the most opportunities for prosperity, but can not guarantee, does not seem to be very common."

Translated from German by Google."

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Italy’s Rating Cut by Fitch as Election Threatens Gridlock
Q
Italy’s credit rating was cut one level by Fitch Ratings as an inconclusive election in February produced political paralysis that threatens the country’s ability to respond to a recession and the European debt crisis.

Spanish Bonds Gain on Economy, Debt-Auction Optimism; Bunds Fall
Q
Spanish government bonds advanced for a fourth week and German bunds fell as borrowing costs dropped at Spain’s debt sale and European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said the region’s economy will improve this year.

Pound Falls to 2 1/2-Year Low Versus Dollar on Policy Concern
Q
The pound declined to a 2 1/2-year low versus the dollar and dropped against the euro this week amid investor concern that U.K. policy makers are struggling to avoid an unprecedented triple-dip recession.

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