Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner responsible for Internal Market and Services has a revealing and quite informative interview in EUPolitix.
Tag Archives: European Union
Under Wraps
The EU Observer reports on the labours of the Commission in producing a report on social models and sustainability, and the efforts they are making to try and de-politicise it. It seems our ageing societies and their implications will form the cornerstone of the report. This, at least, will mark a step forward. The October summit already bears all the hallmarks of being potentially much more interesting than the last one.
“The request for the report predates the [Franco-British] argument. This is the general awareness in the commission”, one of the study’s contributors told EUobserver. “Nothing new was stimulated by this disagreement. Whether you are on one side or another, everybody wants a viable social system”.
The source added that while the US has already done a lot of research on the problems linked with an ageing population for example, the EU situation is made more difficult by the fact that “we have 25 different systems” to take into account.
The report will be put together by a wide pool of officials from various units covering financial affairs, enterprise, employment and internal markets, as well as commission president Jose Manuel Barroso’s inhouse team of economic experts, the Bureau of European Policy Advisors (BEPA).“
The UK’s EU Presidency
Well, it’s July 1, so the UK is now officially the holder of the rotating presidency. Yesterday Jack Straw outlined the UK government’s priorities to an enthralled House of Commons:
Mr Straw told the House of Commons that Britain would ?work hard to reach an agreement on future financing by the end of the year?
The foreign secretary said that another key area of concern for the UK presidency was Turkish membership of the EU, acknowledging that the issue was ?controversial? in many parts of Europe. Mr Straw said: ?The British government remains strongly committed to Turkey joining the EU.?
Let the games commence!
Sarkozy Favours Enlargement Freeze
Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s current interior minister, and 2007 presidential hopeful has said he favours a freeze on future EU enlargement:
“We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have been modernized,” Sarkozy said after talks with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on France’s role in Europe after voters rejected the EU constitution in a referendum on May 29. “Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely,” he said.
Blair uses the F word
My gut tells me there’s a bit of inevitability about reforming the EU’s ridiculous farm subsidies, so it surprises me that Mikulas Dzurinda, Slovakia’s PM, is only the first of the 24 one of the first of the many EU leaders lined up against Britain to break ranks. ?I am for reforms,? Dzurinda declared.
Meanwhile Blair is still talking tough, telling the European Parliament yesterday today that the EU risks “failure on a grand strategic scale.” (See also The Guardian‘s coverage on the speech.)
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Myths And Reality
The FT has a timely piece on the supposed ‘anglo saxon model’. Stereotypes are just that, stereotypes, and more often than not they obscure more than they illuminate:
“Britain’s “Anglo-Saxon model” is believed to have produced filthy hospitals, long queues, a collapsing pension system and draconian welfare-to-work programmes that produce high levels of poverty and inequality.
The truth is more nuanced“.
Portugal and the SGP
With all the fuss about Italy, I’ve obviously been neglecting poor little Portugal, but Joaquim Almunia hasn’t forgotten about them. According to Business Week:
“The European Union’s head office told Portugal on Wednesday to cut its burgeoning budget deficit and public debt, saying the country’s economic slowdown was no excuse for violating euro-zone rules on sound finances.
Portugal follows Italy and Greece in facing a formal complaint from the European Commission for running up government borrowing way above the limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product set for countries using the euro.”
The Head Office eh? I presume they mean the Commission. You can find the relevant document from the Economics and Financial Affairs department here.
Two Views of Europe
Gerhard Schr?der said yesterday that Europe had to choose between two versions of its future: one as a politically united continent able to hold its own in a globalized economy and the other as an enfeebled trading block.
“The core question is: which Europe do we want? Do we want a united Europe capable of acting, a real political union … or do we want to limit ourselves to being a large free-trade zone?”
Meantime Wolfgang Gerhardt, opposition Free Democratic party’s parliamentary leader and the man widely billed as Germany’s next foreign minister, said:
“he was ?not entirely unhappy about the outcome of this summit?. Had a budget been agreed, ?we could have ended with a money-sharing compromise that would have left 40 per cent of EU expenditures going to agriculture,? he said of last week’s acrimonious, and ultimately fruitless, talks“.
Gerhardt suggested this in an interview with the FT where he indicated that Germany should press France to accept cuts in European Union farm aid to ease a deal on the EU’s “controversial long-term budget”.
Finland Proposes
The Finnish government intend to push for an eco-efficient European economy when Finland assumes the EU Presidency in the second half of 2006.The inspiration will be the national Finnish programme for sustainable consumption and production. Back in 2002 the EU committed itself, during the Johannesburg Earth summit, to establish a ten-year framework programme for sustainable consumption and production, to date little has come of this.
EU 15 Not Up To Par On Kyoto
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.