The French embassy in Germany (which just relaunched its website) offers a
German review of the daily French press (and as well a French review of the German press) but unfortunately not as RSS streams.
Category Archives: A Few Euros More
Putin Ups the Anti On Latvia
Tensions between Russia and Latvia have been escalating since escalated during the Moscow to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. In particular the two countries have an outstanding territorial dispute. The war of words is now on the rise with Putin today resorting to what Mosnews calls a Soviet-era jibe: warning the Latvians that if they press any territorial demands they will get not land but ?a dead donkey?s ears.? Alex at All About Latvia has some background.
Spain and the Upcoming Budget Reform
As efforts continue to resolve the deadlock over the forthcoming reform of the EU budget, this article from reuters give some background on what the impact on Spain might be.
“Spain is set to be the big loser in tough negotiations on the EU’s 2007-2013 budget as the bloc’s paymasters led by cash-strapped Germany seek to limit their contributions and divert scarce resources to poorer new members in eastern Europe. Madrid has received a net 93 billion euros in EU funds since joining the EU in 1986, a cash injection that Spanish officials say surpasses U.S. aid to other European countries received under the Marshall Plan after World War Two”.
OECD Recommends Reducing Eurozone Interest Rates
The Federal Reserve should continue to raise U.S. interest rates but the European Central Bank should ease euro zone monetary policy, the OECD says in its semi-annual Economic Outlook out today. Euro zone growth forecasts of 1.2 % for 2005 and 2.0% for 2006 are based on the assumption that the ECB, which has maintained its core refinancing rate at 2.0% since June 2003, will cut rates by half a percentage point in mid-2005.
?With domestic demand sluggish, resilience feeble and possible upward pressures on the euro looming ahead, the balance of risks on growth and inflation is clearly tilted to the downside, calling for an early easing of monetary policy?.
A Question of Credibility
Here’s the link to the Eurostat report on Italy’s deficit revisions. The language is very formal, but between the lines it isn’t hard to see the frustration with the kind of data they’ve been getting.
It is recalled that Eurostat was not in a position to validate the figures for Italy in the context of the March 2005 EDP notification. Apart from the three issues mentioned above, this was mainly due to the recording of transactions with the EU budget, to inconsistencies between data on cash and accrual bases and to statistical discrepancies in government accounts. It is expected that Eurostat will shortly receive from the Italian authorities the information requested on these issues and will then be able to clarify these issues in co-operation with ISTAT. Depending on the outcome of the examination, this could lead to a further upward revision in the government deficit for the period between 2001 and 2004.
Turkey On The Agenda In Germany
As if Turkey’s membership talks weren’t already under enough pressure from the French referendum, today we have the suggestion that a change of government in Germany will only serve to complicate the picture even further.
Almunia’s Test Case
Economics Commisioner Joaquim Almunia is reportedly rolling his sleeves up. He is apparently preparing to use Italy’s continuing excess deficit as a test case, to show the way the new SGP will be applied. Forgive me if I am a little skeptical, but then again a French no on Sunday may leave him with little alternative.
“Revisions to Italian data by Eurostat, the European Commission’s statistical agency, showed the country breaching the 3 per cent limit on budget deficits (in 2003 and 2004 Edward). The changes will be used by Joaquin Almunia, EU monetary affairs commissioner, to underpin a recommendation that action be taken against Italy under the stability and pact“.
Puzzling Thought
You know, there something puzzling me this morning: if you’re clearly so turned off by French political life, why spend so much of your time studying it?
The French referendum on the European constitution is quickly developing into one of those contests where you dearly wish both sides could lose
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Very Disappointing News
Wormholes are definitely out it seems:
The concept of wormholes will be familiar to anyone who has watched the TV programmes Farscape, Stargate SG1 and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.[…]But the idea of building these so-called traversable wormholes is looking increasingly shaky, according to two new scientific analyses.
Just in time.
Well timed ahead of the French referendum, Deutsche Bahm AG and la SNCF are demonstrating what “ever closer union” can be about… increased quality of life (AP via IHT):
A new high-speed train line will link France and Germany beginning in 2007, cutting travel time between Paris and Frankfurt to under four hours, officials said Monday. … Currently, the fastest train connection between Paris and Frankfurt via Saarbr?cken and Mannheim takes 6 hours, while passengers to Stuttgart have to go via Strasbourg.