Europe In The News

Europe In The News
By Richard Markland
www.worldnewsbulletin.com"

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New EU police force inaugurated in Italy
A European military police force primed for rapid deployment worldwide was formally inaugurated in Verona on Monday by defense and interior ministers from the five participating EU countries.


EU launches gendarmerie force
The EU has launched a new paramilitary force designed for international deployment to restore public order and bolster peacekeeping missions in what will be the bloc’s third defense and security structure created in the last four years.


German government plans to spend 6 bln euro on military equipment this year
Germany's government is planning to spend 6 bln euro on new military equipment this year, Die Welt newspaper reported, citing Christian Schmidt, state secretary to the defense ministry.


EU military team visits ahead of planned troop deployment
A European Union military team will visit Congo next week to prepare for a possible European deployment to support U.N. peacekeepers ahead of vital elections meant to draw a line under five years of murderous civil war.


E.U. envoy presses Netherlands to send troops to south Afghanistan
The European Union's top official in Afghanistan on Thursday urged the Netherlands to go ahead with plans to deploy troops in the volatile southern Afghan region, saying a Dutch "no" would damage the bloc's credibility in the country.


EU explores Congo election mission
An EU fact-finding mission is departing for the Democratic Republic of Congo next week, to investigate the possibilities of an EU military mission to back up the UN during elections in the violence–stricken country this spring.


Integration crucial to Europe, say EU leaders
Ordinary Europeans need to learn about each other and challenge themselves, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said in Salzburg on Saturday at the close of a conference on the future of the continent.


MEPs back plan to save EU constitution
The European Parliament has adopted a plan aiming to revive the EU constitution, while rejecting attempts to acknowledge the need for a revision of the original text.


Polish president says EU needs new charter
The European Union needs a new charter to replace a draft that pushed for far more integration than the bloc's citizens were ready to accept, Polish President Lech Kaczynski was quoted as saying on Tuesday.


Finnish presidency to accept changes in constitution text
Finnish prime minister Matti Vanhanen has called upon states that have ratified the EU constitution to accept possible changes to the text.


EU ministers tell Britain to cut budget deficit
European Union finance ministers told Britain on Tuesday it was running an excessive budget deficit and gave the country until the 2006/2007 fiscal year to bring the gap below the EU ceiling of 3 percent.


Analysis: Merkel's new foreign policy
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's debut on the international political scene has taken many by surprise.


Britain's Blair to hand over power within two years, ally says
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has reached a "new understanding" to hand over power to his finance minister Gordon Brown within two years, a close ally and former minister has said.


Merkel will not see Hamas officials on Mideast trip
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the first EU leader to visit the Middle East since the Palestinian election, will not meet Hamas officials despite the radical Islamic group's overwhelming poll victory.


Germany prevents rightist from traveling to Iran
German authorities have prohibited foreign travel by a far-right-wing lawyer, Horst Mahler, amid fears that he may attend a Holocaust denial conference in Iran, an official confirmed Thursday.


Europe pays tribute to Holocaust victims
Sixty-one years after the liberation of the Nazi death camp of Auschwitz, the grimmest symbol of the murder of six million Jews in World War II, ceremonies across Europe marked the first international Holocaust remembrance day.


German parliament remembers victims of the Holocaust
In the city where the Nazis hatched their plan to wipe out Europe's Jews, the German parliament remembered the six million victims of the Holocaust on the first international day of commemoration.


Germans bristle as Spielberg film pricks conscience
Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has torn open another old wound in Germany just as the country where the holocaust was designed and the 1972 Olympics massacre happened prepares for the world's spotlight again.


European press review
Some European papers criticize President Jacques Chirac's threat to launch a French nuclear strike against any state that mounts a terrorist attack on France.