Europe
Austrian Chancellor calls for referendum if Lisbon Treaty is changed
EUobserver reports that Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer has said that if any changes are made to the Lisbon Treaty then it should be put to a referendum in his country. In a letter to daily Kronen Zeitung he said: "We think any future changes to the treaty that affect Austrian interests must be decided in Austria by a referendum. A lot of people are under the impression that the EU is not concerned with their real problems but that it is interested above all in looking after itself... There is also in Austria widespread scepticism about the EU at the moment. After the vast majority of Austrians voted in favour of EU membership in 1994, today we see a mood of uncertainty and sometimes also rejection."
The letter was also signed by the President of the Social Democrats, Werner Faymann. The Social Democrats are part of the ruling coalition, along with the centre-right Austrian People's Party. The letter says that if a new-look Treaty has to be ratified again in Austria, then the social democrats "want to convince" their coalition partner to take the referendum route. Austria's parliament has already ratified the Treaty. Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik reacted saying the call for a referendum was a "big mistake".
According to Hannes Swoboda, Vice-President of the Socialists in the EU Parliament, similar discussions are being had in Greece and the Netherlands and the Social Democrats' move would put other member states under pressure to make such a promise. Until now, among Austria's political parties, only the far-right FPOe and BZOe had called for a referendum.
Comment: In one sense this is irrelevant, as the plan is to have a second referendum on the same Treaty, with an Agreement for Ireland which does not affect the Treaty for other member states. Even the plan to go back to one Commissioner per country can be made compatible with the Lisbon Treaty, which provides for the European Council to unanimously decide to alter the number of Commissioners (and such a decision could be taken before its entry into force). The Austrian move seems mainly to be to do with domestic politics, and perhaps a desire to stop the Irish from asking for any further changes to the Treaty ahead of the second referendum.
The German TV channel RTL features a report on corruption in the European Parliament.
YouTube (English subtitles)
Giscard d'Estaing: referendums will be ignored; the EU will elect its President
The Telegraph reports that former French President and chief architect of the EU Constitution Valery Giscard d'Estaing has said that referendums will be ignored whether they are held in Ireland or elsewhere. Giscard d'Estaing told the Irish Times that Ireland's referendum rejection would not kill the Treaty, despite a legal requirement of unanimity from all the EU's 27 member states. He said, "We are evolving towards majority voting because if we stay with unanimity, we will do nothing. It is impossible to function by unanimity with 27 members. This time it's Ireland; the next time it will be somebody else."
He also admitted that the Lisbon EU Treaty had been carefully crafted to confuse the public: "What was done in the [Lisbon] Treaty, and deliberately, was to mix everything up. If you look for the passages on institutions, they're in different places, on different pages. Someone who wanted to understand how the thing worked could with the Constitutional Treaty, but not with this one." He also said "there is no alternative" to a second Irish vote, saying, "Everyone agrees it has to be sorted out by the time of European elections."
According to the Irish Times Giscard d'Estaing also ruled out the possibility of Ireland keeping its Commissioner. He said, "Everyone decided that there would no longer be permanent commissioners. It's not negotiable, for anyone... Ireland is 1 per cent of the EU. You're not going to have your own commissioner. It isn't reasonable. There will be Irish commissioners, but by rotation." Meanwhile in an interview with L'Express, Giscard d'Estaing laments the fact that majority voting is not already the rule in Europe, meaning that Lisbon "would already be adopted". He also says that "in one or two generations" time Europe will be ready to elect its President by direct universal suffrage.
Telegraph Irish Times L'Express
Lisbon Treaty: Comment round-up
An article in the Economist looks at how, despite claims from EU leaders ever since the Irish no vote that 19 of the 27 EU members have ratified the Treaty, "The truth is fiddlier: strictly, the correct number is only ten." Another piece looks at "Sarkozy's determination to press ahead with his pet projects" during the French EU Presidency.
The Charlemagne column looks at the fallout in Brussels following the Irish no vote, noting that Sarkozy's statement that further EU enlargement is impossible without the Lisbon Treaty is "legally untrue... But it is an effective political threat, even so." Looking at the various reactions to the no vote, it notes, "EU politicians understand perfectly well that the Irish have said no. The real question for them is whether the machinery of Europe can cope if a no vote is allowed to stand. Devout federalists have their answer: unanimity is the enemy of progress in an EU of 27 countries... Many politicians and commentators, notably in Germany, have demanded that a second Irish referendum on Lisbon must ask voters a tough question, namely: do you want Lisbon, or do you want to leave the EU? But as any Mafia foot soldier would know, this is not a question at all: it is a demand with menaces. Is that the kind of union European leaders want? It seems a high price to pay for Lisbon."
The Economist's Certain Ideas of Europe refutes French Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet's recent claim that "American neo-cons" were behind the Irish no vote, saying, "Mr Jouyet's outburst is frankly embarrassing, and only makes sense if you live in a world of Lilliputian Euro-narcissism, imagining that each raincloud that opens over Brussels was sent by dark forces from far away, intent on stopping the EU from becoming a mighty superpower."
On his blog on the Telegraph site, Dan Hannan looks at the possibility of a second Irish referendum, noting that, "The risks and gains to Brian Cowen are asymmetrical. If he were to win, he'd be slightly better off than he is now. But if he were to lose again, he might well have to resign, and the European cause would be irreparably damaged... In any case, why risk a referendum when Brussels can get what it wants through executive fiat and judicial activism? Euro-integrationists are very good at occupying terrain stealthily, house by house, field by field. But when they draw up the phalanxes and offer pitched battle, they almost invariably lose. They won't be in a hurry to repeat that mistake."
On his blog, BBC Europe Editor Mark Mardell looks at David Cameron's Europe policy, and notes that "he could also be heading for a first-term referendum on Britain's relationship with the EU." He quotes William Hague saying, "If this treaty is ratified in this country without a referendum, and if it is ratified in all other countries and comes into force before a general election, in our view not only would political integration have gone too far but the treaty would lack democratic legitimacy in Britain. So as we have already made clear, that situation would not be acceptable to an incoming Conservative government and we would not let matters rest there".
In an article in the Guardian former Labour MP David Marquand argues that "In voting against the treaty, the Irish were voting for Europe to remain a fat, rich political pygmy, in a world dominated by potentially predatory giants."
In a piece in the IHT, Robert Kagan argues that the failure of the Lisbon Treaty "is bad news for the United States. In a world of rising great powers, of which two happen to be autocracies, the United States needs its fellow democracies to be as strong as possible... The danger of this latest blow to European confidence is that America's allies, including Britain, could gradually sink into global irrelevance."
Economist Economist 2 Economist 3 Guardian IHT Economist blog BBC-Mardell Telegraph-Hannan
EU energy target could cost every family £260 a year
The Mail, Express and Telegraph report that the Government's wind farm plan will cost every family £260 a year, according to the Government, who said the sacrifice is needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet EU targets for green energy. The Independent reports that over the next 12 years, 7,000 win turbines will spring up around Britain to help meet the target.
It is widely reported that a market trader has been banned from selling a batch of 5,000 kiwi fruits because they are 1mm smaller than EU rules allow.
EU includes airlines in emissions trading system
EU ministers yesterday agreed to include airlines in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme. Beginning in 2012, all airlines using airports in Europe would be obliged to buy some pollution credits. The International Air Transport Association, the airline industry's biggest lobbying group, said that consumers would have to pay the price in higher airfares and warned that the cost for the industry of buying permits to comply with European emissions regulations would be more than $4 billion. US officials said that including non-European airlines in the system probably would be illegal under the convention governing international civil aviation.
EU-Russia talks could drag on for years
Several papers report on today's EU-Russia summit in the Siberian oil town of Khanty-Mansiisk. The summit marks the opening of negotiations of a new EU-Russia Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, primarily focused on trade. Analysts say negotiations could drag on for years. It is noted that energy will be at the top of the agenda, with the EU hoping to open up Russia's oil and gas reserves for European investment, while Moscow demands better access to European energy markets. According to the Commission, the summit talks will also cover financial market stability, the rise of sovereign wealth funds, climate change and the current food crisis. A point of contention is Russia's relations with Georgia.
In the Times, Bronwen Maddox looks at tension within the EU over Russia, noting that this shows "how the row over the Lisbon treaty has been a preoccupation with form at the expense of content. It is a distraction to mourn the lack of a common foreign minister for the 27 countries (one of the creations of the treaty) while there is so little agreement on what that policy should be towards Russia, the single most important question facing the EU."
The Telegraph reports that David Cameron has been hailed as a "brilliant friend" of France by the head of Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, Jean-François Copé, despite their differences over the EU.
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Spanish MPs have ratified the Lisbon Treaty.
New figures have shown that the tax burden in Europe is nearly 40% of total GDP.
Tony Blair has an article in the IHT, advocating a set of international and national measures to deliver low-carbon economies.
UK
Conservative candidate John Howell has won the Henley by-election, with Labour's Richard McKenzie coming in fifth place, behind the Lib Dems, Greens and the BNP, losing his deposit.
Two thirds think Brown a liability for Labour
A YouGov poll for the Telegraph puts the Conservatives on 46%, Labour on 28% and the Lib Dems on 15%. It shows that when voters were asked who they think will win the next election, 67% said the Conservatives and only 16% said Labour. Almost two thirds think Brown is a liability to Labour.
Following four days of quiet after Israel and Hamas struck a ceasefire, last Sunday, Israel increased allowed for increased activity at several Gaza border-crossings.
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Condemnation of the rebellion heaped up. The United Nations applied international sanctions intended to cut off Rhodesia from the rest of the world in 1966.
Mr. Smith would not bend. "No African rule in my lifetime," he said. "The white man is master of Rhodesia. He has built it, and he intends to keep it."
As he aged, he remained bitter that, in his view, successive outside powers including the United States, South Africa and most of all Britain had broken promises, betraying Rhodesia’s white minority and its leaders in the name of political expediency.
"And in all honesty, what had Rhodesia done to deserve all of this treachery?" he wrote in his 1996 memoir, "Bitter Harvest: The Great Betrayal." Returning to his prophecies of economic decline under black majority rule, he added in a 1998 postscript to the book: "I think I can correctly comment: I told you so. History records that my predictions have materialized."
Europe
French plans to give EU "real military credibility" - European helicopter fleet gets go-ahead
In an op-ed in Dagens Nyheter, former German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer condemns the Irish no vote. He argues, "First, a strong European foreign policy, badly needed given the current state of the world, was buried on June 12, for the time being. The nation states will have control over foreign policy once again."
Meanwhile, an article in Le Figaro looks at Nicolas Sarkozy's ambitions "to give Europe real military credibility." It notes that the Head of the European Defence Agency Alexander Weis is counting on Sarkozy to be able to convince the British that the agency's 20 million euro operating budget must be increased. It notes that the ideas for a 'military Erasmus' and European defence college, "designed to encourage the emergence of a common culture," will require unanimity. France also intends to develop the idea of being able to deploy 60,000 troops within a year outside the EU's borders.
The paper notes that the Franco-British plan to create a fleet of European helicopters is in principle agreed, and that the negotiations are ongoing for an aeronaval group allowing a British or French aircraft carrier to be permanently at sea. Paris is also proposing the creation of a tactical European transport fleet with the future Airbus A-400M as well as a satellite observation system, which has also been agreed. The article notes that Britain is still wary about the French plan to create an independent military planning headquarters in Brussels, with around 50 officers.
The FT reports that France yesterday announced that they will make environment and a common energy policy the top priorities of the their presidency, amid concerns that the presidency will be overshadowed by the Irish no vote.
French PM: Third no vote to Constitution shows people need to be won back
AFP reports that French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said that "The most important thing now is that Europe takes decisions, and, if possible, decisions on the issues which interest European citizens. To be concrete, and in action, is a necessity if we want to win back the confidence of the European people." He said, "After this third no vote from the people... it is urgent that we act in the areas which concern them, these areas where everyone knows that there can only be a collective response."
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Meanwhile, in an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, former French Prime Minister Alain Juppé (UMP) has said that after the Irish no vote "it is unacceptable" to continue "as though nothing has happened."
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The EU Commission's office in Dublin is under investigation over allegations of intimidation.
McCreevy admits he has no intention of ever reading the Lisbon Treaty
On his blog, Libération journalist Jean Quatremer calls for Irish EU Commissioner Charlie McCreevy to resign. Having admitted during the Irish referendum campaign that he had not read the Lisbon Treaty and that somebody would have to be mad to do so, McCreevy has replied to a question about whether he will read it if another referendum is held by saying, "I intend to read a lot during the summer, things like John Grisham novels or maybe a bit of Joyce's Ulysses". As Quatremer notes, "In other words, he has no intention of reading this text. One might wonder if he actually voted no..."
French attitudes on EU policy and Irish no vote
A new poll by Vivavoice for Libération has shown that 44% of French people want Ireland to vote again, 26% want the ratification process to continue without Ireland, and 24% want to give up on the Treaty altogether. 52% think the no vote is going to complicate Sarkozy's job during the French EU Presidency; 42% think it won't. According to the newspaper 93% of people are in favour of a more integrated environmental policy, 78% are in favour of a European defence policy, 72% want a European social and fiscal policy, 62% want a more integrated immigration policy, and only 30% are in favour of Turkey's membership of the EU.
EU energy target could lead to five years of rising energy bills
The Times and the Mail both report on the effect on prices of the EU's target of generating 15 per cent of its energy from renewables by 2020, noting that consumers could face five years of higher gas and electricity bills from about 2015 as a consequence of the target. European Voice notes that energy bills could triple.
Vaclav Klaus: EU cannot ignore its own rules - Lisbon will not be ratified
EUobserver reports that Czech President Vaclav Klaus has said that the Lisbon Treaty "cannot come into force". In an interview with El Pais, Klaus said: "The EU cannot ignore its own rules. The Lisbon Treaty has been roundly and democratically rejected by Ireland, and it therefore cannot come into force. Any attempt to ignore this fact and make recourse to pressure and political manipulation to move the treaty forward would have disastrous consequences for Europe".
"Since the treaty must unanimously be ratified of all the member states of the EU and one of them has already rejected it, the final result of the ratification will be the same. With or without the Czech vote, the Treaty of Lisbon will not be ratified". However, separately Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said he was "optimistic" over the prospect of a Czech ratification of the Treaty, which is now pending a ruling in the country's Constitutional Court.
France scales down plans for common immigration policy
European Voice reports that France has scaled down its plans for a common EU immigration policy, dropping the notion of a centralised processing of asylum requests, toning down language on 'regularisation' of illegal immigrants' status, and abandoning the idea for 'integration contracts.'
Miliband wants more EU social and environmental policies
In an interview in the Independent, David Miliband calls for the EU to adopt more social and environmental policies. The paper has an article on the Irish government's inquiry into the reasons for the no vote. Richard Corbett MEP also has a letter in the Independent calling on EU leaders to press ahead with the rejected Lisbon Treaty.
Miliband Ireland searches for answers
Ben Brogan's blog looks at the Government's attempts to deliver the Instrument of Ratification of the Lisbon Treaty to Rome.
Cameron and Europe
In the Spectator, Fraser Nelson looks at David Cameron's possible first term of Government. He notes, "Eurosceptics argue that if Mr Cameron is to govern freely, he must engage with the European question. Yet I am told the Implementation Unit is working to discourage any such confrontation. 'The ex-civil servants are already saying, 'You can take on the EU, but realise it will dominate your first year,"' complains one party aide.'"
The Commission yesterday proposed its Small Business Act, including giving small and mid-sized businesses a new EU legal status to avoid following different legal systems.
Kaletsky: Irish No vote will change the history of Europe
In the Times, Kaletsky argues that the "Irish 'no' will permanently change the history of Europe." He argues that the no vote "will deprive the EU's continuing political development of all democratic legitimacy." He goes on to argue that if the Conservatives win the next general election, "there will no longer be any chance of isolating Ireland in a 26 to one minority. With a Conservative government in Britain a prospect by the spring of 2010, Euro-federalist efforts to isolate or threaten Ireland, would inevitably be opposed by Britain."
World
Foreign Policy magazine reports that International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei has said that Iran is between six months and a year away from a nuclear bomb.
UK
Under new rules UK MPs are going to have their expenses independently audited.
Years of observation and study have taught me to be an honest racist, a realist, without apology. Racism is not the unpardonable sin that politically correct fascists would mislead folks to believe. Dishonest racists would have us deny our God-given differences and foolishly pretend we're all equal when everything proves we're not equal except in our potential to be born again into the Kingdom of God-Beings, and even then salvation is offered first to the Jews (Israelites) and then to the Greeks (Gentiles).
"I will say, then, that I AM NOT NOR HAVE EVER BEEN in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the black and white races---that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with White people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the White and black races which will ever FORBID the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together, there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the White race."
- Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln Was A White Supremacist
“Cam Rea describes the Assyrian Conquest of the northern Israelite Tribes and their subsequent history alongside that of Assyria itself. The account is historically accurate as well as exciting. Cam Rea has the ability to bring the past to life. This work encompasses original research work and pertinent insights. Anyone who wishes to know what happened to the Ten Tribes of Northern Israel after their exile should read this work. The reader will both benefit and enjoy doing so.
