Crass scaremongering by crass corrupt political "elite".

Crass scaremongering by crass corrupt political "elite".

In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Viviane Reding, the vice-president of the European Commission, attacked the Prime Minister over the Government’s proposal to opt out of European Union law enforcement and policing measures. The justice commissioner expressed particular concern that the Government was “minded” to opt out from 135 EU crime and policing laws, including the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), which, she claimed, had “horrified” Britain’s own police force. “Do you want criminals and paedophiles running around freely on the streets? Is that really in the United Kingdom’s interest? It is crazy,” she said. In June 2014, the crime and policing legislation comes under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, handing control of sensitive extradition and policing issues to EU judges. Under the Lisbon Treaty, Britain must either opt out of every measure or allow the EU jurisdiction over all 135 pieces of European legislation, a substantial transfer of sovereignty.The usual and very clumsy socialist mantra, if you are not with us you're a fascist/pedophile/Nazi nut/racist or some such clap trap...English Common Law, based on hundreds of years of common sense, held us in good stead well before the perversion of EU Vermin Rights Charter screwed our society over....A lot of assertions by Reding about the importance of staying in the system that "she" has created, but no explanation as to the logic of her assertions, or why she thinks the world will come to an end the day we leave HER system. I think this is just a part of the orchestrated shadow boxing that we get daily from the EU functionaries, supported by the Cleggies, ahead of the much advertised Cameron speech, which itself may not amount to much anyway. Any attempt at a balanced debate will always be taken over by much loud shouting from the EU....Geez and I always thought all the paedophiles were in the parliamwnts (all, including the EU parliament) and now she screams they`re on the streets also?? Brussels help help-send over Inspector Clouseau !!!!

Norway's foreign minister has urged the UK to assess the advantages of staying in the European Union, rather than consider leaving.

Norway is not in the EU but has access to the single market. UK Eurosceptics use it as a model for how the UK could relate to the EU from outside. But Foreign Minister Espen Eide said Oslo had "limited scope for influence".

"We are not at the table when decisions are made," he told Radio 4's The World This Weekend.  Mr Eide is pro-EU, though Norwegian voters have twice rejected the chance to join the EU in referendums in 1972 and 1994. Sir Nigel Sheinwald, a former UK ambassador to the US and to the European Union, said: "The issue is - do you want to be part of the single market? All the economic indicators are that the UK needs to be.

"But [the Norwegians] have no role in negotiations... they have no impact, no influence and there's no accountability. So this is regulation without representation. "It's the first thing the UK needs to decide, whether it wants to be associated with the single market, from the inside or the outside.

"If on the outside, both the Swiss and the Norwegian models give you no actual impact on the substance of what's agreed."

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan said he was "not aware of any British Eurosceptics who are arguing that we should precisely replicate the Norwegian model".  He added: "What we're after is something a bit more like what the Swiss have, but actually I think we could get better terms than either Norway or Switzerland."

Prime Minister David Cameron has consistently said he supports Britain's continued membership.

 

In other news: Germany's DIHK say's German exports could grow by 4% in 2013. If you are educated and looking for a decent paid job, good healthcare, 25 day's vacation, maternity leave, a decently maintained road network, public transport that runs on time, airports that don't close when there is 1/10 inch of snow go, speak English then look for a job in the fatherland. They are still making things that people want.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti resigned on Friday after a year of battling the debt crisis with austerity and reforms and selling his nation to the germans as lawmakers gave final approval to a budget bill that will pave the way for early elections. Monti said earlier he would step down once the vote was approved, kicking off a campaign that will likely see Italy go to the polls on February 24, with former premier Silvio Berlusconi and centre-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani already in the running. After Christmas mass in the prime minister's residence, Monti joked about the end-of-world Mayan prophecy saying: "A year ago this government was only just beginning. Now we will have to wrap up and it's not the fault of the Mayas." He then addressed Italy's ambassadors abroad saying his speech would be his "last act" before handing in his resignation. "Thank you for these difficult but fascinating 13 months," he said. Monti could also join the campaign and is under strong domestic and international pressure to do so. He is expected to reveal his future political ambitions at an end of year press conference scheduled for Sunday. Sources close to the technocrat premier insist he has not yet decided whether to enter the fray, despite appearing to launch a bid for a weighty role in the campaign with a rousing speech at a Fiat factory on Thursday. Some political observers have said Monti could campaign as unofficial leader of a centrist coalition that has been likened to the Christian-Democrats who dominated Italy for decades. Monti's name cannot officially be on the ballot as he is already a senator for life, but he can still be appointed to a post in government including prime minister or finance minister after elections. The centrist agenda will include "historic reforms" and "far deeper liberalization than we have witnessed so far", sources quoted by the Corriere della Sera daily. Monti, 69, defended on Thursday the "bitter medicine" of budget discipline he has implemented as well as his selling his people to the "Fourth Reich" and warned against any attempt to turn back the clock. Another words, he wants a German governor and a nation of enslaved Italians!!!

Eurozone leaders met for the umpteenth time in October in their latest attempt to shore up the faltering economies of Europe and restore confidence in the euro.

Since the onset of the financial crisis in 2008, there has been an almost constant string of meetings among top policymakers in a concerted effort to resolve the debt crisis that has decimated the Greek economy and dragged the eurozone to the brink of its second recession in three years.

These include meetings of the Eurogroup, Economic and Financial Affairs Council (known as Ecofin) and European Council, as well as full-blown European Union summits.

And yet still the crisis rumbles on, with Spain looking increasingly likely to follow Greece, the Republic of Ireland and Portugal in seeking a bailout as it struggles to bring its debts under control.

So what have all these meetings, talks, lengthy negotiations and summits been in aid of? What have they actually achieved?

Bankers have long pilloried policymakers for their inability to get to grips with the crisis and implement effective reforms to solve it. But do they have a point?

Decide for yourselves with our handy summary of the major eurozone meetings held since Athens first called on its neighbours for help.

I have a feeling that this whole economic situation is going to end up with a "boy who cried wolf" scenario....there have been so many "crisis" stories since 2007 that no one cares any more, then one day we will wake up and the Euro will be on its knees ....then the media will be happy because there will be an actual crisis to report on !

In the mean time...A "French expansionary policy' would have to be paid for with German, Dutch, Finnish money. These payees may agree if as part of the package deal there was real external control at a federal level over spending in France (and Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece) and as a result of this control see a roll back of many aspects of the huge government spending in France where 65% of GDP is direct government spending. What the payees want is a reform of rigid labor markets and money to be spent on supporting projects that will employ people and not on cradle to grave government largesse beloved of French socialists. On the other hand, the French ideal is an agreement where they get pots of other peoples money to allow them to carry on exactly as they where doing and even expand the dirigiste state more. Mr Hollande made lots of election promises (eg hiring 65000 more teachers that he now he is President he knows France cannot afford. He would love Germany to pay. France (and others) will never give up an iota of sovereignty over their economy, so don't expect the Germans and others to agree to mutualize debts....Well...It is really all a big scam. Governments borrowing money that they know they wont pay back, banks doing the same, senior politicians and banksters all know that they will be retired soon, into the sunset with their golden pensions and pots of cash. They wont be around to live in the hell they have created. Meanwhile, the workers, the poor, the unemployed, the pensioners will all pay the price of rising unemployment, failed social systems and rising crime. Eventually there will be an overthrow of the current system, but the crooks will all be gone to Dubai, USA or some other capitalist entity that doesnt ask questions about how they got their money. I live in the UK, the poverty is visibly worse every day and our politicians do nothing. Same everwhere I guess. Pity. Within weeks of taking office at the start of the year he was flooding Europe's banks with €1tn in cheap, short-term credit. Was that the same cheap loan scheme that was known as LTRO? Long Term Refinancing Operation? Either way Angela seems to have it well under control. She will play it her way, loosen the purse strings as and when necessary. The Germans really couldn't give a damn but if, in their desperation, the EU wishes to place the future of Europe in her lap, who is she, a mere frau, to refuse? Interesting times. Time for us to think about where's the EXIT maybe?

In a statement issued just after the London markets closed, S&P warned there was a one-in-three chance that it would strip the UK of its cherished AAA status within the next two years. "We believe this could occur in particular as a result of a delayed and uneven economic recovery, or a weakening of political commitment to consolidation," it said. S&P did not call for the government to abandon its austerity plans, but it warned that the deficit-cutting strategy will continue to undermine growth. "We continue to believe that government's efforts over the next few years to engineer the planned correction in the UK's fiscal accounts will likely drag on economic growth." It added that belt-tightening by debt-burdened consumers and weak investment by anxious firms were likely to continue to depress demand. Ministers, including chief secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, have played down the significance of a ratings cut in recent days; but the chancellor has pinned his political reputation on maintaining Britain's reputation as a "safe haven" for foreign investors. S&P's announcement came after Osborne was forced to announce in last week's autumn statement that economic growth has been far weaker than he hoped even in his March budget; and he now expects to flunk his self-imposed rule of cutting the public debt burden by 2015-16. S&P said its own calculations suggested the debt-to-GDP ratio, forecast by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility to peak just below 80% of GDP, could actually hit 100% of GDP - on its own definition - if the economic recovery continues to disappoint. Standard & Poor's rating agency announced it is downgrading Britain's economic outlook from stable to negative, hours after the chancellor defended his Autumn Statement before MPs. The ratings agency said it placed a negative outlook on the British economy to reflect its view that it could lower the country's rating within two years if fiscal performance weakens beyond current expectations. It cited "a delayed and uneven economic recovery, or a weakening of political commitment to consolidation" as possible causes for a future downgrade. S&P warned "if economic growth recovers more slowly than we currently forecast, due to domestic factors or waning economic performance by the UK's main trading partners, such slow recovery could result in net general government debt approaching 100pc of GDP, by our calculations, from its current estimated level of 85pc of GDP in 2012". The downward revision came just hours after chancellor George Osborne, speaking before the House of Commons Treasury Select Committee, downplayed the importance of the UK's treasured top credit rating, describing it as just "one test" and not the key symbol of an economy's strength. “It’s one test alongside others and the ultimate test is what you can borrow money at,” said Mr Osborne.

Peace and prosperity has been guaranteed by nuclear weapons, not the EU....

Germany tried to conquer Europe in WWII using bombs and bullets. That effort cost them four million lives, untold numbers of wounded, one fifth of all the nation's housing destroyed, millions of their women raped, many of their cities reduced to rubble....and the nation's wealth and productivity wiped out. Their war was a total, abject failure, and an unprecedented human disaster. Someone correctly imagined that Europe could be conquered far more cheaply and easily.A masterplan for “completion of economic and monetary union” has been set out in a confidential document to be discussed by EU leaders at a Brussels summit next week. In the nine-page paper, seen by The Daily Telegraph, Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council – the monthly summits of EU leaders – charts a series of steps from ongoing financial reforms to overall political union for the eurozone. “The general objective will be to aim for a progressive pooling of economic sovereignty at the European level,” the paper states. Mr Van Rompuy expects the EU to have agreed an “operational framework” to give the European Central Bank (ECB) the role as single eurozone banking supervisor by March next year, despite continuing splits between France and Germany over the policy. The EU president then sees a second phase to a full “banking union” with legislative proposals next year for a shared bank bail-out fund and a euro-wide deposit guarantee scheme, proposals that are even more controversial than giving the ECB a supervisory role. Then, by 2014, the plan requires all eurozone countries to “enter into individual arrangements of a contractual nature with EU institutions on the measures and reforms they commit to undertake and on the means for their implementation”. ...Karl Marx could not balance his own household accounts, yet his theories are still hailed today as the solution to economic ills all over the world. The EU cannot get its accounts audited they are in such a mess and now they want to take economic sovereignty away from member states. Many years ago my parents taught me something valuable: If you are in a financial hole, stop digging it deeper. Someone take away the spades from these lunatics, please! Effin politicians, lying corrupt thieving and with a botched useless totalitarian plan tried to force this on people who deep down resent it. And Greec ena Spain and Portugal and Ireland are still saddled with a currency that violates all mathematical concepts of what is needed to gain competiveness, unless you pay them 50 euros a month and they all live in squalour. Either way the currency, the coupon, the filthy euro voucher is the problem now from the start and always will be. Only the dumbest halfwit cannot see that. Even if it was congealed under a stalinesque plan it STILL will not stop the imbalance .

We have not yet emerged from the crisis...

The head of the European Central Bank has warned that the eurozone crisis is far from over, as unemployment in the currency bloc hit a new high in October. "We have not yet emerged from the crisis," Mario Draghi said, predicting that the recovery for most of the eurozone would not begin until the second half of 2013. He urged governments to tighten budgets and implement a banking union to leave behind a "fairy world" that led to the financial meltdown three years ago. "The crisis has shown that we were living in a fairy world," he said, citing the unsustainable debts, weak banks and poor policy co-ordination of the past. Speaking at a conference in Paris, Christine Lagarde, head of the IMF, echoed his call for reform, saying: "Banking union seems to us to be the first priority." The euro strengthened against the dollar after the German parliament approved the latest €44bn (£36bn) bailout for Greece by a large majority, despite growing unease about the cost to taxpayers. It is thought the vote will strengthen Chancellor Angela Merkel, less than a year ahead of federal elections. Despite the criticism of the plan, only 12 members of her conservative-led coalition rejected the package – less than had been feared by party officials. France's finance minister, Pierre Moscovici, hailed the Greek aid deal as a breakthrough. "It's a turning point for Greece. It's also a turning point for the eurozone because it helps recreate stability and confidence. Greece's fate will no longer be a daily issue." But investors said the celebrations should not be overdone. Jason Conibear, trading director of Cambridge Mercantile, said: "Certainly the Greek bailout is back on track, and the immediate prospect of Eurogeddon has receded. But even if the single currency is not about to come apart at the seams, the eurozone is still stuck in a deep economic funk." Another 173,000 people joined the jobless queues in the eurozone in October, pushing the unemployment rate to a record high of 11.7%. There were stark differences between northern and southern European countries, with Austria seeing unemployment of just 4.3% compared with Spain's eye-watering rate of 26.2%. Across the 27 member states of the EU, unemployment also rose, although to a lower 10.7%.

Heil...who rules Europe in fact ... the Four'th Reich

The Four'th Reich - Bundestag - approves Greek aid package - The results are in -- and the German parliament has APPROVED the Greek aid package.

A total of 584 MPs voted -- 473 voted in favour, and 100 voted against. Eleven MPs abstained. we mentioned in yesterday's live blog, the ECB won a case to conceal secret documents about Greek debt issues prior to its €240bn taxpayer-funded rescue. Internal papers, which detail Greece’s use of complex financial trades to hide its level of debt, were kept from media organization Bloomberg amid concerns their publication could heighten Europe’s financial crisis.

The three judges presiding over the case at the EU General Court in Luxembourg, in upholding the Bank’s refusal to release the reports, said: “The ECB must be recognized as enjoying a wide discretion for the purpose of determining whether the disclosure of the documents relating to the fields covered by that exception could undermine the public interest.”

Their decision, made on Thursday, has been decried as a sign the European Central Bank (ECB) is becoming less transparent just as it prepares to expand its powers.

Europe is an extremely poor place to do business

Europe is an extremely poor place to do business and its just getting worse. None of the Internationals wants to do business anymore because most of them lose money hand over fist due to EU regulations and the poor economic conditions and lack of a proper business environment. Many have stuck around while racking up quarterly losses in EMEA simply waiting for things to get better and trying to hold on to market share, but that will not keep up forever and the cracks are already showing. Disappointing eurozone PMI data dampens recovery...Manufacturing data from the eurozone shows that the sector contracted for the 15th month running, painting a 'bleak picture' and dampening hopes of an economic recovery in the region.mpens recovery ? There is no recovery. Its all hot air and bollox spouted by ministers and euro ministers, bankers and the IMF.We're going doooooown and we know it, hence the public anger. In the last 2 weeks alone. 250 jobs gone at severn seas, 350 at kimberley clark, over a 1000 lost at ford, now 6000 comet workers jobs on the line. I was added to the jobless figures myself a couple of months back so I know how things are feeling at the sharp end.But they must have their EU increases so they can continue to spend spend spend, fiddle their expenses, and feed us hot air and waffle.

Want to stimulate economic recovery?? weell here's how:
1. Cut taxes - let money ccirculate in the economy, not be lavished upon malingerers & the indolent!

2. Cut spending to the bone. End the socialist evil that is the welfare state.

3. cut red tape - abolish these silly 'elf & safety laws! do away with the legions of EU cucumber inspectors! Do away with regulators whose sole purpose is to strangle growth!

4. liberalise labour laws - end the minimum wage, criminalise trade unions. Then the economy will flourish!A Keynsian stimulus would have required supluses to have been run in the boom times.
This did not happen - in fact the last government was so incompetent that it did not even realise that it was running a structural deficit of £76bn in 06/07. Those advocates of Keynes were very quiet during the past decade - perhaps they believed the nonsense of "no more boom and bust". Either way, Keynes and his many disciples would be turning in their graves at the conduct of UK government policy for all of the last decade, and Keynes' ideas were made when the UK was a net exporter, had an Empire to fall back on, and government spending as a proportion of GDP was less than half what it is now.
A policy of running a deficit during a boom, followed by a bigger deficit during the inevitable bust is a recipe for national disaster, and people who propose such an action using the fig-leaf of Keynes should be sectioned under the mental health act and never be allowed in a position of power again.

Vote out of this mess called EU !!!!

The summit talks in Brussels were suspended overnight after less than an hour and a half, having already begun hours late on Thursday due to the vast differences on the need for cuts between the bloc's have and have-not nations. The negotiations were scheduled to resume at 11.00 on Friday once delegates from the 27 member nations have had time to examine new proposals on the 2014-2020 budget submitted by EU president Herman Van Rompuy. But with an increasingly eurosceptic Britain threatening to wield its veto, and splits throughout the EU over the level of spending, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that any deal may have to wait.

"I think we're advancing a bit, but I doubt that we will reach a deal," Mrs Merkel said as she and her fellow leaders left the first session of talks. French President Francois Hollande also warned that failure to reach a deal was increasingly likely. ....Strange times.... Few articles (and even less TV coverage) spend much time talking about the other nations seeking a halt to spending and paint a picture of a totally isolated Cameron. More distressing is the lack of coverage of what the people imprisoned in the EUSSR actually think and want. Do not forget that the referenda that were held on the consitution and Masstricht only passed by the smallest margins. Britain is NOT isolated in its opposition to the accelerating creep towards the United States of Republican Europe, and the press has a moral duty to point this out - the pro Federalist politicians are the ones who are isolated, strutting as they do without a mandate from their hard pressed electors....Enough of this nonsense...VOTE OUT of the EU!!!!

Europe's leaders must forge a deal this week to help Greece get "back on its feet", the managing director of the International Monetary Find has said, as disagreement continued over how to tackle the country's mounting debt pile. ...Speaking of angry Germans, Jens Weidmann, the head of Germany's central bank, has warned that putting the ECB in charge of eurozone bank supervision risks compromising its primary goal of price stability. ....Writing in German daily Handelsblatt, Mr Weidmann warned that forming a "hasty" bank union would be counterproductive, and that leaders should opt for "thoroughness over speed". Mr Weidmann also said that a union would require a mechanism to wind down and restructure banks that should be funded by the lenders themselves. Are the IMF and the EU institutionally deaf, the 'fat lady' has sung her self hoarse, rolled over and died of old age. Maybe they have not taken the trouble to keep up with events.
The ordinary Greek people on the street know now what ever happens, they will collectively be accountable for many, many decades for the debt put on them by all these bailouts. They should have got out three or four years ago, but have been deliberately sucked into this vacuum and been enslaved by the bankers, and dare i say, their own country men and women who have repeatedly refused to pay their taxes and now have deviously moved their vast fortunes out of the country....When I read " Without the option of currency devaluation", I had to laugh.
France could (and perhaps should) consider leaving the corrupt club and then she COULD devalue her currency which would make her more competitive.... And...what about slashing the IMF ' s salaries by 75% and give it to the Greeks. The IMF'S staff will still have a more than decent living and , for once, they will have put their monies where their mouths are . As a special gesture, the Greeks could have Lagarde too, as she is useless, we would, then, have killed two birds with one stone.

History explains all....

History explains all....The EU is experiencing its 'Stalingrad' moment....Sheer hubris makes it impossible for the EU to make the right decisions. Draghi's wears his vanity as if it alone is enough to save the EU. His vision is correct in his eyes, and to him that is all that matters, and that imprisons him in a course of action that is clearly failing. He is the only one who can't see it, though his generals nod their approval to maintain their salaries and privileges. Even Greece has deferred the worst effects of their austerity measures, which means that there will be no avoiding mounting civil disorder. If Golden Dawn show some political maturity (which they haven't so far) they'll walk in to power. Samaras is trying to defuse the Golden Dawn threat with some cynical changes to citizenship law but that's only upsetting his coalition partners. His government is doomed to collapse. European governments should focus on spending cuts, not tax rises to get their deficits down, according to the head of the European Central Bank. Mario Draghi said that the ECB's action (via its €1 trillion LTRO bazooka and announcement of the OMT programme) had helped to calm markets, but that it was up to governments to regain credibility.The growing tension between Germany and Greece was on show today as public sector workers stormed a building where officials from the two countries were meeting in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Police had to form a shield around German Consul Wolfgang Hoelscher-Obermaier as he tried to enter the building. They also pelted him with water bottles and coffee in a protest against austerity measures. The workers chanted: "It's now or never!" and held up mock gravestones and banners proclaiming "Fight until the end!" ...Workers said that they were furious at comments by German envoy Hans-Joachim Fuchtel, who reportedly told journalists on Wednesday that it takes 3,000 Greek public sector workers to do the work of 1,000 of their German counterparts. Mr Fuchtel is Angela Merkel’s special envoy to Greece. Michael Meister, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union party, told reporters that he could "live with" giving Greece more time to bring down its debt levels, adding that the EU had "many tools" to enable this to happen. However, he said that a writedown of Greek debt would be unacceptable to Berlin, and that MPs would not rush through a vote on the country's next aid tranche.

After months of speeches, dozens of diner visits, hundreds of thousands of commercials and billions of dollars spent by the campaigns and outside groups, the race is still too close to call.

Mitt Romney promised Americans that under his leadership the country would rediscover its greatness, after languishing under Barack Obama for four years.

Under a slogan of “Real Change from Day One” – a deliberate dig at the president’s winning mantra from 2008 - the Republican contender said that his rival’s “big government” policies had failed.

“If there is anybody who fears the American dream is fading away, I have a message for you: America is about to come roaring back,” he said at his first rally of the day in New Hampshire, one of the closest swing states.

“President Obama is offering excuses, I am offering a plan. He is asking Americans to settle [for what they have got]. But Americans don’t settle, we dream, we aspire and we achieve great things.”

Democrats in Ohio and other swing states are acutely aware that with Mr Romney breathing down the president’s neck, getting out the vote on the day will be crucial.

Morris Reid, a former official in Bill Clinton’s White House who hails from the state, said: “It will come down to turnout and ground game. If we get African Americans to turn out we can get an extra two to three points in Ohio.”

A misleading TV ad by the Romney campaign which claimed local Chrysler plants were preparing to ship jobs to China has angered labour voters and women with blue collar husbands, he said. That could make the crucial difference at this late stage, by encouraging extra numbers to show up at polling stations on Tuesday.

“I believe we will win, but this is close, very close. It makes me nervous. I have never been so nervous about a race,” said Mr Reid.

 

The chances of Britain leaving the EU rose dramatically last night after it emerged that one of David Cameron’s closest Cabinet allies believes it is time to tell Brussels bluntly: ‘We are ready to quit.’

Education Secretary Michael Gove has told friends that, if there was a referendum today on whether the UK should cut its ties with Brussels, he would vote to leave.

He wants Britain to give other EU nations an ultimatum: ‘Give us back our sovereignty or we will walk out.’ Mr Gove insists the UK could thrive as a free trading nation on its own, like other non-EU nations in Europe such as Norway and Switzerland. He has changed his view partly as a result of his fury at Brussels meddling which has held up his school reforms.  Mr Gove, one of the Prime Minister’s closest confidants, has discussed his views in detail with Mr Cameron. In an anti-EU pincer movement by the two Tory allies, Mr Cameron will formally announce later this month the first major step towards grabbing back powers from Brussels.   He will set out in detail how he plans to withdraw Britain from EU justice ties, but he will then ‘cherry pick’ which aspects of Anglo-EU legal co-operation he believes are in British interests. These could include the European Arrest Warrant (EAW), access to police databases, prisoner transfers and co-operation over drugs trafficking and money laundering.  The disclosures are the latest evidence of a turning point in Britain’s relationship with the EU, which is currently gripped by the euro crisis.

Mr Cameron has struck an increasingly tough stance. He won plaudits for vetoing changes in the EU Treaty, has edged closer to pledging an ‘In or Out’ referendum, and suggested Brussels should have two budgets, one for eurozone nations and another for non-eurozone nations such as the UK....UPDATE - European leaders early Friday agreed to have a new supervisor for euro-zone banks up and running next year, a step that will pave the way for the bloc's bailout fund to pump capital directly into banks throughout the single-currency area......
Friday's announcement is a disappointment for some officials at the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, who had hoped to have the supervisor operational at the start of 2013.
The leaders also discussed plans for a common budget for the 17 euro-zone nations that could be used to absorb economic shocks impacting one part of the euro zone but not others. But José Manuel Barroso, the commission president, said: "This is something for the medium and longer term."

He He!! ....hahaha !!!

I'm waiting to see what Merkel has to say when Germany slides into recession (probably early next year) Germans start to lose their jobs and exports dry up because their world wide customers are running out of cash. I just wonder how good she will think the Euro is then. I know Germany went through it's own tough period with reunification but it's one thing to do it for your own people but quite another when it's for a bunch of ungrateful's.

It seems incredible that this bunch of unelected bureaucrats have got this far.....Greece must leave the euro and it will increase the chances for the rest. The departure should be orderly, so as to give the Greeks chance to resurrect themselves....The politicians are only interested in saving their own false dream which has become our worst nightmare. They are not focussing on where the ship is going and it is getting too close to the island. Think about economic recovery and jobs and stop playing around with the lives of the Greeks. The Euro will probably recover a lot if some positive and common sense actions are taken.

They made a fortune selling machine tools to developing countires and now there is a surplus of production.... and falling world demand......so prespects of selling more look grim....and due to the austerity they have imposed on all Europe the middle classes are now just trying to survive....so little or no money for treats like expensive German cars ......but more importantly its a change in mind set, and image is no longer important or so important  seems like they have been digging their own grave (and the rest of Europe) .....just a surprise that it took so long to arrive at their door....and I think that in the case of Germany it could be dramatic turndown  seem to remember that Spain was Audis biggest European Market....and so here we are in the umpteenth round of the European Can Kicking Contest and are we any further along for all the meetings replays and extra time towards a resolution?
The ECB wanted it settled by penalty shoot out but the Spanish refuse to play; the French team threatens to go on strike again, Greece demands a longer run up, the Italians fell over spectacularly on the run up screaming "Penalty!" England formed a wall inside the 6 yard box and Ireland refused to kick it and opted instead to beat it with sticks.....and Germany elected to play like Kuntz.
He He!!

BS_BS_BS_ and that's all...

The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) will have a full lending capacity of 500bn euros (£400bn; $650bn) by 2014. It will initially run alongside, and then eventually replace, the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF).  Europe's largest economy, Germany, will make the biggest contribution to the fund, about 27% of its total. The ESM, which is a new European Union agency, will be chaired by Jean-Claude Juncker, the Prime Minister of Luxembourg and chair of the Eurogroup.  The launch of the ESM "marks an historic milestone in shaping the future of monetary union", Mr Juncker said after the inaugural meeting of the Eurogroup of finance ministers that makes up the fund's board.

Countries will make their first payments towards the fund this week.   Earlier, the EU economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Olli Rehn, said: "It provides the eurozone with a robust and permanent firewall and it provides us with a strong toolbox of effective and flexible instruments.  "Thinking of where we were two-and-a-half years ago when we had no instruments of crisis management, we had to create the Greek loan facility and the temporary European facility, we are moving forward and we are supplementing the economic and monetary union with one important building block," he said as he arrived at the meeting.

"Nobody is in party mood, but I am less pessimistic for the moment for the eurozone than in the spring."

You can't have your cake and eat it...

Given that the overall public debt of Greece is approximately Euro 360 billion, this means an effective annual interest rate of approximately 3.7% for Greek public debt . A better interest rate than many other countries would get.  None of the above denies that Greece's economy is in a terrible mess and that many of its poorer citizens suffer.  Posting agitprop on Guardian bulletin boards won't change that, dear Kouros, neither will the stopping of paying taxes in Greece change that, which you also advocate for frequently in your comments. Paying no taxes means no money for schools to educate children, no money for medicines to be given to sick people, no money for pensions to be given to old people in Greece.

Well, otherwise .... For too long in Europe (and elsewhere) governments have run deficits, and have added to their overall debt. The only way to run those deficits and have that level of debt is through the bond market. All of us have enjoyed high standards on living, and some of that is paid for on tick, where are children will end up picking up the tab.   I don't see how anyone can blame the bond traders for charging higher interest rates if through their own risk assessment it looks like that debt will either never be paid back, or will be swollowed up through inflation.  Either a government runs near on balanced budgets which means the electorate not voting for high public spending 'free monkey in every office' political parties, so the bond markets have very little to do with economic decisions, or the electorate go for those parties and accept high debts and deficits which leaves them beholding to the bond markets.  You can't have your cake and eat it.

France -- tax rises for the wealthy ???!!!

"In France, prime minister Hollande is presenting the details of the 2013 budget to his cabinet this morning. The budget is expected to include tough spending freezes and tax rises for the wealthy as Paris struggles to rein in its deficit."

Just a second: tax rises for the wealthy is not typically classed as "austerity".

There are two sides to fixing the finances of the state:

a) cutting expenditure, i.e. welfare, public sector jobs, wages and pensions, all of which certainly hit the unemployed and low paid. One can also cut procurement of things like weapons but often the interests of the "defence" industry are well protected.

b) increasing income via taxation. Here, there are options. One can increase indirect taxation and hit the poor or introduce higher marginal taxes for the wealthy, capital gain tax, corporation taxes etc. Some of the latter of course have become risqué economic policies because highly mobile globalised capital can blackmail governments with disinvestment.
However, I would certainly not classify tax rises for the wealthy as "tough austerity" in the classic definition of austerity.   Some "austerity for the rich" is long overdue. Inequality has kept increasing in the context of the worst crisis and impoverishment of the populations of Europe.

Waiting to see what Hollande is proposing anyway ... I doubt that it will be a vicious attack on the rich.

Up to 60bn euros (£48bn; $78bn) will be needed to bail out Spain's banks, according to the country's second biggest lender, BBVA. The results of independent stress tests of the Spanish banking sector will be published on 28 September. But previews are already being sent to the country's financial institutions. The BBC has been told that the Spanish government has already put in place economic reform plans that would allow it to apply for a bailout immediately. Spain's conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has in the past insisted Madrid would not become the fourth European capital in recent years to apply for such a bailout, but sources indicate such a programme is now likely. Spain's banking sector needs recapitalizing, and much of the money would come from 100bn euros in European Union funds already pledged by eurozone finance ministers in June. "We'll get a figure of around 70, 75 or 80 billion euros," BBVA's Chairman Francisco Gonzalez said. That figure includes around 20bn euros already allocated to troubled banks, which means 50-60bn euros is still required. The bigger question however for investors is how the Spanish government begins to balance its books. Many in Brussels and beyond now assume it is only a matter of time before Spain becomes the fourth eurozone country to take a bailout. A source in Brussels said the preference is that Madrid applies for the money sooner rather than later, before market conditions change. That is important because of the different manner in which this bailout is being put together. A European Commission spokesman said it would be wrong to see this as a "kind of proto-bailout" - but to many it does look like a bailout-by-stealth. Over the last few months Spanish officials have held numerous meetings with their European counterparts, working out what Madrid would have to do to fulfil the criteria of any bailout deal. Officials say Spain is already living up to any future bailout terms. Next Thursday Mr Rajoy will unveil the next Spanish budget. Rather than more cuts, more austerity, he is pushing for structural reforms to help him make savings. Such reforms will form the basis of a bailout agreement with the so-called troika - the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. For a program to work, all that would need to be added would be firm dates for implementing such reforms and a team to monitor progress. Asked to comment, the Spanish finance ministry did not deny that negotiations to this effect had taken place. It could give Spain's prime minister enough wiggle room to present this to his country as a Spanish-led process. Many will not believe him, but it helps a leader who said he would never apply for a bailout to save some face. (source BBC)