tagged w/ European Union
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The former United States ambassador to France suggested "moving to retaliation" against France and the European Union (EU) in late 2007 to fight a French ban on Monsanto's genetically modified (GM) corn and changes in European policy toward biotech crops, according to a cable released by WikiLeaks on Sunday.
Former Ambassador Craig Stapleton was concerned about France's decision to suspend cultivation of Monsanto's MON-810 corn and warned that a new French environmental review standard could spread anti-biotech policy across the EU.
"Country team Paris recommends that we calibrate a target retaliation list that causes some pain across the EU since this is a collective responsibility, but that also focuses in part on the worst culprits," Stapleton wrote to diplomatic colleagues.
President George W. Bush appointed Stapleton as ambassador to France in 2005, and in 2009, Stapleton left the office and became an owner of the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team. Bush and Stapleton co-owned the Texas Rangers during the 1990s.
Monsanto is based in St. Louis.
The EU's 1998 approval of MON-810 corn has since expired. In recent years, several European countries joined France in banning MON-810 and similar biotech crops while the products are reassessed in light of research showing they could harm the environment and human health.
It is not clear if Stapleton's retaliation scheme was ever implemented.
"In our view, Europe is moving backwards not forwards on this issue with France playing a leading role, along with Austria, Italy and even the Commission ... Moving to retaliation will make clear that the current path has real costs to EU interests and could help strengthen European pro-biotech voices," Stapleton wrote.
MON-810 is engineered to excrete the Bt toxin, which is poisonous to some insect pests. A stacked version of MON-810 is also engineered to be resistant to glyphosate, a herbicide first popularized by Monsanto under the brand name Roundup.
The debate in France over Monsanto's GM products has grown ugly in recent years.
A recent Truthout report detailed the story of Dr. Gilles-Eric Seralini, a scientist at the University of Caen in France. Seralini's supporters claim the scientist has faced intimidation from within the French scientific community after he published several studies showing Monsanto GM corn and glyphosate posed risks to human health.The former United States ambassador to France suggested "moving to... more
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Alex Jones explains how the austerity hammer is falling now on Europe, and will soon fall on the U.S. Fresh bailouts and buyouts by foreign banks are being forced on Ireland and other European nations, while officials in the United States are dropping news on Americans that pensions, insurance for veteran military personnel and more are being taken away.
The IMF and World Bank have essentially completed their phase I mission of absorbing and dominating 3rd World nations, and are now coming for so-called 1st World Nations-- the United States, Canada, UK, Europe and more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmiFB9hJxusAlex Jones explains how the austerity hammer is falling now on Europe, and will soon... more
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Austerity measures drive 100,000 protesters to the streets of Ireland, another 100,000 in Italy as Europeans continue to rage against the international banking machine.
The international bankster machine seeking to colonize Western nations through debt is now meeting resistance from Greece, to France, to Ireland, to Italy, to Spain, to Portugal, and to the U.K.
These new protests in Ireland and Italy follow a crippling 2-week strike in France where citizens took over fuel refineries and other vital infrastructure, more strikes in Greece which took over the Acropolis, and a massive student protest in the UK that caused physical damage to government buildings. All of these protests were sparked by governments reducing benefits or increasing fees and taxes on a population that had little to do with the private gambling of banks.
These European protests are intensifying as the international bankers move to collect their "pound of flesh" through austerity and sale of public assets. As Europeans are becoming acutely aware of the dubious plan to loot them and the anger at their corrupt elected officials for bowing to banks has reached a boiling point. In all cases the governments are enforcing austerity measures on the people after the private banks over-leveraged themselves to the breaking point, threatening to bring down entire nations.
For years the bankers churned out easy credit to these nations while they invested public and private funds into worthless credit default swaps and derivatives. As if orchestrated to perfection, they pulled the plug on those toxic assets, essentially bankrupting the more fragile developed countries, followed by calling their debts due. Now they're demanding that European governments be forced into IMF bailouts that impose drastic austerity measures on the populace.
By forcing tax increases and reducing benefits for the citizens of sovereign nations, the IMF is essentially rewriting their laws. Well, it appears that the citizens of Europe have had enough. The massive protests, strikes, and riots that have swept through the streets of many European countries have resulted in growing calls to reject the bailout money used to prop up failed banks and corrupt governments. The Irish people prefer to default on the debt which drove the EU 'completely mad'.
The protesters are getting support from someone who is experiencing the outcome of resisting public bailouts of private banking debts. The President of Iceland recently remarked that they're in much better shape than Ireland because they let the private banks fail and their currency naturally devalued, allowing them to regain some competitiveness relative to their neighbors:
“The difference is that in Iceland we allowed the banks to fail,” Grimsson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Mark Barton today. “These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks.”
UK's Libertarian politician, Nigel Farage, once viewed as a fringe player, is now getting international recognition for forewarning his European comrades about the troubles in the system. He's quickly becoming a hero to the banker resistance as his credibility reaches new heights for being proved right -- much like his U.S. counterpart Congressman Ron Paul. His rants in the European Parliament are going viral on YouTube as the people are waking up to their servitude to banks and a lack of true democracy and sovereignty.
Read More: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/citizens-of-europe-rage-against-machine.htmlAusterity measures drive 100,000 protesters to the streets of Ireland, another 100,000... more
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The euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis escalated Friday as the market homed in on Spain as another potential weak spot, leaving officials scrambling to quell investors’ fears.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero moved to dispel the growing anxiety surrounding the country’s fiscal position Friday, saying there was “absolutely” no chance the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy would seek a bailout from the European Union. But his attempt to calm the markets had little effect, with the euro tumbling and the selloff in Spanish and Portuguese sovereign bonds continuing.
“If we continue to see the recent trend in Spanish bond yields then the crisis is going to be taken to a completely new level, as Spain accounts for approximately 11.7% of euro-zone [gross domestic product] which is pretty much double the figure of Ireland, Portugal and Greece [combined],” said Gary Jenkins, head of fixed-income research at Evolution Securities....
Continued at:
http://www.infowars.com/euro-zone-debt-crisis-escalates-2/The euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis escalated Friday as the market homed in on... more
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Dagum
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1 year ago
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Famous euroskeptic Nigel Farage (as seen previously here), in just under 4 brief minutes tells more truth about the entire European experiment than all European bankers, commissioners, and politicians have done in the past decade.
As we have already said pretty much all of this before, we present it without commentary: “Good morning Mr. van Rompuy, you’ve been in office for one year, and in that time the whole edifice is beginning to crumble, there’s chaos, the money’s running out, I should thank you – you should perhaps be the pinup boy of the euroskeptic movement. But just look around this chamber this morning, look at these faces, look at the fear, look at the anger. Poor Barroso here looks like he’s seen a ghost. They’re beginning to understand that the game is up. And yet in their desperation to preserve their dream, they want to remove any remaining traces of democracy from the system. And it’s pretty clear that none of you have learned anything. When you yourself Mr. van Rompuy say that the euro has brought us stability, I supposed I could applaud you for having a sense of humor, but isn’t this really just the bunker [or banker?] mentality. Your fanaticism is out in the open. You talk about the fact that it was a lie to believe that the nation state could exist in the 21st century globalized world. Well, that may be true in the case of Belgium who haven’t had a government for 6 months, but for the rest of us, right across every member state in this union, increasingly people are saying, “We don’t want that flag, we don’t want the anthem, we don’t want this political class, we want the whole thing consigned to the dustbin of history.” We had the Greek tragedy earlier on this year, and now we have the situation in Ireland. I know that the stupidity and greed of Irish politicians has a lot to do with this: they should never, ever have joined the euro. They suffered with low interest rates, a false boom and a massive bust. But look at your response to them: what they are being told as their government is collapsing is that it would be inappropriate for them to have a general election. In fact commissioner Rehn here said they had to agree to a budget first before they are allowed to have a general election. Just who the hell do you think you people are. You are very, very dangerous people indeed: your obsession with creating this European state means that you are happy to destroy democracy, you appear to be happy with millions and millions of people to be unemployed and to be poor. Untold millions will suffer so that your euro dream can continue. Well it won’t work, cause its Portugal next with their debt levels of 325% of GDP they are the next ones on the list, and after that I suspect it will be Spain, and the bailout for Spain will be 7 times the size of Ireland, and at that moment all the bailout money will is gone – there won’t be any more. But it’s even more serious than economics, because if you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their democracy, then all they are left with is nationalism and violence. I can only hope and pray that the euro project is destroyed by the markets before that really happens.”
http://www.prisonplanet.com/nigel-farage-to-the-eu-who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are.htmlFamous euroskeptic Nigel Farage (as seen previously here), in just under 4 brief... more
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The grand symphony of currency manipulation seems more finely orchestrated than ever before. However, it's not necessarily the fundamentals that are moving currencies so much as global perception. In the battle between the Fed's quantitative weakening of the dollar versus the eurozone debt crisis, the dollar is winning this round of who sucks less.
On October 1st, I posed the question, will the dollar rebound before being dissolved into a global currency? At that time, no one was predicting the dollar to gain strength with the Federal Reserve planning more quantitative easing. The windbag media promoted QE2 as a stock market stabilizer and a boost to U.S. exports, yet most experts openly called it a backdoor bailout, or monetizing debt, or plain old money printing. Nearly everyone agreed it would ultimately erode the value of the dollar even further and cause measurable inflation.
Indeed, it was a well-justified gloom-and-doom 6 months for the dollar by Fed critics. After all the media build-up, the Fed's announcement of the $600B easing plancame strategically on the day after mid-term elections, when most of the media was focused on feeding the false left-right frenzy by digesting the election results. In other words, QE2 got some mention, but the timing was clearly a tactic to keep a lid on the talking-head backlash. Then, Obama rushed out of the country for the G20 economic summit taking the remaining media distraction with him. Between stories of Michelle's shopping trips, it was revealed that China and other foreign economic players were not very happy about the Fed's move. Yet, the dollar started to rally.
Recent commentary by Chuck Butler in the Daily Reckoning questions the commodity sell-off and dollar rally:
But does it all make sense, given what I mentioned above that the FOMC is looking for inflation to inject into our economy? No… But since when, going back to the financial meltdown, does anything the markets do make sense?
Nothing makes sense if we still believe fundamentals actually matter. Sure the dollar is nearly dead, fundamentally, but it seems that perception now trumps concrete analysis. As I reported in October:
The fundamentals suggest that it (the dollar) should be finished, but just as the world is about to declare it dead, miraculously a global storyline seems to emerge just when needed and foreign investors rush back in for "safety." A clear example was the steady drumbeat of a sovereign-foreign-debt war that resulted in reports of whether the Euro would even survive, while the dollar enjoyed a triumphant ride up victory mountain.
Now, here we go again. As soon as the Fed announcement was made, the media shifted its focus once again to the eurozone debt "crisis." Story after story, day after day, about the developing crisis in Ireland -- and now Portugal. News agencies often salivate to repost these headlines, because crisis sells. And it sells because doom and gloomers, otherwise known as fundamental analysts, are waiting for reality to catch up to the numbers -- not just in the eurozone, but globally. The debt-infected PIIGS is a legitimate story, but it is clearly being heavily pushed to make the dollar look less pitiful.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/eurozone-debt-crisis-20-dollar-sucks.htmlThe grand symphony of currency manipulation seems more finely orchestrated than ever... more
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Hard to believe, but German students and teachers are being bullied and beaten by Muslim immigrant gangs in Germany.Hard to believe, but German students and teachers are being bullied and beaten by... more
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The age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an ‘illusion’ and a ‘lie’, the EU president believes.
In one of the most open proclamations of the goal of a European superstate since the heyday of Jacques Delors, Herman Van Rompuy went on to denounce Eurosceptism as the greatest threat to peace.
Tory backbenchers condemned the inflammatory comments in the speech made by Mr Van Rompuy to mark the 21st anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.
They said it proved that David Cameron would have a battle on his hands if he is to prevent extra powers being handed to Brussels.
Last night 23 Conservative MPs, including former leadership contender David Davis, rebelled in the Commons by demanding a referendum if the Lisbon Treaty is amended – even if ministers argue the changes do not affect the UK. Their call was defeated.
Mr Van Rompuy’s speech in the German capital told his audience that ‘the time of the homogenous nation state is over’.
READ MORE: http://globalpoliticalawakening.blogspot.com/2010/11/nation-states-are-dead-eu-chief-says.htmlThe age of the nation state is over and the idea that countries can stand alone is an... more
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Okay, we have truly lost our ability to govern our own lives if they can say "this is a medicinal and should be treated as such" There goes the prices of oranges and everything we digest. Because they all have medicinal value.Okay, we have truly lost our ability to govern our own lives if they can say... more
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Peacey
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1 year ago
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The French parliament approved a law imposing the ban on wearing burqa in all public places. Not only schools or public offices but roads, public transportations and shops, too. Only in mid October the Constitutional Court will say if this law is correct or not. But now many other European countries are thinking to do the same.
http://www.inaltreparole.net/en/world/franciadivietoburqa150910.htmlThe French parliament approved a law imposing the ban on wearing burqa in all public... more
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The success last year of the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament elections was considered a bit of a fluke by some. However when the votes were in, Christian Engström and Amelia Andersdotter were elected MEPs after the party collected over 7% of the vote.
While Ms Andersdotter isn’t seated yet (as one of the new MEP’s created when the Lisbon Treaty passed in November 2009), Mr Engström has been working up a frenzy in office, covering topics like an Internet Bill of Rights and privacy.
The Party may be lambasted in many places – including one flat-out lie in the UK House of Commons during a debate that led to the passage of the Digital Economy Act – but it seems their detractors are a vocal minority, rather than the majority, if itsyourparliament.eu is anything to go by.
http://freakbits.com/the-most-popular-mep-is-a-pirate-0718The success last year of the Swedish Pirate Party in the European Parliament elections... more
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Wikinews via Washington Post - Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Starting today, it is illegal to manufacture or import 75W incandescent light bulbs in the European Union. The phaseout started last year when 100W light bulbs were outlawed. Bulbs of 60W will be phased out next year, and incandescent lighting of all types will be phased out in 2012.
The phase-out of incandescent light bulbs is part of the EU's strategy to cut greenhouse gases by 20% by 2020. Replacing the old lamps with more efficient models is expected to reduce energy consumption for lighting by 60% in the EU, equivalent to saving 30 million tons of CO2 pollution every year.
Although energy-saving bulbs were available since 1998, their relatively high purchase price has inhibited take-up. When the decision for the ban was taken in 2008, it was estimated that around 2,000 to 3,000 jobs would become redundant in the light bulb industry, in particular affecting Hungary and Poland. However, the European Commission also assumed that halogen production and savings of 5-10 billion euro from energy bills could be injected back into the economy to create new jobs.
In its editorial yesterday, the conservative The Washington Times harshly criticized the ban, labelling it a result of "bureaucratic irritation" and a "war on Edison's greatest invention". General criticism of such bans includes panic buying prior to phase-out, environmental impacts of the mercury which is contained in small amounts in all fluorescent lamps, and increased upfront costs for the consumer.
Brazil and Venezuela started to phase out incandescent light bulbs in 2005, Switzerland in 2009, while Russia and Canada are planning it for 2012. The United States is scheduled to begin a phaseout similar to the European one from 2012.Wikinews via Washington Post - Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Starting today, it is... more
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The European Commission has encouraged Bulgaria and chastised Romania for the way they have tackled organized crime and corruption over the past 12 months in a report due to be published Tuesday
The commission is still monitoring the progress the two Balkan neighbours are making in justice and home affairs through the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) - a stick-and-carrot arrangement intended to help them match the EU law-and-order standards not achieved upon their accession in early 2007.
The latest, fourth, annual report the commission has produced under the mechanism praises Bulgaria for what Brussels sees as clear political will to reform its judiciary and fight high level corruption and organised crime.
It points out the country still has a way to go to turn intentions into results as a host of investigations and indictments is failing to translate into convictions. The commission largely blames this on an unreformed and inert judiciary and poorly trained police.
It blasts Romania for lacking the same anti-corruption commitment as its southern neighbour and for curbing the powers of its National Integrity Agency (ANI), a key anti-corruption body.
Both countries are criticised for obscure and messy public procurement procedures and for doing too little to stem conflict of interest.The European Commission has encouraged Bulgaria and chastised Romania for the way they... more
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The lawmakers adopted the bill in response to the latest round of sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme by the United Nations Security Council, the United States and the European Union.
Tehran: Iran's parliament approved a law yesterday calling on the government to retaliate against any countries that inspect the Islamic state's ships and aircraft or refuse to provide fuel to its aircraft as part of foreign sanctions, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.
The lawmakers adopted the bill in response to the latest round of sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear programme by the United Nations Security Council, the United States and the European Union.
The bill included no details of what form retaliation should take, and it was not immediately clear if it was more than a symbolic gesture of protest against the sanctions.
Uranium supply
The legislation also made the government responsible for supplying adequate amounts of 20 per cent enriched uranium for Iran's nuclear research reactors for medical, industrial and scientific use, Fars said.
The UN Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on Iran on June 9 over its disputed nuclear programme, and the United States and the European Union have imposed additional sanctions of their own.
Major powers suspect Iran is using its nuclear programme to develop atomic weapons, but Tehran says it is enriching uranium only for electricity generation.
Ali Larijani, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, told reporters in Geneva "If they want to act illegally and inspect Iran's ships, then we will retaliate."
Retaliation
Larijani, formerly Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, did not say how Iran would retaliate for searches of its ships for suspected nuclear-linked material.
In Brussels, the European Union diplomats said that the foreign ministers will adopt tighter sanctions against Iran next week, including measures to block oil and gas investment and curtail its refining and natural gas capability.
A draft declaration prepared for a meeting of EU foreign ministers showed they would approve a decision taken by EU leaders on June 17 to adopt further sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme, and also call on Iran to resume talks.
The measures, which go beyond steps approved by the United Nations on June 10, are designed to put pressure on Tehran to return to talks on its uranium enrichment programme which Western powers believe is designed to produce nuclear weapons.The lawmakers adopted the bill in response to the latest round of sanctions imposed on... more
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Last week the European Union’s Parliament passed new legislation that will halt the entrance of illegal wood into European nations. This is a major victory for forests and wildlife around the world.Last week the European Union’s Parliament passed new legislation that will halt... more
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lnovey
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1 year ago
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As governments across Europe struggle to pay down their debts, their private industries appear likely to encounter refinancing problems as an increasing amount of corporate debt matures.As governments across Europe struggle to pay down their debts, their private... more
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Estonia is to join the euro, making it the seventeenth member state of the single currency area.
EU finance ministers gave the final formal approval to Estonian membership at the ECOFIN council today.
Estonia, which has a population of 1.3m will adopt the euro as its national currency on 1 January next.
It is the first Baltic state and the first former Soviet republic to join the euro.
Estonia has long had its kroon currency fixed against the euro in a currency board at 15.6466 kroon to €1.
Finance ministers have agreed to keep that exchange rate as the final conversion rate.Estonia is to join the euro, making it the seventeenth member state of the single... more
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