"Struggle of the Major Powers" (German-Foreign-Policy.com)
2008/11/17
GUETERSLOH/RUSSELSHEIM/WASHINGTON
(Own report) - The Bertelsmann Foundation presented a list of foreign policy demands to the new US administration. According to the Bertelsmann Foundation, the "Briefing Book," which was presented last week in Washington, is a "policy blueprint that proposes strategies" for the US president-elect and his team, "from a distinctly European perspective." The Briefing Book highlights the central issues of current world policy - from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the financial crisis - demanding that the US give more importance to Europe. Washington must "take the right approach and tone" in the future, is how the Bertelsmann Foundation describes the German-European demand for increased influence. A similar orientation is outlined in a paper that the EU foreign ministers addressed to the new US administration, focusing on Europe's demand for an increased share of power. To implement its demands, the EU is cooperating with Moscow. The EU's demand for a more significant role is leading toward an intensification of armed conflicts: The EU foreign ministers announced their increased readiness to participate in wars. The struggle, waged particularly by Berlin, to, in the future, play a role as a major power, is being overshadowed by a meltdown of the real economy.
The Right Tone
Last week, the Bertelsmann Foundation introduced its "Trans-Atlantic Briefing Book" in Washington. On eighty pages, the paper, produced by the Foundation and lacking any democratic legitimation, lays down foreign-policy demands on the future US administration. Addressing high-ranking US government officials, the paper highlights the central issues of current world policy. But the new US administration "will have limited time to address them," the paper states, pretending to accompany and facilitate the change of office in Washington. The demands are directed toward the first months in office of the new presidency, seeking to profit from the hardly avoidable difficulties during the transition period, in an attempt to upgrade the German-European position. "Close cooperation" between the US, Berlin and the EU is required to deal with the common challenges. Washington has to take "the right approach and tone" in its dealings with its European competitor, demands the Bertelsmann lobby.[1] "Europeans want a new relationship with America, but are looking for a US partner with an open ear, a collaborative approach and a lighter touch."
Evisceration
The demands of the Bertelsmann Foundation clearly correspond to activities already initiated by the EU. The "Briefing Book", which the Bertelsmann Foundation also describes as the "European Manual for Barack Obama", demands new globally binding regulations for financial markets. These would be facilitated by transatlantic agreements within a binding regulatory framework. Last Saturday's "world financial summit" of the G-20, a group of 20 industrial and threshold countries, discussed a comprehensive action plan. The inconsequential pledges cover up the profound differences between Washington and Berlin. Both sides are seeking to cushion the oncoming meltdown of their financial and economic systems with billions in tax money at the expense of their respective competitors.[2] The impending bankruptcy of the US car manufacturer General Motors (GM) is the most recent example. Germany is seeking to prevent the expected consequences through billions in government credit guarantees. The German side and the US bankruptcy administrator office are now disputing the evisceration of the GM unit Opel in Russelsheim.
Prevailing With Moscow
Berlin and Paris, who claim to speak in the name of the entire EU, are using their relations to Moscow in their struggle for a higher international standing. At last Friday's EU - Russian summit, both sides reaffirmed that their strategies for fighting the financial crisis are, for the most part, identical, which is why they want to cooperate with one another at the G20 Summit. If the next US government can be brought to accept the EU concept of a plan of action - if necessary with applying Russian pressure - the global financial and economic policies could be managed also in transatlantic cooperation. The Bertelsmann Foundation foresees the possibility of coordination in a "Transatlantic Economic Council" (TEC).[3]
Power of Definition
The Bertelsmann Foundation is demanding a change of course in Washington's policy toward Russia. Berlin has long since been relying on cooperation with Moscow to obtain access to its resources, but also as a means of establishing an alternative to its transatlantic cooperation. The punctual alliance with the Kremlin, for prevailing over the USA with a new international finance system, is exemplary. Washington should not alienate Russia unnecessarily, demand the Bertelsmann lobbyists, explaining that the US government should make use of "Europe's advantage in and insight into Russia" [4] - a demand that would lead to a German-European power of definition in relations with the Kremlin.[5] Also here, the EU is applying pressure to the US. In the aftermath of Friday's EU - Russian Summit, European Council President Nicolas Sarkozy demanded that the US abstain from deploying its missiles in Poland, if Russia abstains from deploying its in Kaliningrad.
Their Role
The objective of the Bertelsmann paper is similar to the EU foreign ministers' document introduced in early November, which is also directed at the incoming US administration and contains German-European demands on the White House. The paper that has been circulating in media circles over the past few days, focuses on "the conflicts in the Middle East and Afghanistan/Pakistan as well as the approach to Russia." It states that the EU is ready to "immediately reengage in Iraq." As a fourth focal point, the EU foreign ministers demand - just like the Bertelsmann paper - that the incoming US administration upgrade the standing of their European partners. "We must work together and not against one another" they write. "The world order has changed. The Europeans want to play their role alongside the Americans."[6]
No Peace Framework
The June 2006 strategy paper of the Bertelsmann Lobby states similarly, that the international system of states is facing "a renewed upheaval". Soon "the uni-polar moment, in which the USA constitutes the sole center of world policy" will be a bygone. These perspectives are already beginning to take form "in think tanks and on government staffs," the foundation wrote at the time, "in some domains of today's great power politics, they seem to already be determining policy."[7] The world order being described here - usually as "multi-polar" - is, according to the judgment of the Bertelsmann Foundation at the time, no peaceful system. The constellation of states that is in coming brings to mind "the struggle of the major European powers in the 19th Century" writes the think tank. This appraisal appears to be confirmed by the list of demands that the EU foreign ministers presented to the USA, which leave no doubt about the extent to which Germany and Europe are ready for war. The EU foreign ministers, including Frank-Walter Steinmeier, unanimously declare that legal and technical "difficulties concerning interventions" should in no way be a future "excuse for not taking action."[8]
[1] Europa-Handbuch für Barack Obama; Pressemitteilung der Bertelsmann-Stiftung 14.11.2008
[2] see also Zeitenwende, Vom Dollar zum Euro and From Dollars to Euros (II)
[3] Europa-Handbuch für Barack Obama; Pressemitteilung der Bertelsmann-Stiftung 14.11.2008
[4] Trans-Atlantic Briefing Book; Bertelsmann Foundation 06.11.2008
[5] Europa-Handbuch für Barack Obama; Pressemitteilung der Bertelsmann-Stiftung 14.11.2008
[6] EU will eng mit Obama zusammenarbeiten; Spiegel Online 15.11.2008
[7] Wer regiert die Welt? Weltmächte und internationale Ordnung. Schlussfolgerungen aus einer weltweiten Repräsentativbefragung "Weltmächte im 21. Jahrhundert"; Bertelsmann-Stiftung, Berlin, 2. Juni 2006. See also European Way of Life
[8] EU will eng mit Obama zusammenarbeiten; Spiegel Online 15.11.2008
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Germany Behind the Mask
The EU is a German Ruse
Is a World Dictator About to Appear?
Showing posts with label france. Show all posts
Showing posts with label france. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Open Europe press summary: 11 November 2008
Europe
Auditors find errors in "most spending areas" of EU budget for 14th straight year;
Dutch MEP: Clean opinion on reliability of Commission's account due to political pressure?
There has been widespread coverage of the annual report from the European Court of Auditors published yesterday. The Times notes that for the 14th successive year, the Auditors were unable to state that the EU accounts were clean for "most spending areas". It notes that six billion euros were paid out wrongly by the EU last year from Structural Funds alone - the highest cash total yet to be called into question by the Auditors' annual report. The Auditors also found that farm payments - the other big spending area in the EU budget - contained "too high level of error with farmers over claiming or exaggerating the size of their land area or the number of animals they keep. Rural development schemes - worth 12.4 billion euros are "particularly prone to errors" because of the complexity involved in complying with EU rules, the Court said.
Of the samples undertaken by the Auditors, 54% of the Structural Funds projects and 31% of agricultural transfers were subject to "material errors" in 2007.
However, despite the usual problems with spending, the Auditors gave an "unqualified" - or clean - opinion of the Commission's internal account as it showed a reliable set of figures for the first time.
Open Europe's Mats Persson was quoted in the Telegraph, arguing that mismanagement of the EU budget will continue until "Byzantine spending schemes" such as the Common Agricultural Policy and Structural Funds are fundamentally reformed. Mats was also quoted in French daily Les Echos and the Irish edition of the Daily Mail. On his BBC blog, Mark Mardell quoted Open Europe when arguing that the primary responsibility of the EU accounts rests with the Commission. Open Europe's list of 100 examples of EU waste and fraud also continued to receive coverage in British and European media, including in the Times, Dutch daily Algemeen Dagbla and on Hungarian state radio.
De Telegraaf quotes Dutch MEP Jan Mulder, who argues that although the Auditors gave a clean opinion in regards to the reliability of the Commission's book keeping, "it isn't as nice as it seems, because the approval is only with regards to budgetary accuracy, which has always been 98 percent and is now apparently 100 percent". The most important issue, Mulder argues, remains whether the money should have been spent in the first place. He goes on to say that the European Commission had as one of its objectives to reach a positive verdict on its account before the end of the mandate period in 2009. "That [a positive] verdict now has been given, is perhaps because some of the members of the European Commission want to be re-elected, including President Jose Manuel Barroso", he says.
On his Telegraph blog, Bruno Waterfield also looks at the "strategic objective" of the Commission and the Auditors clean verdict on the Commission's accounts this year. He notes, "Too good to be true? Has someone been cooking the books to help get the Commission off the hook? For, as the rest of the auditors report shows, the EU incorrectly paid out at least £4.9 billion in funding last year as 92 per cent of Brussels budgets, worth £93 billion in 2007, continued to be tainted by 'too high levels of illegality and irregularity'".
Telegraph FT BBC Mardell Times European Voice Telegraaf Elsevier Court of Auditors report FAZ Les Echos BBC-Mardell Stuttgarter Nachrichten Telegraph - Waterfield
EU defence ministers agree pan-European military aircraft transport fleet;
French Defence Minister: "We have done as much as we did in 10 years"
The FT reports that EU defence ministers on Monday gave the green light to launch an initiative to build a pan-European military aircraft transport fleet to fulfil the EU's increasing role in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. The project was endorsed by 12 EU nations.
Agence Europe notes that at the close of the meeting French Defence Minister Hervé Morin said, "We have done as much as we did in 10 years". The Executive Director of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Alexander Weis, commented that the meeting was evidence that the EU Defence Council "has, for the first time (...), succeeded in transforming words into action".
FT Reuters.de Elsevier
Miliband's "U-turn" allows EU to resume talks with Russia
The FT reports that the EU said on Monday that it was ready to resume talks with Russia on a long-term Partnership Agreement in spite of Eastern European complaints, which have suggested that the talks be conditional on a full Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
The Times notes that a "U-turn" from British Foreign Minister David Miliband may have tipped the balance in favour of those wishing to resume talks over the Partnership Agreement. A joint statement issued with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, read: "We need and want to work with Russia. Negotiations on the agreement are a pragmatic way of pursuing our interests across a range of important issues". However, they stressed that Russia's actions in Georgia "continue to cast a shadow over the EU's relationship with Russia".
FT BBC Times WSJ IHT Guardian European Voice FT: Brussels blog De Tijd
Ireland vows to end Lisbon crisis, as Czech President meets Libertas chairman Agence France Presse reports that Ireland has vowed to unblock the EU crisis over the Lisbon Treaty within a 'reasonable timeframe', with Irish PM Brian Cowen promising to make proposals at the December EU summit ahead of the handover of the rotating EU presidency. This is despite a report that from ESharp magazine that suggests that the Conservatives are urging the Irish government to delay a decision on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, because a change of UK Government would "get Dublin off the hook" by killing the Treaty.
Meanwhile, Le Figaro reports that Czech president Vaclav Klaus will meet Libertas chairman Declan Ganley and has promised to support Ganley's plan for a pan-European party which may put up candidates for the 2009 European elections. The article also reports that a recent poll in the Czech Republic shows that 55% Czechs are against the Lisbon Treaty.
Figaro Open Europe blog ESharp
The "critical weakness" of the Euro is political decision-making; Germany showing weak leadership
Former German Foreign Minister Joscha Fischer, in an interview with the FT, argues that Germany has "renounced" any claim to an EU leadership role in relation to the financial crisis, and that the German government is acting only in its national interest. Similarly, ESharp magazine argues that the financial crisis has exposed the deficiencies in the economic decision-making processes in Europe in general. While the currency has grown steadily over the last 10 years, the feature argues that "it is the politics that have become a critical weakness." The magazine writes that the idea of a European treasury to administer the single currency "may well be an improbable dream", but its absence has placed a great deal of pressure on the financial system.
FT ESharp
The European Commission says it is willing to provide Iceland with a "small" loan to help it through the current financial crisis, but only after agreements over bank deposits held by Europeans
European Voice
The European Commission has proposed deep cuts in fishing quotas in 2009 to allow stocks to recover.
IHT Guardian European Voice
Most EU countries have not yet signaled support for CO2 capture and storage targets and favour existing renewable energy sources, due to concerns over safety and cost-effectiveness. The UK, France and the Netherlands support the growing calls to develop new technology.
Euractiv European Voice
A leader in Le Figaro says of the French President: "Rather than attach himself to the incongruous idea of a European economic government, Nicolas Sarkozy would better devote himself to make sure that France by 2010 leaves the recession stronger than it has entered"Figaro
The FT reports that ECB chairman Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday criticised the banking system for 'not showing sufficient drive to support the real economy' by keeping credit lines 'tight'.
FT
Serbia has intensified its attempts to arrest General Ratko Mladic, the war crimes fugitive, a precondition set by the EU for granting it pre-membership status.
IHT
Auditors find errors in "most spending areas" of EU budget for 14th straight year;
Dutch MEP: Clean opinion on reliability of Commission's account due to political pressure?
There has been widespread coverage of the annual report from the European Court of Auditors published yesterday. The Times notes that for the 14th successive year, the Auditors were unable to state that the EU accounts were clean for "most spending areas". It notes that six billion euros were paid out wrongly by the EU last year from Structural Funds alone - the highest cash total yet to be called into question by the Auditors' annual report. The Auditors also found that farm payments - the other big spending area in the EU budget - contained "too high level of error with farmers over claiming or exaggerating the size of their land area or the number of animals they keep. Rural development schemes - worth 12.4 billion euros are "particularly prone to errors" because of the complexity involved in complying with EU rules, the Court said.
Of the samples undertaken by the Auditors, 54% of the Structural Funds projects and 31% of agricultural transfers were subject to "material errors" in 2007.
However, despite the usual problems with spending, the Auditors gave an "unqualified" - or clean - opinion of the Commission's internal account as it showed a reliable set of figures for the first time.
Open Europe's Mats Persson was quoted in the Telegraph, arguing that mismanagement of the EU budget will continue until "Byzantine spending schemes" such as the Common Agricultural Policy and Structural Funds are fundamentally reformed. Mats was also quoted in French daily Les Echos and the Irish edition of the Daily Mail. On his BBC blog, Mark Mardell quoted Open Europe when arguing that the primary responsibility of the EU accounts rests with the Commission. Open Europe's list of 100 examples of EU waste and fraud also continued to receive coverage in British and European media, including in the Times, Dutch daily Algemeen Dagbla and on Hungarian state radio.
De Telegraaf quotes Dutch MEP Jan Mulder, who argues that although the Auditors gave a clean opinion in regards to the reliability of the Commission's book keeping, "it isn't as nice as it seems, because the approval is only with regards to budgetary accuracy, which has always been 98 percent and is now apparently 100 percent". The most important issue, Mulder argues, remains whether the money should have been spent in the first place. He goes on to say that the European Commission had as one of its objectives to reach a positive verdict on its account before the end of the mandate period in 2009. "That [a positive] verdict now has been given, is perhaps because some of the members of the European Commission want to be re-elected, including President Jose Manuel Barroso", he says.
On his Telegraph blog, Bruno Waterfield also looks at the "strategic objective" of the Commission and the Auditors clean verdict on the Commission's accounts this year. He notes, "Too good to be true? Has someone been cooking the books to help get the Commission off the hook? For, as the rest of the auditors report shows, the EU incorrectly paid out at least £4.9 billion in funding last year as 92 per cent of Brussels budgets, worth £93 billion in 2007, continued to be tainted by 'too high levels of illegality and irregularity'".
Telegraph FT BBC Mardell Times European Voice Telegraaf Elsevier Court of Auditors report FAZ Les Echos BBC-Mardell Stuttgarter Nachrichten Telegraph - Waterfield
EU defence ministers agree pan-European military aircraft transport fleet;
French Defence Minister: "We have done as much as we did in 10 years"
The FT reports that EU defence ministers on Monday gave the green light to launch an initiative to build a pan-European military aircraft transport fleet to fulfil the EU's increasing role in humanitarian and peacekeeping missions. The project was endorsed by 12 EU nations.
Agence Europe notes that at the close of the meeting French Defence Minister Hervé Morin said, "We have done as much as we did in 10 years". The Executive Director of the European Defence Agency (EDA), Alexander Weis, commented that the meeting was evidence that the EU Defence Council "has, for the first time (...), succeeded in transforming words into action".
FT Reuters.de Elsevier
Miliband's "U-turn" allows EU to resume talks with Russia
The FT reports that the EU said on Monday that it was ready to resume talks with Russia on a long-term Partnership Agreement in spite of Eastern European complaints, which have suggested that the talks be conditional on a full Russian withdrawal from Georgia.
The Times notes that a "U-turn" from British Foreign Minister David Miliband may have tipped the balance in favour of those wishing to resume talks over the Partnership Agreement. A joint statement issued with Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt, read: "We need and want to work with Russia. Negotiations on the agreement are a pragmatic way of pursuing our interests across a range of important issues". However, they stressed that Russia's actions in Georgia "continue to cast a shadow over the EU's relationship with Russia".
FT BBC Times WSJ IHT Guardian European Voice FT: Brussels blog De Tijd
Ireland vows to end Lisbon crisis, as Czech President meets Libertas chairman Agence France Presse reports that Ireland has vowed to unblock the EU crisis over the Lisbon Treaty within a 'reasonable timeframe', with Irish PM Brian Cowen promising to make proposals at the December EU summit ahead of the handover of the rotating EU presidency. This is despite a report that from ESharp magazine that suggests that the Conservatives are urging the Irish government to delay a decision on ratifying the Lisbon Treaty, because a change of UK Government would "get Dublin off the hook" by killing the Treaty.
Meanwhile, Le Figaro reports that Czech president Vaclav Klaus will meet Libertas chairman Declan Ganley and has promised to support Ganley's plan for a pan-European party which may put up candidates for the 2009 European elections. The article also reports that a recent poll in the Czech Republic shows that 55% Czechs are against the Lisbon Treaty.
Figaro Open Europe blog ESharp
The "critical weakness" of the Euro is political decision-making; Germany showing weak leadership
Former German Foreign Minister Joscha Fischer, in an interview with the FT, argues that Germany has "renounced" any claim to an EU leadership role in relation to the financial crisis, and that the German government is acting only in its national interest. Similarly, ESharp magazine argues that the financial crisis has exposed the deficiencies in the economic decision-making processes in Europe in general. While the currency has grown steadily over the last 10 years, the feature argues that "it is the politics that have become a critical weakness." The magazine writes that the idea of a European treasury to administer the single currency "may well be an improbable dream", but its absence has placed a great deal of pressure on the financial system.
FT ESharp
The European Commission says it is willing to provide Iceland with a "small" loan to help it through the current financial crisis, but only after agreements over bank deposits held by Europeans
European Voice
The European Commission has proposed deep cuts in fishing quotas in 2009 to allow stocks to recover.
IHT Guardian European Voice
Most EU countries have not yet signaled support for CO2 capture and storage targets and favour existing renewable energy sources, due to concerns over safety and cost-effectiveness. The UK, France and the Netherlands support the growing calls to develop new technology.
Euractiv European Voice
A leader in Le Figaro says of the French President: "Rather than attach himself to the incongruous idea of a European economic government, Nicolas Sarkozy would better devote himself to make sure that France by 2010 leaves the recession stronger than it has entered"Figaro
The FT reports that ECB chairman Jean-Claude Juncker yesterday criticised the banking system for 'not showing sufficient drive to support the real economy' by keeping credit lines 'tight'.
FT
Serbia has intensified its attempts to arrest General Ratko Mladic, the war crimes fugitive, a precondition set by the EU for granting it pre-membership status.
IHT
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Blair 'YouTubes' congratulations to Sarkozy
Blair 'YouTubes' congratulations to Sarkozy - 08.05.2007 - 08:46
----------------------------------------------------------
Lending a modern twist to the traditional 'well done' message, UK leader
Tony Blair has sent his congratulations to French president-elect Nicolas
Sarkozy via the website YouTube in both French and English, albeit with a
more apologetic delivery in the Gallic tongue.
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