EU – Page 76 – Slugger O'Toole

Angela Merkel: “We will do what is necessary, everything else will be discussed step by step”

Pete Baker on January 12, 2011, 6:44 pm

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Eastern promises aside – and isn’t there something about beware [metaphorical] Greeks bearing gifts? – Portugal’s visit to those reluctant bond markets is described as “successful” by this Reuters report at the Irish Times – €1.25 billion raised with the ten year yield kept below 7%. But as the BBC report points out Bond buying by the European Central Bank (ECB) had helped keep the yield below 7%. “Probably the most important thing for the 10-year yield is that the 7% level …

Eastern promises

Mack on January 12, 2011, 11:10 am

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It would appear that our Asian friends have confidence (and an interest) in the survival of the European project. Japan and China will help fund the European Financial Stability Fund that will be used to bailout European banks, sorry, I mean Ireland. With Japan pledging to buy 20% or more of the bonds that will be sold later this month. From Bloomberg – There is a plan for the euro zone to jointly issue a large amount of bonds late …

“the euro crisis had a Christmas break, but it’s back”

Pete Baker on January 10, 2011, 2:03 pm

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With Portugal heading back to an increasingly reluctant bond market, the BBC’s Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, notes that “White knuckles have re-emerged in Brussels and other vulnerable European capitals.” Sometimes in Brussels I detect that the fight is less to save Portugal but more to ring-fence Spain. It’s the fourth-largest economy in the eurozone. If it needed rescuing the funds currently are probably not there. And then awkward questions would have to be asked – including whether Germans, in those …

Bertie Ahern: “If you ask me, my view is you’re better doing it my way…”

Pete Baker on January 2, 2011, 4:48 pm

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Now that the notorious gambler, and former Taoiseach, Bertie ‘Lucky’ Ahern, has confirmed his decision not to contest the next Irish general election he obviously feels freer to be critical of his party colleagues in government. From the Belfast Telegraph report Mr Ahern, a columnist for the Irish News of The World, told the newspaper Mr Cowen’s administration failed to communicate properly with the public throughout the crisis. He said he carried out daily doorstep interviews with the media when he led …

Draconian press laws in the EU’s new Presidency…

oneill on January 1, 2011, 10:39 pm

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“”Reporting on crime that “doesn’t serve the interest of the democratic public” must be restricted to 20% of the time devoted to news.”” That would be nice wouldn’t it, simply removing the inconvenient news by not reporting it. Believe it or not, that is one of the planks of an authoritarian new media law recently introduced by a European Union country, a country that takes up the EU’s Presidency as of today. And it gets worse. A “media council has been created, …

Euro crisis: “For good or ill, she is perceived to set policy, pace and tone at every turn.”

Pete Baker on December 28, 2010, 9:06 pm

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In the Irish Times Arthur Beesley’s assessment of the “mammoth task” European leaders face in the year ahead is well worth a read. From the Irish Times article Strain and anxiety were everywhere in 2010. Merkel held the line against easy bailouts but her dogged intransigence on core principles led to accusations that she was making matters worse, not least in Ireland. From the summit room came whispered reports of shouting matches between French president Nicolas Sarkozy and ECB chief …

Twitter Joke Trial and what it means for politics

Paul Evans on December 23, 2010, 11:36 am

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So Paul Chambers has been granted leave to appeal to the High Court over his Twitter Joke conviction, and the hearing should take place sometime between March and June next year. Just to refresh your memory, the whole farago started when Mr Chambers – commenting on disruption at his local airport – said this on Twitter: “Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You’ve got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky …

Angela Merkel: “now we need more in common in our economic policies…”

Pete Baker on December 19, 2010, 4:00 pm

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EU leaders met in Brussels last week, for their last summit of 2010, and agreed the text of a “narrow revision” to the Lisbon Treaty – the conclusions of the European Council (16-17 December 2010) [pdf file]. In Taoiseach Brian Cowen’s view, “There isn’t a change of competence or a transfer of competence, so our strong view is that it is compatible with the Constitution.” That would be without the need for a referendum. And from the same Irish Times …

“the gulf between the views held by supporters of the three main political parties and Sinn Féin”

Pete Baker on December 18, 2010, 6:50 pm

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Inside the Irish Times Stephen Collins drills down into the data from the survey Brian noted to pick up on an interesting point. From the Irish Times article When asked if it was better to be part of the European Union the same pattern emerged. Among Fianna Fáil voters 87 per cent said it was better to be in the EU with just 9 per cent saying it was not. Fine Gael and Labour voters gave identical responses, with 77 …

Don’t beat yourselves up over loss of sovereignty. There are compensations

Brian Walker on December 18, 2010, 9:41 am

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Asked if they believed that Ireland had surrendered its sovereignty in accepting the bailout, 56 per cent said that it had, while 33 per cent said it had not and 11 per cent had no opinion. Latest Irish Times poll As Mick and others have discussed , it’s interesting how fashions of sovereignty change. I remember Dev’s grandson Eamonn O Cuiv telling me how Ireland finally won it on joining the Common Market in 1973 (though even if they …

‘Independence’ is reason Cowen cannot pull off the Brown ‘trick’…

Mick Fealty on December 17, 2010, 2:51 pm

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If it’s a given that the Irish media aren’t very fond of Fianna Fail, then Harry McGee’s summation of their prospects is as fair a one as I’ve seen in while. Early on he wonders out loud whether Brian Cowen can do a Brown and bring his party back from the brink so many believe he has already dropped off. The analogy is an interesting one, and no doubt will have some appeal to those inside government. And despite the …

The European view on insolvency

Mack on December 17, 2010, 11:48 am

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The new proposed European Stability Mechanism looks like it will come into force via a change to The Lisbon Treaty, and will avoid facing public vote by referendum. It provides a process for sharing losses with sovereign creditors in the case of national insolvency. (More details on that below). In yesterday’s FT, Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, an executive at the ECB, made the case against sovereign debt restructuring in the Eurozone. He argues that government debt is a central plank of …

Student finance goes nationalist in a four-way UK split. Can it last?

Brian Walker on December 16, 2010, 9:53 am

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So devolution looks like producing four different solutions to the problems of student funding, at least in the short term. The latest from Scotland is to charge strangers from the rest of UK so that young Scots can continue to enjoy a no fees regime in their native land. The money follows Welsh students anywhere in the UK, as Dewi celebrates and recommends NI follow. Iain McWhirter may be right, that the SNP may take a political trick with this …

Why referendums should be banned

Paul Evans on December 13, 2010, 9:28 am

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In the not too-distant, we are going to be offered a referendum to decide which voting system we prefer in the UK and Northern Ireland. This is the equivalent of being offered a trial-by-combat to decide who should be awarded a peace prize. There is little evidence that referendums make a vote fair. Nor are they widely seen as a means of forming good policies. Yet they have gradually slipped into the British constitution in recent years without much discussion …

Olli Rehn: “We are now in the decade of fundamental reforms”

Pete Baker on December 9, 2010, 1:37 pm

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As the Irish Times notes, EU economics and monetary affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn has joined the head of the IMF in calling for “well coordinated action to safeguard stability in the euro area”. From the Irish Times Mr Rehn told the conference [in Athens] that the euro area was determined to agree thorough reform to set up a new system of economic governance. “We will not stop until we have accomplished our mission. We are now in the decade of fundamental reforms,” …

“Hollow nationalist rhetoric will not do.”

Pete Baker on December 8, 2010, 4:13 pm

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In the Belfast Telegraph Sinn Féin MLA Mitchel McLaughlin responds to Ed Curran’s question on the cost of a united Ireland with some hollow nationalist rhetoric, and indulges in some fantasy economics. An analysis of the expenditure by ‘regions’ along with a series of estimates of the revenues from the regions by Oxford Economics shines some light on the actual subvention by the British Exchequer. The main findings demonstrate that total ‘identifiable expenditure’ for the North was £14.1bn in 2004/05. This is …

The broadening inkblot: Self-improvement for people who read newspapers (and blogs…)

Paul Evans on December 8, 2010, 1:15 pm

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This is a cross post from Miljenko Williams who blogs at 21st Century Fix. It was originally posted on the Political Innovation site here. If you’re reading this, you’re probably a regular lurker around the blogosphere and the longer, cleverer articles on media websites. You may even go further than that and comment occasionally, “Digg”, share or “like” postings on Facebook. And if you’re very clever with your RSS reader, you may have found a way of getting some of …

Euro crisis: “So something is afoot.”

Pete Baker on December 7, 2010, 5:17 pm

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While a furious Irish taxpayer [on the Clontarf dart] discovers just how bad it’s going to be, RTÉ notes that EU finance ministers have formally approved the €85billion bail-out for Ireland. While bond investors still appear unconvinced that the politicians have a clear strategy to restore the euro’s fortunes, there is growing political division over the best solution. Belgium, which holds the EU presidency, and which has seen its own bond yields increase, wants the €750bn fund increased. Luxembourg and Italy …

Comment of the day…

Mick Fealty on December 6, 2010, 11:03 am

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We’re running in a few new commenting tools on Slugger, which we hope will help raise standards on the blog. But I also want (from time to time) mark out good content from the comments zone. So the reader’s comment of the day (so far) is from Laughing (Tory) Unionist on Mr Reckless’s Red C poll: I still regret ’79 (when the sterling link was broken, by the South, in favour of the ERM), but having made that mistake then, Dublin’s …

43% of Sinn Fein voters want to return to Sterling standard…

Mick Fealty on December 5, 2010, 11:10 pm

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Mark Reckless is Tory MP for Rochester and Strood. He’s also the grandson of one Henry McDevitt, who briefly sat as a Fianna Fail TD for the now defunct Donegal East constituency. It seems Mr Reckless has taken it upon himself to commission a Red C poll on the question of whether the good folk of the Irish Republic would like to return to the calmer waters of the sterling zone. (H/T Gawain) He has hosted the detailed report on …