The European Parliament (EP) has adopted new rules to fight money laundering. The main purpose of the new Anti-Money Laundering Directive is to guard the stability of the financial system from money laundering and terrorist financing. It provides authorities with new tools to prevent criminals from legalising illicit proceeds. The EP has introduced several changes in the European Commission's proposal, a key change being the introduction of an EU-wide register of beneficial ownership. The register would make it possible for police and tax authorities to uncover who is actually the true beneficiary of any EU legal entity, making life much more difficult for criminals. "For years, criminals in Europe have used the anonymity of offshore companies and accounts to obscure their financial dealings. Creating an EU-wide register of beneficial ownership will help to lift the veil of secrecy of offshore accounts and greatly aid the fight against money laundering and blatant tax evasion", highlighted the European Parliament Rapporteur on this issue Krišjānis Kariņš MEP.

Illegally-laundered money accounts for as much as 5% of the world's GDP and is a challenge both for the competitiveness of the legal sector as well as for government coffers. The 4th Anti-Money Laundering Directive is aimed at limiting the scope of criminal and terrorist activity in Europe. Estimates suggest that money laundering accounts for as much as 2.7% of the world’s economic activity (GDP) - or $1.6 trillion in 2009. This is a challenge for both the competitiveness of legal business, as well as for government coffers. A key change supported by the EPP Group and the other political groups is the creation of an EU-wide register of beneficial ownership which is necessary to stop criminals from hiding behind company structures and trusts. The register would make it possible for police and tax authorities to uncover who is actually the true beneficiary of any EU legal entity, making life much more difficult for criminals. Additional changes include exemptions for certain gambling services and products (e.g. state lotteries), subject to approval by the European Commission, certain exemptions for e-money products, the introduction of a 'white list' - jurisdictions with high anti-money laundering standards, the introduction of a 'politically-exposed persons' list – a list of high-ranking government officials, Members of Parliament and others in similar positions.

The EP adopted the changes to the Directive at first reading. It is awaiting the Council's position. "The EP has taken a tough stance against secrecy that aids criminals in hiding their proceeds. History repeatedly shows that criminals, corrupt politicians and dictators have legalised their illicit proceeds in the European Union. We should put an end to this. Today is a good day for law-abiding citizens, but a lousy day for criminals", concluded Krišjānis Kariņš MEP.

The ECB’s own policies appear to be in contradiction. Its latest Financial Stability Review warned that bond tapering by the US Federal Reserve could lead to an interest rate shock, with a sharp rise in bond yields. Yet it has been slow to mitigate the dangers with pre-emptive stimulus.

Mario Draghi, the ECB’s president, told an audience in Berlin last week that bank needs a “safety margin against deflationary risks” after eurozone inflation fell to 0.7pc.

He warned that low inflation makes it harder for crisis states in Southern Europe to control their debt trajectories while at the same time carrying out internal devaluations within EMU to regain competitiveness, though he denied that the two goals are inherently contradictory.

“If average inflation is allowed to drift too low, adjustment runs into major head winds as demand suffers and real debt burdens rise,” he said.

Mr Draghi has to walk through a political minefield. The German constitutional court has not yet ruled on the legality of his back-stop plan for Italian and Spanish debt (OMT), making it very risky for him to push his case too hard. While Germany does not have a legal veto on ECB decisions, it has a de facto political veto.

Veteran EU watchers say the sacred contract of monetary union is that Germany will never be overruled on crucial matters. Mr Draghi has to work in tandem with Germany’s ECB board member Jörg Asmussen. The bank is in reality a twin-headed institution.

Germany's conservatives and left-leaning Social Democrats reached an agreement this week to create the next federal government after weeks of negotiations following the Sept. 22 election. With Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at its helm, the coalition government has agreed to a number of joint policy initiatives that will see the establishment of Germany's first-ever legally mandated minimum wage and generous changes to the country's pension system, including the option of retirement at 63. At the same time, the CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) are pledging to deliver these gifts without raising taxes.  Christoph Schmidt, the head of the German Council of Economic Experts, which advises the German government, said he doesn't believe the government has the funding for all the gifts being given to voters. "It may be possible to finance the planned extra spending until 2017 without raising taxes or fresh borrowing, but it won't be possible after that," he told the newspaper Die Welt. Schmidt said the plans for allowing retirement at 63 instead of the current 67, along with additional benefits for women who left work to raise children and other pension perks would create lasting additional expenditures. Ultimately, he warned, the money would have to come from either higher individual pension contributions, higher taxes or through a general reduction of pension benefits.

Meanwhile, Clemens Fuest, director of the European Center for Economic Research (ZEW), warned of both the pension changes and the new minimum wage. "The biggest problem is the combination of stricter labor market regulations, the sinking of the retirement age and the introduction of new retirement benefits," he said. "That's going to drive up social security contributions and reduce employment at a time when we actually need more jobs."

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble of Merkel's CDU has defended the proposals, saying everything has been calculated solidly. He told a German public broadcaster there would be €23.06 billion in additional spending between 2014 and 2017 and there is plenty of room for maneuver in the current budget. He said his ministry is already anticipating budget surpluses of €15 billion a year during that period.

The coalition agreement dominates the coverage of German newspapers, where editorialists at many papers criticize the planned new spending, which they believe sends a bad message in times of European austerity. Others praise the new worker protections planned by the future government.

The conservative Die Welt writes: "The coalition contract reflects the spirit of regulation-loving statism. The very policies set in motion by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder through his reforms of social and labor laws that created the breathing room needed for the economy to flourish and for unemployment to fall are now being systematically dismantled. In the case of the SPD, this is the result of shame over the success of Schröder's Agenda 2010 (which cut worker protection and benefits for the long-term unemployed and also cost the party votes). In the case of the conservatives, it's attributable to 'Merkelism' -- e.g. a chancellor who has transformed her CDU into the first postmodern political party in Europe, one in which the idea that 'anything goes' is now an actual party value."

"The message this sends to the rest of Europe is disastrous. We preach austerity to the debt crisis countries and yet we continue to fatten Germany's already plump social system instead of putting it on a diet. Germany can no longer be considered a role model for Europe." The conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes: "Grand coalitions are by their nature generous. That's one of the reasons they are more popular with people than smaller coalitions. And it doesn't appear that the third grand coalition government in postwar German history will disappoint, either. Because each of the three parties in the new government is showing a big heart for the little man, and each wants to make sure that its handwriting is recognizable on the coalition contract. The result is a cornucopia of good deeds courtesy of the social system that are now to be distributed across the country. Be it a national minimum wage (the first in Germany), pension increases for women who have raised children or dual citizenship for children of immigrants born in the country, there is something in here for everyone. And the parties want the wealthy to be grateful that the government won't be resorting to tax increases to pay for it -- at least not in the beginning. Still, many Germans will eventually learn the hidden costs of this blessing -- namely the next generation. But none of the three party leaders is going to allow that to overshadow this very generous alliance."

The leftist Die Tageszeitung writes: "Some are saying that this grand coalition has no vision, but that's not true. The coalition contract isn't just the sum of individual interests that somehow had to be brought in sync. There is a threat that runs through it. The spirit of the contract is the cautious re-establishment of corporatism at the federal level. It is no coincidence that the unions are backing this coalition in a way that they didn't the last time there was a grand coalition in 2005."

"Among the positive aspects are improved conditions for the working poor. Starting in 2017, the country will have a minimum wage of €8.50. Precarious jobs will also be better regulated. Some things are still murky, but the direction is clear: Those with jobs will no longer be able to be exploited the same way they were. It also an open question whether a left-leaning government could have achieved more in terms of labor policy against strong resistance from industry. That's why it is both probable and logical that the SPD party members will vote yes on this coalition agreement."

The left-leaning Berliner Zeitung writes:

"When two wish lists are added together to become a coalition agreement, it comes with a high price. What weighs more heavily than the money, however, is that this coalition will not push through forward-looking structural reforms. Nor is it clear how it will effectively address the problem of demographic change. We have the oldest population in Europe. The problems that creates aren't just restricted to areas like long-term care, health care provisions and family policies. It also has consequences for the ability to innovate, training and families. What are we going to do?"

"Merkel has said that this grand coalition will be one to address big challenges, but it is really just a government that unites two large political parties. Neither the SPD nor the conservatives will have to pay the price - instead it will be the country that does so in the long run. We shouldn't expect much from it. … It is the coalition of a country that lives in prosperity. The rich will stay rich, the poor will be a bit better off. But there will be no real redistribution of wealth or structural reforms." The center-left Süddeutsche Zeitung writes: "The coalition package contains enough packing material so that the sensitivities of this and that for the coalition partners can be protected. But that's also the case with most coalition agreements. Still, if you remove the packing material, some remarkable things are left over: Minimum wage, dual citizenship, pension increases, road tolls. There's a lot for the SPD and for the CDU. The surprise factor in all this is low, given that these points have been at the core of talks for weeks now. One still cannot disregard the fact that a minimum wage, dual citizenship and pension promises are systematically important things -- projects with social pacification force."

The UK and US must do more to protect internet users' privacy, the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has warned as a new survey of online freedoms is released.

Berners-Lee warned that "a growing tide of surveillance and censorship" posed a threat to the future of democracy, even as more and more people were using the internet to expose wrongdoing.

His remarks came before the second annual release of a global league table that classifies countries according to a set of freedoms. Since last year, the US has dropped from second place to fourth, while the UK has remained in third place. Sweden still tops the list, though Norway now takes second place. All of the Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Denmark and Norway – feature in the top 10.

The UK was poorly placed on privacy rights but was lifted by its high scores for availability of relevant content and the internet's political impact.

The table is compiled by comparing 81 countries, combining measures such as the extent of access to the internet, how much censorship is employed, and how "empowered" people are by its availability. The list has been expanded from the 61 countries surveyed last year.

Last year Berners-Lee introduced the inaugural index by pointing out that there was no off switch for the internet – a fact that was proving uncomfortable for a number of governments that had tried to shut down radical dissent in the previous 12 months through the Arab spring.

But this year his remarks focused more on the threat of surveillance, which has been highlighted by the Guardian's revelations about the extent of online spying and subversion of internet protocols by the US's National Security Agency and the UK's GCHQ.

The survey found that 76 of the 81 countries examined did not meet "best practice" standards for checks and balances on government interception of electronic communications.

Speaking before an event to launch the updated version of the index, the 58-year-old British computer scientist said: "One of the most encouraging findings of this year's Web Index is how the web and social media are increasingly spurring people to organise, take action and try to expose wrongdoing in every region of the world.

"But some governments are threatened by this, and a growing tide of surveillance and censorship now threatens the future of democracy.

"Bold steps are needed now to protect our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and association online."

The survey also found that almost a third of countries surveyed block politically sensitive content.

Web innovators, experts and policymakers, including Berners-Lee and the Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales, were gathering in London on Friday to assess the World Wide Web Foundation's independent annual measure of the web's impact.

If you listen to German politicians or economic leaders these days, Germany is being unjustly savaged in Europe for its export surplus. These German leaders largely argue the same thing: Germany is being punished for its success! Germany's performance must be rewarded!

But now -- in a move that was foreseen for some time-- the European Commission announced on Wednesday that it will put Germany's export surplus under the microscope. While the politicians have griped, Germany's export surplus has skyrocketed to around 6 percent of gross domestic product. In September alone, German exports exceeded imports by more than €20 billion. If the commission's investigation should decide the surplus is "excessive," then, in theory at least, Germany could be facing a fine of up to 0.1 percent of its economic output, more than €2.5 billion. According to experts in Brussels, it's unlikely things will come to that. In their anger, the German whiners are forgetting one small thing: They themselves were responsible for the rules designed to keep high export surpluses under control. This provision -- along with targets for deficits, national debts or inflation -- are part of the colorful bouquet of criteria which are supposed to finally make the euro zone macro-economically stable. Of course, German officials only agreed to this condition to prevent even more stringent regulations on export control. And yet in doing so, Berlin clearly recognized the principle that high budget surpluses, just like massive deficits, can lead to economic distortions. This principle has gained new relevance in the euro crisis, because many economists consider higher domestic demand and less exports in Germany an urgent necessity for the stimulation of growth in crisis states.

The real issue here is about rules and their application. The German government has emphasized at every opportunity that the euro zone must be a community of laws. It has admonished crisis states that have complained about overly rigid limits for budget deficits because, after all, they had agreed to the rules. But when it comes to Germany, apparently different standards apply. It's similar to how the Schröder government saw the country become one of the first EU member states to violate the Maastricht criteria -- the fiscal criteria which establish whether a country is allowed to enter the euro -- in 2003, when it implemented its Agenda 2010 social reforms.

If Germany once again displays a double standard, it will lose the credibility which is a nation's most important currency in these times of crisis. It should also not be surprised that the ambassador of a southern EU state angrily declared on Tuesday that German supremacy within the EU can only exist if "the same rules apply for all." Europe can afford such discord among partners even less than overly high deficits or surpluses. All which means: It's time the Germans quit their moaning.

All EU budgets have to be approved by The Bundestag - did anyone know ???

Hopefully, in their blind obedience to Merkel and co, the amazingly stupid and corrupt EU Commission will have gone yet another step too far. If You are Italian or Spanish and you read the headline in your local paper that the EU wants to make you poorer and take more power to themselves from your Government.
I think ropes and lampposts are in order for the EU Commissioners if they go much further.

Spain and Italy have been warned that their budgets for 2014 are in breach of European Union rules as Brussels uses new powers to force governments to revise spending plans before national parliaments vote on them.  France was also cautioned that plans for painful economic reforms represent only "limited progress" as the European Commission exercised new eurozone powers in a historic shift of sovereignty away from elected governments.   "Because in an economic and monetary union, national budgetary decisions can have an impact well beyond national borders, member states have given the commission the responsibility," said Olli Rehn, the commission vice-president in charge of the euro. 

"I trust that they will thus be taken on board by national decision makers."  Germany, Europe's largest and most successful economy, was also criticized for making "no progress" in following EU recommendations to help its eurozone neighbors by spurring domestic demand and imports. Fabrizio Saccomanni, the Italian finance minister and a technocrat imposed on the Italian government at the behest of EU officials, could be fatally weakened by the Brussels intervention, especially after Mr Rehn ruled out an exempting €3bn in investment spending that the Italian government has included in its 2014 budget.  Mr Saccomanni warned that Italy could not take the investment spending from the national budget to meet EU rules because the cut would threaten the country's already weak economic recovery and inflame opposition to austerity. 

"We could have taken even more restrictive measures to reduce our public spending, but I imagine there would be even more cries of pain. I believe our approach is balanced," he said. "It is not necessary to change the budget."  Spain was told that its "draft budgetary plan is at risk of non-compliance with the rules, as the headline deficit target may be missed and the recommended improvement in the structural balance is currently not expected to be delivered".  France was given the green light on its budget but the commission warned that next year's budget leaves "no margin" for deviation and reforms "constitute limited progress" in addressing structural targets.  "A significant set of measures on top of those already specified will be needed to ensure that the target for 2015 is reached," said the commission.  The commission also cautioned Finland, Malta and Luxembourg, asking the three countries to review their 2014 budgets to ensure that they meet eurozone targets.

The Philippine television station GMA reported its news team saw 11 bodies, including that of a child, washed ashore on Friday and 20 more bodies at a pier in Tacloban hours after the typhoon ripped through the coastal city. At least 20 more bodies were taken to a church in nearby Palo town that was used as an evacuation centre but had to be abandoned when its roofs were blown away, the TV network reported. TV images showed howling winds peeling off tin roof sheets during heavy rain. Ferocious winds felled large branches and snapped coconut trees. A man was shown carrying the body of his six-year-old daughter, who drowned, and another image showed vehicles piled up in debris. Haiyan, one of the strongest storms ever to hit land, was leaving the Philippines behind on Saturday, having flattened houses, triggered landslides and floods and knocked out power and communications across a number of islands. More than 750,000 people were forced to flee their homes. The toll of death and damage is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers and soldiers reach areas cut off by the massive, fast-moving storm, now heading towards Vietnam. Authorities in 15 provinces in Vietnam started to call back boats and prepare for possible landslides. Nearly 300,000 people were moved to safer areas in two provinces alone – Da Nang and Quang Nam– according to the government's website. Forecasters said the storm was expected to pick up renewed strength over the South China Sea. There were hopes the Philippines had avoided a worse disaster because the rapidly moving typhoon blew away before wreaking more damage, officials said. But because communications were severed, it was impossible to know the full extent of casualties and damage.

Southern Leyte governor Roger Mercado said the typhoon ripped roofs off houses and triggered landslides that blocked roads. The dense clouds and heavy rains made the day seem almost as dark as night, he said. "When you're faced with such a scenario, you can only pray and pray and pray," Mercado told the Associated Press by telephone. He said mayors in the province had not called in to report any major damage. "I hope that means they were spared and not the other way around," he said. "My worst fear is there will be massive loss of lives and property."

Czech's want out of the European Union - the desperation vote...

An election held to resolve months of uncertainty in the Czech Republic has failed to produce a clear winner.  With all the ballots counted, the Social Democrats have the most votes - just over 20% - but they do not have enough to form a government alone.  Analysts say the result could pave the way for another unstable coalition, with the second-placed ANO party in a powerful bargaining position.  The election has come after months of political turmoil.  The centre-right government of Petr Necas was brought down by a corruption scandal in June. If ever there was a textbook Pyrrhic victory, this was it. After seven years in opposition, after seven months of vertigo-inducing opinion poll results, the Social Democrats finished on just 20.45%. No wonder the mood at Social Democrat headquarters was subdued - you'd think they'd lost these elections, not won them, and in a sense, they have. Some believe party leader Bohuslav Sobotka will resign within days.   The real victor was the Slovak-born billionaire Andrej Babis, whose centrist ANO party campaigned against corruption and for change. His second place showing is simply astonishing, and can be read as the voters' resounding verdict on the established political parties. He is being coy about a possible coalition with the Social Democrats - as kingmaker, he can dictate the terms.   So what lies ahead for this Central European nation of 10 million? Almost certainly not a minority Social Democrat government propped up by the political pariahs, the Communists. That ship has sailed. Instead weeks - maybe months - of arduous coalition talks.   The country has been without a proper administration ever since - and is currently being governed by a caretaker cabinet of technocrats.

Tough talks ahead - Correspondents say that this election is likely be followed by weeks of difficult negotiations. The BBC's Rob Cameron, in Prague, says the Social Democrats had hoped to win enough to run the country if they were supported or at least tolerated by the Communists. But even together, they do not have enough votes to form a government, he says.  That opens the way for arduous talks on forming a coalition with some of the other parties in parliament.   Social Democrat leader Bohuslav Sobotka admitted the results of the election were "not what we expected,'' but he told reporters he was ready to start negotiations with all parties.  Our correspondent says the real winner in this election is second-placed ANO, a new centrist party which campaigns against corruption and is run by a food and agriculture billionaire.

Negociators Thursday plunged into difficult budget talks to avoid a repeat crisis within months, and quickly agreed to lower their sights from the sort of grand bargain that has eluded the two parties for three years.

After approval late Wednesday of the agreement ending the standoff, the deal-making mantle shifted overnight from the leaders of the Senate to the Budget Committee leaders, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, and Representative Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, two less senior lawmakers who nonetheless could make very effective salespeople since they command loyal followings in their parties. The political pressure lifted as well, for now. But the need for a bipartisan breakthrough, even a modest one, was amplified by the economic costs wrought by the 16-day shutdown and near-default on government obligations.       

“The key now is a budget that cuts out the things that we don’t need, closes corporate tax loopholes that don’t help create jobs, and frees up resources for the things that do help us grow — like education and infrastructure and research,” President Obama said Thursday from the White House, setting ambitious goals for Congress even as his own role in the bargaining was unclear.

The question of what a new House-Senate budget conference can deliver by its Dec. 13 deadline — in time for Congress to act by Jan. 15 on funding to keep the government open — remained the subject of deep skepticism, well earned by past failures at reaching so-called grand bargains for deficit reduction and spending investments in the past three years.

With the scope of the talks narrowed for now, on the table are ideas left over from past, failed bargaining: possible reductions in other programs — like farm subsidies, federal pensions, the Postal Service and unemployment insurance — and relatively minimal tax loophole closings, possibly as little as $55 billion.

THE "ISLANDERS" - The Prime Minister was warned by Jose Manuel Barroso that his attempts to negotiate a new relationship with the EU would be vetoed by other member states.

As a war of words raged, Downing Street insisted the Prime Minister will go ahead with his plans to get a better deal.

A Number 10 spokesman said: “As the Prime Minister made clear in January, he will negotiate a new deal in the EU and then put the choice of staying in or leaving the EU to the British people in a referendum by the end of 2017.”

Mr Barroso, an unelected Portuguese politician who comes to the end of his presidency next year, had dismissed claims by Mr Cameron that there is wider European support for his agenda to “repatriate” powers on social, employment and environmental legislation back to Westminster....

He said in an interview “there will be others, many, who oppose” Mr Cameron’s call for treaty changes which must be agreed unanimously by all 28 member states.

He said: “Britain wants to again consider the option of opting out. Fine, let’s discuss it. What is difficult, or even impossible, is if we go for the exercise of repatriation of competences because that means revising the treaties and revision means unanimity. I don’t believe it will work.”

He added: “I am for a stronger EU not a weaker EU.”

The row will add to calls for Britain to quit the EU, as championed by the Daily Express.

Last night Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: “Barroso describes Cameron’s plans as ‘doomed to failure’. So they are. It is about time the pro- European establishment of this country was honest with us. There will be no change in our relationship with the EU before, during or after Cameron’s futile renegotiations.

“The EU knows this, Cameron knows this and the people of this country need to know this, too. This country needs a choice now.”

A European Parliament report seen by SPIEGEL estimates that 3,600 international organized crime organizations operate within the EU. The damage done to European economies by organized crime totals hundreds of billions of euros according to a European Parliament special committee investigating crime, money laundering and corruption. The CRIM committee estimates that around 880,000 slave laborers live in the EU, of whom 270,000 are victims of sexual exploitation. Human trafficking alone generates profits of around €25 billion while the illegal trade in human organs and wild animals makes for a further estimated profit of between €18 and €26 billion annually. Meanwhile, cybercrime causes an estimated €290 billion of damage. The report calls rampant corruption 'a serious threat' with 20 million cases worth a total of €120 billion registered in the public sector alone. The European Commission has called for intensified cross-border cooperation between police forces and judiciaries in member states. Proposals include the elimination of tax havens and the criminalisation of vote-buying throughout the EU. The committee further advocates that individuals convicted of money laundering or corruption are excluded from involvement in government procurement for a period of five years. Whistleblowers who expose malpractice in either business or government are to be provided with Europe-wide legal protection and freedom from criminal prosecution. The European Parliament will vote on the CRIM report on October 23.

Greece may need a third aid package as soon as next year, Klaus Regling, the head of the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) permanent bailout fund is quoted as saying in the Friday edition of the German business daily Handelsblatt. He also said that it was conceivable that Greece might not be in a condition to raise money by selling sovereign debt on the open market in 2014.

"Given these circumstances, Greece will probably need another aid package," Regling said, which would require the approval of the finance ministers of the 17 euro-zone countries.

Regling is not the first to publicly voice expectations that there will be a third bailout package for Greece. In August, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble expressed a similar belief although he explicitly noted that it would have to come without fresh payments from other euro-zone countries.

In the interview, Regling also criticized as "irresponsible and unfounded" the fact that "some in Northern Europe are stoking fears against the euro." The costs and risks associated with the euro bailout need to be assessed in a reasonable manner "in Germany too," he added.

So far, Greece has received two large bailouts. The first aid package included €110 billion ($150 billion) and was first agreed upon by the euro-zone member states and the IMF in 2010 (see table). Back then, the permanent euro bailout fund had not yet been established, so €80 billion of the loans provided at the time came from the individual euro-zone countries. But only €53 billion of these loans were actually paid out to Greece.

The truth about Merkel's 4th. Reich

It's becoming clear how hard is going to be for Frau Merkel to form a new government. The SPD wants the Finance Ministry and will ballot its members on any deal. In the end, though, they're likely to reach an agreement, say media commentators.

The election may have been held eight days ago, but Germany is no closer to forming a government. It could take until December or January, the general secretary of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD), Andrea Nahles, warned on Monday. The SPD, in a canny move to drive up its price for joining a coalition and to secure grass-roots support for a deal, decided at a party conference on Friday that it will ballot its 470,000 members on any agreement. That means they can say in talks, "we can't give in on that point because our members won't back it. That's bad news for Chancellor Angela Merkel, because it will make the talks to form a so-called grand coalition of the two main parties all the more difficult. As if that weren't enough, Bavarian governor Horst Seehofer, an important conservative ally of hers, on Sunday narrowed her negotiating position with some undiplomatic rhetoric before preliminary talks had even begun.

GREECE - During the first seven months of 2013, the surplus reached €1.1bn (£921m), he said, adding this would enable the country to negotiate with its creditors, the European Union (EU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Greece has received massive rescue funding, tied to tough conditions, from the EU and the IMF to help it overcome a debt crisis which threatened the eurozone.

However, the a resulting structural reforms, including an overhaul of its public sector and its tax system, have proved unpopular.

On Saturday Samaras promised no further austerity measures would be introduced, saying the economy "cannot take" them any more.

"Debt levels will be manageable, Greece has respected its commitments... now, the creditors must also respect what was agreed," he added.

Protests in Thessaloniki, the country's second largest city, were organised by the private and public sector trade unions, GSEE and Adedy, who called for "fighting austerity and poverty".

Police said about 4,500 extra officers had been sent to the city to avert rioting during the four-hour demonstration.

The EU and the IMF recently praised the Greek government's progress in turning the economy around, but bemoaned delays to a programme of privatisation and reform, and the fact that the country will likely need further aid in 2014 and 2015 amounting to around €10bn.

In the last five years, there have in fact been a significant number of new guidelines, laws, drafts and recommendations. The banks were forced to increase the size of their financial cushions, for example, but they still aren't large enough. Regulators devised split banking systems designed to shield customer deposits from risky trading activities, but the concepts are half-baked and have yet to be fully implemented.

The leading industrialized nations agree that banks should be liquidated in accordance with clear rules -- and without adversely affecting taxpayers, if at all possible. Nevertheless, there are still no uniform international principles to achieve this goal. Most countries don't even have an insolvency statute for the industry.

Bankers' bonuses were capped, but then their fixed salaries were increased dramatically. Regulators had vowed to rein in the rampant trade in derivatives among banks by requiring it to be conducted on supervised exchanges. Instead, the over-the-counter derivatives market has grown by 20 percent since 2009.

Over the years, lawmakers have lost sight of the most important objectives of regulation. Secure savings deposits, a continuous supply of credit and a functioning payment transaction system are as important to an economy as intact water pipes or power grids. The point is to ensure that this supply functions properly. At the same time, governments and taxpayers cannot allow themselves to be held hostage by the banks, merely because they can guarantee a basic supply of capital.

"What is needed is fundamental structural change, which, as in other industries, costs money. Lawmakers shy away from that," says Clemens Fuest, President of the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW).

Financial industry executives take every opportunity to warn that if regulators take aim at financial groups, then businesses, savers and investors will ultimately suffer.

Ever since Fukushima, the supporters of nuclear have been at pains to insist that the disaster had been contained, without any evidence, just accepting the government statements. Pro-nuclear environmentalists were insistent that there was nothing to worry about. What will they say now?

What is "highly toxic water". When I read this at least a week ago, it was radioactive waste. Just where are we supposed to get some accurate information about this? This should be front page news, as it will affect us all. Unfortunately, the west coast of the US and the north coast of Australia will get the effects well before we do. But there's no escaping the effects. What a tragedy. Is this an acceptable result of nuclear energy for those who support it?...This just goes to show that even a highly-industrialized country like Japan cannot handle the aftermath of a nuclear meltdown. When will people realize that nuclear is not the future but the death of this planet.  There are a number of solutions out there that need to be combined to give us the electricity we need but big industry and short-memory  politicians make sure that we keep on consuming and consuming. The first step is to make the price of electricity reflect the real cost of maintenance and decommissioning of the power stations. The people will realize just how much they can reduce their energy consumption (like insulating houses)....

Yes, the switch from intensely radioactive to "toxic" is clearly an attempt on someone's part, probably an industry PR man, to make it sound like a more manageable chemical hazard, conveniently overlooking those tedious details like radioactive half-life, and the increasing difficulty of getting men and even machinery into close enough proximity to effect repairs.

As for those defenders of nuclear energy who pop up on web forums, one in particular was almost certainly a top man in the UK nuclear industry, perhaps recently retired and kept busy. Back in March 2011 we had such a person on a different MSM site, not dissimilar to this one, telling us hourly that TEPCO had the technology to deal with what was an entirely manageable and containable spill, that normal background radiation was routinely blasting our DNA every minute of the day so what were we worried about, that suggesting parents try getting hold of some iodine pills to protect their children's thyroid glands was the height of criminal irresponsibility bla bla. I'm half expecting him to turn up here shortly. Let's hope the Report button works better here than it did there, back in March 2011.

Greek unemployment rises to record 27.6%

The Greek jobless rate rose to 27.6% in May from 27% in April as austerity and recession continued to weigh on prospects.

It was the highest since the country's statistics agency started publishing the data in 2006, and more than twice the 12.1% eurozone average in June.

The number of unemployed people in the country is now 1.38m, an increase of 30,558 compared with April.

A breakdown of age groups shows unemployment among 15-24 year olds hit 64.9% in May:

15-24 - 64.9%

25-34 - 37.7%

35-44 - 24.7%

45-54 - 20.9%

55-64 - 16.2%

65-74 - 9.6%

Welcome to the USA Mr Samaras - where the FED (the cause of the Great Depression of 1929 and the rise of Fascism in Germany and Italy) resides and prospers! We really have a lot of sympathy for your poor downtrodden masses because the Fed-backed ECB and IMF have created the un-ending debt that caused them! We hope our little "media show" of sympathy will put food on everyone's plate in Greece real quick!

It is time to open central banking books for two overall reasons: either they are totally incompetent imbeciles or this depression is being orchestrated for financial gain and control of sovereign nations. Whatever the answer may be, banking officials need to be reviewed by independent government panels and then removed for crimes against humanity.

After all, these bankers have steeled themselves to loss of life and livelihood for generations – the rest of us need to steel ourselves to getting rid of them pronto before their scheme for ultimate control is finalized. For a start, fair referendums need to be allowed in all EU nations for an end to this “Euro Madness” and a return to individual currencies printed directly by government treasuries.

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.

Romania has dropped setting a target date for adopting the euro, although officials insisted that joining the single currency remains a fundamental objective for the country, according to reports.

The Romanian news agency Mediafax said the Romanian government would submit to the European Commission for the first time a programme on progress towards adoption of the euro without a target date.

Going to Germany, the country's leading economic think tanks have trimmed their growth forecast for Europe's biggest economy this year.

The four institutes- Ifo in Munich, IfW in Kiel, IW in Halle and RWI in Essen, predicted that the German economy would expand by 0.8pc in 2013, a downward revision from 1pc growth, then grow by 1.9pc in 2014. They said the cut to projected 2013 growth was due to the fact that the economy had to catch up this year after contracting in the fourth quarter of 2012.   I look at this the other way....let the sinking German economy pay in full for the Cypriotic mess....the only awkward caveat being they have the influence to hoodwink the Troica to raid depositors accounts.

So other countries have no say; they can simply block any contributions to IMF fund and direct sequestration attempts.

In essence; the man in the wheelchair has just confirmed that Germany will dictate how the EU economy is run. This is a big mistake....The Cypriot bail-out may now hinge on the Mediterranean island's own parliament, which is sorely divided over the rescue.

Early signs are that nearly half the members of the 56-seat Cypriot parliament may oppose it, a step that could plunge the island into fresh crisis, possible bankruptcy and all but spell a eurozone exit.

How Cameron is going to attempt EU top-end reforms has been made near impossible.

Aah Herr Schaeuble, you resort to the politician's time-honoured ploy: When you have lost the rational argument, use fear.

One day soon, you and all the others trapped in the dysfunctional Eurozone will find out that nothing happens when a country leaves. Nothing for the departing country except a short, sharp shock followed by equally quick recovery - you know, like Iceland.....

Of course the great fear that dare not speak its name is that once one country leaves the Eurozone, others will stampede for the exits. And once they leave the Eurozone and prosper, serious doubt will arise over the need for ever-closer political union within the EU.

That will cause a flutter in the Brussels dovecote won't it?

Christine Lagarde, chief of the International Monetary Fund, has been summoned to a French court to testify in the probe into a high-profile scandal that occurred when she was a government minister.

According to news website Mediapart, Ms Lagarde could be placed under formal investigation for a decision she made while finance minister to go ahead with an arbitration to settle a dispute between the state and billionaire businessman Bernard Tapie, in defiance of objections from her advisers.

Magistrates from a special court that handles alleged abuses by government ministers suspect Ms Lagarde of complicity in misusing public funds as finance minister when she decided to go ahead with the arbitration.

Ms Lagarde denies any wrongdoing.

George Soros, the billionaire speculator best known as "the man who broke the Bank of England" in 1992, has launched a stinging critique of Germany's role in the euro crisis and suggested the single currency's prospects would be improved if its most dominant member were to quit. In an incendiary speech made on Tuesday afternoon in Germany's financial centre of Frankfurt, the hedge fund trader told Europe's richest country it had gone too far during the bailout of Cyprus, was itself heading for recession and should either leave the euro or reverse its long held opposition to eurobonds – a form of sovereign debt that would mean each member country's borrowings were guaranteed by the whole eurozone.  "My first preference is eurobonds; my second is Germany leaving the euro," he said in his lecture, entitled: How to save the European Union from the euro crisis. "It is up to Germany to decide whether it is willing to authorise eurobonds or not," he said at Frankfurt's centre for financial studies.  "But it has no right to prevent the heavily indebted countries from escaping their misery by banding together and issuing eurobonds.  "In other words, if Germany is opposed to eurobonds it should consider leaving the euro and letting others introduce them." In an address which appealed over German chancellor Angela Merkel and directly to German voters, who go to the polls in federal elections later this year, Soros implored the country to change course. "I hope that by offering you a different perspective I may get you to reconsider your position before more damage is done," he said. "That is my goal in coming here."

He added: "The financial problem is that Germany is imposing the wrong policies on the eurozone. Austerity doesn't work. You cannot shrink the debt burden by shrinking the deficit.