Total greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-15 decreased by only 1.7% 1990 – 2003, with CO2 alone growing by 3.4%, according to the latest statistics from the European Environment Agency.
Tag Archives: EU
Poland Cancels Referendum
Poland is now the seventh country to suspend its referendum plans. Denmark, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Ireland and the Czech Republic have already done so. Portugal has ammended its constitution to make it possible to hold a referendum on EU related matters, but evidently there are no plans to hold any in the foreseeable future. Germany, I think, is still awaiting a judicial ruling on this topic.
Luxembourg To Continue
Luxembourg will continue the ratification process and hold a referendum on July 10. The result will be interesting to see.
Parliamentary leaders in the tiny Grand Duchy agreed at a meeting on Monday to proceed with the vote even though opinion polls have shown a sharp rise in the “No” camp since French and Dutch voters rejected the treaty three weeks ago.
The vote could prove a gamble for Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who has said he will resign if voters reject the charter
.
Shame
“When I heard one after the other, all the new member countries, each poorer than the other, say that in the interest of reaching an agreement they would be ready to renounce some of their financial demands, I was ashamed.”
EU president Jean Claude Juncker as quoted in this BBC News article. Discuss, if you like.
You’d Better Move On
The papers this morning seem to be all full of ‘gloomy’ articles whose principal theme is that Europe has finally been plunged into a grave crisis by this weeks summit.
“People will tell you next that Europe is not in a crisis,” Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who holds the EU presidency, said after a two-day summit ended in acrimony. “It is in a deep crisis.”
As someone who is ‘crisis prone’ I would have imagined I would share that feeling. Somehow I don’t.
Some reasons why.
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Well This Is A Reform…..
But in which direction does it lead…….?
German lawmakers approved a bill Friday that would allow older unemployed people to collect jobless benefits for longer than previously planned, a move that comes as the government struggles in polls ahead of elections expected in September.
In unpopular reform introduced earlier this year gradually scales down benefits for the long-term jobless to the level of social welfare payments. The new bill would give unemployed people above age 45 an extra two years of full-level benefits.
The Lisbon agenda, and all our policies associated with the ‘ageing society’ ar meant to lead to higher particpation rates in the over 55 age group, it isn’t clear to say the least how this fits in with that.
France’s Finances Under The Microscope
The OECD has a new country report out on France:
“France’s rising government debt threatens the sustainability of public finances in the eurozone’s second biggest economy, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development has warned in its latest country report.
The Paris-based OECD said that a lack of control over public spending could leave France unprepared to deal with the financial consequences of an ageing society.”
I rest my case.
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Never Do Today…
…. what you can usefully put-off till tomorrow. There is still a lot of confusion surrounding what has, and what hasn’t been decided in Brussels. On the Constitution Treaty it seems there will now be an open-ended ratification period. What this will mean in practice is hard to see. The answer you give to this question seems to depend on whether or not you think that the French might change their minds after 2007. I wouldn’t be very optimistic on this front. Amongst economists the winds of globalisation are now reaching gale force, but on the political front, amongst voters, protectionism (both in the EU and the USA) is clearly gaining ground. Since I think this latter issue is every bit as important as the remoteness of the politicians when it comes to how people vote, and since I think the calls for protectionism may grow louder, I don’t anticipate that 2 years from now the general climate will be any more favourable to a ‘Treaty-like’ project, in fact, in all probability, quite the contrary will be the case. Globalisation will not be ‘rolled back’, it has already gone beyond the point of that being a viable possibility, but the process off its ‘ratification’, or if you like extension, may well take a “time out”.
The EU is to ?pause for reflection? for up to two years in a bid to resolve Europe?s constitution crisis. Europe?s leaders will next revisit the issue in Spring 2006 as the EU?s constitution deadline of November next year gets kicked into the long grass. Luxembourg?s Prime Minister and EU presidency holder Jean-Claude Juncker hinted that a new constitution deadline could be over two years away. ?After the ?non? and the ?nee?? the November 1 date? is no longer tenable. Those that haven?t ratified won?t be able to do anything until mid-2007,? he said late on Thursday night.
Naive musings
I have been trying to write something informative on the current budgetary crisis in the EU. After reading countless articles I have come to the conclusion that there is nothing worthwhile I could add to the discussion. Confusion reigns supreme in this little European?s head and economics have never been my forte – certainly not when mixed with politics. Just check out some of the comments made by readers of BBC News. Anyhow, I deleted everything I had written so far and decided to bring your attention to this (from New Europe):
Each year, more than a billon Euro worth of funds transferred by the European Union to its 25 member states are either misspent or lost, according to a European Parliament (EP) report cited by INEP last week. (?) Asked which countries are the most prone to fraud and irregularities, Buttice failed to give a clear-cut answer. But based on number of cases of fraud and irregularity reported by EU member states for 1999-2003, big EU countries such as Italy, Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom are the prominent ones.
Not Promising
It’s a bit too early to draw any hard and fast conclusions about this weeks summit, but this early snippet of news doesn’t look too promising:
“European leaders plunged into a full-blown crisis at a summit, with a battle raging over long-term EU financing and their lofty plans for an EU constitution nearly in tatters………..French President Jacques Chirac called for an emergency meeting to extricate the bloc from the mess created by deep splits over the bloc’s budget and by a growing popular revolt against the proposed EU treaty….
Leaders had hoped a deal on the 2007-2013 EU budget would let them show a united front after French and Dutch voters delivered stinging rejections of their constitition, meant to lay the ground rules for an enlarged 25-nation alliance.
Instead, the summit was overwhelmed by an embarassing squabble over money, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair refusing demands by the other 24 EU nations, led by France, that he surrender an annual budget rebate.