Croatian President Ivo Josipović Serbia has stated that Croatia are firmly committed to the future in the European Union. Thus they are guarantors of safety and stability as regards Bosnia-Herzegovina, he said, according to media reports.
Posts Tagged ‘European Union’
European nations reluctant to send more troops to Afghan
December 3rd, 2009 |
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Brussels: Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that America was sending 30,000 more forces to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban. The US wants Nato allies to increase their deployments, but several European nations are reluctant to do so.
Senior Republican John McCain warned that although the strategy would succeed, US and UK troop casualties would rise [...]
European Union’s Lisbon Treaty comes into force
December 2nd, 2009 |
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Lisbon: With the aim of stremalining EU decision making, the European Union’s Lisbon Treaty has come into force. The European Union welcomed the Lisbon Treaty with a ceremony in Lisbon.
The new treaty lays out a series of fundamental changes within the European Union, including creating the bloc’s first permanent president.
Former Belgian prime minister Herman Van [...]
Fast-tracked flu vaccine ‘will be safe’
July 27th, 2009 |
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• EU accelerates approval process for treatment
• WHO chief warns of dangers of untested jabs
The World Health Organisation has raised concerns about the fast-track production of the swine flu vaccine in Europe, where the treatment is due to be made available at least two months earlier than in the US. Britain is expected to be the first country in Europe to provide the vaccine, with the first of 132 million ordered doses due to be administered next month.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA), the drug regulatory body for the EU, is accelerating the approval process for the vaccine, and countries including Britain, Greece, France and Sweden plan to start using it as soon as it is cleared. The most vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women and young children, will be given priority.
To ensure the vaccine is available as soon as possible, the EMA is allowing companies to bypass large-scale human trials. Amid concerns about bird flu several years ago, the EMA designed a protocol to fast-track the approval of a vaccine. It let companies submit data for a “mock-up” vaccine, using H5N1 avian flu. The idea was to do most of the testing before a pandemic, so that when it hit, the drug companies could insert the pandemic virus into the vaccine.
When the first doses are ready, the EMA will approve them largely based on data from the bird flu vaccine, since both will have the same basic ingredients. The agency will then require regular reporting of the vaccine’s effects as it is being administered, monitoring that is normally done beforehand.
The US government is taking a more cautious approach, calling for several thousand volunteers to be injected with the vaccine in tests beginning in August to assess its safety. Officials say the results should be ready in time for the vaccination programme to roll out in October.
But some US officials believe the European approach is the best option. “The consequences of not having a vaccine if this virus gets worse are very high,” said Leonard Marcus, a public health expert at Harvard University. “If [regulatory authorities] took all the time that was necessary to make sure there are no side effects, ironically, in the effort to save a few lives, many lives could be lost.”
An EMA spokesman said: “Everybody is doing the best they can in a situation which is far from ideal. With the winter flu season approaching, we need to make sure the vaccine is available.”
Dr Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s flu chief, warned about the potential dangers of untested vaccines. “There are certain areas where you can make economies, perhaps, but certain areas where you simply do not try to make any economies,” he told Associated Press.
The Department of Health said it was “extremely irresponsible” to suggest the UK would use an unsafe vaccine. A spokesman said: “In preparing for a pandemic, appropriate trials to assess safety and the immune responses have been carried out on vaccines very similar to the swine flu vaccine. The vaccines have been shown to have a good safety profile. Over 40,000 doses of the vaccines which the swine flu vaccines are based on have been given without any safety concerns.”
Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of GPs, added: “I’m sure the vaccine programme won’t be allowed to commence until adequate safety checks have been carried out.”
Earlier this month the head of the WHO, Dr Margaret Chan, said that while a vaccine might be produced next month the clinical trial data to ensure it was safe would not be available for a further two to three months.
Pharmaceutical companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which is producing the vaccine for Britain, insist they will be able to start shipping the first batches of vaccine before then.
Meanwhile the House of Lords science and technology committee is expected to accuse ministers of failing to keep their promise to set up a flu helpline by April and question the conflicting advice given to the public, in particular to vulnerable groups such as expectant mothers.
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Row over Tory link to Polish right grows
July 25th, 2009 |
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The credibility of David Cameron’s new alliance in the European parliament is cast into fresh doubt today as the Observer reveals damning new evidence about its Polish leader’s past.
The allegations, which threaten to do serious damage to the Tory leader, centre on Michal Kaminski, a rightwinger chosen this month to chair the new and supposedly mainstream European Conservatives and Reformists group, of which the 25 Tory MEPs are members.
Opponents of Kaminski, 37, claim he has shown homophobic and antisemitic tendencies at odds with Cameron’s vision of a new tolerant Tory party. In particular, they say Kaminski was active in efforts to block an apology by his countrymen in 2001 for the massacre of hundreds of Jews in Jedwabne in July 1941. He denies this.
Speaking to this paper Kaminski also insisted he had never given an interview to a far-right Polish journal, Nasza Polska, during which he allegedly said Poles should not apologise for the Jedwabne pogrom until the Jews said sorry for collaborating with the Soviets.
“I never did an interview,” Kaminski insisted, adding that he “never tried to stop” an apology. But investigations by the Observer call those denials into doubt. Residents of Jedwabne at the time – backed by Polish journalists who covered the story – say Kaminski is misrepresenting his past role.
Footage of a television news bulletin from 5 March 2001 shows Kaminski reacting to news that the then President Aleksander Kwasniewski was to issue an apology and saying: “I think that Mr President can apologise but for other things. He should withhold apologies for Jedwabne.” The editor in chief of Nasza Polska, Piotr Jakucki, confirmed that Kaminski gave the 2001 interview.
At that time Jedwabne was the focus of international press attention after an American professor, Jan T Gross, published a book, based on the accounts of local people, which concluded that Poles, with the help of some occupying Nazi troops, locked hundreds of Jews into a barn, and set it on fire. But many people in Jedwabne and other parts of Poland, including Kaminski, believed the whole of Poland was being unfairly blamed for an unproven crime.
Maria Kaczynska, then a journalist with Gazeta Wspolczesna, recalls Kaminski’s role. “I remember all of this very vividly. I had to be in Jedwabne to write about him. I saw him in Jedwabne. He had a big folder and he pulled out a file, a petition calling on locals not to participate in apologies to the Jews.”
Kaminski also flatly denies having been involved in attempts to set up a committee aimed at defending the people of Jedwabne. “I had no involvement with them,” he said. However, Stanislaw Michalowski, the town council head at the time, said: “He was trying to set up a committee of Jedwabne defence but he failed.” Rafal Pankowski, who edits Never Again, an anti-racist magazine, said it was “incredible and appalling that Kaminski can lead a group in the European parliament that pretends to be mainstream and tolerant”.
In a letter in today’s Observer Kaminski calls claims that he is antisemitic “distressing” and insists he has spent “a lifetime of work supporting Israel and the Jewish community in Poland”.
“I have made it clear that the actions of some Poles in the Jedwabne massacre were horrific and criminal. The Polish people were also shattered by the Nazis. While we should share in commemoration I do not believe we should make the whole Polish nation culpable for the criminal acts of a small minority.”
Glenys Kinnock, the Europe minister, said: “This is another example of David Cameron’s inexperience and his willingness to leave Britain isolated. In the global downturn, it is more vital than ever that Britain remains at the heart of Europe. He needs to learn that he will not serve Britain’s national interests by resorting to isolation and extremism.”
Tories in Europe
Why has Cameron formed a new EU group?
In 2005, when campaigning to become leader, he promised Eurosceptic MPs he would quit the federalist European People’s party (EPP).
What is the problem?
He struggled to make a new group and ended up with allies on Europe’s hard right.
Does it matter?
Yes. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are angry that Cameron has left the EPP. It strikes important deals before EU summits.
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Meet Belcha, EU’s biggest polluter
July 22nd, 2009 |
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• Polish facility pumps out 30m tonnes of CO2 a year
• Activists say giant plants undermine climate fight
The biggest single producer of carbon emissions in the European Union has been named – and it is about to get even bigger. The appropriately titled Elektrownia Belchatow – a massive coal-fired power station – belched out 30,862,792 tonnes of CO2 last year and by 2010 the whole generating facility will have grown by 20%.
The Polish energy giant was named as climate change enemy number one in a report by the London-based Sandbag Climate Campaign and its greenhouse gas output dwarfed the 22m tonnes of annual carbon produced by the Drax power station in North Yorkshire and a host of equally dirty German plants.
Sandbag said the expansion of Belchatow and the planned construction of 50 coal-fired plants across the European mainland demonstrated that policies such as the EU’s European Trading Scheme (ETS) were not working.
Bryony Worthington, founder of Sandbag, said the price of pollution allowances in the ETS was too low to deter companies from choosing coal over clean energy, noting that six of the 10 most polluting plants are in Germany despite generous government subsidies for solar and other clean technologies.
“They have to buy emission allowances yet they are still planning a massive expansion. If the scheme was having the desired effect they would be pursuing cleaner options now, not at some distant point in the future,” she added.
While British ministers have taken a stand against constructing new coal stations at Kingsnorth in Kent and elsewhere without “clean” technology to capture the emissions, the deluge of projects in Europe is undermining EU credibility ahead of the forthcoming UN negotiations in Copenhagen on tackling global warming, according to Mark Johnson, a Brussels-based campaigner at the WWF.
“Dozens of new unabated projects across Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Poland and elsewhere are either under construction or could soon be approved. Going ahead with these could wreck Europe’s climate strategy,” he said.
Elektrownia Belchatow is raising coal-fired capacity from 4,400 megawatts to 5,258 from next year. The facility, which burns the most polluting lignite “brown” coal from its own mine next door, is earmarked for a full carbon capture and storage prototype, but only by 2015 at the earliest.
A spokesman for French engineering company Alstom said they were working on a range of initiatives to improve the wider efficiency of the plant and reduce its carbon output. It is one of an estimated 11 new coal schemes planned in Poland, while 28 more are on the drawing board in Germany, according to the WWF.
While Poland has long been dependent on its home-mined lignite, Germany is expanding its coal-fired stations to produce electricity in anticipation of a rundown in its nuclear facilities.
This strategy, being pioneered by RWE and E.ON, could yet be changed as the two main political parties vying for power in the September elections have opposing views on how energy security should be achieved.
E.ON said that coal is being pursued because it answers some of the problems posed in the energy sector.
“It is a cheap form of power but it also gives security of supply and flexibility. The final element is obviously to find a way of not damaging the environment and we hope CCS will be the answer to that,” explained a UK spokesman for the German company.
Protests by environmentalists over E.ON’s plans to build a coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth have encouraged Ed Miliband, the secretary of state for energy and climate change, to rule that there should be no plants in the UK without some degree of CCS, with the remainder of any plant having CCS fitted within five years of it being judged “technically and economically proven”.
The WWF believes the 50 coal schemes in total around Europe represent about 50 gigawatts of power. That compares with the 70GW of total power produced in Britain from all existing sources, including gas, nuclear and a small but growing contribution from wind.
New coal stations are being planned in big numbers in the US and China but the EU has been arguing that all countries should proceed only if they use CCS to turn them into “clean” coal projects.
The EU is committed to cutting carbon emissions by at least 20% by the year 2020 and 80% by 2050 and wants all nations to agree tough new targets at Copenhagen.
The concept of CCS is considered vital to the fight against global warming.
But question marks remain about whether the feasibility of doing it at large scale and at a cost that makes it work, leaving Belchatow and others belching on.
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“EU supports Georgia’s integrity”
July 19th, 2009 |
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The European Union supports the integrity of Georgia in its internationally recognized borders, said Swedish FM Carl Bildt. Last year, after a war fought between Georgia and Russia, Georgia’s breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia declared independence.
Iceland ready for EU accession vote
July 16th, 2009 |
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Iceland’s marathon debate over joining the European Union is nearing the finish line, with parliament preparing to put the issue to a vote. Should the motion succeed in the 63-seat Althing, the government intends to put the final say to a referendum.
UK backs Blair for EU president, Kinnock says
July 16th, 2009 |
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• Kinnock says government will support former PM
• Tories say: ‘He should be let nowhere near the job’
Tony Blair is a leading contender to become the first president of the EU and has the full backing of the British government for the job, the new Europe minister, Lady Kinnock, announced today.
In 10 years as prime minister, Blair shunned the single currency, backed Bush over Brussels and went to war in Iraq. Many in Europe have never forgiven him.
But the long-held suspicion in European politics was confirmed when Lady Kinnock, the Europe minister in Strasbourg for the parliament’s opening session, said that although Blair had not formally declared his candidacy, it was “certainly” the government position to support him.
“I am sure they would not do it without asking him,” she said. “The UK government is supporting Tony Blair’s candidature for president of the council.”
It was the first definite statement on the matter. The Blair camp, in Jerusalem as he continues his current job as a Middle East envoy, was caught off guard. “Nothing has changed. The job doesn’t exist, so there is nothing to be a candidate for,” said a Blair spokesman.
The post will be created under the Lisbon treaty, streamlining the way the EU is run, if the Irish endorse it in a referendum in early October. Blair would be the first sitting president of the EU, appointed by European government chiefs for a minimum of 30 months and a maximum of five years.
If the Irish vote yes on 2 October, EU leaders are expected to decide who will get the top job at a summit at the end of October.
“Blair is seen by many as someone who has the strength of character, the stature,” said Kinnock.
“People know who he is and he would be someone who would have this role and step into it with a lot of respect and I think would be generally welcomed.”
British diplomats were also caught off-guard and cautioned that Kinnock’s remarks remained speculation.
“The reality is Lisbon has not entered into force,” said a diplomat. “Blair has yet to say whether he will stand.”
Downing Street went further than it had in confirming that Blair was the government’s candidate, if he wanted it, but indicated Kinnock had gone further than No 10 had wanted.
“What the prime minister supports is Tony Blair’s candidature for the president of the European council if Tony Blair decides that that is what he would like to do and as and when such a position exists.
“I’m not sure I would characterise it [Kinnock's remarks] as an announcement. I don’t think it is any surprise that the Europe minister in this government has said that we would support Tony Blair as a candidate.”
William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said the post would be “enormously damaging” for Europe. “Any holder is likely to try to centralise power for themselves in Brussels and dominate national foreign policies. In the hands of an operator as ambitious as Tony Blair, that is a near certainty. He should be let nowhere near the job.”
The founder of New Labour will almost certainly encounter stiff opposition, although he has few peers in Europe who could match him for international name recognition or contacts.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister who took over the rotating presidency of the EU this month and who will chair the October summit, is known to be strongly opposed to a “President Blair”.
He told the Guardian todaythat he would not get into any discussion of names for the post, while a senior European diplomat said that the Europe president post would be “the absolute top subject” at the October summit.
José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, the Spanish PM who takes over the EU presidency after Reinfeldt in January, is also an opponent. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany is not believed to be keen. France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy, an early fan of Blair for the role, might calculate that it would be better to side with German and Spanish leaders than support the British.
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Tories give up Eurosceptic leadership at EU
July 15th, 2009 |
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Timothy Kirkhope surrenders leadership of new group to Polish MEP after deal to secure a vice-presidency of the parliament for the Pole unravels
The Conservatives were today forced to forfeit the leadership of their new Eurosceptic grouping in the European parliament in order to prevent it from falling it apart on its first day.
Timothy Kirkhope, the Tory leader in the chamber in Strasbourg, had to surrender the leadership of the new group to the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski after a deal to secure a vice-presidency of the parliament for the Pole unravelled, triggering a major row.
On the first day of the new parliament on Tuesday, the veteran Tory MEP Edward McMillan-Scott defied the party whip and stood for one of the vice-presidency posts despite Conservative pledges last week that Kaminski would be backed for it.
Kaminski’s bid for a vice-presidency then failed, and McMillan-Scott ignored pleas from David Cameron to make way for the Pole.
The Poles then threatened to abandon the new caucus of “European conservatives and reformists” on its first day unless Kaminski was made the group leader in the parliament.
Kirkhope went to an emergency meeting with the Poles in Strasbourg and proposed sharing the group leadership with the Pole.
He was rebuffed and had to step down as the overall fraction leader.
The 55-strong grouping is the fourth biggest caucus in the new parliament. The Tories are the strongest national contributor, with 26 members, while the Poles of the Law and Justice party are the second biggest contingent with 15 seats.
Cameron formed the new grouping, mainly with new EU member states from eastern Europe, to campaign against the Lisbon treaty.
The move brought an end to two decades of collaboration with the mainstream centre-right parties in the EU.
The dispute with the Poles in the first 48 hours of the new parliament highlights the volatility of the new caucus and raises questions about its durability.
McMillan-Scott, a vice-president in the outgoing parliament and a long-serving MEP, was expelled from the Conservative delegation in the European parliament.
He could yet decide to rejoin the mainstream centre-right European People’s party, making him the sole Briton in the parliament’s biggest fraction.
While proclaiming his loyalty as a lifelong Conservative, McMillan-Scott is known to believe Cameron’s new allies in Poland are “racist and homophobic”.
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Blair in frame to become first EU president
July 15th, 2009 |
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Britain’s new Europe minister says ex-prime minister’s candidacy would have full backing of British government
Tony Blair is a contender to become the first president of the EU with the full backing of the British government, the new Europe minister said today.
Glenys Kinnock, in Strasbourg for the opening session of the new European parliament, said that although the former prime minister had not formally declared his candidacy, it was “certainly” the government position to support him.
“I am sure they would not do it without asking him,” Lady Kinnock said. “The UK government is supporting Tony Blair’s candidature for president of the council.”
The new post is to be created under the Lisbon treaty, which will streamline the way the EU is run if it is endorsed in an Irish referendum in early October.
Blair would be the first sitting president of the EU, who will be appointed by European government chiefs for a minimum of 30 months and a maximum of five years.
If the Irish back the treaty on 2 October, EU leaders are expected to decide on who will get the presidency at a summit at the end of that month.
“Blair is seen by many as someone who has the strength of character, the stature,” Kinnock said.
“People know who he is, and he would be someone who would have this role and step into it with a lot of respect and I think would be generally welcomed.”
While Blair has declined to declare himself as a candidate before the outcome of the Irish referendum, Kinnock’s remarks were the first solid confirmation that he is to run for the job.
However, British diplomats said her comments remained speculation for the moment because the Irish could yet vote down the treaty – as they did in their first referendum last year.
“The reality is Lisbon has not entered into force,” one diplomat said. “Blair has yet to say whether he will stand.”
A spokesman for the ex-PM said: “The job doesn’t exist, so there is nothing to be a candidate for.”
If he stands for the post, the founder of New Labour could yet in to stiff opposition in Europe.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister – who took over the rotating presidency of the EU this month and will chair the October summit – is known to be strongly opposed to a Blair presidency.
Reinfeldt told the Guardian he would not get into any discussion about names for the post, while a senior European diplomat said the presidency would be “the absolute top subject” at the October summit.
Reinfeldt said he expected to oversee the launch of the Lisbon treaty, “including the elected council chairman [Europe president]“.
He added that if the treaty was ratified by all member states, he expected “very many names” to be put forward for the presidency.
José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, who will succeed to the EU presidency after Reinfeldt in January, is also an opponent of Blair.
France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, an early fan of the idea of President Blair, appears now to have turned lukewarm.
William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, said the creation of a new EU president “could be enormously damaging for Europe”.
“Any holder is likely to try to centralise power for themselves in Brussels and dominate national foreign policies,” he said.
“In the hands of an operator as ambitious as Tony Blair, that is a near certainty. He should be let nowhere near the job.
“It shows what a grip Lord Mandelson now has over Gordon Brown that he has been forced to support his bitterest rival.”
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EU governments back Barroso for second term
July 9th, 2009 |
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• Confirmation of president pushed back to September
• Greens led by Cohn-Bendit leading No campaign
The 27 governments of the European Union today threw their full weight behind a second five-year term for José Manuel Barroso as president of the European commission, challenging the new European parliament to rubber-stamp their choice. The parliament meets next week in Strasbourg, but government leaders’ hopes that Barroso would be instantly enthroned have been defeated by a backlash from the centre-left. Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister who took over the rotating chairmanship of the EU last week, said today that the full endorsement of Barroso by 27 governments should see the former Portuguese prime minister confirmed as soon as possible.
But Reinfeldt has already suffered one defeat in his first week as EU president, seeing the parliament vote pushed back by two months until September.
“The council [of government leaders] has taken its responsibility for completing the selection of a commission president. I hope that we in Europe can move forward as soon as possible to resolve the important issues we have before us, such as the climate and financial crises,” said Reinfeldt.
He fears a leadership vacuum as Europe wrestles with economic meltdown, rising unemployment, and the run-up to the crucial global climate change negotiations in Copenhagen in December.
But the social democrats and the Greens in the European parliament have forced a delay in the vote on Barroso who is strongly supported by Britain, both Labour and Conservative, by the centre-left governments of Portugal and Spain, and by the centre-right across the EU.
Barroso has been lobbying strenuously for a quick reappointment. He has been most worried about the ambivalent support from President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.The Greens in the parliament, led by Danny Cohn-Bendit, are spearheading a No to Barroso campaign, arguing he has displayed feeble leadership. The second biggest caucus, the social democrats, have led the drive to delay the vote in an attempt to extract maximum concessions from Barroso over policies and the shape of his new commission. The social democrats’ leader, Martin Schulz, is believed to be demanding that a quarter of commission portfolios go to social democrats, a tall order that Barroso will struggle to deliver on.
Commission officials admit that Barroso is worried that his second term could fall victim to personnel horsetrading among member states following the Irish vote.
Under the Lisbon treaty the EU is to get its first sitting president and a more powerful foreign policy chief. If the Irish vote yes to Lisbon, as widely expected, the new plum posts will be up for grabs and the head of the commission post could be thrown into the mix, jeopardising Barroso’s chances.
The tussle over Barroso is part of a power struggle between the European council of national governments, traditionally the strongest power in the EU, and the parliament, which is gaining in clout and is seeking to challenge the supremacy of the governments.
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BNP leader: sink boats with migrants on board
July 9th, 2009 |
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Boats carrying illegal migrants to Europe should be sunk Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, said yesterday.
In a provocative intervention, Griffin, elected to the European parliament last month, called on the EU to introduce “very tough” measures to prevent illegal migrants entering Europe from Africa.
“If there’s measures to set up some kind of force or to help, say the Italians, set up a force which actually blocks the Mediterranean then we’d support that,” Griffin told BBC Parliament’s The Record Europe.
“But the only measure, sooner or later, which is going to stop immigration and stop large numbers of sub-Saharan Africans dying on the way to get over here is to get very tough with those coming over. Frankly, they need to sink several of those boats. Anyone coming up with measures like that, we’ll support, but anything which is there as a ‘oh, we need to do something about it’ but in the end doing something about it means bringing them into Europe we will oppose.”
Shirin Wheeler, the programme’s presenter, interrupted him to say the EU did not murder people. “I didn’t say anyone should be murdered at sea – I say boats should be sunk, they can throw them a life raft and they can go back to Libya,” Griffin said. “But Europe has, sooner or later, to close its borders or it’s simply going to be swamped by the third world.”
Griffin’s comments were especially controversial because many thousands of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempt to make the crossing to Europe on rickety boats during the summer. Many land on Lampedusa, the Italian island less than 100 miles from Tunisia. The BBC said 37,000 migrants landed on Italian shores last year, a 75% increase on the year before.
Italy gave Libya three patrol boats in May to help control the number of migrants crossing the Mediterranean. The BBC reported that Roberto Maroni, the Italian interior minister, a member of the anti-immigration Northern League, had described the first 200 migrants returned to Libya as a “historic” moment.
Griffin also said the BNP failed to form an alliance in the European parliament with parties from other EU countries. He said talks with the French National Front and Italy’s Northern League had broken down after the Italian party decided to sit with the UK Independence party.
“No one was prepared to commit themselves knowing that we had not got [the Northern League] on board,” Griffin told parliament.com. “Even so, we will continue to work together with these other groups and share ideas.”
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G8 must avoid man-made disaster
July 7th, 2009 |
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Europe leads on climate change but must be more ambitious by expanding carbon trading and clean development mechanism reform
The symbolic meeting place of the G8 in L’Aquila is a signal of the world’s solidarity with Italy after the terrible earthquake earlier this year. It is also a unique chance to prevent another disaster – this one man-made. Climate change is happening and it is happening fast. When G8 leaders meet in L’Aquila, a global, wide-ranging and ambitious post 2012 agreement in Copenhagen must be their top priority. An agreement which by respecting science brings real global emission reductions.
Such a deal in Copenhagen will demonstrate that we are serious about tackling the climate challenge. This will stimulate the necessary investments to create a green economy, creating new jobs and driving growth over the next two or three decades. Those who understand this today will be the winners of tomorrow.
The post-crisis economy will be very different from its predecessor. And we will not get the same chance twice. That is why the measures to tackle the economic crisis and fight climate change must be done at the same time. We know that there is ample room for improvement in the energy efficiency of businesses, consumers and the government. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, 54% of the abatement measures needed to keep to a 2C global warming target could be reached through the introduction of existing energy efficient technologies.
The economic crisis can thus be a trigger for smart climate solutions that also save money and provide better energy security.
We go to L’Aquila with a number of key objectives. We will insist on the need to respect the 2C target. We will reiterate the need for a global goal of achieving at least a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050. In addition, we will ask all developed countries to reduce emissions by at least 80% in the same period and underpin these efforts through robust and comparable mid-term reductions. A key part of the solution will be financing of the fight against climate change: the EU will come forward with proposals in good time on financing, and is of course ready to play its full part.
Indeed, as the largest contributors to past emissions, we of course agree that the developed countries have a special responsibility to take the lead. But this is not going to be enough. The emerging economies, for example, where growth in emissions is surging, must also join in the effort. We must all do our part, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
The European Union and its member states are proud of the commitments we have made, to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, and are ready to go further and reduce them by 30% in the context of an ambitious Copenhagen agreement. We are ready to share our experience, such as on emissions trading, with others. We would like to see an OECD wide emissions trading system by 2015. We would also like to reform and develop the clean development mechanism and thereby bring new investment and new technology to the poorest people on the planet.
We are determined to bring European leadership to bear in facilitating an agreement at Copenhagen of which we can all be proud. There is no alternative. If we fail now, we are breaching the contract that all parents must make with their children: to leave them a better world. Let us turn climate change into a global opportunity in L’Aquila.
• Fredrik Reinfeldt is the prime minister of Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency. José Manuel Barroso is president of the European commission.
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G8 must avoid man-made disaster
July 7th, 2009 |
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Europe leads on climate change but must be more ambitious by expanding carbon trading and clean development mechanism reform
The symbolic meeting place of the G8 in L’Aquila is a signal of the world’s solidarity with Italy after the terrible earthquake earlier this year. It is also a unique chance to prevent another disaster – this one man-made. Climate change is happening and it is happening fast. When G8 leaders meet in L’Aquila, a global, wide-ranging and ambitious post 2012 agreement in Copenhagen must be their top priority. An agreement which by respecting science brings real global emission reductions.
Such a deal in Copenhagen will demonstrate that we are serious about tackling the climate challenge. This will stimulate the necessary investments to create a green economy, creating new jobs and driving growth over the next two or three decades. Those who understand this today will be the winners of tomorrow.
The post-crisis economy will be very different from its predecessor. And we will not get the same chance twice. That is why the measures to tackle the economic crisis and fight climate change must be done at the same time. We know that there is ample room for improvement in the energy efficiency of businesses, consumers and the government. In fact, according to the International Energy Agency, 54% of the abatement measures needed to keep to a 2C global warming target could be reached through the introduction of existing energy efficient technologies.
The economic crisis can thus be a trigger for smart climate solutions that also save money and provide better energy security.
We go to L’Aquila with a number of key objectives. We will insist on the need to respect the 2C target. We will reiterate the need for a global goal of achieving at least a 50% reduction of global emissions by 2050. In addition, we will ask all developed countries to reduce emissions by at least 80% in the same period and underpin these efforts through robust and comparable mid-term reductions. A key part of the solution will be financing of the fight against climate change: the EU will come forward with proposals in good time on financing, and is of course ready to play its full part.
Indeed, as the largest contributors to past emissions, we of course agree that the developed countries have a special responsibility to take the lead. But this is not going to be enough. The emerging economies, for example, where growth in emissions is surging, must also join in the effort. We must all do our part, in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities.
The European Union and its member states are proud of the commitments we have made, to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020, and are ready to go further and reduce them by 30% in the context of an ambitious Copenhagen agreement. We are ready to share our experience, such as on emissions trading, with others. We would like to see an OECD wide emissions trading system by 2015. We would also like to reform and develop the clean development mechanism and thereby bring new investment and new technology to the poorest people on the planet.
We are determined to bring European leadership to bear in facilitating an agreement at Copenhagen of which we can all be proud. There is no alternative. If we fail now, we are breaching the contract that all parents must make with their children: to leave them a better world. Let us turn climate change into a global opportunity in L’Aquila.
• Fredrik Reinfeldt is the prime minister of Sweden, which currently holds the EU presidency. José Manuel Barroso is president of the European commission.
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Blair faces battle for presidency of Europe
July 1st, 2009 |
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Former prime minister, who is believed to be considering bidding for the post, faces stiffening opposition from Sweden and Spain
Tony Blair’s ambition to become Europe’s first president have been set back by stiffening opposition from Sweden and Spain, the two countries chairing the EU for the next year.
Senior officials in Stockholm, which assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU today, said they feared a President Blair would be a divisive figure, triggering friction between small and large European countries, and added that José Luis RodrÃguez Zapatero, the Spanish prime minister, was even more strongly opposed to Blair securing the post and usurping Madrid’s running of the union next year.
The decision to appoint a new sitting European president, for a maximum of five years, is to be taken before the end of the year if Ireland votes yes in October in a referendum on the Lisbon treaty streamlining the way the EU is run and also creating the new post.
Fredrik Reinfeldt, the Swedish prime minister, made clear his aversion to Blair securing the plum post, without mentioning the former prime minister by name.
“The small countries don’t want a strong leader because they fear he will be run by the big [EU] countries,” said Reinfeldt.
European governments had to decide whether the post ought to be turned into “a strong leader for Europe” or whether the president’s role should be limited to chairing EU summits and “not putting the [European] commission president in the shadow,” said the Swedish prime minister.
It was clear he preferred the latter role, a lower profile and less influential function that would probably be less attractive to Blair.
The former prime minister is believed to be strongly considering bidding for the post. Former close aides have indicated they could be moving to Brussels. But no announcement of a candidacy is expected until after the Irish referendum.
When Blair’s name first surfaced for the position last year, it quickly became clear that he had the support of France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, but was opposed by Berlin, where the chancellor, Angela Merkel, is said to prefer a more limited role for the president and a weaker figure.
That situation may no longer obtain. Sarkozy is said to have gone cool on Blair and could support Felipe González, the former Spanish prime minister, while Merkel’s opposition seems to have diminished despite the fact that Blair is widely mistrusted in Germany for his role in the Iraq war and because he failed to use his 10 years in Downing Street to put Britain “at the heart of Europe”.
Privately, senior Swedish officials questioned the merits of a Blair presidency. Running the EU for the next year, the Swedish and Spanish governments enjoy agenda-setting powers that could complicate a Blair bid.
The Briton’s main assets, however, are name and brand recognition, international contacts, and the absence, so far, of any serious rival for the post.
Last year, the Germans were said to be backing either Jean-Claude Juncker, the veteran prime minister of Luxembourg, or Wolfgang Schüssel, the former Austrian chancellor. Both are no longer mentioned as credible contenders.
Rather than names, the Swedes want to concentrate on settling the job description and defining the role and powers for the new post.
The job of European president, held for a maximum of two terms of 30 months, is established by the Lisbon treaty, along with the new post of European foreign policy chief, who is also to be a vice-president of the European commission.
The president is to be appointed by European heads of state or government, but the role and powers have yet to be agreed, except that the person should be a former president or prime minister.
British diplomats say that the first president will shape the role, while the Swedes say the job description should precede the appointment.
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Death of the super model
June 29th, 2009 |
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As Sweden takes over the presidency of the EU, the sad truth is that its famed social state is failing
The Swedes are coming. As Europe lurches to the right amid financial and climate meltdown, a horde of cool-headed Nordic warriors are riding to the rescue. Sweden’s EU presidency from 1 July will be greeted as a breath of fresh air after the Czech leadership, what with the latter’s antics on climate change and arousal chez Berlusconi. What the EU needs is a whiff of sense and reason. And who better to provide it than the social-minded, climate-conscious Swedes?
Sweden still sets hearts racing across Europe. The “Swedish model” might bring up thoughts of a nubile blonde rather than a strong social state, but it is in the latter incarnation that my home country stirs the passions of left-leaning Europeans. Whatever Sweden does must be right, or so reason progressive politicians and Guardian journalists – not to mention scores of Swedes. But beyond this blue-eyed vision lurks a darker reality. Sweden’s conservative coalition government has stood still as the financial crisis has engulfed the country. Jobs, social services and healthcare are eroding. The Sweden Democrats – the equivalent of the BNP – are on the rise. The social state is failing. The Swedish dream is no more.
Swedes were roused from this dream with the 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme. Palme might have left behind “a country where no one was poor and no one had room for optimism” as Andrew Brown puts it, but it was Sweden’s homemade financial meltdown of the 1990s that finally killed off the dream. Poverty was added to the pessimism. Savage cuts hit schools, unemployment rocketed, the krona sank – leaving the social system in a disarray from which it has not recovered. The conservative government at the time has lately been praised worldwide for its handling of the crisis. Actually the bankers were rewarded, not punished, while the rest of the country is still reeling from the cuts, selloffs and dashed dreams the crisis provoked. But the idea of a well-oiled Swedish model insulated from the shockwaves of capitalism runs on like a Volvo. The reality, like troubled, Ford-owned Volvo itself, is more globalised and gloomy than that.
Take healthcare. Swedes do not enjoy free public care: it costs to see a GP. That is, if you manage to see one. Queues are long and scandals rack the system. Psychiatric care, the source of many such scandals, has a near-medieval penchant for authoritarianism with few European equivalents. People are locked up for months for not taking medicine, given no therapy, and spat out of the system into despair and destitution. The mentally ill die in wards and in outpatient isolation. And they do not even have charities to turn to because state-run healthcare is supposed to work: this is Sweden, after all.
Those who do enjoy Sweden’s second-rate public services are lucky. Undocumented migrants, who lack a “personal number”, are barred from day-to-day healthcare. Foreigners do not fit easily into a social system built on the postwar notion of the folkhem, or people’s home, whose rightful inhabitants are the native Swedes. Despite the xenophobic right’s lack of electoral success, Sweden is divided between those inside the system and those outside it – including the asylum seekers now deported en masse to Iraq. But migrants should be happy to be here. This is Sweden, after all.
Even being in the system is less rewarding than it was. Unemployment benefits are falling behind those of other countries, and access to social security involves Big Brother-style controls most Europeans would abhor. The state’s iron grip remains even as the care that used to go with it has gone. Swedes might lack Britain’s profusion of CCTVs, but their lives are scrutinised by an armada of bureaucrats. A new law lets authorities tap all phone and internet traffic crossing the borders. Norwegian lawyers have sued over privacy infringement, leaving the prime minister perplexed – because in Sweden, the state is there to help us.
Just as Sweden was in the vanguard of postwar social democracy, it has since the 1990s become a neoliberal experiment. The experiment has failed, though this fails to register in Sweden itself. No waves rock the stagnant pools of officialdom: strikes are almost unheard of and the tabloids are too busy flogging diet tips to bother. The Swedes cannot let go of their belief in the system. Nor can many on the European left.
Admittedly, Sweden might seem a haven of tranquillity compared with other European states. But in the hunt for a humane social model, Sweden no longer provides the blueprint. Europe’s progressives will have to construct something new. But to do that, those who let their minds drift northwards for inspiration first have to wake up: the Swedish dream is over.
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EU envoys may leave Iran in protest
June 29th, 2009 |
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European Union members are threatening the collective withdrawal of their ambassadors from Iran to secure the release of the British embassy employees being held by the authorities.
EU diplomats said tonight all the envoys could be recalled “temporarily” in solidarity with staff from the British mission in Tehran who have been accused – entirely falsely, UK officials insist – of involvement in protests over the “stolen” presidential election.
Five of the nine Iranians, who were arrested on Saturday, were freed today, but four others, understood to be the most senior, were still being questioned. None of them have been named.
As the row with Britain continued, Iran’s guardian council, the country’s top legislative body, confirmed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the disputed poll after a partial recount, finally dashing hopes of a different outcome.
Gordon Brown underlined concern over the embassy incident when he called it unacceptable and unjustifiable that the employees were being held. The prime minister was speaking in London alongside the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso, who expressed full solidarity with the UK.
Yesterday, EU foreign ministers warned Iran that any “harassment or intimidation” of embassy staff would be met with a “strong and collective” response. Most of the 27 EU member states have their own ambassadors in Tehran.
Silvio Berlusconi, who will next week host a meeting of the G8 rich nations said todaythat they would discuss sanctions against Iran. Asked about sanctions, he replied that Iran “will be the first issue we will deal with”.
Diplomats said it had not been agreed when the EU envoys would be recalled, or for how long. But the threat is clearly intended to signal seriousness of intent to the Tehran authorities in the hope they will back down.
Iran’s foreign ministry had earlier appeared to respond to the warning by saying it did not wish to damage or downgrade relations with the UK, after a telephone conversation yesterday between David Miliband, the foreign secretary, and his Iranian counterpart, Manuchehr Mottaki. Miliband had demanded the immediate release of the embassy staff.
But the fear in London is that the foreign ministry is not in control, with regime hardliners from the interior ministry and intelligence service calling the shots as part of a campaign to pin the blame for the unrest on foreign governments.
Last week, as the trouble continued, Iran expelled two British diplomats – the embassy’s second and third secretaries – in protest at what it called their undiplomatic approach. That prompted the expulsion of two diplomats from Iran’s London embassy.
The guardian council’s recount of 10% of votes has always been treated with scepticism by opposition supporters and foreign observers. Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says he beat Ahmadinejad, demanded an annulment of the 63%-34% result, which he says was rigged.
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Iran frees UK embassy employees
June 29th, 2009 |
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Four still held for ‘interrogation’, says Iranian foreign ministry, amid claims of involvement in post-election unrest
Downing Street today condemned the continued detention of four Iranians employed by the country’s British embassy , as a partial recount of disputed presidential poll got under way.
Nine embassy staff were arrested on Saturday accused of playing a significant role in the protests. Five have since been released, while the other four are “being interrogated”, according Hassan Qashqavi, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesman.
Gordon Brown’s spokesman said: “We are deeply concerned at their arrest and their continued detention. These arrests are completely unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
Yesterday, the Iranian intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi, said Tehran had video proof that Iranian employees at the embassy “were distinctly present at the scene of clashes” following the 12 June election.
“The embassy sent its local staff to rallies and inculcated ideas into the protesters and the society,” he said.
Speaking last night, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, said some of the nine employees detained had been released.
He denied any had played a role in the clashes between security forces and demonstrators.
“We have protested in strong terms, directly to the Iranian authorities, about the arrests,” he said.
“The idea that the British embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran … is wholly without foundation.”
The EU demanded that all the detained embassy employees be freed.
The escalation followed attacks on Britain by the Iranian authorities and media, who have singled out the UK for allegedly fomenting trouble. The British embassy is in a compound behind walls three metres high on Ferdowsi Avenue in central Tehran. It has at least 70 local employees.
Harassment by Iranian security forces is common but arrests are not.
Last week, as protests continued over the election, Iran expelled two British diplomats, prompting the tit-for-tat expulsion of two diplomats from Iran’s London embassy. The families of British embassy staff have left Iran.
Iran’s powerful guardian council began the partial election recount today but has offered to recount only 10% of the votes.
It has dismissed claims of large-scale vote rigging and refused to annul the result, which saw the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, returned to power.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, denounced “interfering statements” by western officials and appealed to both sides in the dispute “not to stoke the emotions of the young”.
But Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, his rival and a former president, demanded a “fair and thorough” review of complaints about the election, in which Ahmadinejad was declared to have won 63% of the vote.
Rafsanjani is backing the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he was the winner.
On his website, Mousavi said he was not dropping his challenge despite pressure from Iran’s ruling clergy.
He has rejected a partial recount, and his supporters defied riot police and militiamen to hold a mourning rally outside a mosque in the capital, Tehran.
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Extradition without justice
Gary McKinnon’s fight to face trial in the UK casts a stark light on our unfair international extradition agreements
Gary McKinnon’s fight to be prosecuted in the UK casts a stark light on our extradition arrangements with America. US prosecutors are threatening him with up to 70 years in a “supermax” prison – and this a man with Asperger’s syndrome who could hardly be less suited to such punishment.
But Britain’s extradition arrangements beyond those with the Americans make for equally unhappy reading. The Extradition Act was passed in the aftermath of September 11 and much of its focus is on fast-track extradition of terror suspects. But as with other aspects of the “war on terror“, the net result is damage to long-held principles of fairness and justice. Extradition arrangements are important. They ensure fugitives from justice do not escape prosecution for their crimes – and indeed this is required under human rights law. But it is vital that safeguards are in place.
Liberty believes, as did the UK parliament for many years, that no one should be extradited unless and until the requesting country makes out a basic case against them in a UK court. Failure on this front can result in an innocent person being sent halfway across the world – away from family, supporters and legal advisers – to face unsound, trumped-up or politically motivated charges, to say nothing of probable pre-trial imprisonment. This can and does happen under the European arrest warrant.
Even more worryingly, the home secretary has made orders dispensing with the requirement of a prima facie case in respect of over 20 other countries outside the European Union, including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, the Russian Federation and Turkey. Not only that, the European arrest warrant system, endorsed by parliament in the Extradition Act 2003, allows a person to be extradited to an EU country for something that may not be an offence in the UK provided the conduct fits within a broad list of 32 offences. While at first blush there seems no problem with extraditing someone for “murder”, we might think differently if another country’s laws define murder as including abortion.
Fast-track extradition is also provided for if the alleged offence is one of “racism or xenophobia”, however this is defined by the requesting country. Many EU countries criminalise speech offences to an extent that the UK – with its history of a robust approach to freedom of expression – does not. Yet a UK court cannot bar extradition on the basis that it is not a crime recognised by UK law.
More and more cases are appearing of unfair extradition practices that demonstrate the very real problems with the current system. This is why Liberty has a new campaign, Extradition Watch, to fight the unfairness of the current system. Fast-track extradition purely on the basis of administrative convenience and efficiency is justice denied. There are very good historical reasons why extradition safeguards were developed and recent cases like those of McKinnon and Andrew Symeou (a young Briton who faces extradition to Greece on extremely flimsy evidence) show why these safeguards should still form part of UK law. Liberty and others propose amending UK extradition arrangements to reinstate these traditional safeguards.
We are yet to learn what the courts will decide in respect of McKinnon’s last-ditch appeals. But it is certain that any legislative reforms will be too late to apply to his case. If this tragic case indicates the direction of travel for UK extradition law, we ignore the warning at our peril.