The UK’s EU Presidency

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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!

The Dangers Of A Housing Boom

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Last year 700,000 new homes were built in Spain. A record number, and one which seems disproportionately high for Spains real future housing needs. In all likelihood the Spanish property market will one day crash, and prices drop considerably from their current highs. But what if they don’t? What if we ‘merely’ get a soft landing. This is a question the FT puts today in the US context, but what it says may be even more applicable to Spain. The economy is driven by the construction and property sector, simply slowing-up is going to have repercussions.

As property values have soared so has the level of interest in working in real estate. The number of realtors in the US has jumped by 45 per cent over the past four years to 1.1m, and many have left blue-chip companies or even delayed college to join the property jamboree. More joined the profession last year than at any time since records began in 1975.

Add in jobs in residential construction, furniture and DIY stores and mortgage finance, and the buoyant property market emerges as the main driver of employment growth over the past four years. Economy.com, the consultancy, estimates that about a third of the 2.6m jobs created in that period were in housing-related sectors.

This raises the question of what happens to these workers when the housing market cools.

German Deficit Continues Above 3%

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German Finance Minister Hans Eichel said today that the German deficit would be over the 3 percent limit for the fourth consecutive year this year, and would remain there at least till 2007.

The latest data, from a meeting with state finance ministers, projected this year’s deficit to reach 3.7 percent. In addition, the country is projected to maintain a deficit of 3.4 percent in 2006 and 3.1 percent in 2007, the finance ministry said. On Wednesday, the IMF said as part of its regular review that it expected Germany’s budget deficit this year to be 3.8 percent of
GDP this year.

?Enhorabuena!

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This morning Spain followed the example set by its one-time colonies in the Low Countries, legalising gay marriage.

Predictably, the post-Francoist Popular Party and the Roman Catholic hierarchy are not amused. One hopes they will take some comfort in the thought that the new law will not actually require anybody to marry a person of the same sex.

And perhaps they might reflect on this. There are many people who dislike cultural conservatism and Roman Catholic teachings, sometimes to the point of thinking these things morally wrong. And that, is, of course, their good right. It is not their good right, though, to marginalise cultural conservatives or Roman Catholics, still less to abridge their liberties. Well, then: sauce; goose; gander.

Elections in Albania (II)

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A few weeks back, I blogged a little about the upcoming elections in Albania. Here’s a bit more.

The elections are expected to be close, because the ruling Socialist Party is split. The larger faction supports the current Prime Minister, Fatos Nano. But a breakaway group, under an ex-weightlifter named Ilir Meta, has organized itself into the Socialist Movement for Integration (SMI). The SMI is running a strong third in the polls and might well hold the balance of power between the two larger parties.

Meta used to be Prime Minister himself. To make a long and really complicated story short, Nano engineered his downfall back in 2001; both men were Socialists, but Nano wanted to be Prime Minister himself. Meta didn’t take it well.

The two major candidates — Nano and Democrat Sali Berisha — held a televised debate, Albania’s first ever, next week. (Meta was excluded, much to his irritation.) Although Berisha and Nano loathe each other, the debate went off without a hitch.
Continue reading →

National Cliches

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I was reading one of the Sueddeutsche books at lunch, and one of the characters, a Dutchman as it happens, casually drops into the conversation, “Poland has not yet perished.” It’s the opening line of the Polish national anthem, and one of those catchphrases of the culture, a hoary cliche, but one that despite everything still touches hearts.

I could think of one other for a European nation, “Happy is he who can say I am a Turk.” As much as the Polish phrase was a reaction to Partition in the 18th century, the Turkish phrase was a deliberate program from Ataturk, part of the whole effort to transfer loyalty from the Ottoman nstate to the Turkish.

The Germans might once have had one, but haven’t since 1945.

And of course there’s “God bless America.” Once a fervent and perhaps fragile hope, it has been misused by GWB&Co, turned into something of a command. Sets my teeth on edge.

Anyway, I was wondering how many of these national touchstones I’ve been completely ignorant about, lo these many years. What others are out there?

Italy Given Two Years To Correct Deficit

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As indicated earlier in the week, the EU Commission has given Italy two years to correct its deficit.

“The European Union on Wednesday gave Italy until the end of 2007 to cut its budget deficit in line with euro-zone rules. The EU head office said Italy has been violating the budget rules underpinning the common currency by running deficits above 3 percent of its gross domestic product in 2003 and 2004 and is set to do so this year and next. But due to weakness in the euro-zone’s third-largest economy, the head office said it will give the country two years instead of just one to bring the deficit back in line.”

Hands Off The ECB

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Deep seated as my criticisms are of the dithering and lack of imagination and vision over at the ECB, the situation would not be improved by giving national governments more say. I have only one response then to M de Vil-lepin: hands off.

“Mr de Villepin suggests the 12 finance ministers of the eurozone should open a ?dialogue? with the European Central Bank about how to deal with low growth and high unemployment by defining a common economic government. Although he stresses the eurogroup must respect the ECB’s independence, his remarks are bound to be seen as a further sign of European politicians’ desire to have a greater say over monetary policy.“

Spain’s Florida

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Spain’s governing Socialist party celebrated yesterday the conquest of the northwest region of Galicia (the Gallegos are the third of Spain’s ‘historic nationalities’, together with the Basques and the Catalans). The result follows a cliff-hanger election that ousted the centre-right Popular party and its octogenarian president, Manuel Fraga, from power. This result will undoubtedy give power to the elbow of those who are pushing for fundamental reform in Spain towards a federal system. The FT has the story.

“The contest in Galicia a conservative bastion and the birthplace of Francisco Franco, the Spanish dictator, as well as the present Popular party leader, Mariano Rajoy had all the drama and suspense of the Florida vote recount in the 2000 US presidential elections.“