December 17, 2009

EU's senior prosecutor quits amid corruption probe
The EU prosecutors' organization Eurojust announced Thursday its Portuguese president has resigned after two years in office as he faces a corruption probe at home. Jose Luis Lopes da Mota's decision followed a Portuguese Public Prosecutor's office disciplinary committee's announcement that it has suspended him for 30 days. The committee ruled that Lopes da Mota had earlier this year pressured two Portuguese investigating magistrates to drop their probe into alleged bribery by a British real estate developer to obtain government approval for a large shopping mall near Lisbon.
Read article at businessweek.com

December 14, 2009

EU environmental policy awards millions in windfall profits to oil companies and heavy industry
As national ministers meet this week in Copenhagen to discuss a new climate change deal, Open Europe has found that under the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), oil and gas companies’ operations in the UK were granted a surplus of carbon permits worth €28.6m in 2008. For example, ExxonMobil received €4.3m and Total received €5.4m. Meanwhile, heavy industrial polluters such as Corus received €47m, while cement firms Hanson and Lafarge received €17.3m and €20.2m.
Read press release on the Open Europe website (UK)
Comment: Open Europe has found that the two largest carbon trading exchanges, European Climate Exchange and Bluenext , which includes members such as Barclays Bank, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch and Shell, have earned a combined average of €245,000 a day from the trading of carbon permits so far in 2009, in transaction fees alone. In total, they have made over €57m between them in 2009.

December 14, 2009

'Phantom MEPs' to cost taxpayers £6m a year
Eighteen new MEPs whose seats have been created by the Lisbon Treaty are to receive full pay, perks and an allowance worth an annual £300,000 each despite being unable to start work for up to four years. The "phantom" group from 12 countries, including one MEP from Britain, will have no powers but will be entitled to draw staff and office allowances at an annual cost of more than £6 million and, possibly, full salaries. The 18, who will initially have "observer" status, will also be entitled to tax-free allowances of £255 for every day of their limbo existence in Brussels and can claim back business class travel.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

December 5, 2009

Dr David Kelly: doctors start legal action for new inquest
Six senior doctors have begun legal action to force a new inquest into the death of Dr David Kelly, the scientist who died days after being exposed as the source of a controversial BBC story on the Iraq war. The action is being taken because six doctors are convinced that the original verdict of suicide is unsafe and should be overturned. Some suspect that Dr Kelly, 59, was murdered shortly after it was revealed that he was the source of a BBC story which alleged that evidence against Iraq had been "sexed up" by the Government in order to justify the 2003 invasion. The body of Dr Kelly, who was a UN weapons inspector, was found more than six years ago in woods near his Oxfordshire home after he went out for a walk. His wrist had been slashed.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

December 1, 2009

Blair may have ‘signed in blood’ to topple Saddam a year before war
Tony Blair and President Bush might have secretly “signed in blood” a deal to overthrow Saddam Hussein a year before ordering the Iraq war, according to a former senior diplomat. Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s Ambassador to Washington in the run-up to the war, said an agreement to aim for “regime change” may have been reached during a private meeting at the President’s Crawford ranch in April 2002.
Read article in the Tehran Times (Iran)

November 30, 2009

Iraq inquiry: The 'just war' that was illegal and immoral
Tony Blair, with a truly toxic mixture of sanctimoniousness and wealth-enhancing chutzpah, has always maintained that his Iraq invasion was a just war. He has held to this shibboleth with trembling lip and quasi-religious conviction. But the letter to him from Lord Goldsmith, which emerged at the weekend, changes everything. Dated July 29, 2002, a full eight months before Blair launched his grotesque Middle-eastern misadventure, the then Attorney General wrote to tell him that such an invasion would be illegal under international law. It is in the bundle of documents at the Chilcot inquiry, to be addressed when the former prime minister, abortive President of Europe and putative Middle East peace envoy gives evidence to it in the new year.
Read article by George Pitcher in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

November 24, 2009

EU's top executive refuses to rule out Brussels tax
STRASBOURG — The European Union's top executive on Tuesday refused to rule out a bloc-wide tax on its half-billion population, in remarks sure to raise eurosceptic hackles. Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, said he would look at raising direct EU taxation -- a debate that has sparked anger especially in fiercely sovereign Britain.
Read AFP news report at google.com

November 24, 2009

NGO voices new concern over 'transparency' of incoming EU commissioners
A leading NGO has voiced concern about the "very weak" code of conduct covering the professional activities of future and ex-commissioners. The claim comes in the wake of a review of the rules over appropriate etiquette, recently announced by the executive's president Jose Manuel Barroso. It is claimed that five years ago, the last time a team of commissioners was replaced, the approval procedure for post-commission employment plans proved "inadequate." It is said, for example, that the one-year 'cooling-off' period was not respected in the case of health and consumer commissioner Pavel Telicka who "established a for-profit lobby consultancy firm within weeks of leaving the commission."
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: Perhaps not surprisingly, considering the fact that EU commissioners are appointed on behalf of corporate interests, there are rumours about several current commissioners considering future lobby work for large corporations.

November 24, 2009

Iran gains $5b on dollar to euro shift
Iran has gained $5 billion through its policy of shifting away from the U.S. currency in favor of the euro, Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani was quoted as saying on Monday. “Iran has considerably reduced the amount of U.S. dollars in its currency basket,” said Mahmoud Bahmani in Tehran at the 3rd Seminar on Banking Services and Export, Press TV reported. Since October 2007, Iran has received 85 percent of its oil revenues in currencies other than the U.S. dollar, and “the country expresses determination to substitute the greenback for the remaining 15 percent of its oil revenues.”
Read article in the Tehran Times (Iran)

November 24, 2009

Police arresting people "just for the DNA"
Britain has built the world's biggest DNA database without proper political debate and police routinely arrest people just to get their DNA profiles onto the system, the genetics watchdog said in a report on Tuesday.
Read news report at reuters.com
Comment: Set up in 1995, the UK’s DNA database contains the profiles of five million citizens, eight percent of the British population, thus making it the world's largest in proportion to population size. This latest report provides further evidence that Britain is becoming a "surveillance society," where people's personal details are stored and their movements constantly monitored.

November 22, 2009

Herman Van Rompuy: Europe's first president to push for 'Euro tax'
Herman Van Rompuy, Europe's first president, is to join forces with the European Commission to push for sweeping new tax raising powers for Brussels. Within days of taking office in January, the former Belgian prime minister will put his weight behind controversial proposals already floated by the commission's head, José Manuel Barroso, for a new "Euro tax".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

November 19, 2009

Open Europe responds to outcome of EU summit
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy has been nominated EU President, while the UK Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton will become EU Foreign Minister. Open Europe Director Lorraine Mullally responded saying: "This whole process has been a stitch-up and a perfect illustration of just how out of touch and anti-democratic the EU now is. 27 EU leaders met behind closed doors over a cosy dinner in Brussels to thrash out who will represent Europe's 500 million citizens on the world stage, without so much as a wink to voters as to what on earth was going on. After years of insisting that the Lisbon Treaty would bring the EU closer to citizens, how sad and ironic that the very first big decision was made after a secretive backroom deal which should have no place in a 21st century democracy. This has been EU politics at its very worst. Neither Herman Van Rompuy nor Catherine Ashton has any democratic mandate to speak on behalf of Europe's citizens. Most people were denied a say on the Lisbon Treaty which created these posts, and now the jobs themselves have been filled without the slightest input from voters, nor even national parliaments."
Read press release on the Open Europe website (UK)

November 19, 2009

European Union to seek special status at United Nations
The European Union is pushing to upgrade its status at the UN to put it on a par with quasi-states such as the Vatican and Palestine. EU officials are discussing a plan to seek a controversial UN General Assembly resolution that would recognise the 27-nation bloc’s new unified foreign policy envisaged in the Lisbon treaty. The resolution, if adopted, would give the EU its own seat and nameplate in UN General Assembly chamber and committees and allow it to take part in debates and co-sponsor resolutions — but not vote.
Read article in The Times (UK)

November 16, 2009

Top candidate debates EU tax at elite dinner
Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy, a top candidate for the new European Union president job, laid out his views on future EU financing at a dinner of the secretive Bilderberg group last week. The event took place at Val Duchesse, a former priory on the outskirts of Brussels, on Thursday (12 November), with guests including Belgian industrialist and Bilderberg chairman Etienne Davignon, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and luminaries from the worlds of international politics and business, according to Belgian broadsheet De Tijd. The Belgian leader is reported to have said in a speech that: "New resources will be necessary for the financing of the welfare state. Green tax instruments are a possibility, but they are ambiguous: This type of tax will eventually be extinguished. But the possibilities of financial levies at European level must be seriously examined and for the first time the large countries in the union are open to that."
Read article at euobserver.com
Comment: To all intents and purposes, this dinner was Herman Van Rompuy’s job interview for the post of EU President. Unlike in any true democracy, European citizens are not permitted to choose their president in an election. Instead, the entire executive level of government in the ‘Brussels EU’ is chosen on behalf of corporate interests. In other words, the clandestine Bilderberg Group – whose meetings are held behind closed doors, away from the public eye, and attended on an invitation-only basis by the rich and powerful ultra elite from the worlds of the aristocracy, politics, business, banking and journalism – have more influence over the selection of the European Union’s president than do ordinary citizens. For more reports on Herman Van Rompuy’s “job interview” with the Bilderbergers, click here, here and here.

November 15, 2009

Big rise in birth defects may be linked to war
BIRTH defects in Falluja have increased to 15 times the normal rate, in a spike that may be linked to the Iraq War. Early-life cancers have also risen, possibly in connection with toxic materials left over from battles. Detailed clinical records of all newborns are being compiled after the extraordinary rise was spotted. Defects include a baby born with two heads and babies with multiple tumours or nervous system problems. Neurologists and obstetricians in the city say the rise is unprecedented. Iraqi and British officials have petitioned the United Nations to ask for an independent investigation and for help to clean up toxic materials.
Read article on the Scotland on Sunday website (Scotland/UK)

November 13, 2009

Latvian candidate for EU President says selection process is 'Soviet'
Vaira Vike-Freiberga, a Latvian candidate to be the European Union's first President, claimed the appointment is being conducted with Soviet-style secrecy and contempt for the public. Mrs Vike-Freiberga, 71, the former Latvian President and the Baltic state's first post-Communist leader after independence from the Soviet Union, attacked the EU for operating in "darkness and behind closed doors"."The European Union should stop working like the former Soviet Union," she said.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

November 13, 2009

Czech PM brings Lisbon treaty to Rome ending ratification process
Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer today brought the EU reform Lisbon treaty to Rome where it was placed in the depository at the Italian Foreign Ministry, completing the process of ratification of the document. The Czech Republic was the last EU country to place the treaty in the depository. The treaty can now take force on December 1.
Read article at ceskenoviny.cz (Czech Republic)

November 12, 2009

British ex-PM Blair faces Iraq inquiry next year
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair will face questioning next year about Britain's entry into the Iraq war from a committee which has heard the decision was illegal and based on deception, its chairman said on Friday. The order to send 45,000 British troops to take part in the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein has always been controversial and led to massive anti-war protests in London. During meetings with the inquiry committee held before the formal hearings begin, relatives of British soldiers killed during the conflict accused Blair of taking Britain into an illegal war and deceiving the public.
Read news report at reuters.com

November 3, 2009

Czech president signs Lisbon treaty
Czech President Vaclav Klaus signed the Lisbon treaty Tuesday, meaning the agreement can come into force as the European Union's governing framework. Klaus was an opponent of the treaty until the end, Financial Times reported, only signing the document hours after the Czech constitutional court ruled the agreement did not violate the country's Constitution.
Read article on the United Press International (UPI) website

October 26, 2009

Lisbon Treaty will usher in 'European surveillance state'
The Lisbon Treaty of the European Union will hasten the creation of a “European surveillance state”, a think-tank has claimed. Open Europe, which opposes greater European integration, said that the ratification of the controversial treaty will see powers over home affairs and justice policy “almost totally shifted to the EU level.” That will allow the creation of new EU-wide systems to monitor citizens’ private lives and movements, the think-tank said.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

October 15, 2009

MEPs call for compulsory 'EU lessons' in schools
MEPs are calling for school pupils to be forced to take European Union lessons to counter "lies" about Brussels. Leaders of the centre-right EPP grouping in the European Parliament say there should be compulsory classes for 14-year-olds in all member states. The calls are being led by Mario David, a Portuguese MEP who was chief of staff to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso when he was the country's prime minister.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Without doubt, the compulsory ‘EU lessons’ envisaged by Mario David and his colleagues would not result in school pupils being taught the real facts about the EU.

October 15, 2009

Chilcot inquiry may consider legality of Iraq war
The Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq war has appointed one of the most renowned experts on international law as an adviser, in what is viewed as an indication that the Blair government's legal justification for the invasion is to come under serious scrutiny.Dame Rosalyn Higgins, who was the most senior female judge in the world when she was the president of the International Court of Justice, will advise the panel on legal issues as well as the wider investigation.
Read article on the Independent (UK)

October 14, 2009

Tony Blair 'misled' country over Iraq war, parents of dead soldiers tell inquiry
Parents of soldiers who died in Iraq have accused Tony Blair of lying to Britain over the decision to invade in 2003 and one said she wanted him indicted as a "war criminal", in an emotional first day of the Iraq Inquiry.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

October 13, 2009

I will not sign Lisbon Treaty, says Czech President
The President of the Czech Republic has no intention of signing the Lisbon treaty, a move that might allow David Cameron time to hold a British referendum on Europe. President Klaus, the fiercely Eurosceptic Czech leader, is the last obstacle for the agreement after its ratification in the other 26 EU states but he has told supporters that he will never sign, The Times has learnt. Asked during a walkabout on Sunday not to put his name to the treaty, Mr Klaus replied: “Don’t worry, I won’t.”
Read article in The Times (UK)

October 12, 2009

Opposition mounts to Blair EU presidency
Some of the most virulent opposition to Tony Blair getting the new top job in the EU, the council presidency, is coming from the ranks of his own Socialists – and not just in Britain, but all over Europe.
Read article at theparliament.com

October 7, 2009

Most 'remain against Afghan war'
Most people in the UK continue to oppose Britain's military operations in Afghanistan, a BBC survey suggests. Of 1,010 people polled on the eighth anniversary of the start of operations, 56% were opposed, 37% in favour, 6% unsure and 1% refused to answer.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

October 7, 2009

Berlusconi immunity law overruled
Italy's constitutional court has overturned a law granting Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi immunity from prosecution while in office. The move opens the possibility that Mr Berlusconi could stand trial in at least three court cases, including one in which he is accused of corruption. The judges said immunity violated the principle that all citizens were equal.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

EU draws up plans to establish itself as 'world power'
The European Union has drawn up secret plans to establish itself as a global power in its own right with the authority to sign international agreements on behalf of member states. Confidential negotiations on how to implement the Lisbon Treaty have produced proposals to allow the EU to negotiate treaties and even open embassies across the world. A letter conferring a full "legal personality" for the Union has been drafted in order for a new European diplomatic service to be recognised as fully fledged negotiators by international bodies and all non-EU countries. According to one confidential paper, the first pilot "embassies" are planned in New York, Kabul and Addis Ababa.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: It is now clear that the oil and drug cartel is attempting to use the ‘Brussels EU’ as a stepping-stone towards extending its control over the entire globe. The only way this scenario can be stopped is if the people of Europe and the world are educated about both the dark roots and the strategic plans of the oil and drug cartel to turn the world into a corporate dictatorship.

October 6, 2009

The demise of the dollar
In a graphic illustration of the new world order, Arab states have launched secret moves with China, Russia and France to stop using the US currency for oil trading.
In the most profound financial change in recent Middle East history, Gulf Arabs are planning – along with China, Russia, Japan and France – to end dollar dealings for oil, moving instead to a basket of currencies including the Japanese yen and Chinese yuan, the euro, gold and a new, unified currency planned for nations in the Gulf Co-operation Council, including Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Qatar. Secret meetings have already been held by finance ministers and central bank governors in Russia, China, Japan and Brazil to work on the scheme, which will mean that oil will no longer be priced in dollars. The plans, confirmed to The Independent by both Gulf Arab and Chinese banking sources in Hong Kong, may help to explain the sudden rise in gold prices, but it also augurs an extraordinary transition from dollar markets within nine years.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

October 5, 2009

Europe’s plot to take over the world
Fortified by its new foreign-policy structures, the Union is staking a claim to be taken seriously as a global superpower. David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary, says: “It shouldn’t be a G2 of the US and China. There should be a G3 with the European Union.” But what happens in Brussels – or even in trilateral dealings between the US, China and Europe – is a sideshow. The real key to Europe’s global ambitions is the Group of 20. Jean Monnet, the founding father of the EU, believed that European unity was “not an end in itself, but only a stage on the way to the organised world of tomorrow”. His successors in Brussels make no secret of the fact that they regard the Union’s brand of supranational governance as a global model.
Read article in the Financial Times (UK)

October 5, 2009

Is it all over between Britain and Europe?
The forced Yes vote in Ireland makes it respectable to ask whether the benefits outweigh the sacrifices of staying in the EU
The Irish volte-face on the Lisbon treaty is a significant though melancholy event. It is sad because it represents another national surrender to Brussels. If the European Union fails to get the result it wants, it asks a second time and applies some extra pressure. The Irish were sandbagged by the fear that they would become a second Iceland, a financial disaster area. Britain has not even had a first referendum, as a result of an elaborate European conspiracy. This conspiracy has changed the political question about Europe more than most politicians have yet realised. It has made the “better off out” policy a respectable part of political debate.
Read article in The Times (UK)

October 4, 2009

Irish vote sends Tony Blair racing to EU presidency
Germany and France aim to be kingmakers as revitalised European Union prepares to give former PM Blair the top job
European leaders led by Angela Merkel of Germany and Nicolas Sarkozy of France will act swiftly to make the EU's reform charter a reality after Ireland's Yes vote, despite the lone resistance of Vaclav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic. The strong endorsement of the Lisbon treaty by the Irish after eight years of divisive attempts to rewrite the EU's rule book, has sparked the jockeying for position over the plum jobs that it creates, with Tony Blair now a clear favourite to become the first permanent EU president.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

October 3, 2009

Silvio Berlusconi under fire from protesters for his attacks on press freedom
A rally to protest at the grip which Italy's prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, has on the press has attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators in Rome. Mr Berlusconi, 73, owns three of Italy's main television channels through his Mediaset empire and as prime minister also wields control over the three main stations of state broadcaster, RAI. He also owns a media publishing company and his family also controls Il Giornale newspaper - all of which have prompted criticism of him, with accusations of a conflict of interest.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

October 3, 2009

Will War Criminal Tony Blair become President of the European Union?
Major media outlets from the BBC in Britain to RTE in Ireland are now reporting that the Yes side scored a resounding victory in Ireland's vote Friday on the EU Lisbon Treaty. With the treaty's ratification, the obstacles preventing the total federalization of the EU superstate are now removed. As the Daily Mail reported earlier this week, one of the first orders of business for the post-Lisbon EU will be to appoint Tony Blair as the first President of the European Union. This move has been fully expected ever since Tony Blair's highly suspect conversion to Catholocism two years ago. Of course, the many laudatory pieces (and even the adversarial ones) we are likely to read about Mr. Blair in the coming weeks will signally fail to mention that he has been accused of numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity…
Read article on the Centre for Research on Globalization website (Canada)

October 2, 2009

EU 'homeland security' lacks democratic oversight, says watchdog
As European 'homeland security' sector stakeholders meet this week in Stockholm, a civil liberties watchdog is warning that decisions on the expansion of this lucrative new sector, hived off from public view and with minimal democratic scrutiny, are being made by the very companies that will ultimately profit from from them.
Read article at euobserver.com

September 22, 2009

Irish Elections and European Taxpayers' Money
When is politically directed state aid in Europe acceptable to the European Commission? Not when the German government tries to save jobs in the auto industry, or when the U.K. and others prop up failing banks. But these rules don’t apply when it’s Brussels itself trying to buy off a favored constituency. On Saturday, Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso announced €14.8 million in aid to help 2,400 laid-off Dell workers in Ireland find new jobs. If granted final approval, the cash will account for no less than 9.6% percent of the €154 million in payouts the European Globalization Adjustment Fund has pledged since its inception in late 2006. Meanwhile, these 2,400 represent 0.01% of the EU's 21.79 million unemployed workers. What makes Ireland's jobless uniquely deserving? Our guess: Their votes. The largesse comes two weeks before Ireland decides, again, on the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, an accord that Mr. Barroso and his unelected Commission would dearly like to see passed.
Read editorial in the Wall Street Journal (USA)
Comment: To learn why the Lisbon Treaty should be rejected by the people of Ireland and Europe, click here to read the online “EU-Facts” newspaper.

September 19, 2009

EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour"
The European Union is spending millions of pounds developing "Orwellian" technologies designed to scour the internet and CCTV images for "abnormal behaviour". A five-year research programme, called Project Indect, aims to develop computer programmes which act as "agents" to monitor and process information from web sites, discussion forums, file servers, peer-to-peer networks and even individual computers.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Unless the Lisbon Treaty is rejected, this is the direction in which the EU is headed. To sign the online petition rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, click here. To learn about the dark roots of the “Brussels EU”, click here.

September 18, 2009

New EU showcase building to cost taxpayers £280 million
A state of the art building that will cost taxpayers £280 million is to be built in Brussels to showcase the European Union's growing global ambitions and house the office of a new President.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

September 17, 2009

Obama shelves Europe missile plan
US President Barack Obama has shelved plans for controversial bases in Poland and the Czech Republic in a major overhaul of missile defence in Europe.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

September 16, 2009

The most important election in Europe, but the voters are not invited
Europe has just held its most significant election since 2004: more important than Tony Blair’s re-election, or Nicolas Sarkozy’s victory, and vastly more important than the coming poll in Germany. What? You hadn’t heard? Perhaps that’s because only 736 people were invited to participate. José Manuel Durão Barroso has just been re-elected President of the European Commission. Since Brussels now generates, depending on whose figures we believe, between 55 and 84 per cent of all the legislation in the member states, and since the European Commission is the only EU institution allowed to propose laws, I’d say that makes him the most powerful man in Europe. Yet the entirety of his mandate resides in a lacklustre secret ballot among Euro-MPs, who have just approved his reappointment by 382 votes to 219, with 117 abstentions.
Read Daniel Hannan's blog entry on the Daily Telegraph website (UK)
Comment: Far from being a democracy, the EU is essentially now a dictatorship. With Barroso’s re-election having been fixed up in advance by the leaders of the 27 member states during the summer recess, and ordinary citizens having no say whatsoever in the process, he was presented to the European Parliament with no alternative on offer and a majority of the votes already fixed. To learn the true facts about the EU, click here.

September 10, 2009

Brussels in 'frightening' grab for personal information
Civil liberties and privacy are being eroded at a "breathtaking" rate by European Union governments, according to a report. Civil liberties watchdog Statewatch criticised the EU's post-9/11 security strategy as a "frightening" grab for every aspect of individual information. The 60-page report - published on the seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington - said that the EU now saw data privacy and judicial scrutiny of police surveillance tactics as obstacles to efficient law enforcement co-operation, rather than rights to be safeguarded.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: To read the Statewatch report, click here.

September 10, 2009

Britain and France 'feared fall of Berlin Wall'
Britain and France feared the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 would return Nazi-era ambitions to Germany, exchanges between the two nations indicate. Secret British government documents to be published on Friday reveal the deep anxieties felt by Margaret Thatcher and François Mitterrand, the French president, following the fall of the wall. The documents, published by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, show that Mr Mitterrand privately warned Lady Thatcher that a reunited Germany might "make even more ground than had Hitler".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Recently discovered documents reveal that the undemocratic structure of the European Union has its roots in the post WWII plans of the German IG Farben/Nazi-coalition. To learn more, click here.

September 10, 2009

Whatever happened to... Fritz-Harald Wenig
It's a year ago this week that the Sunday Times reported that a high-level official from the Commission’s trade department had offered to leak commercially sensitive information in return for financial rewards. Undercover reporters from the UK newspaper posing as lobbyists for a Chinese businessman offered the official – Fritz-Harald Wenig – a payment of € 100.000. Wenig was reported to have suggested putting the money in a frozen bank account which he would be able to access after he retired. According to the newspaper, Wenig disclosed information about a pending anti-dumping case concerning a Chinese candle-making firm as well as other cases. The allegations led to Wenig being suspended and the case being investigated by Olaf, the EU’s anti-fraud agency. As the outcome of the Olaf inquiry is nowhere to be found in the public domain, Corporate Europe Observatory contacted the agency for clarification. Olaf told us it “finalised its investigation on 29 January 2009 and forwarded its findings to the European Commission as well as to the competent Belgian authorities.” But whether Olaf found Mr. Wenig guilty of any wrongdoing remains unclear.
Read blog entry on the Brussels Sunshine website

September 3, 2009

Living with Cheney's poisonous legacy
Nine years on, 'war on terror' policies still haunt the US and its allies. Who will stand up to challenge the ex-VP's recklessness?
The former US vice-president Dick Cheney is almost as busy now as he was when he was running the United States and its wars. Most of his effort, repeated and of course unchallenged on Fox News last Sunday, is devoted to an open and unapologetic defence of torture, aka "enhanced interrogation techniques", which he says have "prevented the violent death of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people". He should have said "other people" or "more people", because thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of innocent people have indeed died as a result of the full-scale Bush-Cheney wars unleashed in response to the 9/11 atrocities, as if fighting crime with crime, mass murder with mass murder, was the obvious and right thing to do.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

September 3, 2009

EU accused over 'diplomat' costs
The European Union has been accused of spreading a federal message around the globe via a network of embassies which cost taxpayers billions of pounds a year. A survey by the Taxpayers' Alliance claims EU diplomats based in lavish residences are being publicly funded to the tune of £3.4 billion a year as part of an EU "Foreign Service".
Read Press Association news report at google.com

September 3, 2009

Secrets and laws
MEPs should remember that their primary loyalty is to the people who elected them - they must cast aside the EU's secret legislative process
As the European parliament (EP) begins its new term major questions hang over the lack of transparency and accountability of its legislative process. In the previous five-year term (2004-2009) over 80% of new measures were agreed behind closed doors in secret "trilogue" sessions, meetings between the Council of the European Union (the 27 governments), the EP and the European Commission.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

September 1, 2009

Berlusconi threatens to wreck EU summit unless commission shuts up
In a fit of pique, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has threatened to block the upcoming European Council - the top summit of all of Europe's premiers and presidents - if commission spokespeople do not learn to keep quiet. Commission spokespeople and even commissioners themselves must not speak publicly on "any topic," Mr Berlusconi demanded when speaking reporters in Gdansk during a ceremony marking the start of the Second World War. The "voice of Europe," he said, must be expressed exclusively by the president of the commission or his immediate spokesperson. If this did not happen, he added, he would "block the functioning of the European Council."
Read article at euobserver.com
Comment: Hardly a stranger to controversy, Berlusconi is alleged to have joined a secret and illegal right-wing Masonic lodge known as P2 - Propaganda Due - in 1978. Over the years he has subsequently found himself involved in more than a dozen different criminal trials, appeals and other investigations and been accused of fraud, false accounting, bribery and Mafia connections. To learn more, click here.

August 27, 2009

US to abandon Polish-Czech missile shield, lobbyist says
The United States has all-but abandoned plans to house anti-missile bases in Poland and the Czech republic, according to a senior White House lobbyist. Riki Ellison, the chairman of the 10,000 member-strong Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, said in Polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza on Thursday (26 August) that the US has changed its mind to avoid a rift with Russia and is now looking at Israel, Turkey, the Balkans or ship-borne facilities instead. "The signals given by generals from the Pentagon are clear: the current US government is looking for different solutions on the question of missile defence than Poland and the Czech republic," he said. "The new [US] team is paying more attention to Russian arguments," he added.
Read article at euobserver.com

August 26, 2009

EU commissioners 'take home more than €1m on leaving office'
A leading UK think tank claims that each of the outgoing EU commissioners stand to receive more than €1.1m in pension payments and so-called 'transitional' and 'resettlement' allowances. The 20 officials who are expected to leave their posts this autumn will receive a total of €26m in payouts, according to Open Europe, the London-based independent think tank. Open Europe, which campaigns for reform of the EU, claims that some commissioners are set to receive even bigger settlements when they step down than that paid to Peter Mandelson when the Briton left his post as trade commissioner last year to become the new business secretary in Gordon Brown's government.
Read article at theparliament.com

August 19, 2009

A Nuremberg for Guantánamo
AT the end of World War II, the Allied powers found themselves in charge of thousands of captured enemies, many of whom had committed unspeakable crimes. Some among the victors thought that the prisoners should simply be shot. Others, including many in the American government, steadfastly insisted that these men should be subjected to criminal proceedings. Thus the Nuremberg trials were born, tribunals that meted out justice for some of the 20th century’s worst atrocities while demonstrating the return of the rule of law on the European continent and the superiority of democratic values over Fascist lunacies. The Guantánamo detainees pose a similar conundrum today.
Read Op-Ed article by Guénaël Mettraux in the New York Times (USA)
Comment: As Guénaël Mettraux points out in this article, by giving a fair trial to the Guantánamo detainees, the United States would reassert its core values and bring the nation back within the tradition of law and justice that it so forcefully defended during WWII and the subsequent Nuremberg trials. In the same way, the principle of law and justice forms the backbone of the campaign for a trial against the pharmaceutical drug cartel. “A Nuremberg for the Pharma Cartel” would ensure that the fraudulent business model of the pharmaceutical drug cartel is finally ended and that the health and interests of six billion people and all future generations would be placed above those of the special interests behind the business with disease. To learn what you can do to help bring about such a trial, click here. To send your personal testimony, click here.

August 10, 2009

Public spied on 1,500 times a day in UK
Police, councils and the intelligence services made more than 500,000 requests to access private emails and telephone records in the UK last year, according to an annual surveillance report. The figures, compiled by the Interception of Communications Commissioner, Paul Kennedy, found that about 1,500 surveillance requests were made every day in Britain. That is the annual equivalent to one in every 78 people being targeted.
Read news report at reuters.com
Comment: British citizens are already the most spied-upon people in the world. However, unbeknownst to most UK citizens, the list of organizations that have access to personal information in the UK includes the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. Moreover, when the legislation that permits this spying was discussed in the British House of Lords in 2000, it was admitted that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain uses “covert surveillance”.

July 30, 2009

Brussels burns billions of Euros on publicity – but citizens still can’t stand the EU
The European Commission and the European Parliament are beginning to feel the rough edge of voter sentiment about them. Neither institution is well regarded – and becoming less so all the time.
Read article at internationalnewsservices.com

July 30, 2009

Bad news for democracy
Swedish think-tank Timbro have this week made a much welcome appeal to the Swedish EU presidency to highlight the EU's growing use of propaganda and to take a first step towards reversing it. Back in December 2008, Open Europe, an independent think-tank with offices in London and Brussels, published the fruits of many months of investigation into the EU's unwieldy budget and concluded that it was spending more than €2.4 billion a year on a wide variety of efforts to promote European integration. This includes everything from straightforward advertising – with posters, leaflets, EU merchandise and so on – to more subtle attempts to convince people of the merits of "ever closer union" through cultural, educational and citizenship initiatives. The EU has a remarkably sophisticated machine in operation to "sell" EU integration at every possible opportunity, complete with its own "Communication Department," and an impressive budget for funding hundreds of outside organisations which are supportive of the EU cause.
Read article at euobserver.com

July 29, 2009

Sweden's Reinfeldt urged to end 'EU propaganda'
A new report by Swedish libertarian think-tank Timbro argues that the EU is using taxpayers' money to disseminate pro-integration "propaganda", and called for the Swedish EU Presidency to draw a line between factual information and biased "opinion-shaping activities".
Read article at euractiv.com
Comment: To read the Timbro report, click here.

July 28, 2009

EP opinion poll analyses 2009 European election turnout
Parliament has published a Eurobarometer survey of 26 830 people across Europe carried out in the month following the 4-7 June European elections. Citizens were asked about their reasons for choosing whether or not to vote, and, if they did vote, what factors they took into account in deciding which party to vote for. Overall turnout in the elections was down compared with the 2004 elections by 2.47 percentage points, a smaller decline than in the past. This overall figure masks major national variations, with turnout up in eight Member States, about the same in a further eight, moderately lower in seven countries and markedly lower in four Member States.
Read press release on the European Parliament website
Comment: This press release from the European Parliament dramatically understates the way in which the people of Europe used the 2009 election to signal their rejection of the EU, as almost 60 percent of the people who were eligible to vote deliberately abstained. In addition, however, a further 4 percent of the eligible electorate cast deliberate votes against the EU by voting for parties that are anti-EU and/or opposed to the Lisbon Treaty. To learn more, click here.

July 20, 2009

EU parliament blocks whistleblower's bid for key budget post
MEPs have blocked the whistle blowing former European commission accountant Marta Andreasen's bid to become a vice-chair of the assembly's budgetary control committee. The parliament's EPP and socialist groups joined forces on Monday to form a blocking majority in the budgetary control committee to reject Andreasen, who was sacked in 2004 as the EU’s chief accountant after exposing irregular accounting practices. Following a secret ballot, where Andreasen picked up nine of the committee's 29 votes, the Argentinian-born Spaniard, a newly elected MEP and treasurer of the anti-federalist United Kingdom Independence Party (Ukip) said the decision to block her was, "not a good start for this committee." She told theparliament.com that, "Today's secret vote is a measure of how much they fear me. My priority will always be transparency and accountability in public funds …this move shows neither."
Read article at theparliament.com

July 19, 2009

Calls for probe into Dr. Kelly's 'suicide'
A US Air Force linguist joins a host of doctors in demanding a new probe into the mysterious death of a British scientist and weapons expert who opposed the Iraq war. The controversy surrounding Dr. David Kelly's death was first rekindled following a Daily Express report in June that revealed the expert was in the middle of writing a book containing damaging government secrets on the Iraq war as well as biological warfare in apartheid South Africa. The linguist, Mai Pederson, who was part of Kelly's weapons inspection team in Iraq, has called on the Attorney General for England, Wales and Northern Ireland to carry out an 'independent' review of the case, reported the Mail on Sunday.
Read article on the Press TV website (Iran)

July 15, 2009

Tony Blair is candidate for EU president says UK Europe minister
Former Labour MEP Glenys Kinnock says ex-UK prime minister Tony Blair is Britain's candidate for president of the European council. The new UK Europe minister told journalists in Strasbourg the UK was supporting Blair for the post which will be created if and when the stalled Lisbon treaty comes into effect. Along with the commission president, it will be one of the most powerful posts in the EU.
Read article at theparliament.com

July 10, 2009

Medvedev given first coin of future supranational currency at G8
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday he had been given an example coin of a possible global currency at the G8 summit in Italy, adding that all aspects of reserve currencies were under discussion. "We are discussing both the use of other national currencies, including the ruble, as a reserve currency, as well as supranational currencies," the Russian leader said at a news conference following the G8 summit. Medvedev showed reporters an example of a coin of a supranational currency, which he called a "united future world currency."
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

July 6, 2009

Brussels Put Firmly in the Back Seat
Last week's ruling by the German Constitutional Court, coupled with demands by one conservative party for changes to the constitution, may not only jeopardize Berlin's schedule for the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. The Karlsruhe ruling also threatens future steps toward European integration.
Read article in Der Spiegel (Germany)
Comment: This excellent article analyzing the implications of the German Constitutional Court’s ruling on the Lisbon Treaty is a must-read for anybody still labouring under the impression that the European Union is a democracy. The European Parliament, as the German judges clearly state, is terminally undemocratic. However, the court’s ruling does not merely threaten Berlin's schedule for the ratification of the treaty: it also further erodes the very credibility of the “Brussels EU” itself. For further analysis, from an Irish perspective, describing how the judgment fundamentally changes the situation regarding the treaty, read Bruce Arnold’s insightful article in the Irish Independent by clicking here.

July 5, 2009

Kelly’s Book Of Secrets
Weapons inspector David Kelly was writing a book exposing highly damaging government secrets before his mysterious death. He was intending to reveal that he warned Prime Minister Tony Blair there were no weapons of mass destruction anywhere in Iraq weeks before the British and American invasion. He had several discussions with a publisher in Oxford and was seeking advice on how far he could go without breaking the law on secrets. Following his death, his computers were seized and it is still not known if any rough draft was discovered by investigators and, if so, what happened to the material. Dr Kelly was also intending to lift the lid on a potentially bigger scandal, his own secret dealings in germ warfare with the apartheid regime in South Africa.
Read article in the Daily Express (UK)

July 1, 2009

Russia, U.S. arms reduction deal closer than expected – diplomat
Russia and the United States have made more significant progress in the preparation of a new strategic arms reduction treaty than the sides expected, a Russian deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday. "Progress is more significant than we expected when we started the talks on the issue," Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with RIA Novosti prior to the visit of U.S. President Barack Obama to Russia on July 6-8. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama agreed in April to launch discussions on a new agreement to replace the START 1 treaty, which expires in December.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

June 26, 2009

The EU's Latest Power Grab
In some countries they rig votes, in the European Union they repeat votes to get the desired result. After Ireland last year rejected the EU's Lisbon Treaty -- itself a rehashed carbon-copy of the EU Constitution that Dutch and French voters rebuffed in 2005 -- the Irish are being asked to reconsider. There will be another referendum in early October, Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Wednesday, and this time the Irish are expected to get it right. In Europe, they don't take "no" for an answer. Proponents say the Lisbon Treaty is key to reforming the squeaky institutions of the 27-member union. Skeptics, including a majority in Ireland, see a significant power grab. The Treaty gives the EU a nonelected president, a quasi foreign minister, a beefier defense and foreign policy and fewer national vetoes in a number of policy areas.
Read article in the Wall Street Journal (USA)

June 22, 2009

EU security plans threaten freedom, says rights expert
People could find their liberties severely curtailed if EU plans on harmonising security measures, including the collection and storage of personal data, go ahead, according to a leading civil rights expert. Tony Bunyan, director of human rights organisation Statewatch and author of books on policing and human rights in Europe, was speaking in Dublin at the weekend at a meeting organised by the Irish Council for Civil Liberties.
Read article in the Irish Times (Ireland)

June 21, 2009

Tony Blair pushed Gordon Brown to hold Iraq war inquiry in private
• Former PM feared facing 'show trial'
• Leak reveals plan to provoke invasion
Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to hold the independent inquiry into the Iraq war in secret because he feared that he would be subjected to a "show trial" if it were opened to the public, the Observer can reveal. The revelation that the former prime minister - who led Britain to war in March 2003 - had intervened will fuel the anger of MPs, peers, military leaders and former civil servants, who were appalled by Brown's decision last week to order the investigation to be conducted behind closed doors. Blair, who resisted pressure for a full public inquiry while he was prime minister, appears to have taken a deliberate decision not to express his view in person to Brown because he feared it might leak out. Instead, messages on the issue were relayed through others to Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, who conveyed them to the prime minister in the days leading up to the announcement of the inquiry last week.
Read article in the Observer (UK)
Comment: With more than one million Iraqi citizens having been murdered since the American and British-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, reports suggest Blair is desperate to avoid the inquiry being held in public as it would damage his ambitions of becoming EU president.

June 21, 2009

Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq
A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein. The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action. Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan "to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover". Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions.
Read article in the Observer (UK)
Comment: This year, the Dutch government launched its own inquiry into its support for the war; significantly, this will see all the intelligence shared with the Dutch intelligence services by the UK intelligence services. The Dutch inquiry intends to publish its report in November – thus suggesting that confidential information about the role played by the UK and the US could become public before the results of the UK inquiry are published next year.

June 18, 2009

MPs' expenses published by Parliament with key details removed
The House of Commons has published heavily edited documents setting out some details of the expenses claims of every MP. More than a month after The Daily Telegraph began disclosing details of members’ use of public money, the House authorities have released a selection of documents including claim forms and some receipts. However, personal details, claims relating to security and other information have been blacked out. As a result it is impossible to tell from the documents where MPs have "flipped" their second homes or claimed for multiple properties in a single year or more seriously claimed reimbursement of interest on mortgages that had already been paid off. Around 20 MPs have already announced they will stand down following the expenses scandal, but in many cases the details of their claims would not have come to light from the edited documents published today.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: Some of the documents released provide little or no details at all of the expense claims of British MPs. If you live in the UK, and would like to find out what documents have been released in relation to the expense claims of your MP, click here.

June 16, 2009

Poll: Majority of public oppose second Barroso term
New opinion poll findings suggest José Manuel Barroso does not enjoy widespread public support for a second term as commission president.
Read article at theparliament.com
Comment: Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit has said there is a "sufficient majority" of MEPs to block José Manuel Barroso's re-election as commission president.

June 15, 2009

Food For Thought: Gordon Brown as the EU’s First Full-Time President?
José Manuel Barroso is all but certain to be reappointed as European Commission president. But who will get the other plum European Union jobs that will soon be up for grabs? The most startling suggestion I have heard in recent days - and it came from a high-ranking EU diplomat - is that the EU’s first ever full-time president could be none other than Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK.
Read Tony Barber's blog entry on the Financial Times website (UK)
Comment: In our opinion, Brown may have been promised the job if he agrees to wait until the Lisbon Treaty has been fully ratified by all 27 EU countries before calling the UK’s next general election. Barring exceptional circumstances, the latest date he can hold this is Thursday 3 June 2010. Although Britain has already ratified the treaty, Brown’s major worry is that the main opposition party in Britain might hold a referendum on it if it is elected to power and the treaty has not yet been fully ratified in all 27 EU countries. As things stand, four countries - Ireland, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany - have yet to ratify the treaty. In the Czech Republic, the parliament has passed it but President Vaclav Klaus has refused to sign it, as also has President Lech Kaczynski in Poland. As long as they hold out, the treaty cannot come into force. In Germany, meanwhile, the treaty's fate currently hangs on a Court Ruling. Latest reports suggest that Ireland will have its second referendum on the treaty in late September or early October and that the EU now sees the UK, not Ireland, as the greatest threat to its full and final ratification.

June 15, 2009

Outcry over Government's decision to hold Iraq war inquiry in secret
Gordon Brown ran into fresh trouble today as he announced that the long-awaited Iraq war inquiry would be held in secret.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: A study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business (ORB), suggests that more than one million Iraqi citizens have been murdered since the U.S. and U.K invasion in 2003. As such, we can only conclude that by deciding to hold this inquiry in private, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is attempting to cover up evidence that the perpetrators of this war are guilty of war crimes.

June 11, 2009

Russia to make WTO bid jointly with Belarus and Kazakhstan
After 16 years of touch-and-go accession talks with the WTO, the Russian authorities have decided to stop the process of individual accession and make a joint bid with Belarus and Kazakhstan instead. The decision was announced at a meeting of their Customs Union on June 9. Later that day, the meeting of the Eurasian Economic Community established Eurasec’s Anti-crisis Fund to the amount of $10 billion. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said on June 9 after a meeting of the Customs Union’s Supreme Body that Russia would no longer have to negotiate accession to the World Trade Organization as an independent state. “WTO accession remains a joint priority for us,” he said. Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are still seeking WTO entry, “but as a united customs union, not as separate countries.” However, they first need to formalize their union, which is to become operational on January 1, 2010, when its common customs tariff will be applied.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

June 10, 2009

EU security proposals are 'dangerously authoritarian'
The European Union is stepping up efforts to build an enhanced pan-European system of security and surveillance which critics have described as “dangerously authoritarian”. Civil liberties groups say the proposals would create an EU ID card register, internet surveillance systems, satellite surveillance, automated exit-entry border systems operated by machines reading biometrics and risk profiling systems.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

June 8, 2009

European elections marked by record low turnout
The turnout in the 2009 European elections was the lowest ever since direct elections for the house started it thirty years ago, with Slovakia getting the lowest score for the second time in a row. The 4-7 June election saw 43.1 percent of the 375 million Europeans entitled to vote go to the polls, according to early results published on Sunday night (7 June) by TNS Sofres for the European Parliament. This result is more than two points lower than in 2004, which was then the lowest in the parliament's history at 45.5%.
Read article at euobserver.com
Comment: Turnout has now fallen consistently in every EU election since the first one in 1979. The only EU countries in which turnout is high are those where voting is required by law.

June 2, 2009

Shamed MEPs take share of £20m 'farewell' payout
Three politicians accused of misusing public money will receive hundreds of thousands of pounds in pensions and benefits as part of a £20 million payoff for British MEPs who retire this week.
Read article in The Times (UK)

May 31, 2009

Globetrotting MEPs catch the gravy plane
Britain’s MEPs are spending more than £100,000 a year on fact-finding missions to long-haul tourist destinations from the Seychelles to Jamaica. On one trip, David Martin, the Scottish MEP, and Giles Chichester, former leader of the Conservative MEPs, were invited to watch La Traviata at Sydney Opera House before a dinner in Sydney harbour aboard a luxury catamaran.
Read article in The Sunday Times (UK)

May 29, 2009

A third of British MEPs employ family members on expenses
More than a third of British MEPs are paying their relatives hundreds of thousands of pounds, despite a ban by the European Parliament next month on employing family members. The wives, husbands and children of MEPs are earning up to £40,000 a year to work as secretaries and researchers at a total annual cost to taxpayers of more than £700,000.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: In total MEPs can receive expenses and allowances of £363,000 a year. This includes an entitlement to £183,776 in staff allowances, £87,407 in travel expenses and £45,648 in general office expenses – despite the fact that they are provided with offices in Brussels and Strasbourg. Moreover, the office allowance is paid automatically and MEPs do not even have to produce receipts to support the expenses or repay any underspend.

May 28, 2009

The surveillance society is an EU-wide issue
The EU's new five-year plan for justice and home affairs will export the UK's database state to the rest of the EU.
Read article by Tony Bunyan in the Guardian (UK)

May 28, 2009

Barroso faces increased opposition to his re-appointment
European commission president José Manuel Barroso is facing mounting opposition to his re-appointment.
Read article at theparliament.com

May 26, 2009

European elections set to become 'massive' protest vote
Next month's European elections could turn into a 'massive' protest against national governments, according to a new study.
Read article at theparliament.com

May 22, 2009

Eighteen 'phantom' MEPs will do no work for two years
Eighteen "phantom" MEPs will be elected on full pay and perks next month despite not being able to start work for up to two years due to Ireland's rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. The extra candidates will be chosen in the European Union elections on June 4 despite the agreement, which increases the number of MEPs from 736 to 754, remaining unsigned.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

May 22, 2009

Anti-Europe sentiment soars
British hostility towards Europe is as strong as ever, according to a new poll out today, with overwhelming majorities favouring breaking EU rules and refusing to pay subsequent fines. There was also strong support for unilaterally reclaiming powers from the European Union and the greatest opposition to adopting the Euro since 1995.
Read article at politics.co.uk
Comment: Seventy-five per cent of those polled in Britain believe the Lisbon treaty should go to a referendum with sixty-two per cent saying they would vote against ratification.

May 19, 2009

In Britain, Scandal Flows From Modest Request
LONDON — It began modestly enough back in 2005, when an American freelance writer and journalism teacher living in London, Heather Brooke, entered a request under Britain’s newly promulgated freedom of information act for details of the expense claims of British members of Parliament. Ms. Brooke’s initiative to expose the politicians’ greed, now led by one of the country’s principal newspapers, The Daily Telegraph, has led to the biggest scandal to hit the House of Commons in decades. On Tuesday, the affair claimed its biggest victim yet when the speaker of the House of Commons, Michael Martin, became the first man to be ousted from that job in more than 300 years.
Read article in the International Herald Tribune

May 19, 2009

Silvio Berlusconi bribed British lawyer, say Italian judges
Silvio Berlusconi was tonight under withering fire from opposition leaders in Italy after a court declared that he had bribed his lawyer, David Mills, so that he could avoid conviction on corruption charges and hang on to "huge profits made from the conclusion of illicit corporate and financial operations". The judges were giving the reasoning behind their decision in February to sentence Mills, husband of the British Olympics minister, Tessa Jowell, to four and half years in jail for taking a bribe. Mills was found guilty of accepting a $600,000 (£387,000) bribe in a case in which he had been indicted alongside his former client, who was alleged to have paid the cash. But since Berlusconi furnished himself with immunity from prosecution after returning to power last year, the court was unable to reach any conclusion with respect to him.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)
Comment: Berlusconi is alleged to have joined P2, an illegal right-wing Masonic lodge, in 1978. Some sources, including the New Zealand Herald and the UK's Observer newspaper, allege links between P2 and state terrorism. Others meanwhile, such as the BBC, state that P2 had connections with both the Mafia and right-wing terrorist groups. Over the years, Berlusconi has found himself involved in more than a dozen different criminal trials, appeals and other investigations and been accused of fraud, false accounting, embezzlement, bribery and Mafia connections.

May 19, 2009

Majority of Europeans not interested in European Parliament elections
While a majority of Europeans say they like the European Union, more than half have declared no interest in the June European elections, a fresh study has shown. When asked about the 4-7 June poll, 18 percent of the respondents said they were "not at all interested" in it, while 35 percent said they were "rather not interested," a TNS Opinion study for the French Political Innovation Foundation released on Monday (18 May) showed.Just as many (35%) said they were "rather interested," but just 11 percent said they were "very interested."
Read article at euobserver.com

May 14, 2009

Italians have worst EU parliament attendance
A new website detailing the complete voting records of MEPs reveals that Italy's 78 deputies have the poorest attendance record. Data on votewatch.eu shows Italian MEPs have an average 71.93 per cent attendance rate, 20 per cent down of the best performing countries, Austria, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia and Poland.
Read article at theparliament.com

May 13, 2009

Eurojust chief embroiled in Portuguese corruption scandal
The EU's judicial co-operation body, Eurojust, on Wednesday tried to distance itself from a scandal involving its head, Jose da Mota, who allegedly put pressure on prosecutors in order to stop a corruption probe involving Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates. "For the time being, Eurojust does not want to comment on this case. It is a national case in Portugal and Eurojust is not involved in this case," Johannes Thuy, a spokesman for the Hague-based EU body told this website.Portugal's general prosecutor on Tuesday launched a disciplinary procedure against Mr Mota following an internal investigation "of alleged pressures" on magistrates.
Read article at euobserver.com

May 5, 2009

Russia's Medvedev welcomes new U.S. stance on missile defense
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev welcomed on Tuesday the readiness of the new U.S. administration to take on board Moscow's objections to the deployment of a U.S. missile shield in Central Europe. Moscow considers Washington's plans to deploy a tracking radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland to be a threat to Russian security. The United States has argued the facilities are necessary to guard against the threat of missile attacks from states such as Iran. "I am pleased that our American partners are showing willingness to discuss this issue rather than take a stubborn stance and deploy [the shield] no matter what," Medvedev said at a meeting with A Just Russia party activists.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

May 3, 2009

Jacqui Smith's secret plan to carry on snooping
Spy chiefs are pressing ahead with secret plans to monitor all internet use and telephone calls in Britain despite an announcement by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, of a ministerial climbdown over public surveillance. GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre, is developing classified technology to intercept and monitor all e-mails, website visits and social networking sessions in Britain. The agency will also be able to track telephone calls made over the internet, as well as all phone calls to land lines and mobiles. The £1 billion snooping project — called Mastering the Internet (MTI) — will rely on thousands of “black box” probes being covertly inserted across online infrastructure.
Read article in the Sunday Times (UK)
Comment: Whilst GCHQ has denied it will track all UK internet and online phone use, it admits that it is developing tracking technology but claims that it "only acts when it is necessary." However, given that British citizens are already the most spied-upon people in the world, it seems unlikely that they will be reassured by either Smith’s secret plans or GCHQ’s denial of them.

April 24, 2009

Russia, U.S. to hold full-scale arms reduction talks in mid-May
Russian-U.S. negotiations on a new strategic arms reduction treaty will take place in May in Washington, a Russian Foreign Ministry official said on Friday. The Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START 1), signed in 1991, obliges Russia and the United States to reduce nuclear warheads to 6,000 and their delivery vehicles to 1,600 each. The treaty expires on December 5 this year. "The first round of full-scale negotiations between Russia and the United States on a [new] strategic arms reduction treaty will be held in mid-May in Washington," said Anatoly Antonov, director of the Foreign Ministry's department for security and disarmament, who led the Russian delegation at the U.S. Embassy in Rome earlier on Friday.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

April 24, 2009

Site on MEPs' attendance closed
Creator of website intended to increase transparency shuts down site after two days, amid protests by his own party.
After waves of protest, the Italian Liberal MEP Marco Cappato today closed the Parlorama website, which ranked MEPs based on their attendance in plenary sessions and committee meetings. Cappato announced the opening of the website on Wednesday as part of his campaign for more transparency over MEPs' performance. He wanted to demonstrate that it was technically possible to collect and process data on MEPs' attendance and participation in parliamentary activities.
Read article at europeanvoice.com

April 17, 2009

Moscow irked by NATO exercises in Georgia
NATO's decision to hold exercises in Georgia next month threatens to complicate ties with Russia, the Russian president said on Friday. The Cooperative Longbow 09/Cooperative Lancer 09 command-and-staff exercise, led by the Western military bloc, will be held from May 6 through June 1, and will not feature light or heavy weaponry. "Such decisions are disappointing and do nothing to help restore full-level contacts between the Russian Federation and NATO," Dmitry Medvedev said.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

April 16, 2009

Taxpayers to plug £100m hole in MEP pension fund created by financial crisis and fraud
Taxpayers could be asked to plug a £106 million black hole in a fund providing a second pension for MEPs, to make up for cash lost to fraudulent investment schemes and during the financial crisis. The second pension perk, for 478 out of 785 MEPs, already costs taxpayers over £12 million a year, an annual bill that will increase by up to £10.6 million to meet the shortfall.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

April 14, 2009

EU elections heading for record low turnout
With European Parliament elections fast approaching, EU citizens are less interested in the poll than ever before in a situation that could see the abstention rate across the bloc hit a record 66 percent. A soon to be released survey from the European Commission's polling service, Eurobarometer, shows that interest in the election is weak right across the union, reports France's Liberation daily. The newest EU citizens, from member states that joined in 2004 and 2007, are as indifferent as their "old European" cousins, who have decades of experience in EU electoral listlessness.
Read article at euobserver.com

April 10, 2009

EC memo tells staff how to dodge difficult questions
European Commission officials have been told they can evade freedom of information rules by keeping two sets of documents, a "whitened" text for public release and a "separate" classified version. A leaked 15 page "vademecum" issued by the Commission's trade department to staff has been attacked by campaigners for encouraging officials "to conceal information from public scrutiny".
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Comment: To download the leaked memo, click here.

April 6, 2009

Net firms start storing user data
Details of user e-mails, website visits and net phone calls will be stored by internet service providers (ISPs) from Monday under an EU directive. The plans were drawn up in the wake of the London bombings in 2005. ISPs and telecoms firms have resisted the proposals while some countries in the EU are contesting the directive.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

April 5, 2009

Blair steps up fight to be crowned first 'President of EU'
Tony Blair has emerged as the leading candidate to become the first permanent president of the European Union after Gordon Brown gave his grudging blessing to the plan. The former prime minister has stepped up his campaign for the job, which he wants to use to build a bridge between Europe and the new Obama administration. His return to the global stage would be a shock to his critics over the Iraq war and dismay many in Europe
Read article in the Independent on Sunday (UK)
Comment: The European Union’s presidency job is dependant on four remaining countries - Ireland, the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany - ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, which creates the position. However, unlike the election of President Barack Obama in the United States, the president of the European Union would not be elected by ordinary citizens voting democratically in an election. Instead, he or she would be chosen by the European political elite. Moreover, under the Lisbon Treaty, not only would European Union citizens have no democratic means of choosing their president, they would also have no means of removing him. To sign the European-wide petition rejecting the Lisbon Treaty, click here. To read the proposed "Europe for the People, by the People" constitution, proposed by survivors of the WWII Auschwitz concentration camp, which calls for the right to health; the right to life; the right to natural food; the right to a healthy environment; respect for human dignity and the protection of social values for all European citizens, click here. To add your name in support of this important constitution, click here.

March 26, 2009

Fears of unrest in eastern Europe grow as Czech government collapses
The collapse of the Czech government sent shivers through financial markets in eastern Europe yesterday fanning fears about the growing political unrest that appears to be sweeping through the EU's eastern fringes. Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek's government narrowly lost a vote of no-confidence on Tuesday night, four days after the Hungarian leader, Ferenc Gyuarcsany, threw in the towel and five weeks after the Latvian government fell under a barrage of public protests. Most of eastern Europe's main currencies lost value yesterday as Czechs pondered the impact of Mr Topolanek's defeat, while Romania turned to the IMF for a €20bn lifeline.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

March 26, 2009

Extent of council spying revealed
Councils in England and Wales have used controversial spying laws 10,000 times in the past five years, figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show. The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) was designed to fight serious crime. But officials have been using it to spy on suspected dog fouling, littering and other minor offences.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)

March 23, 2009

China ready to discuss new reserve currency at G20 summit
China is ready to discuss Russia's proposal of a new global reserve currency as an alternative to the U.S. dollar at the G20 summit in London, a vice governor of the country's Central Bank said on Monday. Russia earlier submitted a proposal to the G20 summit which could see the IMF examining possibilities for creating a supra-national reserve currency, and also forcing national banks and international financial institutions to diversify their foreign currency reserves.
Read article on the RIA Novosti website (Russia)

March 23, 2009

Quarter of UK's databases are 'illegal'
Little thought given to privacy, study warns
One in four of the major government databases is almost certainly illegal and should be scrapped, a report says. The national DNA database, the proposed national identity database and the ContactPoint system, which will hold records of all children in England, are among the systems singled out for fundamental reform or abolition. Researchers called for 11 systems assessed as "almost certainly illegal" under human rights or data protection law to be scrapped or substantially redesigned.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

March 21, 2009

EU Commissioners to take home more than £1 million each on leaving office
New research from Open Europe has found that European Commissioners leaving office later this year will receive more than £1 million each in pension payments and so-called 'transitional' and 'resettlement' allowances.
Read press release on the Open Europe website (UK)

March 18, 2009

Cost of EU membership 'ten times higher' than official figures
The 'real' cost of EU membership to member states is 'many times higher' than figures quoted by the European commission, it has been claimed. According to the Taxpayers' Alliance, EU membership costs every citizen €2400 per year, compared with the €235 quoted by the commission. The UK-based lobby group says that, annually, the total cost of membership to the 27 states is €1219bn – close to ten times the official figures.
Read article at theparliament.com

March 15, 2009

Return of the East-West divide: European Union in chaos as global recession deepens
The European Union is falling victim to disputes and backbiting, with warnings that its future is in jeopardy because of divisions over global economic crisis.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

February 26, 2009

Senior MEP calls for more transparency on EU parliament expenses
British MEP Chris Davies has called for disclosure rules on MEP expenses to be tightened before this June's European elections. The demand comes in the wake of a report this week by the UK-based Taxpayers' Alliance (TPA) which said MEPs' expenses and pensions are so lavish that they can earn as much as €1.13m on top of their salaries over their five-year term in parliament.
Read article at theparliament.com

February 23, 2009

Anti-fraud European MP stands down
Dutch member of the European parliament Paul van Buitenen will stand down at the next European elections in June because of the EU body's reluctance to seriously tackle fraud. He told tv programme Reporter on Sunday that he was 'very disappointed' that no action had been taken on the cases of fraud he had brought to light. Van Buitenen was an EU civil servant when in 1999 he blew the whistle on fraud and irregularities within the EU commission. The commission subsequently resigned en masse.
Read article at dutchnews.nl (Netherlands)

February 22, 2009

Secret report reveals how MEPs make millions
A leaked internal report has revealed systematic abuses by Euro MPs of parliamentary allowances that enable them to pocket more than £1m in profits from a single five-year term, writes Jonathan Oliver. The auditor’s confidential report, suppressed by the Brussels parliament, discloses the extraordinary frauds used by MEPs to siphon off staff allowances funded by taxpayers. It shows that some claimed for paying assistants of whom no record exists, awarded them bonuses of up to 1½ times annual salary and diverted public money into front companies. An investigation into the abuses of staff allowances worth up to £182,000 a year — many of which are paid by MEPs to members of their family — was delivered in January last year but was not published.
Read article in The Sunday Times (UK)

February 18, 2009

Blair’s reward for having the ‘right’ foreign policy
So, Tony Blair has been awarded a $1m prize for "his exceptional leadership and steadfast determination in helping to engineer agreements and forge lasting solutions to areas in conflict". Some will argue that Blair should be on trial for war crimes, not receiving prizes. Others will say that the award, made by the Dan David Foundation of Tel Aviv, is a huge own goal for Israel because it sinks the country's international standing even lower after its actions in Gaza. But they are missing the point. The award - along with many of the other riches which have come Blair's way since he left Downing Street - is the payback for doing 'the right thing' by way of the US and Israel while he was in office.
Read article by Neil Clark on the First Post magazine website (UK)

February 18, 2009

Is the writing on the wall for the EU?
It is going to be a sombre gathering when Europe's leaders gather in Brussels for an emergency summit over lunch on Sunday Mar 1. The European Union faces its first economic crash, a disaster that is shaping up to be a once in a century event. There is the spectre of intra-EU tensions around the Justus Lipsius luncheon table as leaders from big countries - that President Nicolas Sarkozy - tear up the rules. Hurtling towards them is the prospect that bailing out the banks has merely transferred the "toxic" contagion to nations. The coming crisis is a crisis of states not financial institutions. It will be a crisis of politics.
Read blog entry by Bruno Waterfield on the Daily Telegraph website (UK)

February 17, 2009

We’re creating a police state, says ex-spy chief
Former British spy chief Dame Stella Rimington yesterday accused the Government of playing into terrorists’ hands by trying to force through laws which were in danger of creating a police state. In a stinging attack, she warned it was using the spectre of terrorism to frighten Britons into accepting greater state powers.
Read article in the Daily Express (UK)

February 16, 2009

Czech President Klaus compares EU to USSR
Noted Eurosceptic Czech President Vaclav Klaus, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, was quoted by a French weekly as comparing the 27-member European Union with the former Soviet Union. “One thing is sure, just as it was in the USSR, very important decisions are not taken in the countries that they concern,” the notoriously anti-EU Klaus said an interview published in Paris Match.
Read article at neurope.eu

February 11, 2009

EU commissioners told to 'stay out' of parliament elections
Commission president José Manuel Barroso and his fellow commissioners have been warned to ‘stay out’ of the European elections. The stark warning was issued on Wednesday by senior Danish MEP Poul Nyrup Rasmussen at the launch of the Socialist campaign for the June election. Speaking at a news conference, the former Danish prime minister said, “In the remaining months of the commission’s mandate we will be watching Barroso and the other members of the commission to ensure that they stay out of the campaign.”
Read article at theparliament.com

February 8, 2009

Spy centre will track you on holiday
The government is building a secret database to track and hold the international travel records of all 60m Britons. The intelligence centre will store names, addresses, telephone numbers, seat reservations, travel itineraries and credit card details for all 250m passenger movements in and out of the UK each year. The computerised pattern of every individual’s travel history will be stored for up to 10 years, the Home Office admits. The government says the new database, to be housed in an industrial estate in Wythenshawe, near Manchester, is essential in the fight against crime, illegal immigration and terrorism. However, opposition MPs, privacy campaigners and some government officials fear it is a significant step towards a total surveillance society.
Read article in The Sunday Times (UK)

February 7, 2009

Biden Signals U.S. Is Open to Russia Missile Deal
MUNICH — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Saturday that the United States will pursue a missile defense plan that has angered the Kremlin, but he also left open the possibility of compromise on the issue and struck a more conciliatory tone than the Bush administration on relations with Russia. “It is time to press the reset button and to revisit the many areas where we can and should be working together with Russia,” Mr. Biden said in a speech at a security conference here attended by global leaders and diplomats.
Read article in the New York Times (USA)

February 6, 2009

Big Brother Thriving in Britain
Already the most spied-upon people in the world, Britons risk forfeiting even more privacy unless new restrictions are put in place
New powers are needed to combat a culture of "pervasive" surveillance that has seen the UK become the most spied upon country in the world, the Lords said today. The UK is now watched by more about four million CCTV cameras and details of seven per cent of the population is held in the National DNA Database (NDNAD) – more than any other country, according to chairman of the House of Lords Constitution Committee Lord Goodlad. At the same time national databases designed to hold personal information on nearly every UK citizen are being set up across Whitehall, from the NHS Care Records Service to the ID cards National Identity Register, according to a report by the committee released today. Meanwhile businesses and banks are gathering data on the public from CCTV, web browsing behaviour, CRM systems and tracking the use of loyalty cards, the report says, adding that the government also wants access to this data, it added. "Every time we make a telephone call, send an email, browse the internet, or even walk down our local high street, our actions may be monitored and recorded," the report said.
Read article at businessweek.com

January 31, 2009

Governments across Europe tremble as angry people take to the streets
France paralysed by a wave of strike action, the boulevards of Paris resembling a debris-strewn battlefield. The Hungarian currency sinks to its lowest level ever against the euro, as the unemployment figure rises. Greek farmers block the road into Bulgaria in protest at low prices for their produce. New figures from the biggest bank in the Baltic show that the three post-Soviet states there face the biggest recessions in Europe. It's a snapshot of a single day – yesterday – in a Europe sinking into the bleakest of times. But while the outlook may be dark in the big wealthy democracies of western Europe, it is in the young, poor, vulnerable states of central and eastern Europe that the trauma of crash, slump and meltdown looks graver.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

January 22, 2009

MEP roll calls to be published online
The European parliament bureau has decided to accept a request tabled by ALDE MEP Marco Cappato to publish all the data concerning the attendance of MEPs in plenary and committee on its website.
Read article at theparliament.com

January 22, 2009

Crisis meeting called on violent protest across Europe
European leaders have called emergency talks to discuss a groundswell of social unrest and violent street protests that have spread across Europe amid the economic downturn. Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Greece and Iceland have all faced social unrest and rioting as unemployment soars and as many European countries have been forced to impose severe cuts to government spending.
Read article in the Daily Telegraph (UK)

January 16, 2009

Trident nuclear missiles are £20bn waste of money, say generals
Britain's nuclear submarines are "completely useless" against modern warfare, and the £20bn spent on renewing them is a waste of money, retired senior military officers said yesterday.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)

January 15, 2009

Big Brother database a 'terrifying' assault on traditional freedoms
Plans condemned as the greatest threat to civil rights for decades
Sweeping new powers allowing personal information about every citizen to be handed over to government agencies faced condemnation yesterday amid warnings that Britain is experiencing the greatest threats to civil rights for decades. Shami Chakrabarti, the director of the pressure group Liberty, warned that the laws, published yesterday, were among a string of measures that amounted to a "terrifying" assault on traditional freedoms.
Read article in The Independent (UK)

January 13, 2009

Bush gives Blair highest US civilian honour
Former prime minister receives presidential medal of freedom for 'efforts to promote democracy and peace abroad'
George Bush presented Tony Blair with the presidential medal of freedom, the highest honour awarded to civilians in the United States, at a ceremony at the White House today. The former prime minister received the medal for "efforts to promote democracy, human rights and peace abroad", the White House said.
Read article in The Guardian (UK)
Comment: Together with George Bush, Blair has been responsible for the deaths of more than one million people in Iraq. As such, rather than being given a medal, he should be put on trial for war crimes.

January 11, 2009

Loosen Britain's ties with European Union, say two-thirds of voters
Almost two-thirds of voters want a significant loosening of Britain's ties with the European Union including an end to the supremacy of the European Court of Justice, a new opinion poll reveals. The YouGov survey for the TaxPayersAlliance and Global Vision, the Eurosceptic pressure group, shows that voters remain antagonistic towards the EU in the wake of the Lisbon Treaty, which increased the powers of Brussels at the expense of national governments, as well as towards the euro, despite recent falls in the value of the pound.
Read article in the Sunday Telegraph (UK)

January 4, 2009

Police set to step up hacking of home PCs
The Home Office has quietly adopted a new plan to allow police across Britain routinely to hack into people’s personal computers without a warrant. The move, which follows a decision by the European Union’s council of ministers in Brussels, has angered civil liberties groups and opposition MPs. They described it as a sinister extension of the surveillance state which drives “a coach and horses” through privacy laws. The hacking is known as “remote searching”. It allows police or MI5 officers who may be hundreds of miles away to examine covertly the hard drive of someone’s PC at his home, office or hotel room. Material gathered in this way includes the content of all e-mails, web-browsing habits and instant messaging.
Read article in The Times (UK)

January 2, 2009

Vatican divorces from Italian law
The Vatican City State, the world's smallest sovereign state, has decided to divorce itself from Italian law. Vatican legal experts say there are too many laws in Italian civil and criminal codes, and that they frequently conflict with Church principles. With effect from New Year's Day, the Pope has decided that the Vatican will no longer automatically adopt laws passed by the Italian parliament. All Italian laws will be examined one by one before they are adopted.
Read article on the BBC News website (UK)