Translation of the EU Leader's joint statement: "BLAH,BLAH, blahh - waffle..... We have not yet learned that although this kind of crap may be taken seriously in good times, and even sometimes lead to something concrete after further negotiations, in bad times the markets show that we cannot agree on anything except words. "We fully commit ourselves to thinking about the following measures, but cannot carry them out unless our "social partners" (employers and trade unions) agree, and unless the measures follow our "social models" (paying ourselves more than we can afford now, or promising ourselves more than we can afford later, or both). "We will increase training schemes or apprenticeships to keep young people off the unemployment numbers, and if we cannot find any private sector employers who have any use for these people, we will put them on the public payroll, which we are having to shrink."The French, or someone, have pushed ... the idea of Eurobonds. As a compromise, we commit ourselves to rapidly examine the idea of "Euro Infrastructure bonds", and Germany in particular has committed itself, after this rapid examination, to throwing the idea in the waste paper basket"...what a farce, HOW COULD PEOPLE OF Europe ELECT SUCH IDIOTS TO RUN THEIR LIFES...???
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Only Britain and the Czech Republic refused to agree to the fiscal compact, due to be signed in March, that will impose quasi-automatic sanctions on countries that breach European Union budget deficit limits and pledge balanced budget rules will go into national law.
Prime Minister David Cameron said further reforms were still needed by eurozone states to end the debt crisis in the region.
"I don't think this treaty on its own will sort the eurozone's problems," he said after the leaders' meeting in Brussels. "There is a fiscal problem but there is also a competitiveness issue."
Countries like Italy and Portugal "need to reform their labour markets, open up their economies," Mr Cameron added.
Officially, the half-day summit focused mainly on a strategy to revive growth and create jobs at a time when governments across Europe are having to cut public spending and raise taxes to tackle mountains of debt
Really don't know what all the fuss is about. They had a summit where they discussed a previous summit, they agreed a permanent bail out fund which they had already spoken about before. Cameron is being slagged off about them using the EU courts to enforce the rules which won't be enforced because the big Euro Zone countries will be first to break them. The treaty hasn't even been signed yet and has every chance of being torn up by France if Hollande gets in. The big issues weren't even discussed like Greece debt another bail out for Portugal and what to do about Spain which is sinking further into the mire. In a nutshell it was all jibber jabber.
There's an interesting tale on the front page of the Financial Times this morning, predicting that the European Central Bank may pump another trillion euros of cheap loans into the banking sector next month.
According to the FT, the €489bn of three-year loans made in December (which are credited with restoring market confidence and pushing down most bond yields), is just the start. Another auction is scheduled for February 29, and euro banks could ask for twice as much.
"They could do another €1tn easily in February," said one senior banker. "It could be way more than that if things get worse in the markets."
€1tn in extra loans would certainly be a worrying sign, suggesting that the European financial system has hit a very sticky patch. A Reuters poll yesterday predicted that the ECB would lend around €325bn.
Regarding the "irrelevance" of the Fiscal Compact. In the short-term, its relevance is merely to make EZ creditor-nations more likely to open their budgets to actual solutions.
But that is the pointer to its long-term relevance. Cuts in public spending are a difficult sell in any democracy, as they cut into a sense of entitlement.
Quite how difficult a sell varies, as political cultures differ. A left-of-centre german SPD finance minister appears to have as much or more fiscal conservatism than a typical right-of-centre italian finance minister, for example. That's not down to personal opinion, but to voter reaction.
In the long-term, the Euro needs to keep those countries with a more fiscally conservative culture in the fold. Almost all of them already have right-of-centre populist parties who would just love to bash the free-spending eurozone members.
That's the danger (in germany, as elsewhere) that Merkel is combating with the Fiscal Compact. It seems to escape most economists, for some reason.
What we got yesterday we got more bickering at the sideline, agreement on a largely irrelevant treaty while the issue of the size of the ESM/EFSF was left till March
And we got a new club: after EU, EZ now we have 25 countries in FC (fiscal compact). Can anyone see this situation beneficial for any country in the EU? I can not but maybe I'm wrong.
But the question remains: can you have the same monetary policy for countries like Germany (unemployment falling to the lowest level) and Italy (unemployment rising at the highest level. The only way to have o monetary union between such countries is through transfer of wealth from one to another. Why don't they discuss this instead of irrelevant treaties?
And we got a new club: after EU, EZ now we have 25 countries in FC (fiscal compact). Can anyone see this situation beneficial for any country in the EU? I can not but maybe I'm wrong
You can't , because you see it from a british perspective only.
The others will benefit, but you brits won't. You chose to kick youself from the map, you're out of the game.
can you have the same monetary policy for countries like Germany (unemployment falling to the lowest level) and Italy (unemployment rising at the highest level.
I don't think the difference in unemployment is the problem Germany's 6.7% or currently 7.3% are not completely in a different world from Italy's 8.9%.
Germany's internal differences in unemployment are much bigger. Even on state level the differences are huge: 4.1% in Baden-Württemberg or 4.2% in Bavaria. While peaking at 14% in Mechlenburg-West Pomerania or Berlin at 13.2%. The East German average is probably around 12%.
The reason David Cameron is in the back row is because he arrived in the room after doing his press conference party piece after all the rest of the leaders had already finished theirs. It's the same protocal at the G20/8 as at Euro meetings. The center is reserved for the main Euro leaders (Commission President..etc) and all the national leaders are told to pile in as they arrive in the room.
According to Morten Ejrnæs, lecturer at Aalborg University, the increased level of poverty is the result of government policies dictated by the belief that individuals are to blame for being poor.
He said the policies were the result of conscious political decisions to "make the least well-off poorer", and dated back to 1999 with the government of Socialdemokrat PM Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. Those policies were continued during a decade of rule by the centre-right Venstre-Konservative government.
“This is the reason we have seen more and more poor people," Ejrnæs told Kristeligt Dagblad newspaper.
Ejrnæs pointed to the decision by the former governments to introduce less generous forms of welfare benefits, such as reduced kontanthjælp and starthjælp, which used reduced benefit payments as enticement to encourage unemployed people to find work. After coming to power at the end of last year, the Socialdemokraterne-led government abolished these so-called "poverty-inducing" benefits by the centre-left.
Eurostat has used the OECD definition of poverty, which refers to someone who has less than half the amount of disposable income after tax than the average person. In Denmark, you are poor if you have less than 8,450 kroner left each month after tax.
johndeed
Today 09:00 AM
It's a sad tale being repeated right across Spain particularly in the south and west. I wonder how long the police and town hall workers in the UK would stay at their posts without pay. Of course their Spanish counterparts are between a rock and a hard place, although they are not being paid they cannot just leave as this would negate them getting any meagre unemployment benefit. Not sure how long this situation can continue without a serious back lash. Sad thing is the Spanish government could solve Spain's problems quite quickly by leaving the Euro, as I understand it Spain is a country that could leave without too much long term damage.
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