Sunday, February 28, 2010

Could Germany Soon Acquire Nuclear Weapons?


Could Germany Soon Acquire Nuclear Weapons?
By Brad Macdonald

February 25, 2010 | From theTrumpet.com
It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds.

At the height of the Cold War, the United States had roughly 7,000 nuclear warheads stationed in Europe. Today, America has about 200 B61 nuclear gravity bombs under the auspices of NATO on the Continent.

These bombs may soon be up for grabs.

When the Cold War ended, the security equation dictating Europe’s defense changed, and America slashed the number of nukes it had stockpiled there. With Russia no longer perceived as a nuclear threat, it wasn’t long before some began calling on Washington to remove its few remaining nukes. The calls intensified with time. But officials in Washington and NATO were concerned about the message a comprehensive nuclear drawdown would send to Russia (as well as those formerly under the Kremlin’s boot heel). So they ignored the requests and preserved the status quo.

Until now.

“In recent weeks it has become clear that the status quo is no longer an option,” Anne Penketh wrote in the Guardian Tuesday. The latest wave of pressure began last fall, when German and Dutch politicians demanded that America remove its nukes. It crested last week, when four senior Belgian politicians demanded that Washington remove its 20 or so B61s from their nation’s soil.

And it seems the pressure on the White House will only intensify. Citing remarks from senior Belgian leaders, Agence France Presse reported last Friday that an impending joint proposal from five NATO members will demand “that nuclear arms on European soil belonging to other NATO member states are removed.” According to a spokesman for Belgium’s prime minister, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Norway will submit a petition “in the coming weeks” for more than 200 American warheads to be removed from Europe, including Turkey.

We need to keep an eye on these nuclear weapons.

In 1965, German politician Franz Josef Strauss wrote a visionary book in which he outlined his ambition for the creation of a united and independent German-led European superstate. Strauss envisioned this federalized European entity as much more than a globally dominant political and economic union. He believed it must possess military features that would forge it as an international force on par militarily with the United States.

To Strauss, this German-led European combine would inevitably have to go nuclear.

How? On page 52 of The Grand Design, Strauss wrote, “I can well see the day in which America, given the creation of a European nuclear force in which the United States is not itself a participant, would be entirely willing to cooperate with assistance in research and with deliveries of material” (emphasis mine throughout).

After 45 years, that day may be about to dawn. Strauss’s vision of an independent European military—including a “European nuclear force” aided in its creation by the United States—could soon be reality!

Any analysis of the decision to remove American nukes from Europe must factor in the broader debate currently underway between Europe and America over the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Put simply, NATO is experiencing a major identity crisis. Its original mandate is redundant and it has grown so large it’s become unwieldy and cumbersome, a tangled mess of bureaucracy and conflicting ideologies and priorities. In spite of these maladies, demand for NATOs services is strong, and the alliance finds itself on the front lines of all sorts of major projects, including the ongoing war in Afghanistan.

Hence the question being hotly debated by American and European leaders: What exactly is the roleor what officials have termed the new “strategic concept”—of NATO?

The answer to this pivotal question stands to impact us all. And we’re already getting a glimpse of what it will be. Europe is weighing heavily into the debate over nato’s future. European countries are not the dispirited, easily manipulated political and military dwarfs they were when nato coalesced as a distinctly American creation in 1949. Moreover, the European Union today is a legitimate superstate, replete with its own developing security apparatus, foreign-policy objectives and military ambitions—and is advancing its own distinct and far-reaching vision for the future of NATO.

In fact, 2010, as Trumpet columnist Ron Fraser recently explained, could be the year that NATO transforms into a distinctly European instrument!

Watching the creeping Europeanization of NATO, one wonders whether this process might include the Europeanization of America’s nuclear bombs by Germany. Even now, those warheads exist under NATO guidelines. It doesn’t take much imagination to see NATO’s new strategic concept including strictures that could place America’s nuclear bombs in the hands of the EU—which from its inception has been a German creation.

Of course, we don’t know for certain what will happen to these weapons. But conditions are crystallizing to where we could find out this year.

In an address to world leaders at the Global Zero conference earlier this month, U.S. President Barack Obama assured his audience that America’s forthcoming “Nuclear Posture Review [npr] will reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy.” According to Hans M. Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists, “the European initiative would help the Obama administration justify a decision to withdraw the weapons from Europe by demonstrating that key nato allies no longer see a need for the deployment.”

The problem is, any declaration by the White House that it plans to remove its nukes from Europe would preempt and potentially interrupt the debate over NATO’s new strategic concept. But Mr. Obama is not without options, as Mr. Kristensen notes: “An alternative could be that the NPR concludes that the U.S. sees no need for the continued deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe but leaves it up to NATO’s new strategic concept to make the formal decision.”

In other words, President Obama could leave it up to NATO—which is currently being cannibalized by European ambition—to determine what to do with America’s nuclear warheads!

Looking only at the initiative to remove American warheads from the Continent, it appears Europe would choose to banish all American bombs from its midst. But it’s not that simple. This initiative is being driven by liberal-socialist European politicians and media pundits. So far, Europe’s Catholic, conservative pro-military politicians have barely weighed in on this issue. This is the crop of leaders we must be watching—particularly as the ongoing economic calamity intensifies the craving for closer political, economic and military union in Europe.

The debate over the future of nato will continue throughout 2010. As it does, expect Europe’s voice and role in NATO to get stronger. Pay special attention to German politician Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. Guttenberg recently lashed out at NATO, calling it an inept organization in need of a radical overhaul. Germany’s defense minister believes, as do more than a few European politicians these days, that Europe needs a stronger military, one closely aligned with and heavily influencing NATO.

As Europe cannibalizes NATO, don’t be surprised if it cannibalizes America’s nuclear weapons on the Continent!

If this occurs, the most pressing question will be: What will this newly dominant European military power do with these nuclear warheads?

The late Herbert Armstrong answered that question in the April 1980 issue of the Plain Truth. “You may be sure the West European leaders are conferring hurriedly and secretly about how and how soon they may unite and provide a united European military force so they can defend themselves!” he wrote. “And so they will no longer have to give in meekly to Russia! And who will they blame for their humiliation and their necessity now to have a united Europe, with a united government, a common currency, and a common military force as great or greater than either the ussr or the usa? They will blame the United States! And when they are strong enough to assert themselves, they will first attack Britain for standing firm with the U.S., and then they will return a lot of hydrogen bombs the U.S. has stored now in Europe!”

To most people in 1980, that forecast probably sounded absolutely ridiculous—as did Franz Josef Strauss’s “grand design” for a united European constellation in which Germany shone as the leading and brightest star. But today each of these forecasts seem much less extreme and far more sobering. And if you think that’s sobering, consider how far advanced each of these trends could be this time next year, considering the rate at which world events are unfolding.

************

Consider Luigi Barzini's reference to “The mutable Germans” in The Europeans where he questions: “Which is the shape of the German Proteus this morning? Which will be its shape tomorrow? Johannes Gross thinks his countrymen wear a mask. 'But the day may come when someone lifts the mask,” he wrote. “The face that appears may be less full-cheeked and rosy than today's... So long as we wear the mask, we remain hidden and continue to conceal the situation from ourselves.'”

...What is Germany hiding? Nuclear weapons? Who would be so foolish to imagine Germany without their own nuclear weapons when they were ahead of us in developing them? Certainly the grand design Franz Josef Strauss had in mind (with much at his disposal as Federal Minister of Nuclear Energy, and later Defense Minister) demanded independence from the United States. And Germany's Dolphin submarines delivered to Israel, equipped to handle nuclear weapons, underscore German military capabilities, yet the United States continues to blindly promote their control of the European continent, oblivious to The Dangers in US-German European Policy.

How many German plants in America are serving the interests of Germany's budding Fourth Reich? It's not only German factories and German businesses in America proving “that basic thoroughness of the orderly German” (Johannes Gross), since the secret Nazis had predetermined such a strategy, but bought and paid for American prostitutes in diverse and perverse positions of power aid and abet them! They expose our country to danger and will leave us infected as a nuclear wasteland! - Germany Behind the Mask

http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Why Israel Will Survive a Nuclear Holocaust

How can we rest assured Israel (the American, British and Jewish peoples) will survive? Especially since the imminent nuclear genocide attempted against us ...

Why Israel Will Survive a Nuclear Holocaust

Violence is the answer!

Living Church of God Commentary: Violence is not the answer
Many people have the idea that God loves war and is a bloodthirsty, violent God. What these critics fail to understand is that the true God of the Bible is actually a God of peace. Read more

************

The Bible condemns senseless violence, however the God of War will enforce peace through strength, won't He? The Prince of Peace will speak in the only language some seem to understand. Why pretend otherwise? Why try to be more righteous than God?

The God of Jacob will force folks to learn His ways or else. After all, He's going to rule with a rod of iron - not a pussy willow; He's the Lion of God, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah - not some pussy.

Violence, as necessary, is the answer and it is called for in the Law of Moses. The wise know to make this biblical distinction (Ezekiel 44:23).

Exodus 15:3
The LORD is a man of war; The LORD is His name.

Psalm 2:9
You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.

Revelation 2:27
‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’

Zechariah 14
16 And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 17 And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, on them there will be no rain. 18 If the family of Egypt will not come up and enter in, they shall have no rain; they shall receive the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not come up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.


Onward Christian Soldiers!

Separation of Church and State? Says Who?

God's One Government Has Two Branches!


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Friday, February 26, 2010

Ministry to Accompany Expansion (Development Policy)

Newsletter 2010/02/23 - Ministry to Accompany Expansion

BONN/BERLIN (Own report) - A long-time Friedrich Naumann Foundation employee, a proponent of the Honduran putschists is the newly appointed director of a department in the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Previously, in his function as the "director of the Regional Office for Latin America" he had established the Naumann network in Honduras. Last summer he came to the defense of the putschist regime against protests. His appointment as department director is an aspect of the restructuring process taking place in the BMZ, aimed at linking the ministry more tightly to Germany's economic and military expansion. The restructuring was initiated by the new Minister, Dirk Niebel (FDP). Just last week, the appointment of a Bundeswehr colonel as department director (also for Afghanistan) had provoked strong protests from civilian aid organizations. A third new department director is considered a specialist for promoting small and medium-sized enterprises, which, to a growing degree, are seeking to expand abroad - also with the support of the ministry of development.

more
http://www.german-foreign-policy.com/en/fulltext/56323

Open Europe press summary: 26 February 2010

Europe
 
ECJ's top lawyer says member states should pay for healthcare costs of patients treated elsewhere in the EU
The BBC reports that the European Court of Justice's Advocate General Paolo Mengozzi has said that patients who receive hospital treatment in another EU member state should be fully reimbursed by their home country.
 
Mr.Mengozzi made the comments in reference to a case involving a resident of Spain, who had unplanned hospital treatment in France and is pressing for Spain to reimburse him. Mr.Mengozzi said Spain's refusal to reimburse the patient's extra hospital costs in France put Spain in breach of EU law relating to the freedom to provide services. The case is yet to be decided but the legal opinion of Mr.Mengozzi carries weight as a suggested legal solution to the case.
 
The European Parliament is backing a new draft EU directive aimed at harmonising cross-border healthcare, but the legislation has not yet come into effect. Under the plan, patients would be able to claim up to the amount their treatment would have cost in their home country. The aim is to clarify the possibilities for citizens to claim money back from their home state for healthcare treatment sought in a different country. In a landmark ruling in 2006, the European Court said the UK's National Health Service should reimburse a woman for a hip replacement operation she had in France.
BBC
 
Further drop in market confidence in Greek bonds points to likely bailout;
Diplomat: EU surveillance of Greece goes beyond "simple application of the European treaties"
The FT reports that Greek bond markets yesterday saw their biggest one-day fall of the year as investors warned that the country faced the growing threat of a ratings downgrade. The WSJ reports that a planned bond issue has been pushed to next week, noting that, combined with the threat of downgrade, expectations among investors have grown that the county will need to be rescued. FT Deutschland reports that Eurohypo and Hypo Real Estate, the two main German banks operating in the public debt market, will not participate in the next auction of Greek bonds.
 
The Mail reports that German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted last night that the Greek crisis had put the euro at risk "for the first time since its introduction." However, Merkel appeared cautious about French plans for greater 'economic governance' of the eurozone. "It would be wrong to have a coordinated economic policy for the euro group while the others can do what they want, because we are of course closely linked to our other neighbours through trade," she said. Meanwhile, speaking at the European College in Bruges last night, EU President Herman Van Rompuy cited the financial crisis as a reason for greater "economic governance" within the EU.  
 
On his blog, Liberation journalist Jean Quatremer quotes an unnamed EU diplomat saying, "Putting Greece under surveillance, as decided by the Eurogroup on 15 February, would have quite simply been unimaginable some months ago.  We are beyond a simple application of the European treaties, we are in the process of modifying them without saying so, in order to bring about a economic government of the eurozone." Quatremer concludes that "Paris and Berlin are still not on the same page."
 
The Telegraph reports that the head of Germany's debt agency has strongly hinted at a Greek rescue, saying that if Greece is allowed to default the eurozone may go with it. Carl Heinz Daube, Director of Germany's Finanzagentur debt agency, said, "If one member of the eurozone were to step out for any reason, this would be a collapse of the entire system. It would mean that after ten years, the euro experiment has ended."
 
The FT notes that the Greek government is expected to announce further austerity measures worth up to €3.6bn or 1.5 percent of GDP, after visits from the European Commission and the IMF this week. It is expected that the set of measures will include a rise in value added tax, fuel tax, duties on luxury goods and more cuts in civil servants' salary allowances.
 
In Prospect magazine, former IMF Chief Executive Simon Johnson argues that "The EU's leaders will try hard to keep the IMF at bay. This is not good news for Greece - or for anyone who cares about global financial stability."
 
The FT reports that Spanish ministers have been trying to ensure confidence in their austerity program, discussing the merits of a public sector pay freeze and urging opposition politicians to agree common policies against the crisis.
 
Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that the US Federal Reserve and the Securities Exchange Commission are to launch an inquiry into Goldman Sachs' role in masking Greece's debt burden.
FT Coulisses de Bruxelles Les Echos Telegraph Telegraph 2 L'Express IHT WSJ WSJ 2 Mail FT 2 Independent EUobserver City AM Le Monde FT 3 FT: Leader FT WSJ WSJ: Fidler Prospect: Johnson Coulisses de Bruxelles blog WSJ 3 FT 4 Irish Times WSJ 4 Handelsblatt FTD ASCA Coulisses de Bruxelles
 
MEPs vote for €13.4 million increase in staffing costs
MEPs yesterday voted in favour of proposals to hire 150 additional staff for the European Parliament's committees and groups, which they say is needed because of the increased workload for the EP under the Lisbon Treaty. The proposal also includes an increase in MEPs' staff allowance by €1,500 a month. The vote was 430 in favour, with 117 against, with 58 abstentions. Dutch MEPs protested and voted No, according to NOS. The increase must be approved by the European Commission and member states, expected in April. The European Parliament's press service says the new posts will cost €13.4m (£12m), according to the BBC.
EUobserver European Voice BBC NOS OE blog
 
Centrica Chief Executive casts doubt over ability to meet EU renewables targets
The Times reports that Sam Laidlaw, Chief Executive of Centrica, has said it is unclear whether the Government scheme to build an estimated 10,000 wind turbines across the North and Irish seas would ever go ahead, because of the vast costs involved. Mr Laidlaw said that the economics of generating electricity from offshore wind turbines in deep water up to 200 miles offshore remained questionable.
 
A contract was awarded to Centrica to build a wind farm in the Irish sea last month, one of nine planned farms, but the construction could cost as much as £14.7 billion, according to industry estimates. Citigroup has estimated that the cost of installing one megawatt of offshore wind is about £3.5 million - roughly five times the cost of building a gas-fired power station with the same capacity.
 
Maria McCaffery, Chief Executive of the British Wind Energy Association (BWEA), said that wind farms would be essential if Britain was to have a chance of meeting the EU target of generating 15 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2020.
Times Open Europe research
 
European economy at risk of missing out on global recovery
Bloomberg reports that Europe's economy is in danger of becoming "unstuck" from the global recovery. Jullian Callow, of Barclays Capital, said: "Europe is where we see the biggest risk of a double dip at the global level. Europe has been lagging and we've continued to see better numbers in Asia and now the U.S." Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that the European Commission has downgraded its forecast for UK growth to just 0.6% in 2010.
Bloomberg Telegraph Les Echos Le Point  La Tribune
 
German business federation criticises EU 2020 strategy
Handelsblatt reports that a Commission proposal for the EU's 2020 growth strategy suggests that the European Commission should set five economic policy goals and give government leaders the responsibility to conduct the strategy. Every member state would reportedly receive detailed economic policy recommendations from Brussels. The proposal also suggested that the European Council should conduct the strategy and guard its implementation.
 
Responding to the plans Hans-Peter Keitel, President of the German Business Federation BDI has warned: "this discussion is on completely the wrong track. We cannot accept European steering of the national economy".
Handelsblatt
 
Farage faces disciplinary measures on Van Rompuy comments
Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage has been summoned to European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek's office on Tuesday next week and is facing disciplinary action over his comments in the European Parliament describing EU President Herman Van Rompuy as a "damp rag". A leader in the Times argues that "Nigel Farage is an embarrassing figure who does not speak for Britain".
 
Mr Farage also described Belgium as a "non-country", prompting a letter of complaint from Belgian PM Yves Leterme to President Buzek. Belgian MEP Véronique De Keyser also demanded a formal apology, to which Mr Farage responded: "She is very sweet and rather pretty but I cannot apologise for the fact that Belgium is a completely artificial construction and a mistake."
Prospect: Brussels Diary Telegraph Independent Times Economist: Charlemagne notebook EUobserver European Voice BBC Times: Leader NouvelObs TF1
 
Hedge fund industry "has been bad at understanding" what is going on with AIFM Directive
The Parliament magazine reports that hedge fund and private equity figures at a conference in London yesterday called for MEPs to ensure that the final agreement on the EU's Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive "was a proportionate response and one that avoids damage to financial markets and the EU itself". Javier Echarri, Secretary General of the European Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, said the hedge fund industry "has been bad at understanding what was going on behind the scenes."
The Parliament Open Europe research
 
Iceland walks out of debt repayment talks
The Times reports that Icelandic officials last night walked out of talks in London aimed at reaching an agreement on the repayment of £2.3 billion in debts to the UK. According to an article in the Independent, officials from Iceland's foreign ministry secretly appealed to the head of the US embassy in Rekjavik for help last month, after claiming Britain had "bullied" the Icelandic government. A referendum is due to be held on 6 March.
Times City AM EUobserver BBC Independent
 
Interior ministers support EU pact to counter drug-trafficking
Proposals to launch a European pact against drug-trafficking were examined during a meeting of the 27 interior ministers yesterday. In a message said to be directly addressed to Turkey and the Balkan states, the proposals also made it clear that any countries looking to join the EU must be willing to commit to the fight against drugs.
Le Figaro L'Express
 
The Economist's Charlemagne column looks at the EU's relationship with Russia and suggests that, via the 'eastern partnership' project, "Bringing ex-Soviet republics into a rules-based system would challenge the bleakness of Putinism".
Economist: Charlemagne Euronews
 
PA reports that Europe Minister Chris Bryant has called for civil partnerships to be recognised across the EU, and said the Government is working to ensure legal protection in all member states. 11 member states, including Greece, Italy, and Poland, have no legislation covering same-sex partnerships.
No link


Open Europe is an independent think tank campaigning for radical reform of the EU. For information on our research, events and other activities, please visit our website: openeurope.org.uk or call us on 0207 197 2333.

The greatest threat to Jews

Purim celebrates the miraculous turn around of events, Jews saved in the nick of time, from the final solution Haman had planned for them.

Key characters in the Megillat Esther ("The Scroll of Esther") are Esther, whose Hebrew name is Hadassah, and her cousin Mordechai (Esther 2:15). Mordechai was a Jew in the sense he was a descendant of the Kingdom of Judah, but specifically Mordechai was from the Israelite tribe of Benjamin (Esther 2:5) - Mordechai was a Benjaminite. The Bible repeatedly notes tribal distinctions as important and so should we, rather than let the facts get blurred by careless traditions.

The greatest threat to Jews has always been from within. Never forget it. Today that clear and present danger is revealed in the accursed Neturei Karta and UNJews. Regardless, Am Yisrael Chai - the Nation/People of Israel lives - and will continue to survive and thrive because of God's love for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. We have written guarantees recorded in the holy Bible!

We are the ethnic Elect, beloved for the fathers' Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's sakes, for whom the King of the Jews, the King of Israel, will specifically return to save and preserve from extinction! The GOOD NEWS is sent primarily to the Twelve Tribes of Israel and assures us of our NATIONAL DELIVERANCE, not just spiritual salvation. The Two Witnesses will testify to this truth before our captive audience. - "We're in the Times of the Gentiles!"

Purim

Purim


Purim is a three-day carnival-like festival in Israel celebrating our deliverance from planned mass extermination by the Persians (now called the Iranians). It starts on Sunday, but I already saw some Tel Avivis in costume yesterday!

No cartoon on Monday. Next cartoon on Tuesday, March 2.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!!

-Dry Bones- Israel's Political Comic Strip Since 1973

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Accursed Neturei Karta

Arab-occupied Jordan is part of Greater Israel

#40. To: No 6 (#38)

U.N. Jews - an apt term for Israelis

At least for too many of them, especially the unclean kind like Shimon Peres (who betray Jerusalem and Israel and collaborate with Germany and the Vatican, as I've warned Jews for years). However, the accursed Neturei Karta are UNJews who also aid and abet the sworn enemies of God, Torah and Israel:
Most self-respecting Jews totally oppose and have denounced Neturei Karta's activities. Every mainstream Orthodox Jewish group regards Neturei Karta as a group of deranged, self-hating anti-Semites. Many call them "minim", the Talmudic term for "treasonous heretic." Even non-Jews cannot fathom what sort of lunatic Jews (especially so-called "rabbis") would actively work with those who seek their very own genocide. - Neturei Karta - "JUDENRATS FOR A SECOND HOLOCAUST"
I'm curious, since I strongly believe Europe's New Crusade will brutally betray both Arabs and Jews and their "peace-keeping troops" occupy the Holy Land of Israel, will you rejoice when it happens, when the German-Jesuit jackboot stomps Jerusalem?


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Obama fails to support our British-Israelite brethren

US refuses to endorse British sovereignty in Falklands oil disput

#5. To: Magician (#0)

Obama administration

I'm not surprised with the president usurper, the fraud and foreigner, the Gentile Obama occupying our White House, that his illegitimate administration fails to properly recognize British sovereignty over the Falklands.

The Falklands are part of Great Britain's God-given inheritance.

Israel in the Isles


http://www.davidbenariel.org/

Open Europe press summary: 25 February 2010

Europe
 
EU pressure on Greece sparks Deputy PM into rant at Germany's WWII record
The Times reports that protesters and police clashed in Greece yesterday as a strike against government austerity measures turned violent amid signs that delegations from the European Commission and International Monetary Fund currently visiting Athens will demand extra cuts amounting to at least €2 billion (£1.7 billion), as early as next month.
 
The Guardian notes that the pressure for greater cuts, particularly from Germany, has led to heightened tensions between the two countries. Greek Deputy Prime Minister, Theodore Pangalos, said Germany had no right to judge Greek finances after wreaking havoc on the economy during the four years that the country was under Nazi occupation in the Second World War. He added that Germany had failed to make adequate compensation. "They took away the Greek gold that was at the Bank of Greece, they took away the Greek money and they never gave it back. This is an issue that has to be faced sometime," he said.
 
Andreas Peschke, a spokesman at the German Foreign Ministry, replied, "A discussion about the past is not helpful to solve the problems...facing us in Europe today." The Telegraph quotes a banker saying, "How can they call the Germans incompetent Nazis and still expect a bail-out?"
 
Mr. Pangalos also hit out at Italy saying that it had done much more to mask the true extent of its public debt than Greece when it entered the euro and criticised the EU's leaders for their inability to agree a bailout package. "The quality of leadership in the union is very, very poor indeed," he said.
 
In an interview with the BBC World Service, Open Europe's Pieter Cleppe discussed the strikes in Greece, saying: "citizens in Greece need to understand that taxpayers in other countries don't feel like paying for the mistakes of governments they couldn't punish. However the crisis is not just due to the Greek government, but also to the concept of monetary union which led to artificially low interest rates and accompanying high public and private debt in periphery economies such as Greece, Spain and Ireland." The FT's Alphaville blog notes that a Dutch opinion poll over the weekend found that 92% of voters wanted Greece expelled from the eurozone.
 
In a letter to the FT, Open Europe supporter Sir Peter Marshall writes that the EU should concentrate on a practical outcome to the Greek crisis rather than using it as an excuse to move further toward 'political union', arguing "No democratic international organisation of any consequence" should allow itself to be "reduced to such a state of inflexibility."
 
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that the Commission has said it will take Greece to the European Court of Justice to recover hundreds of millions in state aid, which it claims was granted illegally to hundreds of firms through tax exemptions.
 
German daily Handelsblatt quotes ECB Board Member Lorenzo Bini Smaghi saying: "The [growth] and stability pact should perhaps be tightened up...especially for countries that are experiencing a rapid rate of growth but cannot sink their deficits".
FT: Marshall Times Times: Charter City AM BBC BBC: Hewitt blog WSJ: Nixon WSJ Telegraph Scotsman EUobserver FT La Repubblica Reuters Die Welt FTD WSJ 2 Guardian ABC BBC El Mundo European Voice Le Figaro Independent Handelsblatt Presseschau Liberation IHT IHT 2 Irish Times Nouvel Obs BBC 2 WSJ: Editorial Bloomberg FT Alphaville blog Handelsblatt  
 
EP Budget Control Committee says lax spending "threatens EP's reputation"
The European Parliament's Budget Control Committee has criticised the European Parliament's lax spending controls, saying that they threaten the EP's reputation. Belgian Green MEP Bart Staes, who presented the report on the EP's 2008 spending, said it continued to suffer from "a disastrous atmosphere of scandalitis". He added, "I'm asking the Parliament to improve its management and transparency".
 
Finnish Liberal MEP Ville Itälä said that "The Parliament's reputation is ruined. Skiing trips of employees. It's something that makes us lose our reputation...We are using taxpayers' money here. It is something we sometimes forget." Véronique Mathieu, a French centre-right MEP, said that she had received numerous complaints from her constituents in Alsace over how envelopes of hundreds of euros in cash were routinely given out to visitors groups to cover their travel and food costs, without them being asked to produce receipts, admitting that it "damages our image."
European Voice
 
Spanish Defence Minister regrets absence of Cathy Ashton at key EU defence meeting
EUobserver reports that Spanish Defence Minister Carme Chacon said she "regretted the absence" of EU Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton at yesterday's meeting of EU defence ministers in Mallorca, given the "important" subjects discussed at the meeting. It is the second time this month that Ms Ashton has not attended a defence gathering, after having cancelled at the last minute her keynote speech at an event organised by the European Defence Agency (EDA), of which she is the head, on 9 February.
 
On his Twitter page, Dutch Defence Minister Jack de Vries wrote: "We now have an EU President and an EU High Representative, but the latter one, Ms. Ashton, is conspicuous through absence. [Javier] Solana was always there." Le Figaro reports that French Defence Minister Hervé Morin described Ashton's absence as "delicious", adding: "this morning, talking about relations between NATO and the EU, there was the Secretary General for NATO [Anders Fogh Rasmussen] and not the High Representative, for the first meeting since the Lisbon treaty came into force".
 
An editorial in European Voice argues that Ashton's decision to skip the meeting "reinforces the impression that she is ill at ease with the hard-security aspects of EU foreign policy...The dual role of the EU foreign policy chief who is also a member of the European Commission is still evolving. Ashton risks discrediting the concepts. Europe's security and role in the world will suffer as a consequence."
EUobserver European Voice: Editorial Twitter Les Echos LeFigaro OE blog
 
Danish Farm Minister embroiled in conflict of interest over EU subsidies
The CAP Reform blog notes that, in Denmark's recent cabinet reshuffle, Henrik Høegh was appointed the new Farm Minister. However, he has become embroiled in a row over a potential conflict of interest because as a farmer he has benefited from the Common Agricultural Policy, receiving subsidies to the tune of €604,787 over nine years from 2000 to 2008. The blog argues: "Mr Høegh is now responsible for signing his own subsidy cheques, but also, as a member of the EU's Council of Agriculture Ministers, deciding on the future of the CAP...It just shows the extent to which the 55 billion euro a year common agricultural policy has been captured by those with a personal financial interest."
CAP Reform blog
 
Eurostat uses Greek crisis to call for increased powers over government's accounts
The WSJ reports that Eurostat, the EU's statistical authority based in the Commission, yesterday cited "incomplete" information provided by the Greek government regarding a derivatives transaction in 2001, as evidence that it needs greater auditing powers to "directly examine public accounts." The article notes that the European Commission formally proposed last week to give Eurostat the power to access "the accounts of government entities at central, state, local and social security levels". The Commission launched a similar initiative in 2005 but was rejected by European finance ministers. Cinzia Alcidi, of the Centre for European Policy Studies, comments that the proposals "give to the EU reasons to interfere in matters that are usually the competence of sovereign governments."
WSJ
 
72% of Conservative MP candidates think it is a priority for Britain to renegotiate EU relationship
A ComRes poll for the New Statesman of 101 Conservative Parliamentary candidates has found that 72% agreed with the statement, "As a matter of priority, Britain needs a fundamental renegotiation of its relationship with the European Union". 23% disagreed.
No link
 
EU Justice Commissioner to push for controversial Consumer Rights Directive
The FT reports that Viviane Reding, the EU Justice Commissioner, is committed to pushing ahead with the controversial Consumer Rights Directive. The Directive, which has stalled in the European Parliament, has been criticised by consumer groups because it would impose maximum standards on all member states, thereby undercutting existing consumer rights in countries, such as the UK, which have more generous laws.
FT
 
Commission indicates Iceland's EU accession bid could take only 14 months
The European Commission gave its formal backing yesterday for Iceland to open accession talks with the EU. Negotiations are expected to be concluded within 14 months as Iceland already applies much EU law and regulation. One of the main negotiation points will be fisheries, with former Icelandic Foreign Minister Jon Baldvin, telling EUobserver: "Iceland will never join if we have to allow access to our fishing stock. Icelanders will view this as nothing less than the arrival of the Spanish Armada." Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bilt also suggested that Iceland's accession could help the EU make claim to strategic resource reserves in the Arctic, saying: "Iceland will bring us more into arctic issues that will be big."
Guardian Telegraph EUobserver BBC European Voice WSJ FT Le Figaro Le Point IHT Irish Times Le Moci Le Figaro Les Echos La Stampa ANSA Euronews Le Figaro
 
In the Telegraph, Benedict Brogan argues that a Conservative government must rescue Britain's energy policy after years of neglect. He notes that "As so often, Europe is playing its part, in the shape of the EU Large Combustion Plant directive...The Government admits that by 2020 the lost capacity will be vast - 22.5 gigawatts, or almost a third of our total requirements".
Telegraph: Brogan
 
Speaking in the European Parliament yesterday, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage, told EU President Herman Van Rompuy that he had the "charisma of a damp rag" and the "appearance of a low grade bank clerk". In response, Joseph Daul, head of the EPP grouping, suggested the UK should leave the EU, as it is apparently not pleased to be in the union, reports EUobserver.
Express BBC EUobserver Today programme UKIP Zita
 
La Stampa notes that the European Commission yesterday launched a set of proposals aimed at strengthening the role of its border control agency Frontex. However, the budget will remain unchanged at €80 million a year.
La Stampa Times of Malta EUobserver
 
The Telegraph reports that the European Commission will start a series of preliminary investigations, in response to complaints, to examine if Google has violated the Lisbon Treaty's clause of "abuse of dominant position". Google has been accused of altering search options and links to reduce traffic to selected websites.
Guardian El Pais BBC Telegraph Le Figaro
 
AFP reports that the Danish government has announced it will stick to its plan to hold a referendum on Euro entry.
AFP
 
The Mail reports on the European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee's vote in favour of increasing maternity pay to a minimum of 20 weeks on full salary, and notes that Labour's only MEP on the Committee, Mary Honeyball, has refused to say which way she voted - despite previously speaking up in favour of the measure.
Mail
 
Europolitics reports that EU President Herman Van Rompuy has told MEPs that, although under the Lisbon Treaty he has to appear before the EP four times a year, it will be more like "five or six times, or even ten times a year".
Europolitics RTL Info Ouest France Le JDD Le Figaro Le Point Les Echos Irish times Reuters RTL info LeFigaro
 
An agreement on how to finance the cost of overruns on the A400M military transport aircraft has finally been reached 'in principle', according to Spain's Defence Minister Carme Chacon.  The cost overruns are close to €5 billion. 
Le Figaro Investir Nouvel Obs L'Express Le Parisien
 
In a comment piece in the Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash writes: "The agonies of the eurozone reflect a far more significant hidden deficit...The spirit that once led Europeans into union has vanished, just as we now face the euro's widely predicted flaws. Joking apart, we need to recognise that this is not just the first great test of the eurozone but also a defining moment for the whole project of a European Union. Since this is Europe, not Apollo 13, failure is definitely an option."
Guardian: Timothy Garton Ash
 
The Irish Independent reports that the Commission is expected to give the go-ahead to the NAMA 'bad bank' scheme by tomorrow evening, but it is not yet clear what conditions they will attach to it.
Irish Independent
 
The Sun reports that Spanish MEPs are trying to reintroduce the ban on "irregular shaped" fruit, which was scrapped last July.
No link
 
The EU's economic development plan, known as Strategy 2020, will be released on 3 March.
Europa Press Release European Voice EUobserver 
 
The Times reports that three Google executives were convicted in Italy yesterday of violating a boy's privacy by allowing a film featuring a bullying incident to be posted online, in a ruling that could profoundly change the way in which video clips are put on the internet.
Times
 


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