EU – Page 71 – Slugger O'Toole

We, the Norwegian society, will strike back

Patrick Corrigan on July 26, 2011, 4:58 pm

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Saw this comment on the Amnesty International Norge Facebook page: We, the Norwegian society, will strike back. We will strike back by giving the defendant a fair trial, we will strike back by giving him decent treatment. This way we will demonstrate to him, to ourselves and to the rest of the world that our basic values, such as the belief in justice, liberty, democracy and human rights, has not, despite his insane efforts to break them, moved an inch …

Euro crisis: Back from the brink?

Pete Baker on July 22, 2011, 7:20 pm

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Well, perhaps… Eurozone leaders emerged from their emergency summit yesterday offering a new €109billion bail-out for Greece with twice as long to pay it back [30 years] at a lower interest rate than before. It’s a “restricted default event”, according to ratings agency Fitch. The draft agreement in full is here [pdf file]. Ireland and Portugal get an interest rate cut too – Karl Whelan’s busy at Irish Economy calculating what it means for Ireland. But the private sector involvement in Greece …

Barroso: “Nobody should be under any illusion: the situation is very serious”

Pete Baker on July 20, 2011, 5:14 pm

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Everyone’s got something to say ahead of tomorrow’s emergency EU summit on the existential European debt crisis. Whether you believe any of them is another matter entirely… Taoiseach Enda Kenny is echoing Frau Bundeskanzlerin. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said he is also hopeful that Ireland will be on the agenda at tomorrow’s meeting. However, in a statement issued today, Mr Kenny said he did not believe the meeting would solve all of the euro zone’s problems. “The crisis in the euro area …

Greek crisis is European because Europe has consciously chosen to make it one

Mick Fealty on July 20, 2011, 4:01 pm

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Those of you who have been following Pete’s work on the Euro crisis ought to find this analysis from John Kay familiar: The crisis in Greece – and Ireland and Portugal and perhaps elsewhere – is a crisis for Europe as a whole. Not because that is the nature of a single currency, but because Europe has consciously chosen to make it one. From its inception, the guiding philosophy of the EU was that if you took every opportunity to …

Euro crisis: “everything those leaders have done, after large amounts of dithering, has ended up making the situation worse.”

Pete Baker on July 19, 2011, 7:48 pm

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That’s the BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders quoted above, by the way. Which brings me back to Thursday’s emergency summit called by European Council president, Herman Van Rompuy “Our agenda will be the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek programme,” said Mr Van Rompuy in a brief statement last night. [Friday 15th July] Perhaps… But Frau Bundeskanzlerin, who reportedly wasn’t as keen on the summit being called, has been playing down expectations …

Jean-Claude Trichet: “It is not a question of technique. It is a question of will and determination.”

Pete Baker on July 18, 2011, 9:11 pm

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At the Telegraph blog, Andrew Lilico takes his life in his hands to ask, “Is it time for the eurozone to turn into a Single European State?” A key point he makes, I’d suggest OK – so what do we do, if we don’t want to break up the euro altogether? First, we have to accept (a) that this is fundamentally a political project, a precursor to a Single European State, and must be accepted as such by all its …

A religious view of tablets (the computing kind)

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on July 18, 2011, 8:26 pm

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destroy all onions banner

Other than space, we don’t get a lot of technology on Slugger. Time to redress that balance. A local blogger who found himself at the top of a viewing tower in Tokyo when the earthquake hit turned his attention to tablet computers in a recent post on Destroy All Onions. Umberto Eco famously wrote that fountain pens were protestant, and ballpoints were catholic, because of the universality of ballpoints versus the maintenance and finickiness of fountain pens. That got extended …

Van Rompuy: “Our agenda will be the financial stability of the euro area as a whole…”

Pete Baker on July 16, 2011, 3:53 pm

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European Council President Herman Van Rompuy has called an emergency summit of divided euro zone leaders on Thursday to address the existential European debt crisis. From the Irish Times report “Our agenda will be the financial stability of the euro area as a whole and the future financing of the Greek programme,” said Mr Van Rompuy in a brief statement last night. “I have asked for the preparatory work to be brought forward inter alia by the finance ministries.” And they …

Ireland debt = Junk

Pete Baker on July 13, 2011, 1:34 am

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According to ratings agency Moody’s. From the Irish Times report While Ireland still carries investment-grade ratings with rival agencies Standard Poor’s and Fitch, the downgrade creates big new obstacle for the Government’s plan to exit the EU-IMF bailout programme and start borrowing from debt markets again next year. Only investors with a very large appetite for risk buy junk-rated bonds given the higher implied risk that the issuer may default, or fail to pay back the debt. A spokesman for …

Bini Smaghi: “The crisis has shown that the euro is an incomplete construct and needs to be completed.”

Pete Baker on July 10, 2011, 5:55 pm

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Via the Irish Economy blog. In a speech at the 8th European Seminar in Poros, on 8th July, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB, did a reasonable job of identifying the problems highlighted by the sovereign debt crisis – although he denies it’s an existential crisis for the EU. But, as a true believer in the “European Project”, his solution may not be to everyone’s taste… From his 8th July speech In my view, we should strengthen …

Van Rompuy: “Europe is still sexy…”

Pete Baker on July 5, 2011, 10:54 pm

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So sayeth the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, as the BBC Europe editor Gavin Hewitt notes Europe’s leaders are unsettled, scratchy. Old certainties have given way to anxiety. The open road to ever closer union is now strewn with boulders. You can gauge the ebbing confidence from remarks that didn’t need to be made. “Europe is still sexy,” declared President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy. “As long as a club attracts new members,” he added, “it is …

Jean-Claude Juncker: “The sovereignty of Greece will be massively limited.”

Pete Baker on July 4, 2011, 9:01 pm

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After the Greek parliament voted to give everyone more time to come up with a better solution, Eurozone finance ministers agreed to release the promised €12billion to Greece to avoid an immediate default. But those same finance ministers have now delayed discussions on the details of a second bail-out for Greece, thought to be around 120bn euros, needed to pay the bills until the end of 2014. According to an Irish Times report today, the Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos has stated, “Euro Group decided through a …

Euro crisis: “gaining time is the least bad outcome, both for Greece and Europe as a whole”

Pete Baker on June 29, 2011, 5:06 pm

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In the midst of a 48 hour general strike, and with police clashing with protestors on the streets, the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, won the first of two crucial votes on the latest package of tax hikes, spending cuts, and privatisations. By 155 votes to 138. But as the BBC Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, wrote before today’s vote But here’s the thing. No one in Greece believes the tax increases, lay-offs, privatisations will ever be fully implemented. This morning I …

IFI: “It is therefore incorrect to say the fund has an uncommitted surplus.”

Pete Baker on June 27, 2011, 4:12 pm

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The Detail’s John Breslin interviewed the chairman of the International Fund for Ireland, Denis Rooney, about the ongoing campaign to re-instate funding. But when he asked about the accounts, he was referred elsewhere. From The Detail report The Detail wanted to talk to someone from the organisation able to walk through the accounts. That did not happen despite two e-mails sent over two weeks ago asking for an interview with someone familiar with the accounts. As of September 2010, the …

Euro crisis: Come on in, the water’s lovely…

Pete Baker on June 24, 2011, 9:12 pm

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Croatia got an invite to join the European Union party, as EU leaders cornered the under pressure Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, ahead of next week’s crucial Greek parliamentary vote on the latest bail-out. Arthur Beesley in the Irish Times FOR THE fourth time this year, EU leaders gathered in Brussels last night to plot the next step in the sovereign debt emergency. They have declared victory many times before. None is inclined to suggest they are winning now. The mood …

Johannes Kepler “will tumble, disintegrate and burn”

Pete Baker on June 21, 2011, 4:54 pm

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ESA’s second Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV), Johannes Kepler, the first operational version, was launched on 16 February this year. At a total mass of 20 tonnes it was Europe’s heaviest spacecraft. As well as delivering its payload to the International Space Station, on 2 April Johannes Kepler successfully manoeuvred the complex to avoid a collision with space debris and, over recent days, boosted the 417-tonne Station to a higher orbit – from around 345 km to its new height of 380 km. …

Euro crisis: “an existential crisis for the euro zone”

Pete Baker on June 20, 2011, 3:50 pm

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Eurozone finance ministers have withheld the release of a €12 billion loan to Greece in the hope that the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, can secure a domestic political consensus. The BBC report quotes from the EU finance ministers’ statement A statement issued by the ministers called on all political parties in Greece to: “support the programme’s main objectives and key policy measures to ensure a rigorous and expeditious implementation”. “Given the length, magnitude and nature of required reforms in Greece, national unity …

Sarkozy: “Without the euro there is no Europe…”

Pete Baker on June 18, 2011, 3:43 pm

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That was the exaggarated claim of French President Nicolas Sarkozy as Frau Bundeskanzerlin blinked over her demand that private bondholders be made to share the burden of a ‘Greek miracle’ second Greek bail-out. Although where that leaves the Bundestag is another matter… And now that the French and German leaders are in agreement it’s down to the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to forge a domestic political consensus. Or not. A new political contract is essential for Greece to survive the current crisis. For this contract …

“The Resurrection of Hungary: A Parallel for Ireland”? No, fortunately not.

oneill on June 16, 2011, 6:00 pm

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Within the restraints of 140 characters, he somehow manages to deliver a full range of cod fireside homilies; GAA-related similes stretched well beyond their natural snapping point and (naturally) playground stylee anti-Brit insults… but nevertheless for his myriad of Unionist followers on Twitter Barry McElduff is a must-read, the gift which simply refuses point-blank to stop giving. There have been so many to choose from but the comment which has caused perhaps the greatest mirth to his pro-Union devotees side …

“You’ve got to remember this is the home of surrealism”

Pete Baker on June 14, 2011, 2:19 pm

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That’s Belgium, not here. Belgium took the ‘no government’ crown from Iraq in February, and they just keep going… In the Irish Times, Arthur Beesley starts with a tale that sounds strangely familiar. IN THE metro stations of Brussels they pipe old pop hits for commuters. Songs in English, Spanish and Italian can be heard. They no longer play songs in French, the city’s main language, because Dutch-speakers took umbrage. No battle is too trivial in Belgium’s language wars. If the …