Greece and Germany are on the frontline in a fierce battle about the future of European economic policy, with Syriza determined to show that ditching austerity is a better recipe for economic recovery than relentless cuts, and Germany determined to make Athens stick to the deficit-cutting agenda – and pay back the €240bn (£180bn) in bailout loans it received from the international community.  As Varoufakis returned to Athens , thousands of people gathered on the streets to show solidarity in the party’s battle with Greece’s creditors.  The fresh outpouring of public concern, with protesters gathering in Syntagma Square, the centre of anti-government riots during repeated crises in recent years, came after the European Central Bank outraged policymakers by restricting access to emergency funds for Greece’s struggling banks.   In Berlin, Varoufakis promised to meet the alarmist warnings of some in the eurozone about the consequences of Syriza’s radical policies with “a frenzy of reasonableness”.   Just before the Berlin meeting the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had ratcheted up the pressure on the eurozone to find a solution to the crisis by inviting the new Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, to talks in Moscow in May.  Schäuble said Germany would “fully respect the mandate” handed to Varoufakis and his colleagues by the electorate in the general election last month, but Germany had its own democratic pressures.

 

Clashes have erupted in the capital of Greece during protests marking six years since police shot dead an unarmed teenager.  At least 5,000 demonstrators marched in Athens on Saturday. Some attacked shops and hurled petrol bombs at riot police.  Police officers used tear gas and a water cannon to disperse protesters.  The demonstrators had been marking the anniversary of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos' death. He was shot by an officer who has since been jailed.  Mr Grigoropoulos' killing on 6 December 2008 sparked violent riots across Greece, with cars being set alight and shops looted in a number of cities.  Clashes have also broken out on previous anniversaries of his death.  On Saturday, anti-establishment protesters attacked banks and damaged shops and bus stops.
At one point, demonstrators looted a clothes shop and set fire to the merchandise in the street, the Associated Press news agency reported.  According to Reuters, police said they detained close to 100 protesters.  Clashes primarily took place in Athen's Exarchia neighborhood, but violence was also reported in Thessaloniki, in northern Greece.   No injuries were reported in either city.
The ECB is already buying asset-backed securities (bundles of bonds) in an attempt to stimulate lending. This of course will not lead to a credit expansion as all it accomplishes is to add to bank reserves and banks do not lend bank reserves to commercial clients, ever.  QE has no measurable impact on aggregate demand and a shortfall in aggregate demand is the problem with the EMU economies. This has been beyond dispute for over 7 years now in some nations and yet nothing has been done to address this shortfall which is manifested in massive unemployment, massive underemployment, increased poverty, social breakdown political instability.
The mindless devotion to monetary policy actions has proven to be ineffective across both time and geography in stimulating economic activity, yet the Troika will not accept reality.
Expansionary fiscal policies directed at employment rich activities such as health care, education, infrastructure and the advancement of the public good is what is called for.

MOSCOW — The French are sending Russia advanced helicopter carriers. Germans built it a high-tech military training facility. Italians have been shipping armored vehicles. Deep into a crisis in which Russia’s military deployed on Ukrainian soil, European nations are struggling to balance economic considerations with political ones. Now France is poised this month to invite 400 Russian sailors to train on a massive new ship that a Russian admiral once said would have enabled his nation to beat neighboring Georgia in its 2008 war in “40 minutes instead of 26 hours.”  French leaders have refused to cancel the $1.7 billion sale of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers — capable of transporting 16 attack helicopters, dozens of tanks and 700 soldiers — despite Russia’s recent aggression, including its annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in March. The plans have drawn condemnation from allies including the United States and NATO, which say that supplying military equipment to Russia with one hand while condemning its military actions with the other is clearly contradictory.  The Mistral deal and other arms shipments lay bare the difficulty of applying pressure on Russia, even at a time when tensions between the West and Russia are at their worst since the Cold War.  European leaders have sought to protect their defense industries even as they have sanctioned Russian officials over the Crimea annexation. “We are executing the contract in full legal compliance because we’ re not at that level of sanctions,” French President François  Hollande told reporters this month. If sanctions escalate, he said, France may hold back on sending the ships.

Yes, let's be honest, the de facto leadership of all things in Europe is exercised by Germany. The problem is that unless or until we all accept and formalize that a German politician (former STASI officer - merkel) captains the European Union and that Germany calls all of the shots, then it's the same as if there was nobody in charge.
Everybody was sure that somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was everybody’s job. Everybody thought that anybody could do it, but nobody realized that everybody wouldn’t do it. It ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have done.My dual military related and commercial career to date has led me to hold a few golden rules dear to my heart.One of my golden rules is this. When one enters a situation where there is clearly a crisis playing out, the first question to be asked is, "Who is in charge here?" The answer can tell you a lot about why the crisis might have arisen in the first place, and can give some indication of the chances of the crisis being controlled and resolved.  If the person questioned can't answer straight away, confidently that "So-and-so is in charge", then you already have some understanding of why the organization is in a crisis. If the person questioned answers along the lines of "I think Blogs is in charge but, err, then again it could be Smith in charge. Err, or is it Jones in charge? Not sure really. One of them, is in charge anyway ... I think."...And there you have it. Nobody's quite sure who's really in charge at the ECB. Indeed, nobody's really sure who's in charge at the ECB; or in charge of the Euro Monetary Union; or in charge of the European Union. These are all just monstrous, dysfunctional European institutions which can neither jointly nor severally take 400 million European citizens to the economic and social paradise of a super state (which is what the European Union is supposed to be about). This is as much because the structures for governance of these organizations are a shambles, as it is because the underlying concept itself - of slamming sovereign nations together into a super state without democratic consent and without a single, clearly identified leader at the helm - is a monstrous deceit.  And now we have the particular situation explained by AEP above where the best the nascent European superstore's bank can do is to slam the continent into deflation. That's terrific, just terrific. A dysfunctional monetary union, tucked inside a dysfunctional economic and political union with, sitting behind it all, a dysfunctional central bank. An organization in crisis if ever there was one.

Merkel does put German interest above European interest. But that's not the whole story. She also puts German corporate interest above German public interest. And most of all, her own interest above anything else.

I understand people in Germany being upset about everyone in Europe wanting their tax money. But that's only half the truth. The other half is, Germany profits from investors taking back their money from other European countries, and now investing it in the much safer and quite profitable Germany. Our interest rates in Germany have reached an all-time low in the crisis, so German economy profits from this crisis. And we still live from exports, and so from the EU. German economic interest is: try to keep up the status quo as long as possible, and that is what Merkel does.

Problem is, in my opinion, that will be disastrous for Europe. Polemics aside, the south europeans have a point. There's need for reforms, there's need for savings, but there also needs to be a perspective. You can't just close schools, hospitals, stop investments in infrastructure and deny people their healthcare for nothing in return but a lack of perspective. Just fire everyone from public service and don't offer any alternative for them. You can't just sacrifice the future of countries and societies for nothing but the need to save money.

It almost seems like Britain was right in its Euro-scepticicm. And everyone who was afraid of a too strong Germany after its reunion. That doesn't mean we should split up. In present and future, we simply have no choice but to work together in Europe. We're all in the same boat. If Britain wasn't in the European boat, few would care about it anymore. UKIP is wrong, British interest has to be in a strong Europe, not in a lone Britain.

Our unpopular former chancellor Gerhard Schröder made the reforms that led to present German economic strength. He risked his chancellorship, against his own party, to put through inevitable reforms. He turned the inert giant into an economic powerhouse. Merkel hardly does anything, the economic success she rests on was caused by her predecessor who took great risks. Risks that Merkel would never take. She's not the risky type. Schröder made reforms that were in parts flawed, but his own party, the SPD, is willing to work with and against the flaws today. Merkel is nothing like that. Her own influence is everything, and everything else plays second role, be it Germany, be it Europe.

Chancellor Schröder would have forced similar reforms on those countries, but he would have tried to convince them. Something like "it's going to be hard, but we're in the same boat, and we need to work together to get out of the crisis with greater strength". Even if it would damage his reputation in Germany. Merkel doesn't care about that. She simply says: "it's inevitable, deal with it. German savings are secure, I don't care a lot about the rest of Europe". She only cares about her position. And her position doesn't depend on Greece, Italy, Spain, or Britain. It only depends on Germans wanting to keep their money, and German economy, which is, again, profiting from the Euro crisis.

I am convinced that will destroy Europe, and I will vote for her adversary this month, but I have very little hope in a regime change. My hope is for a large coalition in which the SPD will have a little bit of influence on her Europe policy. A Europe policy, that is, contrary to her claims, careless and heartless.I find the idea that a German chancellor is responsible for solving the European economic crisis quite ridiculous. It is not in her powers to do so as she is no monarch but the democratically elected head of the German government. To all those moaning about her putting Germany's interest first - well that's actually her job description. That means, that she will, quite free of any ideological leaning decide hand in hand with the German industry what should be pursued for Eurozone. Be the next chancellor Steinbrueck or Merkel, nothing will change that.

Silvio Berlusconi hausse le ton. L'ancien président du Conseil, qui ne se résout pas à son nouveau statut de repris de justice, exige la grâce présidentielle et menace de faire tomber le gouvernement si cette dernière lui était refusée. Ses émissaires ont proposé au président Giorgio Napolitano un plan pour sortir de l'impasse. Le Cavaliere se démet immédiatement de ses fonctions au Sénat, évitant ainsi au pays l'écueil d'un vote de la chambre haute sur la déchéance de son mandat. En effet, ce vote, prévu au mois de septembre, mettrait sérieusement en danger la cohésion de la majorité Parti démocrate (PD) et Peuple de la liberté (PDL) qui soutient le gouvernement d'Enrico Letta.    En échange du sacrifice de Silvio Berlusconi sur l'autel de la stabilité gouvernementale, Giorgio Napolitano s'engage à lui accorder au cours de l'automne la grâce, qui entre dans les prérogatives du président de la République. Berlusconi ne serait plus éligible, mais libre. Il ne pourrait pas être candidat de la droite à la présidence du Conseil, mais continuerait à dicter la ligne politique à son parti.
Un scénario improbable pour plusieurs raisons. La Constitution précise que la grâce ne peut être accordée qu'à des sujets "repentis" des délits qu'ils ont commis. Depuis sa condamnation, Berlusconi ne cesse de clamer qu'il est victime d'une magistrature politisée et n'a manifesté aucun repentir. En outre, la grâce est exclue pour les sujets impliqués dans d'autres procès que celui pour lequel ils ont été condamnés de façon définitive.   Or, le Cavaliere a encore une longue ardoise à solder avec la justice de son pays : prostitution de mineur (condamnation à sept ans en première instance), non-respect du secret de l'instruction (condamnation à un an en première instance) et une instruction en cours pour la corruption d'un parlementaire destinée à faire tomber le gouvernement Prodi. Enfin, si Giorgio Napolitano accordait rapidement la grâce au mépris de la Constitution, il délégitimerait la sentence de la Cour de cassation, instance suprême de la justice italienne, et se poserait comme une sorte de quatrième niveau de justice.  Qu'importe, Silvio Berlusconi veut passer en force. Les présidents des groupes parlementaires du Peuple de la liberté au Sénat et à la Chambre ont demandé audience dimanche au président de la République pour présenter officiellement la requête. Le PDL a appelé ses militants à manifester également dimanche - en plein mois d'août ! - à Rome. Les télévisions de l'empire audiovisuel du Cavaliere décrivent un pays plongeant dans l'abîme. Et Sandro Bondi, ancien coordinateur de Forza Italia, avertit : "Si le leader du plus grand parti italien ne retrouve pas l'intégralité de tous ses droits politiques, le pays risque la guerre civile." La grâce... ou le chaos.

In Italy - The Bank of Italy says it expects Italy's economy to shrink 1.9pc. That is significantly down from its previous estimate of a 1pc contraction.   However, it did say growth would return next year and it expects that economy to grow by 0.7pc in 2014.   There are downside risks around the recovery in activity between the end of 2013 and the beginning of 2014, linked mainly to prospects for the global economy, liquidity conditions for companies and credit supply.   It added that improvement in the economy depended on "the full and efficient implementation of economic policy measures" and said the recovery could be at risk if a loss of investor confidence led to a rise in Italy's borrowing costs.   The central bank also said there was little prospect of an improvement in Italy's unemployment rate, which it said would rise from some 12pc in 2013 to nearly 13pc next year, with no improvement until the second half of 2014.

In Greece - the vote in the Greek parliament is expected to be close.   MPs will vote on more than 100 articles contained in a multi-bill of reforms that paves the way for sackings and job transfers in the civil service.   Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Deputy Prime Minister Evangelos Venizelos met yesterday to discuss the mood in their respective parties, New Democracy and PASOK.   The coalition has 155 MPs, giving it a slim majority in the 300-seat Parliament but there was relative confidence among government officials that any defections would be kept to a minimum.  However, it would seem that the government is more concerned about keeping the country's 325 mayors happy, as ekathimerini.com reports. The government appears more concerned about the long-term impact of alienating the country’s 325 mayors, especially since local elections are due next year. Mayors have expressed opposition to a range of reforms, particularly the fact that many local authority workers will be among the 25,000 civil servants to be placed in a job transfer scheme by the end of the year.   The government conceded some ground on Tuesday by agreeing not to move municipal police officers or school caretakers if they had postgraduate degrees. More importantly, though, the coalition decided to withdraw a provision that would have led to mayors facing disciplinary action for not keeping within their budgets. It also backed down on the powers that an observatory set up to monitor municipal finances would have.    The watchdog will not have the right to intervene in the drawing up of municipal budgets, as had previously been planned.

The Shibor overnight lending rate in Shanghai spiked violently to 29pc, with wild moves in seven-day and one-month money. The central bank refused to intervene to calm markets, apparently determined to purge excess from the credit system.

China Securities Journal, a voice of the regulators, said: “We cannot use a fast money supply growth as in the past, or even faster, to promote economic growth.”

“I am extremely concerned about China,” said Lars Christensen from Danske Bank. “They are overdoing it and are on the verge of making the same mistake as the Fed and the European Central Bank before the Lehman crisis in 2008, when they failed to see how much the economy was slowing.” Mr Christensen said the world now risks a “perfect storm” as the Fed prepares to taper its bond purchases (QE) at the same time as tightening the spigot of worldwide dollar liquidity.

The twin effects are cascading through emerging markets, pummelling commodity exporters such as Brazil, South Africa and Russia that sell to China, but also tripping up Turkey, Ukraine, Hungary and others that rely on external funding. “Everything is being hit indiscriminately,” said Neil Shearing from Capital Economics.  The Turkish lira and the Indian rupee both fell to record lows as investors pencilled in Fed tapering for September. “The party is over,” said Ceros Securities in Istanbul.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke has brought forward his QE exit by lifting the unemployment target from 6.5pc to 7pc. He dismissed the looming threat of deflation as a “transitory” effect.

Brazil’s real weakened to a four-year low of 2.26 against the dollar, down 15pc since April, while the cost of credit default swaps gauging risk in Indonesia and Vietnam jumped more than 40 points. The Kremlin said Russian companies may have to delay bond issues, but denied immediate credit stress.

The latest country moving onto the radar screen is Poland, where construction crashed 28pc in May, “Poland is suddenly stalling, something we haven’t seen in almost two decades. The central bank has been way too hawkish,” said Bartosz Pawlowski from BNP Paribas.

Benoit Anne from Societe Generale said the “second leg” of the emerging market sell-off is just starting, warning that there is a “long way” to go before investors wake up to the full impact of Fed tightening. Latin America’s debt crisis of the early Eighties and East Asia’s crisis in the Nineties were both triggered by turns in the US credit cycle, though emerging markets have ample foreign reserves to defend themselves this time.

Mr Shearing said the BRICS quintet will be much weaker than assumed over the next two years for their own structural reasons, but there is now the risk of a “mutually reinforcing” effect as dollar stimulus drains away. The latest ructions in China came after premier Li Keqiang omitted mention of the liquidity strains in a speech this week, instead dwelling on rampant excess in the shadow banking system and overcapacity in obsolete areas of the economy. Though Deutsche Bank said the unwinding of hot money inflows disguised by over-invoicing may also be to blame.

Mr Li’s comments were a signal that the new leadership intends to prick the credit bubble, even though the hard line has already led to industrial recession. China’s HSBC manufacturing index fell sharply in June, dropping further below the “boom-bust line” to 48.3. Zhiwei Zhang from Nomura said Beijing aims to crack down on a plethora of trusts, wealth products and offshore vehicles intended to evade loan curbs. These have accounted for half China’s credit growth over the past year. It is willing to “tolerate short-term pain” to wean China off over-investment, and is less worried about social instability now that its workforce has begun to contract and the rate of migrants from rural areas is slowing.

The strategy is to tighten before the Fed winds down QE in order to “avoid two negative shocks occurring simultaneously”, but this may be hard to manage given the scale of the boom. “We expect a painful deleveraging process in the next few months. Some defaults will likely occur in manufacturing industry and in non-bank financial institutions,” he said. Fitch Ratings said total credit has jumped from $9 trillion to $23 trillion over the past five years, surging from 125pc to 200pc of GDP. This is a bigger rise than in any of the major bubbles worldwide over the past half century.

China has the firepower to cope with any crisis and will not let the state banking system collapse. Keeping growth on track now that credit has reached saturation point is a tougher challenge. Source telegraph.uk

"Eurozone: three countries have debt-to-income ratios of more than 300%Figures expose indebtedness of eurozone governments in relation to government revenues – UK is sixth with ratio of 212%  Germany must leave THIS Euro and give the leadership back to France. They  originated that non-working currency by linking every country together.  The Bundesbank WARNED and only by this pressure the Maastricht rules were established.... But this rules were until today 60 times! broken.  France and their socialists are the biggest danger in Europe, they  are be able to raise hate against countries by continuing the  non-working ideological driven politics. The development in Italy underlines the necessary split of the currency. Where is England to avoid this rising conflicts between the EWU countries? Why do they sit back and wait? In the end the Germans are (as always) the bad guys. Three eurozone countries – Ireland, Greece and Portugal – now have debt-to-income ratios of more than 300%. Ireland Greece and Portugal  are laboring under debt-to-income ratios of more than 300%, according to figures that expose the indebtedness of eurozone governments in relation to their government revenues. The measure, intended to show governments' abilities to pay debts, shows Ireland's total debt in 2012 was €192bn (£163.1bn), or 340% of the government's income. Ireland came a narrow second in the table to fellow bail-out recipient Greece, which has amassed an even worse debt-to-revenue total of 351%. Portugal – which has also received aid from the troika of the International Monetary Fund, the European commission and the European Central Bank – came third with a debt-to-revenue ratio of 302%, while Britain was sixth last year on the list of 27 EU member states, with a debt-to-revenue ratio of 212%, according to calculations based on European commission figures."

Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank’s hard-line chief, testified that the ECB’s bond rescue plan for Spain and Italy risks “significant losses” for Germany’s central bank and grave damage to its credibility. “Ultimately, it is the German taxpayer who carries the risk,” he said. Mr Weidmann said the bond scheme, known as Outright Monetary Transactions (OMT), blurs the line between fiscal and monetary policy and encroaches on the terrain of parliaments. It leaves the ECB with the task of carrying out rescue operations that is the proper responsibility of the euro bail-out fund and compromises the bank’s independence. The two-day hearings at the constitutional court in Karlsruhe will investigate the legality of the OMT, the “game-changer” that defused the EMU debt crisis last July and has been so successful that no country has yet needed to use it. The case stems from complaints by 37,000 citizens, including the Left Party, More Democracy and eurosceptic professors, most arguing that the ECB is financing bankrupt states.

While the court has no jurisdiction over the ECB, it could prohibit the Bundesbank from taking part in bond purchases. This amounts to the same thing, since the OMT would collapse if Germany stepped aside. Chief Justice Andreas Vosskuhle said the court would adhere strictly to the law, regardless of whether ECB actions have been successful, “otherwise the end would justify the means – such an idea would go against the central tenets of a democratic state grounded in constitutional law"...

SECO argues that Europe's financial crisis "cannot be regarded as addressed" because countries in southern Europe are still "relatively far from a significant economic improvement".

I agree. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. The EZ chain is Germany-France-Italy-Spain.

Until Spain and Italy are on a firm footing, I don't think we can consider the problems "solved"....

Here's what Spiegel thinks about the German CC ruling on OMT:http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/politik-der-ezb-vor-dem-verfassungsgericht-vier-szenarien-a-904828.html

They see for possible outcomes:
1) The court rejects the ruling on a European institution => unlikely
2) The CC sees a violation of the ECB charter and refers the case to the ECJ. In that case an approval of OMT is seen likely, but it would take a long time to get the ruling
3) The CC could rule that the participation of German institutions (such as the Bundesbank) is in violation with the German constitutions => chaos
4) The CC dismisses the complaints but defines rules and proceedings that teh German side has to adhere to, to avoid being in violation of the Constitution. That had been the case for the previous lawsuit against the ESM in which the CC demanded parliamentary participation in the decision process. => This is seen as the most likely outcome.

BRUSSELS - An idea to create special arrangements within the European Parliament for deputies from eurozone countries is gaining traction but there is confusion over whether it can work in practice. The aim is for eurozone MEPs alone to be able to discuss issues affecting the single currency area - reflecting wider moves to strengthen the economic and political integration of the soon-to-be-18 member region. A Franco-German paper published last week was the latest to mention the concept. It spoke of "dedicated structures specific to the euro area to be set up within the European Parliament" after the 2014 elections. But the idea is highly complex both legally and politically. It is similar to the UK's so-called 'West Lothian' question - first raised 25 years ago and an increasingly hot topic today. That concerns the extent to which Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish deputies should be able to vote on issues only affecting England.

The European Parliament's own West Lothian question was raised about two years ago about the time when EU leaders started to earnestly think about the institutional future of the single currency, including eurozone bailout funds and eventually a eurozone budget.

Political leaders in the parliament suggested setting up sub-committees to deal with eurozone issues. But since then discussions have stalled. "The problem is that when you look at the rules of the treaty, it is immensely difficult to put such a concept in place," said centre-right Polish MEP Rafal Trzaskowski.

"Because we have all equal rights. We represent citizens not member states. It would be quite difficult to organize it in a way that would not breach the treaty." According to Trzaskowski, who has been involved in discussions on the issue, one idea would be to have some sort of gentleman’s agreement under which the political parties concerned would agree amongst themselves to send only euro and would-be euro member deputies to a sub committee.   Another option, said Trzaskowski, could be to have the three biggest parties give key posts and reports only to euro member states.  There is also the broader question of what is purely a eurozone issue. "It's one union and one financial market. The problems of the banks are not just issues of the eurozone," said Jacek Saryusz-Wolski, also a Polish MEP. UK liberal MEP Andrew Duff points to the financial transaction tax (FTT), supported by 11 eurozone states but potentially affecting all 27 member states. "The discussion over the FTT is a very good example of this. All member states are seriously involved in that concept. They all have a stake." He also raises a purely organisational objection. "If you decide to divide the present responsibilities of the economic and monetary committee then you’re risking incoherence and inconsistency. And we’ve got quite enough of that already." In addition to blurred boundaries between euro and non-euro issues, Polish and other MEPs reject the idea on principle. Of the all the eurozone outs, only the UK and Denmark have an opt-out from joining the single currency. It was part of EU membership negotiations for the rest. So why, goes the argument, should they be excluded from discussions on issues that will eventually affect them. Saryusz-Wolski said he and other eventual eurozone member MEPs will oppose creating "two tiers of MEPs" within the parliament and, if necessary, before the European court of justice.

Gas-land and the EU goons

Guvernul României a concesionat suprafețe mari din unele dintre cele mai frumoase zone ale țării, pentru începerea fracturării hidraulice în vara lui 2013. Locuitorii acestor zone au protestat vehement, dar toate aceste proteste au fost până acum ignorate de presă și de autorități.

• Fracturarea hidraulică e o metodă extrem de periculoasă de extragere a gazelor naturale, care ne poate otrăvi apa, aerul și solul.

• Chimicalele (peste 500 de substante chimice ce pot provoca diverse tipuri de moarte) folosite pentru forare sunt toxice și pot contamina apa în urma unor scurgeri sau accidente; pentru foraj sunt necesare milioane de litri de apă, ceea ce poate epuiza rezervele locale.

• Apa reziduală rezultată în urma fracturării conține substanțe radioactive și chimicale toxice și este extrem de periculoasă, ceea ce face depozitarea ei extrem de dificilă și riscantă.

• În urma fracturării hidraulice, gazul natural poate “migra” în rezervele de apă potabilă, punând locuințele și fântânile din vecinătate în pericol de explozie. În SUA au fost documentate peste 1.000 de cazuri de contaminare a apei în apropierea zonelor de extracție.

• Fracturarea hidraulică accelerează schimbările climatice și este asociată cu alunecări de teren și cutremure (sursa: http://www.avaaz.org/ro/spune_nu_fracturaerii_hidraulice_an_romania/?pv=13)

Mai multe state – printre care Franța, Bulgaria și câteva landuri germane și cantoane elvețiene – au interzis fracturarea hidraulică sau au instituit moratorii împotriva acestei metode.

Commission published a web-based information guide....

Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) will drive the recovery in Europe, but they need improved and easy access to finance. Over the last few years the European Commission has been constantly working to improve their situation.  This commitment is reiterated in a joint European Commission/European Investment Bank (EIB) Group report published today. At a time when the situation remains difficult, the EIB Group's support for SMEs reached €13 billion in 2012. In addition, with a budget of €1.1 billion, Commission-funded guarantees helped to mobilize loans worth more than €13 billion, boosting nearly 220 000 small businesses across Europe. Today´s report covers the results of the current funding schemes as well as the new generation of financial instruments for SMEs. Financial resources for SMEs will be significantly enhanced through the €10 billion increase in the EIB’s capital.  As part of the Commission’s continuing efforts to support SMEs, European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, responsible for enterprise and industry policy, today also launched a new single online portal on all EU financial instruments for SMEs as well an information guide to promote SME stock listings, at a meeting of the SME Finance Forum on the eve of an Informal Competitiveness Council on 2 and 3 May in Dublin.  European Commission Vice President Antonio Tajani, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship, said: "

Access to finance of SMEs remains difficult and is one of the main reasons for the current economic downturn. Therefore we intend to enlarge our loan guarantees to SMEs under the new COSME  programme as of 2014. Each euro dedicated to our guarantees has the power to stimulate - on average – 30 euros in bank loans. This is crucial to help Europe's jobs engine, our small enterprises, to run smoothly again. It is they who create 85% of all new jobs."

The European Commission also launched today a targeted information campaign to promote SME listings and stimulate investors’ interest in SMEs and mid-caps. To this end the Commission published a web-based information guide for SME stock listings. This tool provides advice to small and medium-sized businesses on how to go public.

It will be combined with the creation of an award for the best European stock market listings among small and mid-cap companies.

Germany, the 4th Reich, also suffered a contraction in business activity during the month, which could send a worrying signal for the rest of the bloc. Tim Moore, a senior economist at Markit, said prospects for Germany's service sector were increasingly gloomy. "A renewed slide in services output during April, alongside falling manufacturing production, raises the risk that the German economy will fail to expand over the second quarter," he said. Data gauging the level of activity across thousands of companies and regarded as a good indicator of general economic conditions came in below the crucial level of 50, which separates contraction from expansion. At 46.9 in April, Markit's  eurozone composite purchasing manager's index (PMI) was an improvement on initial readings of 46.5 and March's output of 46.5 but it has been below 50 for more than a year.  Germany's PMI, which measures growth in manufacturing and services and accounts for more than two-third's of Germany's GDP, fell to 49.2.  Germany's economy performed well during the first two years of the eurozone crisis, but growth slowed last year as it was knocked by the slowdown in China. The services sector fell to 49.6 last month from 50.9 in March – the first contraction since November. Germany's wobble is likely to drag the whole of the eurozone deeper into recession, Markit warned. "The eurozone's economic downturn is likely to have gathered momentum again in the second quarter," Chris Williamson, its chief economist, said: "The PMI is broadly consistent with GDP falling at a quarterly rate of 0.4%-0.5% in April."

Howard Archer, chief UK and European economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "The latest data and survey evidence fuel concern that the eurozone is headed for further GDP contraction in the second quarter after highly likely suffering a sixth successive quarter of contraction in the first quarter of 2013."

The European commission last week warned that it expects the eurozone's GDP to shrink by 0.4% in 2013, an increase on the 0.3% it had previously forecast. The recovery penciled in for 2014 will also be slower than expected and the unemployment crisis in the eurozone will persist, the commission said in its spring forecasts.

European Central Bank executive board member Benoît Cœuré said the ECB would ready to cut interest rates further if the economic outlook in the euro area worsens. The central bank cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point to a record low of 0.5% last week. "It's a historic low and we'll cut again if indicators confirm the situation is deteriorating," Cœuré said in an interview with France Inter radio station on Monday. Williamson said it was difficult to believe that a mere 25 basis point cut from an already low level will have "a material impact on an economy that is contracting so sharply". In further gloomy news, a separate EU report published on Monday showed retail sales across the eurozone dropped 0.1% in March following a 0.2% fall in February. There were also fears that the service sector is slashing prices to drum up business. Official figures released last week showed prices across the region rose 1.2% in April – well below the central bank's 2% target – while unemployment hit a new high of 12.1%. An index that measures sentiment in the eurozone improved, but illustrated concerns about Germany. "While investors' assessments of the economy for the eurozone are stabilizing, those for Germany are clouding a little, albeit at a significantly higher level," research group Sentix said.

Eurozone is in recession and going into a deflationary spiral, France is a basket case the UK will escape the EU....As far as I can see Greece, Italy, Spain, Romania, Cyprus, Latvia, Malta, Hungary and  Slovenia have had their economies totally shafted by the Euro. Now even the big guns of France and Holland are going down. Even the mighty Germany is shrinking and heading for deflation. Please forgive me if I say do the opposite to whatever is happening in the Eurozone, avoid these policies, prod with bargepole etc. ... They're a bunch of raving lunatics FFS.   The EU wouldn't exist if not for the British Commonwealth, United States and Russia. Plus we formed a successful single currency area several hundred years ago that will outlast the eurozone. The arrogance appears to lie with the bumbling continentals who wouldn't listen to those who said that there was a need for political union before currency union. So we have every right to lecture the rest of the EU.... The Commission forecast says euro-area growth will shrink by 0.4% this year, down from 0.3% forecast in February.  France will go into recession this year with negative growth of 0.1% and unemployment rising to 10.9% in 2014 from 10.6% this year.  On Thursday, the European Central Bank cut interest rates on growth worries.  "Grappling with the aftermath of a profound financial and economic crisis, the EU economy is set to pick up speed only very slowly in the course of this year," the report said.  It predicted that France's deficit would rise sharply from 3.9% of GDP this year to 4.2% in 2014. That prompted the EU's commissioner for economic affairs, Olli Rehn, on Friday to say it would be "reasonable" to give France two extra years to meet the EU deficit target of 3%.  However, Reuters reported a French finance ministry official as saying that, despite Mr Rehn's comments, the country would stick to its aim of meeting the 3% target in 2014.

As the Süddeutsche itself reports, news that Deutsche Bank conducts offshore operations isn't new. As the paper notes, such activities aren't as prolific at Deutsche as at Switzerland's UBS, where the records traced at least 2,900 offshore entities. Back in 2009, it was already public knowledge that Deutsche Bank had some 500 subsidiaries in places known to be tax havens.

Still, the paper claims, the government has done little to stop a German firm from engaging in the kind of financial behavior Berlin has been aggressively combatting in countries like Luxembourg, Switzerland and Cyprus. The paper quotes the financial policy point man in parliament for the Green Party, Gerhard Schick, criticizing both the government and the business model of firms like Deutsche Bank. He alleges the banks may be contributing to the shielding of money laundering activities, tax evasion and money linked to corruption. He also alleges that Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative government "at the very least tolerates these illegal structures and is possibly protecting them." In an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE published on Friday, the head of Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin), Elke König, said her authority, although not responsible for taxes, would investigate if banks appeared to be systematically violating or helping people to violate tax law. "Banks have a special responsibility," she said.

For Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest bank, the revelations are creating a second wave of unwelcome scrutiny this week. On Wednesday, the Financial Times reported that Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, has launched an investigation into claims the bank hid billions of dollars of losses on credit derivatives during the financial crisis. Bundesbank investigators plan to fly to New York next week as part of the inquiry into claims that the bank miss valued credit derivatives in order to hide losses as high as $12 billion and avoid a government bailout.

Waiting for poverty to strike is no game. It makes ordinary men and women helpless, desperate and scared. "If you look at it mathematically, there is no way out: we will just never be able to repay our bills to the EU and IMF," said Haris Christou, one young Cypriot speaking for his compatriots. "Am I afraid? Of course I am afraid. Everybody knows everything in Cyprus is going to get bad, really bad. And nobody knows where exactly we are headed."

On Wednesday night men and women, some young, some old, gave voice to that fear. They gathered outside the offices of the European commission, and then lined the road that leads up to Cyprus's colonial-era presidential palace, to protest against a rescue programme that, wittingly or not, will destroy their country's banking sector and bring its economy to its knees.

"Out with the troika", "Fuck the troika", "Go home Troika", said the placards. "No to the policies of austerity." "No to privatisations." "No to the memorandum of catastrophe."

But more than words, or any amount of hoarse chanting, it is uncertainty that now speaks loudest in Cyprus. The uncertainty that has come with the knowledge that the island's economic output will shrink dramatically as a result of the austerity now being demanded in return for €10bn in aid. The uncertainty unleashed by policies that will see many Cypriots wake up with much less than they once had in the bank. And the insecurity of suddenly being the subject of capital controls that possibly could change Cypriots' lives for years....I, too, would be inclined to withdraw all my funds from any Cyprus bank and I suspect there will be a run on them. There are 'policies in place' to restrict such a run but I don't see how they can prevent people taking out what is their own money. That is the worry. The Russians called it theft and so would any Cypriot who cannot access savings. The safest place to deposit money is still the UK and I'm surprised that London has not offered to make itself a safe haven for Italians, Portuguese and the Spanish to place their life savings. That's what I'd do if I were a Mediterranean saver. The GBP and USD have their moments but nobody will lose a penny by keeping their money in those currencies which are trusted around the world. I don't know how any Cypriot would be able to do a SWIFT transaction to get cash out of harm's way but surely it can be done.

A deepening recession in the 17-nation eurozone sent shares lower on Thursday amid evidence that the problems of the single currency's crisis-hit periphery were spreading northwards to affect monetary union's core economies of Germany and France.

Despite an easing of financial tensions in the second half of the year, gross domestic product in the members of the monetary union dropped by 0.6% in the final three months of 2012, a heftier decline than the markets had been expecting.

An across-the-board fall in output that affected both large and small economies meant that the eurozone economy failed to register an increase in activity in a single quarter of 2012, with a flat first three months of the year followed by three successive drops in output. The combination of weakening activity and high budget deficits prompted a warning from the credit rating agency Standard & Poor that Spain, France, Italy and Portugal were at risk of a downgrade in 2013.

Although Britain also registered a fall in output in the final three of 2013 and is one quarter of contraction away from triple-dip recession, Moritz Kraemer, managing director of European sovereign ratings at S&P said it was not a foregone conclusion that the UK would be stripped of its coveted AAA rating.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said seven eurozone countries – Greece, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland – were already officially in recession after suffering two or more successive quarters of falling output.

The poor performance of the eurozone's two biggest economies meant the drop in GDP in the fourth quarter was worse than the 0.1% fall in the third quarter. Consensus among analysts polled by Reuters had been for a 0.4% drop.

Germany's main stock market index, the DAX, fell by 1% yesterday, with shares in Paris, Milan and Madrid also losing ground. The euro dropped against the dollar and the yen on the foreign exchanges amid speculation that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates in a response to the fall in output.

The US grew by 2.2% in 2012 and Japan by 1.9%, while GDP in the eurozone contracted by 0.5%.

New revelations about the extent of the tensions between the EU and the IMF.  Speaking on Greek news channels, the economist Iannis Varoufakis said that officials at the IMF told him that in order to justify their participation in the bailout programme they used the wrong fiscal multiplier on purpose when calculating the terms of the Greek MoU. He suggested that powerful countries contributing to the fund have been putting pressure on the IMF to admit the mistake because it is now so blatantly obvious that the affects of the crippling austerity measures in Greece are in no-one’s interest.

 The EU on the other hand are determined not to rock the boat before the German elections by admitting to a faulty policy that will inevitably lead to a huge debt write down (this time it will actually affect the ECB and large bond holders). Hence Oli Rehn’s statement yesterday that they don’t care what ‘mistakes’ have been made – the Greeks have to abide by the terms of the MoU.

 Question: where does this leave the Greek people? How long can they carry on making such huge sacrifices to honour their commitments to a faulty fiscal programme which is ruining the lives of millions and driving the Greek economy into a depression of surreal proportions?

So what are we expecting from this summit? The leaders divide into two camps - the fiscally conservative northern countries and those in the south and east that stand to benefit from more money for infrastructure and agriculture. It is believed that in the build up to the summit some consensus was reached around a budget of €950m - which would be a reduction on the last seven-year spending cycle. This will please the northern bloc. But it is also believed that in a concession to the south, the bulk of the spending, around 40%, would still go on agriculture and related farm subsidies. Indeed, two of the biggest recipients of farm spending - France and Italy - have hinted they could block the budget unless their appropriations are maintained. It is far from clear that the leaders will reach an agreement this time round, though if talks collapse its possible no resolution will be reached until late 2014.,,,Angela Merkel seems pessimistic on the prospect of resolution at this summit. I can't say whether we will be successful, the positions are still far apart. For Germany I can say that we will do everything for such an agreement to materialize because it is very important in a time of economic uncertainty and high unemployment to have a plan. We have to be careful with the way we spend but also show solidarity between net contributors and recipients. Whether we will have a joint vote or whether we will get into a situation where we will have annual tranches in the future I can't say today. It would be desirable to have a joint result but we have to wait and work hard, and that's what I will do....Well now... Why do central bankers and Treasurers from around the world invariably insult our collective intelligence with bland assurances that the euro/US dollar/sterling is in good shape/has weathered the storm/will gradually recover when it is so blindingly obvious that these statements are untrue? Not only are these statements patently false but the people who make them are almost invariably implicated in the processes that created or exacerbated these problems in the first place. If they do it to try to convince the bond and currency markets, then they are doubly stupid because markets are operated by real people putting real money on the line that generally have a low tolerance for bullshit.... Dragi thinks we are the fools that his tin pot immoral and primitive theory of the justification of unaccountable rule by selfish self enrichers defines us as. We are ignorant little people to whom he can feed any lie he likes. He thinks we shall swallow it as if thinking Tizer were little more than a tasty form of the latest exotic continental Lager. He and his kind shall soon be spat out with the same force as a proper beer drinker would Tizer if anyone were so foolish to attempt such a wildly insulting trick. With apologies to Tizer for coming anywhere close to such unpleasant people, if only, by way of metaphor.