The Nature of Russia
Gary Kasparov on the character of modern Russia, and Europe’s spineless attitude:
Stifling free media, arresting journalists, bullying its neighbours – Moscow is stamping on freedoms and the EU turns a blind eye
…As Moscow shuts down opposition newspapers, arrests journalists who fail to toe the government line and bullies its democratic neighbours into submission, some European leaders are not silent. Instead they are arguing for closer ties to Moscow, for energy cooperation, for military for arms deals.
Jobs for the Boys in the European Union
There really is no ‘controversy’ here. Don’t they understand that this is the way things work at the EU?
A ‘jobs for the boys’ controversy engulfed the head of the European Commission yesterday after José Manuel Barroso’s former chief of staff was handed the plum job of EU envoy to Washington.
This appointment will be an ideal match to that of Baroness Ashton of Upholland as EU ‘High Representative’. After all, he shares the same qualifications for a foreign affairs post:
Mr Barroso secured the job for his fellow Portuguese Joao Vale de Almeida despite his lack of international diplomatic experience.
Baroness Ashton Under Attack
Baroness Ashton, the EU’s ‘foreign affairs supremo’ is coming under attack. Of course, the criticism is being ascribed to sexism, and has absolutely nothing to do with her manifest unsuitability for the role. Even Geoff Hoon would have been better.
Cleaning up the Euromess
Paul Krugman on Europe’s financial crisis
…the real story behind the euromess lies not in the profligacy of politicians but in the arrogance of elites – specifically, the policy elites who pushed Europe into adopting a single currency well before the continent was ready for such an experiment.
A point of view with which we can sympathise, He then goes on to draw the sadly obvious conclusion:
Now what? A breakup of the euro is very nearly unthinkable, as a sheer matter of practicality. As Berkeley’s Barry Eichengreen puts it, an attempt to reintroduce a national currency would trigger “the mother of all financial crises.” So the only way out is forward: to make the euro work, Europe needs to move much further toward political union, so that European nations start to function more like American states.
And that, we are afraid, is a point of view with which the ‘policy elites’ who created the conditions for the crisis in the first place will all too readily agree.
Krugman add the rider that further political union is ‘not going to happen anytime soon’. We are not as sanguine. If history is any guide, the European ‘policy elites’ will definitely give it a try.
European Commission Refuses to Correct Error in Fishing Quotas
From a report issued today by the European Ombudsman, who is responsible for investigating ‘complaints about maladministration in the institutions and bodies of the European Union’:
The European Ombudsman, P Nikiforos Diamandouros, has criticised the Commission for an administrative error concerning fishing quotas in the West of Scotland. This followed a complaint from a Scottish fishermen’s association.
After his investigation, the Ombudsman concluded that the Commission had erroneously interchanged the data in two columns of a table contained in a document which served as a basis for the EU Regulation on fishing quotas for the year 2007. This mistake led to a 10 % reduction of fishing days allocated for a specific group of vessels in the West of Scotland. The Ombudsman called on the Commission to correct its error in order not to risk any knock-on effects for subsequent years. The Commission, however, refused to accept the Ombudsman’s recommendation.
So, the European Commission has been found guilty of an administrative error, impacting on the livelihoods of fishermen, but has refused to change anything. This really tells you all you need to know about the nature of the Eurostate.
