In September 1995, a secret agreement was signed inside the Romanian government giving convicted criminal Frank Timis the rights to mine Europe's largest gold deposit, located under the ancient mountain town of Rosia Montana. Soon after, the deposits were floated on the Canadian Stock Exchange, listed under Timis' firm, Gabriel Resources, a newly created mining company registered in the tax haven of Jersey, with no previous mining experience and a bank balance of close to zero.  Now, 18 years later, a near continuous rise in the price of gold has driven the value of the deposits under Rosia Montana up by 400 percent to over $20 billion, and the constant issuing of shares from Gabriel Resources has drawn in nearly a billion dollars to the project.   Restructured and rebranded as the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (RMGC), the company has launched the biggest PR campaign Romania has ever seen. It also bought up most of the town of Rosia Montana and the four surrounding mountains, all of which would have to be flattened to make way for the open-cast mine, funded multiple NGO's, museums and a high-profile documentary to support their cause.  Yet the mine remains unopened. The company is unable to get past public opposition that has mobilized tens of thousands across the country, and a legal system that deems the project unlawful on three counts -- under environmental law, international mining laws and the Aarhus convention for transparency in decision-making.   But all of this is set to be overridden. At the end of August, Prime Minister Victor Ponta signed a proposed law that would annul all of the legal barriers standing in the way of the Rosia Montana project and get the mine underway by the beginning of next year. The law, currently waiting on a parliamentary vote, would give the company extraordinary powers. The hundred or so villagers who have refused to sell their homes in Rosia Montana would be forcefully expropriated, escorted by RMGC's private security firm and compensated at a rate set by the company. The government would then be mandated to issue all necessary permits for construction and exploitation on set terms drawn up by the company, allowing the project to begin well before the new law could be challenged in the European Court of Justice. Once passed, the law would also apply to all new mining projects in the country -- which sparks fears that, given the mineral richness of the Transylvania region, extend far beyond Rosia Montana. Three days after the law was proposed, thousands of people took to the streets in opposition. In the weeks since, the protests have grown and spread, with each successive Sunday bringing activists to the streets of cities increasingly far removed from the hills of Transylvania. The demonstrations are held in cities as far flung as Budapest, Berlin, London, Washington, Singapore. This weekend, protests are set to be larger still and, the organizers believe, they will keep growing "until something gives and our demands are recognized."  The scale of the protests reflects the size of the environmental risks involved. Using outdated techniques, 13,000 tons of cyanide are to be be pumped into the mine each year. This is over 130 times the amount used in the Romanian Baie Mare gold mine at the time of the catastrophic cyanide spill in 2000, Europe's worst environmental catastrophe since Chernobyl. Nevertheless, the extent of the opposition has surprised everyone, from the protest's organizers to government officials and, crucially, Gabriel Resources' shareholders, who have been selling off in droves, causing the company's stock price to crash.  But the significance of the case extends far beyond Rosia Montana. Ramona Duminicioiu, a constant figure in the Save Rosia Montana movement for over a decade, sees it as part of a process that links movements as diverse as the Occupy protests in America to this year's uprisings across Europe, from Bulgaria to Turkey, Greece and other countries. "This is a case of our elected government putting corporate interests over public priorities and then blocking any democratic process of opposition through legal measures," she says. "It resonates far beyond Romania as this is a crisis of global capitalism and impotent governments."   The actions of the Romanian government over the last fortnight certainly suggest a political powerlessness in the face of the proceedings. After the first protests, President Traian Basescu, always an avid supporter of the mine, came out condemning it on environmental grounds, stating that it should not go ahead given that the majority of Romanians are opposed to it. Soon after, Prime Minister Victor Ponta announced an emergency procedure that would, he claimed, stop the project once and for all.   Then, as Gabriel Resources' shares plummeted, the company threatened to sue. They claim that if members of parliament vote against the project they will "commence litigation for multiple breaches of international investment treaties for up to $4 billion." Ponta's emergency procedure was soon abandoned and a new committee was created that seems to allow the law to bypass both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and be put directly to vote in parliament. However, with the new committee apparently unburdened by regular transparency regulations and the government unavailable to comment, the situation as it stands is unclear.   Whatever happens, the Romanian government is unlikely to survive the coming months in its present form. Calls for the removal of the Ponta-led Social Liberal Union (USL) coalition, brought into power largely on the back of promises that they would stop the Rosia Montana project, are increasingly dominating the protests in Bucharest. Meanwhile, the coalition is visibly shaky, one minute declaring unity in its approach to the mine and the next publicly threatening to split over the issue.   But the stuttering rhetoric of party politics has always felt more like a comic interlude than the main plot line in the story of Rosia Montana. For over a decade and a half, the Romanian government has swung back and forth on the issue but never been able to make any final decision.   "We still don't know the exact nature of the original contract signed between the government and Gabriel (Resources)," says Duminicioiu, "but as it is clear that the vast majority of Romanians oppose the mine. If the project goes ahead, it must be stronger than democracy."  What happens then? "We keep fighting, until we have a government that can represent its people," she says.

Japan's government is to spend almost $500m (£320m) in an attempt to contain leaks and decontaminate highly toxic water at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The measures, announced on Tuesday, come as the plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), struggles to prevent leaks into the Pacific Ocean and to find a way to contain and treat the huge volume of water that has accumulated at the site since it was hit by a tsunami in March 2011. The decision is widely seen as a safety appeal just days before the International Olympic Committee chooses between Tokyo, Istanbul and Madrid on which city will host the 2020 Olympics. The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, said the government would take a more active role in the biggest nuclear cleanup in history, amid mounting concern that Tepco is no longer able to cope alone. "The world is watching to see if we can carry out the decommissioning of the Fukushima nuclear power plant, including addressing the contaminated water issues," Abe reportedly told cabinet ministers. Reports said that about 32bn yen of the 47bn yen in new funding would be spent on constructing a 1.4km-long underground frozen wall around four damaged reactors – an untested and expensive technique. The wall would prevent groundwater from mixing with coolant water that becomes contaminated after it comes into contact with melted nuclear fuel. A further 15bn yen will be spent on improving technology to remove all radioactive particles – except tritium – from the water, or to least reduce them to legally accepted levels. The head of Japan's nuclear watchdog, Shunichi Tanaka, confirmed on Monday that discharging treated water into the ocean is one option under consideration. Given the large volumes involved, experts say that Tepco will soon run out of storage space and will have no choice than to discharge or evaporate the contaminated water....
These are the facts :
1. TEPCO has "no idea" where the melted reactor cores from reactors 1,3 and 4 have gone. They know that they are somewhere under the remains of the shattered and sinking reactor buildings but where remains a mystery
2. Radiation on site will kill an unprotected man in just 4 hours. Something is extremely hot (which is why they keep having to spray thousands of gallons every day) and extremely radioactive. See point 1 for a clue what
3. Heat + Radioactivity = bonkers ice wall not working, that is assuming that they are able to successfully build it
4. Reactor 4's shattered building is sinking diagonally. The entire site is built on aquifers, its extremely soft thanks to the earthquake + tsunami + water spray. TEPCO need to manually remove the 1,300 fuel rods from the pool above what's left of reactor 4 (never been done before)
5. Ground water is now just over a foot away from the surface and rising. Its extremely radioactive (see points 1 and 2) and if it does reach the surface would force the evacuation of personnel. Remove them and that removes both the bonkers ice wall project and the ability to (a) cool and (b) remove the 1,300 fuel rods. That means an uncontrolled nuclear fire.
All of that is just reactor 4. 1 and 3 are also shattered though in a slightly less precarious state, 5 + 6 are shut down with the fuel extant. With the greatest of respect, an untested ice wall is not the solution. Fukushima is an ongoing disaster so great that it literally threatens the continuation of Japan as a nation, and a much larger area should another earthquake topple reactor 4's building and expose the fuel rods. And they are bidding for the Olympics? FFS

In Germany, the finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has completed an outspoken week with a flourish.

Speaking to German daily Handelsblatt, in an interview published this morning, Mr Schaeuble revisited talk of a third bail-out for Greece, following on from his surprise admission about the prospect earlier this week. Today, he added that, while Greece is likely to need another rescue package, that the sums involved will not be as high as the earlier deals, which totaled €240bn. He's also insisted that Greece will not get another debt haircut.

We have held out the prospect of further aid, on condition that the government in Athens meet its agreed commitments and on the expectation the sums involved will be much smaller than before.

I don't want to be accused, after the election, of not having said the truth before the election.

I'm happy that the broad public is aware of what I've been saying for a long time, that we'll have to look next year at further measures for Greece.

When a politician is planning a campaign lie, he has to be able to rely on one thing: No one in his own party must come out with the truth prematurely. The Social Democrats adhered to this rule in the 1976 election, when then Chancellor Helmut Schmidt promised higher pensions and then announced sharp cuts after the election. And the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) also closed ranks in 1990, the year of German reunification, when then Chancellor Helmut Kohl appeared on market squares throughout the country to announce that taxes would not be raised. It was a promise that, as we now know, was followed by the strongest postwar increase in taxes and other charges. Current Chancellor Angela Merkel was still an up-and-coming member of the eastern German CDU and Kohl's eager pupil, so it came as no surprise that she urged her party's executive committee to stay the course on Greece at all costs last week. "There is too much talk in Europe about debt haircuts," the chancellor told her party's executive committee at a meeting last Monday.  But after SPIEGEL had reported two weeks ago that the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, had new doubts about Greece's bailout program, the debate over additional aid packages or debt forgiveness was reignited. This would be extremely dangerous, the chancellor told CDU MPs, as it would create "uncertainty in the markets." In other words, she was saying, it was critical to maintain discipline in the debate.

Less than 24 hours later, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble appeared on a campaign stage in Ahrensburg, a town in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, and said: "There will have to be another (bailout) program in Greece."...So there it was.

European leaders yesterday warned that youth unemployment – which stands at up to 59% in some countries – could lead to a continent-wide "catastrophe" and widespread social unrest aimed at member state governments.

The French, German and Italian governments yesterday joined together to launch initiatives to "rescue an entire generation" who fear they will never find jobs.

More than 7.5m young Europeans aged between 15-24 are not employed or in education or training, according to European Union data. The rate of youth unemployment is more than double that of adults, and more than half of young people in Greece (59%) and Spain (55%) are unemployed.  François Hollande, the French president, dubbed them the "post-crisis generation", who will "for ever after, be holding today's governments responsible for their plight".

"Remember the postwar generation, my generation. Europe showed us and gave us the support we needed, the hope we cherished. The hopes that we could get a job after finishing school, and succeed in life," he said at conference in Paris. "Can we be responsible for depriving today's young generation of this kind of hope?

"Imagine all of the hatred, the anger. We're talking about a complete breakdown of identifying with Europe.

"What's really at stake here is, not just 'Let's punish those in power'. No. Citizens are turning their backs on Europe and the construction of the European project.  Germany's finance minister Wolfgang Schäeuble warned that unless Europe tackles youth employment, which stands at 23.5% across all European Union countries, the continent "will lose the battle for Europe's unity".  Italy's labour minister Enrico Giovanni said European leaders needed to work together to "rescue an entire generation of people who are scared [they will never find work].  "We have the best ever educated generation in this continent, and we are putting them on hold," he said.  The UK department for work and pensions and the Treasury were unable to say why Britain, which has a 20.7% rate of youth unemployment, was not represented at the conference in Paris on Tuesday.  Stephen Timms, shadow employment minister, attacked the coalition for remaining "utterly silent on youth unemployment".

"This government has totally failed to tackle Britain's youth jobs crisis. This government must stop sitting on the sidelines and take the urgent action we need to get young people back to work."

Hollande outlined a series of measures to tackle the problem, including a "youth guarantee" to promise everyone under 25 a job or further education or training.

The plan, which has already been discussed by the European Commission, will be supported by €6bn of EU cash over the next five years. Another €16bn in European structural funds is also being made available for youth employment projects.

Herman Van Rompuy, European Council president, pledged to put the "fight against unemployment high on our agenda" at the next EU summit in June. "We must rise to the expectations of the millions of young people who expect political action," he said.

The commission estimates youth joblessness costs the EU €153bn in unemployment benefit, lost productivity and lost tax revenue.

"In addition, for young people themselves, being unemployed at a young age can have a long-lasting negative 'scarring effect'," the commission said. "These young people face not only higher risks of future unemployment, but also higher risks of exclusion, of poverty and of health problems."  The European ministers, who will meet with German chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss the youth unemployment crisis in July, said small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) will form a central plank of the plans.  SMEs traditionally employ the vast majority of young people, but have complained they haven't been able to borrow enough money to grow since the financial crisis struck in 2008.  Ursula von der Leyen, Germany's labour minister, said: "Many SMEs, which are the backbone of our economies, are ready to produce but need capital, or they have to pay exorbitant borrowing rates."  The minsters are working on establishing a special credit line for small and medium-sized businesses from the European Investment Bank (EIB), which will have a €70bn lending capacity this year.  However, Werner Hoyer, head of the EIB, warned minister not have "expectations completely over the horizon".

"Let's be honest, there is no quick fix, there is no grand plan," he admitted.  Schäeuble warned that European welfare standards should not be jeopardised in order to cut the youth unemployment figures. "We would have revolution, not tomorrow, but on the very same day," he warned. Germany and Austria have the lowest rate of youth unemployment, with just 8% not in work, education or training.

Reuters has got hold of a draft copy of the Troika's latest assessment of Greece, following their recent visit.

No major shocks... international lenders concluded that Greece is on track to hit its targets this year and in 2014, but warns it will struggle to fully return to the financial markets after that date.

The Troika also chides Athens for being too slow to privatize state assets....Here's Reuters' early take: Greece is set to meet its budget targets this year and next but must step up privatizations and public sector reform, the country's international lenders said in a draft report obtained by Reuters on Monday.  The report by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund assessing the country's progress in meeting its bailout goals, said the country's privatization revenue target had been lowered for 2013 to €2bn ($2.59 billion) from €2.6bn euros.  "While progress has been made in preparing assets for privatization, the overall speed of the privatization process remains unsatisfactory," said the report.  The document adds to evidence that the debt-laden country still faces big hurdles to standing on its own feet, despite the fiscal progress made by its coalition government and about 200 billion euros in rescue loans it has obtained from the EU/IMF since mid-2010.  Even though Athens' overall debt outlook remains unchanged as it overachieves on budget cuts, Greece would take several years to fully return to capital markets once funding from the bailout program ends in 2014, the report said....But where are the hundreds of thousands of Greeks, Spanish, Cypriots .. in the streets demanding immediate exit from the euro?   Even in strike-happy Greece, SYRIZA (and far left too -- apparently), the country's second party in popularity, says that Greece's place is in the euro!  And you're complaining, are you, about the Greek/Spanish/Cypriot...-bashing when in each and every of these countries there simply are no popular parties demanding immediate exit from the common currency. I'd say, either Greeks, Spanish, Cypriots...are into masochism or the press is terribly out of tune with what these countries' peoples really want. Each of those countries that you say are bashed would still need to auction their sov. bonds, even if tomorrow they were back to their original currencies. I am certain the bashing would not stop with their their old currencies reinstated.

 

Enough - UE has to be dismentled ASAP !!!

SOFIA, Bulgaria—Mass protests in Bulgaria against austerity measures and energy costs forced out the government in February. Elections set for Sunday could lead to more political turmoil.

Recent public-opinion surveys indicate that the conservative party that led the previous administration and its main, left-leaning challenger are running neck-and-neck, complicating prospects for the formation of a governing coalition.

Unhappiness with low living standards and perceived corruption in the European Union's poorest member state boiled over this past winter, leading to nationwide demonstrations, initially over rising electricity prices....Elsewhere in Europe :  Merkel's cabinet on Wednesday endorsed legislation putting the ECB in charge of supervising eurozone banks. But Berlin is hostile to further moves that would share risk and liability across the eurozone banking sector, such as pooled funds for winding up failed banks and spreading responsibility for guaranteeing savers' deposits. The latter is viewed as a no-go area in Germany while Berlin takes the view that a bank resolution system should be essentially national rather than European. The German finance ministry has been arguing for the past fortnight that a full eurozone banking union would need a renegotiation of EU treaties, an arduous and lengthy process. The eurozone agreed in June last year to create the banking union and to use bailout funds to recapitalize weak banks directly without adding to governments' debt levels. But the Germans then delayed and diluted the policy which is to be revisited at an EU summit next month. Washington voiced exasperation. "It is important to move forward with full banking union. Last year, European leaders vowed to break the feedback loop between banks and sovereigns, but momentum has waned," said the senior official.

Who do you think you are kidding Mrs Merkel?

Following German Unification, the Euro was another cunning plan to make Germany the, albeit financial, master race in Europe. Now it's all going awry for the Germans who, yet again, have overstretched their capabilities and their current lords and masters are seemingly living in denial protected by their own economic bubble, or bunker, while the German Euro master plan crashes in financial flames all around them. Meanwhile, past members of the hierarchy try to broker some kind of financial peace treaty while Britain remains steadfast protecting it's financial beach heads and the USA does its utmost to keep out of the, albeit financial, fighting while protecting it's worldwide financial interests. The appropriate words are all in Lafontaine's statements. "The Germans have not yet realized that southern Europe, including France, will be forced by their current misery to fight back against German hegemony sooner or later".  Chancellor Angela Merkel will "awake from her self-righteous slumber" once the countries in trouble unite to force a change in crisis policy at Germany's expense. "Hopes that the creation of the euro would force rational economic behavior on all sides were in vain" adding that the policy of forcing Spain, Portugal, and Greece to carry out internal devaluations was a "catastrophe". I love the way the German refers to "rational economic behavior" by which I assume he means "Germany's economic interests"! "They don't like it up 'em!" do they?  As before, methinks this could end up costing Germany dear in what can only be described as reparations for their ill fated financial master plan which caused so much suffering and misery across Europe and is likely to take several years to return to business as usual.

Portugal's opposition party has called for a renegotiation of the country's EU/IMF bailout package and labeled the government an "incompetent" one which must be replaced. Socialist leader Antonio Jose Seguro, presenting a largely symbolic no confidence motion, said his party was against the spending cuts the government agreed to. He said (as reported by Reuters): Your government is destroying Portugal and there is only one solution - to replace the incompetent government. But the prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho, whose centre-right coalition has a comfortable majority, said the country had to comply with the programme to guarantee funding, and the no-confidence vote created a climate of political instability. He said a bailout renegotiation would lead to a second bailout.... The weaker than expected jobs data out from the US today could mean analysts are being too optimistic about Friday's non-farm payroll numbers, suggested James Knightley at ING. He said: The employment component [of the ISM non-manufacturing survey] dropped to 53.3 from 57.2. Given today’s ADP payrolls survey also showed a slowdown in private sector hiring to 158,000 from 237,000 in February this perhaps indicates some downside risk to the consensus forecast of non-farm payrolls rising 198,000 on Friday. With ongoing concerns about the potential economic impact from sequestration we suspect that we are going to see a softer period of activity data. As such we doubt that the Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing plans will be scaled back before the third quarter of 2013.

Greek business head calls for rethink on bailout terms - It may count as stating the obvious but the head of Greece's biggest business group reckons the Cypriot crisis could tip his country into an even deeper recession this year. He also called for the troika of international lenders, due in Greece this week, to rethink the bailout programme by promoting growth measures as well as austerity. From Reuters: "Greece is directly affected by the Cyprus crisis and based on some estimates this may chop up to one percentage point off GDP (gross domestic product)," Dimitris Daskalopoulos, head of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEB), told reporters. "With the success of the Greek bailout programme already hanging by a thread, many signs show the recession is deepening with the prospect of recovery in 2014 fading," Daskalopoulos said. He said the insistence on austerity by the eurozone's core to cure the ills of the debt crisis risked breeding euro scepticism and anti-German sentiment among the suffering countries of the single currency bloc. "The North must give and the South must change, otherwise the historic demons of Europe will find again room to act." He said the protracted economic downturn and fiscal austerity were testing society's tolerance limits and called on the government and its international lenders to retool the applied programme with growth measures. "The bell of reforms must finally ring loudly in Greece," Daskalopoulos said. "We cannot be fighting tooth and nail against firing a few thousand public sector workers when almost one million people have lost their jobs in the private sector."

Cyprus’s central bank said lenders would remain closed until at least Tuesday amid growing speculation the Meditterranean island could become the eurozone member to exit the currency bloc.

Officials at the ECB were reported on Wednesday to be considering pulling the plug on Cypriot banks unless the country agreed to a new bailout package.

Jörge Asmussen, the ECB’s chief negotiator, warned that Cyprus’s decision to reject the terms of an €10bn (£8.6bn) bailout meant it could not guarantee support to domestic lenders for much longer.

“We can provide emergency liquidity only to solvent banks and... the solvency of Cypriot banks cannot be assumed if an aid programme is not agreed on soon, which would allow for a quick recapitalisation of the banking sector,” said Mr Asmussen in an interview with a German newspaper.

The threat followed the unanimous voting down by the Cypriot parliament of a rescue package that would have seen the authorities levy a “tax” of up to 10pc on deposits of more than €100,000.

Senior European politicians have expressed hope that a new bailout could be organised, however some have begun to openly discuss the possibility of Cyprus exiting the euro. Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faymann, said he could not “rule anything out for Cyprus”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she expected the Cypriot government to come up with a new rescue plan, but continued to insist it was fair for large depositors in Cypriot banks to face a loss on their savings.

Banks in Cyprus have remained closed since last week and on Wednesday the country’s central bank said lenders would not open their doors until next Tuesday, leaving Cypriots dependent on using ATMs for day-to-day cash.  The prolonged closure of banks has led to widespread fears among senior industry executives that it could undermine confidence in the financial system. Christian Clausen, president of the European Banking Federation, said a way had to be found to reopen Cypriot banks before it was “too late”.

“Everything needs to be solved very quickly. This is a matter of a very few days before it gets too late,” Mr Clausen told Reuters... While the eurozone finance ministers are busy having their conference call, Bloomberg reports that the currency bloc's finance chiefs are pressuring Cyprus to shrink its banking system. Here's what the newswire had to say:

Finance ministers for the 17 euro countries are considering a plan to shutter the two biggest banks in Cyprus and freeze the assets of uninsured depositors, said the four officials, who asked not to be named because the talks are ongoing. The ministers are holding a teleconference tonight.

UPDATE : Cyprus Popular Bank and the Bank of Cyprus would be split to create a so-called bad bank, one of the officials said.
Insured deposits -- below the European Union ceiling of 100,000 euros -- would go into a so-called good bank and not sustain any losses, while uninsured deposits would go into the bad bank and be frozen until assets could be sold, said the four officials.

Losses to unsecured creditors, including uninsured depositors, could reach 40 percent under the plan, which has support from the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. hile the eurozone finance ministers are busy having their conference call, Bloomberg reports that the currency bloc's finance chiefs are pressuring Cyprus to shrink its banking system. Here's what the newswire had to say: Finance ministers for the 17 euro countries are considering a plan to shutter the two biggest banks in Cyprus and freeze the assets of uninsured depositors, said the four officials, who asked not to be named because the talks are ongoing.

Russians in Cyprus are getting tired of suggestions from Germany that anyone with a Russian accent here is a Mafioso. They say that claims that the island is simply a money-laundering post for Mob cash are wide of the mark, and that the EU strategy has been purely a political one.
"Since this started happening the German, Dutch, and Scandinavian treasuries have been doing very well while the quotes for southern European ones have gone down," says Andrei Surikov, 30, a financial manager from Moscow who moved to Cyprus three years ago.
"The whole thing is just a dirty political game, and I don't think the EU has estimated the impact of what they have done. The trust has gone now in the whole system."  

 

Heil ....

Merkel disapproves of the Cypriot proposal, which involves bundling state assets into a "Solidarity Fund" that includes the country's retirement fund to back bond issues. According to reports on Friday, she is not alone. The troika, made up of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, agrees with her assessment.

What happens next? "I hope that it doesn't result in a crash," Merkel told FDP parliamentarians according to a meeting participant. Merkel has long warned of a potential domino effect should a euro-zone member state enter insolvency. But now, her government is no longer excluding the possibility.

The chancellor is particularly frustrated by the lack of communication with Cypriot leaders even as the situation worsens dramatically. Some in her party have even used the word "autistic" to describe Nicosia's apparent unwillingness to communicate with Berlin. "What we have never experienced before is that, over a period of days, there has been no contact with the EU or with the troika," Merkel reportedly told the parliamentarians. Merkel, for her part, managed to force herself on Friday to return to the moderate words for which she has become famous. She insisted she will try to "be emotionally wise." On this particular Friday, it wasn't easy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Cyprus not to "exhaust the patience of its eurozone partners", reports say. The head of one of Cyprus' biggest banks urged MPs to accept a levy on bank deposits. This was rejected on Tuesday, sparking a fresh eurozone confidence crisis. The eurozone is really turning the screw on Cyprus, and it's being led by Germany. The message is crystal clear - your economic model has to change. They will no longer accept the idea of a national economy within the eurozone that is dependent on its reputation as an offshore tax haven. There is huge irritation with the way the Cypriots have handled things, and that has led to the imposition of deadlines which mean big decisions need to be taken very quickly. The cost of cleaning up the Cypriot banking system must be borne by investors in the Cypriot banking system - like it or lump it. A much-delayed emergency session of parliament is due to vote on a new package of measures to raise the 5.8bn euros (£4.9bn; $7.5bn) needed to qualify for the 10bn-euro bailout. Averof Neophytou, deputy leader of the governing Democratic Rally party, said political leaders were nearing a compromise and a breakthrough was possible on Friday. Government spokesman Christos Stylianides said the authorities were engaged in "hard negotiations with the troika", referring to the EU, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, the AFP news agency reports. The BBC's Chris Morris in the Cypriot capital, Nicosia, says it is possible that the vote may be delayed once more but he says Cyprus is running out of time to rescue its economy. Banks have been closed since Monday and many businesses are only taking payment in cash.

...thousands of trade unionists demonstrated...

As EU leaders gathered in Brussels for the talks, thousands of trade unionists demonstrated behind a police cordon against EU imposed austerity targets outside the summit venue. Figures showed that southern European Mediterranean nations continued to suffer the steepest drops in employment, with fourth quarter employment in Spain, Portugal and Greece dropping 4.5pc, 4.3pc and 6.5pc year-on-year respectively. Mr Barroso insisted that the EU needed to stick to the austerity measures and "reforms that are indispensable for European competitiveness" but conceded that more needed to be done "to promote growth in the short term and to have a reinforced commitment regarding social obligations." "Because in some cases we are reaching the limits of what is socially acceptable, and this is certainly a matter of concern for all of us," he said. During Thursday's summit France, Spain and Portugal will clash with Germany, Holland and Austria over their demand for more time to meet their debt-cutting targets against a growing popular backlash against EU austerity. A draft EU summit text echoes Mr Barroso by calling for an ﾓappropriate mix of expenditure and revenue measuresﾔ, language that France and others will interpret as a loosening of fiscal constraint against resistance from Germany. "We will discuss growth and employment and how to fight the present economic deterioration in Europe," said Mark Rutte, the Dutch Prime Minister and an EU austerity hawk. "At the same time creating a consensus on the fact that we need both to implement the necessary austerity programmes and structural reforms to improve our economies." Europe's leaders fear that an anti-austerity backlash is growing across Europe after Italian elections wiped out mainstream political parties delivering a stunning rejection to Mario Monti, the EUﾒs favoured candidate who only secured one in 10 votes. In a bid to overcome growing public dissent, the draft EU summit text expresses concern about low growth and proposes a "youth employment initiative" that allocates €6 billion for the highest unemployment regions of the EU over the coming seven years - a tiny amount of cash compared to austerity programmes cutting tens of billions. "Six billion will never be enough. I think 60 billion would not have been enough," a senior eurozone official told Reuters. "It is our political response, it is not a response in substance." "The burden has been placed on the people," said Bernadette Segol, the leader of the European Trade Union Confederation. "Unemployment is up and up and up every month, when is the growth going to come? We need investment. We are not dealing with figures, we are dealing with people, who have feelings and votes."

Doing more with less money. This is what the European Council believes with the adoption of the conclusions of the MFF, the European Union's Multiannual Financial Framework 2014-2020. For the first time in history, the EU budget has been reduced. As a first reaction, the leaders of the biggest political groups in the European Parliament underlined in a joint statement that they cannot accept the deal reached by the European Council. MEPs debated the EU's long-term budget with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Commission President José Manuel Barroso here in the European Parliament. Watch this Event of the week ...The 'Event of the Week' is a weekly programme highlighting a key event in the European Parliament. This video will soon be available in German, French, Spanish and Italian on our website. ...For free broadcast-standard video, please visit http://epp.synapticdigital.com/ . If you are a first-time user, please take a moment to register. In case you have any questions, please email journalisthelp@thenewsmarket.com. Please note that all our videos can be found on our YouTube Channel and Facebook page. For any comments and reactions please contact us at epp-tv@europarl.europa.eu or the Producer :ioannis.zografos@europarl.europa.eu

As for the EU - well I am "out" - the "performance" since 1973 has been pathetic, and we could do a whole lot better economically ourselves as we proved for over two centuries - although I would not wish for one moment to return to the colonial times. As India and China have shown, it is possible to grow GDP in this environment (check out the EU countries' low comparison base in terms of GDP growth - should be easy to improve upon, one might think...). Comparisons with Norway and Switzerland are not fit for purpose - how about the UK "before" and "after" the EU - in the years when the country's economy was actually being run properly - as opposed to the Wilson/Heath panic mode era..?

A lot of people in mainland Europe are extremely unhappy with the way the EU is run - they could not even get a majority on EU Constitution, for goodness sake - which is why the Lisbon Treaty had to be hastily cooked together. Political over-ambition in Brussels got us to this point, and Europe-wide political incompetence is dragging us back. Time for the populus to speak, and for this cretinous, continued practice of hiring people with no economic background, no qualifications or experience of handling multi-billion pound budgets to run the country to stop immediately. It would be regarded as downright negligent in most listed companies to have such people in charge, and it is utterly unjustifiable when the country's economic welfare is at stake.

A rethink on sovereign governance principles is required, and it needs to start now. Without any pointless bickering about socialiam vs capitalism. We exist in a capitalist society, and not to have our best exponents and experts fully engaged in making the best of this type of environment is a complete nonsense. Removing political parties' right to appoint idiotic, incompetent fools to have a direct say and influence in running the country would be a good start. Let the people elect them based on their cvs and background - i.e. competence and experience - just as the rest of us are judged and evaluated. And that does not mean Chancellors with 3rd Class Honours degrees in Economics, or, as we discovered with the allegedly "bright" Gordon Brown, ex-Economics History graduates, with more awareness about Adam Smith and 18th century economics, (valid though many of those theories may be), than the price of gold on the commodities markets at around the turn of the 21st Century, when Brown sold off all our gold for a song. He would have been fired on the spot for such incompetence in any half-decent business for wilful asset destruction. Or am I being too harsh here...??

Fresh data from the Bundesbank show that Anglo-German trade in goods and services soared to €153bn in the first nine months of 2012, with both exports and imports booming at double-digit rates.

It is one of the fastest growing trade relationships in the developed world. France lagged behind at €150bn as trade stagnated, with the US at €149bn and China at €115bn.

David Marsh from the financial group OMFIF said the trade swing underlines a “sobering truth” that Germany’s fundamental interests are shifting away from the eurozone core as Berlin embraces the wider world. The EMU share of German trade has fallen from 46pc to 37pc since the launch of the euro, displaced by Asia, as well as Eastern Europe and the Anglo-sphere.

British goods exports to Germany rose 20pc over the first three quarters compared to a year earlier, despite the economic downturn. The surge was led by medical equipment, drugs, car components, and petroleum goods. The deficit with Germany narrowed slighty to €17bn, a sign that trade is becoming better-balanced.  Although rarely acclaimed, British suppliers and manufacturers are deeply integrated into the German industrial machine and enjoy the follow-through benefits of German exports to the rest of the world....Now...Does anyone believe British conmpanies have won this business based on EU membership or on the timely and safe delivery of quality products at a competitive price?  The UK and Germany are the two major players and net contributors in the EU. France talks it large and is extremely well represented in positions, but without the massive EU funding it receives it would struggle.  The real danger here is not the UK leaving the EU and sinking, it is that we will leave and surge ahead. Weakening the EU and strengthening our own position. Add to this the repeated polls in Germany where the majority do not want to be run by the EU and also wish to leave the Euro, and the real danger is clear. The UK leaving the doomed EU project will hasten its demise and open Europe up to trade and competition with the World. The very last thing Socialist leaders want.

A thriving UK outside of the EU would prove an irrisistable pull to other net contributors to leave. This is what keeps the EU commission up at night, not wondering what Pro-EU Cameron will mumble in his speech this week.

MY POINT OF VIEW : David Cameron is now speaking more like the type of person of Scots ancestry, whom I’ve known throughout my life, in four different countries. I, too, was named after the Old Testament legend. Let us hope this David is able to skilfully negotiate, with his slingshot, an escape from the crushing, networking giant of the Continent, knowing euphorically as the ‘Guy Fawkes Club’ – to put it into context. As every attempt has been made to make the bible look irrelevant in today’s world (just see what Romans Ch1v22-32 says of homosexuality), those directing the course for British governments seemingly more concerned to make it easier for the Anglican church to be gobbled up by the Guy Fawkes Club – which long ago gave up any pretence of following Scripture (apart from the subject of marriage – talk of straining at a gnat...swallowing a camel)! Perhaps David has done a crash course in Comparative Religion, and has noticed how undemocratic it has been, for mostly Romans to have held key positions in government & quasi government organisations since UK membership of the Common Market – if only because no decent, self respecting Protestant could bring his/herself to be involved in the systematic destruction of the English Speaking peoples, to advantage that jealous rabble on the Continent. Which Cardinal was it who said, ‘Secret mines may take the town when open batteries fail,’ – on the very same subject ! At last, David Cameron is speaking like a Prime Minister of the Greatest little Britain of all time! UK only started to prosper, to the benefit of the rest of the world, also, when Henry VIII cut the haemorrhage of resources to Italy, & UK began to stand on her own two feet, trusting only in holy scripture, & herself. Mussolini’s mentoring Hitler was meant to reverse all that, & when it didn’t, citizens steeped in Mussolini’s theory & logic began settling in the nations of the victors after cessation of WW2 hostilities, with Mussolini’s Plan B. Part of that was Franca Arena’s setting up our first ever republican movement in Australia, & Ray Bellisario, family also from Italy, setting up England’s first republican movement since Cromwell, to discredit the leadership which caused Mussolini to lose, while other aspects of his culture were trumpeted as superior both directly & subliminally in influential nations, so that, for instance, cat spew chino & pissa (my spelling) became something considered superior, & with an arrogantly assumed dash of romance attached to it. A sense of inferiority amongst the nationals of some other countries, about their own cultures, only helped feed the appetite for self aggrandisement, of those keen to rebuild a new Roman Empire. To assist in this plan the IRA were entrusted with the removal of those who could have warned Great Britain’s leadership what was really going on: battle experienced heroes like the Queen’s relative, Earl Mountbatten, & Airey Neave, MP. I fear, though, that Cameron’s telling the nation how he would vote in any referendum, will tend to make it a foregone conclusion, as voters seem to follow what is seen as the ‘party line.’ Even the Soviet Union discovered that ‘individualism’ whether as nations or as persons, do far better when left to find their own level, instead of being part of some vast metaphorical farm growing peanuts, with individual humans’ means of self expression being emasculated – as though ‘bigger’ is ‘better !’ The communist experiment failed, so why allow catholic activists promote the lie that the British were better off under the Treaty of Rome? It has been an entirely religion driven exercise, cynically aimed at achieving what Mussolini failed to during WW2.

Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank....

The German economy grew by 0.7% in 2012, a sharp slowdown on the previous year, preliminary figures show. The figure was well below the 3% growth seen in 2011 and suggests the economy contracted in the fourth quarter. "In 2012, the German economy proved to be resistant in a difficult economic environment and withstood the European recession," the federal statistics office Destatis said. Some analysts believe the German economy will enter recession itself. Destatis said economic activity "slowed down considerably" in the second half of the year, and particularly in the final quarter. "The full-year growth figure [of 0.7%] implies a contraction of around half a percentage point in the fourth quarter," the office's top statistician Norbert Raeth said. Last month, Germany's central bank, the Bundesbank, cut its growth forecast for this year to 0.4% and warned that the economy may have contracted in the final three months of 2012, and may do so again in first quarter of 2013. The eurozone economy as a whole is already in recession, having contracted in both in the third and fourth quarters of last year. For 2012 as a whole, Destatis said foreign trade was "very robust", with exports up 4.1% on 2011. Imports grew by 2.3%. The positive trade balance was "once again the main driving force for economic growth in Germany". Household expenditure increased by 0.8%, while government spending was up 1%. The figures also showed that while the service sector of the economy expanded, industry and construction contracted. Destatis will publish official fourth-quarter growth figures on 14 February.

French unions and businesses on Friday agreed on broad changes to labor laws, a key plank of President François Hollande's efforts to arrest rising unemployment and restore France's competitive edge. But after months of wrangling, only three of the five labor unions around the table gave their backing to the accord, depriving Mr. Hollande of the unanimous support that would give him a strong political boost.

New ways for employers to cut pay and working hours in tough times

• Simplification of legal procedures for layoffs
• Health insurance benefits extended to more workers
• Higher levies in fixed-term contracts to encourage permanent hires
• Incentives to hire young workers on permanent contracts.

"This is the first time in over 30 years that a negotiation at this level and with such depth has reached agreement," Mr. Hollande said. "This is a success for social dialogue." The government will now present the text to Parliament, where Mr. Hollande has a majority. French President François Hollande, right, speaks to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault after a meeting with French government ministers, focused on France's economic situation and employment, earlier this month. Negotiators still have to return to their unions to finally sign off on the agreement. Joseph Thouvenel, a representative for the Christian CFTC union, and moderate CFDT union negotiator Patrick Pierron said they will give a favorable opinion, and the CFE-CGC union negotiator Marie-Françoise Leflon said she had helped achieve a more balanced agreement. "The objective of creating conditions to fight insecurity and boost employment has been achieved," Mr. Pierron said. "We have met the challenge of getting extremely positive things for business and new points for employees," said Patrick Bernasconi, the negotiator for employers' group Medef. As expected, two more radical unions the CGT and the FO, said they won't sign the pact. Under terms of the agreement, business associations secured a victory that will allow companies to cut working hours and wages when times are tough, as German businesses have done during the global economic crisis to ensure their survival. Employees will have their jobs guaranteed during those periods of flexible wages and hours.

 

Mitiska Ventures, a Brussels-based real estate investment management company set up as a subsidiary of Mitiska, is pleased to announce an interim closing of its First Retail International (FRI) club deal at €41 million. Mitiska, which has 30 years of experience and a track record in retail and retail real estate across Europe, has committed €10 million to FRI as the sponsor of the club deal, alongside Belgian, Dutch, Luxembourg and Swiss private and institutional investors... FRI is a specialist retail property company which invests exclusively in retail warehouse properties across Europe. Within this retail warehouse niche, FRI targets both ‘opportunistic’ and ‘value-added’ type investments from a ‘(re)develop-and-hold’ perspective. By applying a conservative leverage strategy (max. 50% Loan-to-Value) with full distribution of profits and proceeds, FRI’s objective is to provide its investors with a regular cash return of 3 – 6% p.a., together with long-term capital appreciation resulting in a total IRR of 10 – 15% to investors.  FRI invest on a ± 50:50 basis in both Western and Central & Eastern Europe. As the retail warehouse market is mainly locally driven, investments outside of Belgium will in principle be undertaken in partnership with experienced local country partners. FRI benefits from an exclusive country partnership which has been entered into with Alpha Property Development (InterCora Group) for Romania, and discussions are underway relating to several other countries. FRI is managed by Mitiska Ventures, a specialist team which has combined experience of more than 85 years in the European retail warehouse sector and which has worked together closely at Mitiska over the past six years. In that time, the team has built up an attractive project pipeline representing a total investment volume of around €100 million. These pipeline projects have been contributed to FRI by Mitiska as a seed portfolio and represent a 9 - 10% yield on investment. Alongside these pipeline projects, Mitiska Ventures is working on a robust pipeline of new leads which will further grow and diversify FRI’s portfolio.