Europe – Page 8 – Slugger O'Toole

Euro crisis: “A fiat currency backed by heterogeneous sovereigns is irremediably fragile…”

Pete Baker on June 6, 2012, 10:05 pm

| Readers 36

The Financial Times’ chief economics commentator Martin Wolf was at the Bilderberg meeting in Chantilly this year too. And on his return, as spotted by the Guardian’s eurozone crisis live-blog today, he has had this to say. How much pain can the countries under stress endure? Nobody knows. What would happen if a country left the eurozone? Nobody knows. Might even Germany consider exit? Nobody knows. What is the long-run strategy for exit from the crises? Nobody knows. Given such uncertainty, panic is, …

Euro crisis: “Europe’s common currency is its formative element.”

Pete Baker on June 4, 2012, 5:32 pm

| Readers 35

The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, has a plan. Or, at least, a timetable. Herman Van Rompuy told a news conference in St Petersburg, Russia that, by the next summit of EU leaders at the end of June, he and three other EU officials would present “the main building blocks for this deepened economic and monetary union” and “a working method to achieve this objective”. “In those building blocks, banking integration is an important chapter… I will deal at …

Bilderberg 2012: “Like a corporate cross between Santa Claus and a big friendly squid.”

Pete Baker on June 1, 2012, 9:44 pm

| Readers 54

It’s just as well that Ireland said ‘Yes’ to the Fiscal Treaty. I can only imagine the embarrassed silences Irish Finance Minister, Michael Noonan, would have experienced this weekend if the result had gone the other way. Where is Michael? He’s in the US. Virginia, since you ask. In Chantilly. At the 60th annual Bilderberg conference… It’s quite a list of attendees. Some names you might recognise include Lord [Peter] Mandelson and US Senator John Kerry, as well as the chairmen …

Bilderberg 2012: “Are you here for the brunch?”

Pete Baker on May 30, 2012, 6:01 pm

| Readers 51

The Guardian’s Charlie Skelton is in Chantilly, Virginia, ahead of the, whisper it, annual Bilderberg conference – “a small, flexible, informal and off-the-record international forum in which different viewpoints can be expressed and mutual understanding enhanced”. As he says at the Big G’s US News blog Everything’s set. The hotel is being primped and hoovered, the security is arriving, the press is nowhere to be seen, and I just had a really boring crab salad. It’s shaping up to be a vintage Bilderberg. …

Eurovision 2012: “Good luck on your journey, Azerbaijan!”

Pete Baker on May 27, 2012, 11:29 pm

| Readers 46

Mark Lawson on the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Azerbaijan – “the most politicised contest yet.” [Apart from the one in 1974? – Ed] Indeed. Back to Mark Lawson. Tensions between several of the core participants had been raised by the possible exit of Greece from the stricken eurozone and, increasing the volume of disharmony to Jedward levels, BBC news and current affairs programmes have run several reports questioning the suitability of the host nation because of Azerbaijan’s record of …

Fiscal Treaty Referendum: “the outcome is still in the hands of undecided voters”

Pete Baker on May 27, 2012, 12:36 pm

| Readers 49

Worth noting the result of the latest Irish Times/Ipsos MRBI poll of voting intentions in Ireland’s European fiscal treaty referendum on Thursday. From the Irish Times report Asked how they were likely to vote on the treaty, 39 per cent of voters said Yes, 30 per cent said No, 22 per cent said they did not know, and 9 per cent said they would not be voting. When the 31 per cent of undecided and non-voters are excluded, support for the Yes side …

Euro crisis: “Rome wasn’t built in a day and it didn’t fall in a day either…”

Pete Baker on May 25, 2012, 3:21 pm

| Readers 127

The eurozone crisis rumbles on, its democratic deficit intact, and Ireland’s Fiscal Treaty referendum approaches. Time, then, for historian Michael Wood to go looking for some historical references… The British historian Gildas (c 500-570) in his diatribe against contemporary rulers in the early 500s, looking back over the story of the Fall of Roman Britain, lists the military failures, but behind them he speaks bitterly of a loss of nerve and direction, a failure of “group feeling”. Gildas talks about …

Euro crisis: “With that we buried the Maastricht Treaty, the legal basis for currency union”

Pete Baker on May 22, 2012, 3:32 pm

| Readers 62

A couple of interesting reports in the Irish Times with relevance to the ongoing euro crisis. First, from Derek Scally in Berlin …Mr Asmussen, a member of the ECB governing council, said growth measures – agreed without reopening the fiscal treaty – could help drive European integration. “The benefits of a currency union are so outstanding that they should be stabilised by deepening, which means a fiscal union and banking union as well as a democratic legitimised political union,” said …

#EUREF: Real political price of the Treaty is “shift from community to union”…

Mick Fealty on May 21, 2012, 4:21 pm

| Readers 43

Very good piece in the Irish Times today by John O’Brennan of NUI Maynooth, on the scale and dimensions of the democratic deficit that attaches to the Fiscal Compact… In effect he argues that it will dramatically sideline European Commission where smaller countries like Ireland can at least broker some national influence on the EU: It is important to point out that the fiscal treaty represents a dramatically significant break with the existing EU governance architecture. Chancellor Merkel, in particular, …

Euro crisis: “the quadriga is a perfect symbol of how confused and contested that project has become”

Pete Baker on May 20, 2012, 10:11 pm

| Readers 11

Tim Garton Ash asked, “Who wishes to address the assembly?“. Will Self has a point of view on the euro crisis and the European Project’s democratic deficit. You can listen to his Radio 4 Point of View here. From the accompanying BBC Magazine article That these same politicians were afflicted by a strange sort of doublethink – both aspiring towards unity, and desperate for their own nationalistic electorates to preserve the substance of their sovereignties – was and is the …

Euro crisis: “Tis agoreuein bouletai?”

Pete Baker on May 17, 2012, 8:02 pm

| Readers 125

At the Guardian’s Comment is Free, Tim Garton Ash is still a believer in the European Project but, probably, not an optimistic one. As well as mentioning a familiar quote from Luxembourg’s Prime Minister he makes an important point, as Greece faces a democratic choice, again, that applies to the wider euro crisis. From the Comment is Free article Greece’s untold, or only half-told, home truth is that its only alternatives now are bad, worse or worst. Worst is clearly an unplanned, chaotic exit from the …

Greece: “good luck for the next restructuring…”

Pete Baker on May 15, 2012, 3:33 pm

| Readers 52

As the euro crisis rumbles on, confirmation, if any were needed, that Greece is, indeed, heading back to the polls. You can follow further developments on the Guardian’s live-blog. Meanwhile, having cajoled the vast majority of their private sector creditors into taking part in a bond swap deal in March, the Greek government [who? – Ed] outgoing prime minister technocrat-in-chief, Lucas Papademos, has opted to pay up, on a May 15 due bond, to those who held out at the time. …

Euro crisis: “Hold your sides and laugh out loud, otherwise you’ll have to cry.”

Pete Baker on May 11, 2012, 4:33 pm

| Readers 59

Despite some optimistic noises overnight, it still seems more likely than not that Limbo Greece will face new elections. As the Guardian live-blog noted earlier today The Democratic left party in Greece has said it will not back a pro-bailout government. That almost certainly means that Venizelos’s attempts to form a government coalition around agreement on the bailout terms are dashed and that the country will face fresh elections In the meantime, there are still a few days left to catch eurosceptic Michael Portillo’s …

Euro crisis: “Europe will be lucky if it ends up in stagnation like Japan for the next ten years”

Pete Baker on May 9, 2012, 8:38 pm

| Readers 51

Back in Limbo Greece, stage 2 in the 4-stage attempt to form a government with a parliamentary majority ends without agreement – as the BBC notes Mr Tsipras said he had failed to reach agreement with mainstream parties because of his insistence on rejecting austerity measures demanded by the EU and IMF as part of a bailout deal. He made the announcement after talks with the Pasok and New Democracy parties, which support the bailout. Pasok leader Evangelos Venizelos is now …

Euro crisis: “Hollande is man of the moment, but Europe’s gaze is firmly fixed on Athens”

Pete Baker on May 8, 2012, 4:49 pm

| Readers 49

As the Irish Times’ Arthur Beesley notes All of this puts Hollande’s push to renegotiate the treaty in the shade. German chancellor Angela Merkel was quick to rebut her new French partner yesterday, but that can be read as the opening gambit. Her staunch ally Nicolas Sarkozy has been deposed. She has no choice but to work with the new tenant. The Merkozy days are over. In Brussels, the expectation remains that some form of an amendment will be conjured …

Greece: “Country in Limbo”

Pete Baker on May 7, 2012, 7:46 pm

| Readers 61

Gerry’s analysis notwithstanding, in Greece they’re trying to come to terms with those election results. As the BBC reports Greece’s centre-right leader, Antonis Samaras, has said he cannot form a coalition government, hours after he was given a mandate by the president. His New Democracy, which backed the last EU bailout, emerged as the biggest party after Sunday’s election, but he said a coalition was “impossible”. […] President Karolos Papoulias has now arranged a meeting for Tuesday morning with Alexis …

Hollande wins in France…

Pete Baker on May 6, 2012, 7:29 pm

| Readers 52

According to reported early estimates Socialist Francois Hollande has been elected as France’s new president, early estimates say. He got about 52% of votes in Sunday’s run-off, according to projections based on partial results, against 48% for centre-right incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. The Guardian’s live-blog will have further updates. As for what it means for the fiscal pact, and the wider Euro crisis, I think the results in Greece may prove to be more significant. Exit polls in the Greek parliamentary election …

de Juana Chaos loses extradition appeal [in absentia]

Pete Baker on May 3, 2012, 9:01 pm

| Readers 48

Despite their client jumping bail in March 2010, and disappearing into the ether, lawyers acting on behalf of the convicted ETA killer, Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos, continued “with instructions” in the appeal against his extradition to Spain to face a charge of glorifying terrorism. Two years later, and Belfast High Court has dismissed that appeal. [Where are they sending the bill? – Ed] Good question. From the BBC report Judges ruled that while the European Arrest Warrant was “unquestionably imperfect”, it was …

Euro crisis: April is the cruellest month…

Pete Baker on April 30, 2012, 5:27 pm

| Readers 51

Apart from all the others… And it doesn’t matter how big your umbrella is. BBC Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, on springtime in Europe What is being exposed is a major flaw with Mrs Merkel’s fiscal pact. It is undemocratic. It ties the hands of future governments – and that, of course, was its intention but it doesn’t stop voters opposing further cuts. In the eurozone, deficits are being reduced. But debt – in many cases – is still growing. Growth …

The End of the Northern Ireland Model of Peace Processing?

Pete Baker on April 29, 2012, 6:12 pm

| Readers 71

Even with the recent apparent spike in terrorist activity, including a large car bomb abandoned near Newry, and public paramilitary displays, it’s probably premature to talk of “the IRA’s resurgence”. But that’s the reference used in this article by Michael Rubin Perhaps the most important fact I learned was that British security officials believe that their pact with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) may be unraveling. British intelligence and counter terror officials are now tracking and interrupting more IRA terror planning that at …