Posted on | May 18, 2012 | No Comments
Today leaders from the worlds 8 biggest economies will meet in USA at the presidential retreat Camp David. The summit is expected to be focused at the eurozone crisis, and while the German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to be rather isolated with her ideologies, the US president Barack Obama will be raising “specific” actions that he think the eurozone countries could do to solve the current crisis. On top of the agenda will be Greece and a potential euro exit.
Francois Hollande is set to meet the other leaders at the G8 meeting today. He is expected to find allies in both Obama and David Cameron at the meeting that will probably be concentrated on the eurozone crisis. (Photo by Francois Holland, on Flickr)
The summit will also be a possibility for many of the leaders to meet and greet each other. New boy in the classroom is french president Francois Hollande. Obama is expected to find a new ally in Hollande, while also british PM David Cameron will get his chance to meet Hollande for the first time. Also Cameron is expected to get on the growth agenda put out by Francois Hollande.
The eurozone got another hard hit yesterday as 16 spanish banks and four spanish regions where downgraded by Moody’s rating agency. Greece was also downgraded to the lowest possible rating before default. This morning shares in Europe fell because of the worries over spanish banks and continued concern with Greece.
This weekend there will be presidential run-off in Serbia. This election will pretty much be pro or against the European Union, as the two candidates left in the race either supports the continuing process of Serbia – now officially candidate – to become a full member of the EU or fighting against this. The candidates left is pro-European Boris Tadic and nationalist Tomislav Nikolic. According to the latest polls, the pro-European candidate Boris Tadic is favorite to win the election.
After growing insecurity in Italy’s public administration because of the economic crisis, the government has now decided to step up the security forces. This happens after a spate of violent attacks on tax collectors and the shooting of an energy company official last week.
Posted on | May 17, 2012 | No Comments
As a final subject in our series “A United Europe?”, this week we will be looking at the citizens of the European Union, their attitude towards it and how this attitude is a major obstacle to achieving a truly unified Europe for those wanting this.
Protest march in Barcelona against EU. (Photo by Grey Barkley on Flickr)
Currently, the 27 member states of the EU have a combined population of more than 500 million citizens. It goes without saying that all of these do not share the same attitude towards the union, but there are some issues on which the EU is negatively perceived in the general public, or at least among a large part of its citizens.
Culture
First of all, though, the vast number of citizens creates a problematic for integration itself. It is obviously not an easy task to gather half a billion people under one flag and unite them as one people – especially not when they don’t feel much allegiance to that flag, but more on that later.
The large number of citizens is further complicated by the fact that these come from many and very different backgrounds; with 27 different national cultures and 23 different official languages, there is a huge psychological distance between e.g. Sweden and Slovakia, or Germany and Greece for that matter.
There is, in other words, no real European culture or identity that is common for all. One move the EU has made towards some sort of European identity came with the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 where ‘EU Citizenship’ was introduced. With this initiative every person holding the nationality of a member state of the EU is also a citizen of the Union, which gives that person certain political rights and rights of free movement. The EU Citizenship is only an addition to one’s national citizenship, however, so the nationality is not replaced by any broader sense of European ‘nationality’.
The question is also whether it is even possible to create a true European identity without annihilating the citizens’ national identity, thereby destroying centuries of national culture and cultural history.
Bureaucracy
Apart from a growing interest and media coverage of the EU since the breakout of the financial crisis, which put the euro and EU’s fiscal troubles high on the agenda, most citizens of the union have not taken much interest in it. Many people have a picture of the EU as being an institution of elites and endless bureaucrats for whom no issue is too big or too small to dictate; anything from fiscal discipline to how big cucumbers farmers are allowed to grow is governed from the EU, to great frustration for its citizens.
Moreover, the perception of the EU as a distant bureaucratic institution is simply a boring one, and many people therefore do not take any interest in it, nor can they be bothered to try and figure out the very complicated structure of such a huge political body. This notion is strengthened by the lack of feeling of having a voice in EU-matters, due to the bureaucratic and technocratic nature of the union.
Media coverage of the EU’s day-to-day agenda is very low compared to the power of the EU, and people’s lack of interest is self-perpetuating.
Democracy
The general citizen’s lack of feeling of having a voice when it comes to the EU is one of the greatest challenges for the union. It is of common opinion that the European Union suffers from a huge democratic deficit, which undermines its legitimacy.
The only democratic institution within the EU is the European Parliament (EP) for which politicians are elected directly by the citizens, and the power of the EP is quite limited in comparison to the degree of decision-making in the EU (although the EP gained power through the latest treaty). Commissioners are thus appointed in office, and candidates to such titles as President of the European Council (Herman Van Rompuy) and High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (Catherine Ashton) are chosen behind closed doors.
There are a whole lot of issues on which the EU is accused of being undemocratic. We will not go through all those issues here, but just want to make the point that there is a growing opposition to the bureaucratic and technocratic EU of today. This opposition includes intellectuals and politicians within the EU as well. What those who wish for more democracy mostly miss is a public sphere. There is simply not enough debate, criticism and questioning between the Union and its citizens, for one reason or the other. The lack of democratic possibilities is also self-perpetuating in that it causes indifference in the citizens and a general lack of public interest in EU politics.
With the Lisbon Treaty the EU introduced a way for citizens to participate democratically with the ‘Citizen Initiative’, which means a group of citizens can make the Commission propose legislation before the Council and Parliament. Being implemented on April 1 this year, one could have presumed this initiative to be an “April Fool” since the requirement of collecting signatures for a proposal from 1 million people in at least 7 different EU countries seems far from possible. However, the Citizen Initiative has actually already been utilised, as a group of 1 million citizens from 7 different countries wants to “enhance different exchange programs”. In any case, the initiative is a sign that the EU realises the democratic deficit of the union and acknowledges that something must be done.
One relevant issue where a democratic process is hard to find is the case of the current financial crisis and the EU’s solutions to it. During the past few years a strict fiscal discipline, budgetary cuts and austerity measures, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been the top priority on the European political agenda. The public haven’t been heard on this issue, though, and it is not even a European construction, but a German one. It is often the reality that those in power only feel they are doing the right thing and do not fully comprehend their use of power, while those being ruled experience that power in a whole other, mostly negative, way; so when Angela Merkel does what she thinks is best for Europe and wants Germany to act as a ‘good European’, paying a large part of bailouts for debt-stricken countries, the citizens in these countries only feel rage against the requirements of austerity forced upon them. The lack of a public voice is then seen on election day when the citizens finally get to speak up, and we have thus seen several protest elections, most recently in Greece, and a string of European governments that have fallen. Several technocrats have also been installed in government posts in economically struggling countries in the EU, attaching more importance to efficiency than legitimacy since the citizens apparently do not know what is best for them – a highly undemocratic point of view.
In an open letter in the Guardian a couple of months ago signed by a whole range of people including former President of the European Commission Jacques Delors, current President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz and such great thinkers as Jürgen Habermas, Zygmunt Bauman and Ulrich Beck, just to name a few, a plea was made for national and EU politicians to redefine the European project and create a bottom-up European Union where citizens actively participate in a democratic process. Read the letter here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/03/bottom-up-europe?INTCMP=SRCH
The EU was an elitist project from the very beginning, but it seems the union will not be able to unite the citizens it governs without giving them a louder democratic voice. Public support of the European project also requires democracy, and that public support is crucial to the legitimacy of the European Union.
Posted on | May 17, 2012 | No Comments
It’s pretty much the usual suspects that made it to the headlines today. Greece, France, Britain, Spain and a little Germany in the end.
Let’s get it on.
Former prime minister Lucas Papademos greets the new caretaker Pikrammenos. (Photo from the webpage of the Greek government)
In Greece a new election day is set. It will be June 17, and until then a caretaker cabinet takes over. Former prime minister Papademos that was not democratic elected either is now of the hook, and instead a judge and former president president of the Council of State, the country’s Supreme Administrative Court, Panayiotis Pikrammenos, has taken over the leadership of another temporary government. Pikrammenos was elected after a tense meeting between the political parties that has now entered another election period. It will be a turbulent period that this new caretaker government will meet. Already the banks are suffering after the Greeks withdraw hundreds of millions of euros from their banks, and the ECB yesterday decided that they will stop lending money to some of the Greek banks.
Also in France a new cabinet is in order. Francois Hollande has now set his team and he did made a few controversial choices. The Financial Times has made an interview with the frenchman who oversees the EU’s financial system, Michel Barnier.
The british prime minister David Cameron will today tell a business audience that the eurozone is at a crossroad. “Either Europe has a committed, stable, successful eurozone with an effective firewall, well-capitalised and regulated banks, a system of fiscal burden sharing and supportive monetary policy across the eurozone or we are in uncharted territory which carries huge risks for everyone,” he is supposed to say.
To kind of stress the point of Cameron Spain’s borrowing cost is set to rise, when the country’s treasury is to sell sovereign state bonds today. This happens amid fears of the situation in Greece.
German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, is proposing a bigger role for the EU Commission. Actually he is calling for the commission to become more like a central government for the European Union. ”I would be for the further development of the European Commission into a government. I am for the election of a European president,” he said at an event yesterday.
Posted on | May 16, 2012 | No Comments
So, it finally happened; the final round of all-party talks for a technocrat government in Greece broke down yesterday, and new elections will be held next month. Many of the leaders of the respective parties blamed each other for the breakdown – New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said the left-wing parties were “irresponsible and arrogant”, while Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras accused Samaras and PASOK leader Evangelos Venizelos of trying to coerce his party into joining a coalition or holding an election “in a climate of blackmail and insecurity”. Apparently a majority of the Greek population, as well as the EU, had hoped the politicians would compromise to avoid a second election since the country now faces weeks of political instability. According to their bailout deal with EU, Greece has to implement further spending cuts by next month.
Despite his plane getting hit by lightning, new French President Francois Hollande met yesterday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the same day as Mr. Hollande was sworn in as president. Hollande thereby sends a signal to Ms. Merkel that she is taken seriously and that he respects the importance for Europe of a solid Franco-German relationship. Merkel openly supported Hollande’s predecessor and competitor in his presidential campaign, Nicolas Sarkozy, who agreed with her austerity measures, while Hollande wants to put growth on the agenda. However, many spectators view that Merkel and Hollande may actually be a better match. The two leaders vowed to put forward joint proposals to next month’s EU summit on tackling the eurozone crisis. They also said they both want Greece to stay in the eurozone.
Francois Hollande chose Jean-Marc Ayrault as his Prime Minister yesterday, sending an even stronger signal to Angela Merkel and a clear message that the new French government views constructive relations with Berlin as critical for the future of Europe and the euro. Mr. Ayrault is a former German professor who has a deep understanding of Germany’s language and culture, and who has also forged close ties with members of Germany’s political establishment. He is seen as a man who understands Germany and one who will play a key role in relations between the two countries.
In a telephone conversation between American President Barack Obama and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, leading up to the G8 summit in USA this weekend, the two leaders agreed on the need to intensify growth and job creation. This is seen as yet another sign that momentum is growing behind a push to emphasize the need for growth in the eurozone. Mr. Obama is very keen on getting Europe back on foot since it is an important export market for USA, and with US presidential elections coming up in November, he cannot afford a European economic meltdown affecting the American economy.
Yesterday, in a joint statement, eleven of the EU’s poorest nations defended a proposal by the Commission to increase the EU budget of 2013. Except for Portugal and Malta, the group of countries are all former communist bloc countries, and they all receive EU cohesion funds aimed at helping poor regions modernise their infrastructures. The joint statement is also signed by Croatia, which is to become an EU member state in 2013. A group of wealthier nations have opposed an increase in EU spending, arguing that Brussels should face the same austerity as national governments. The statement by the 11 Eastern European countries, however, says that any cuts “would be artificial and not based on the real needs”. In our series “A United Europe?” we, at BeyondBrussels, have been looking into the conflict between east and west on the EU budget.
Posted on | May 15, 2012 | No Comments
After meeting with former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, the newly elected French President Francois Hollande is to fly to Berlin and meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel later today, only a few hours after his inauguration ceremony. Hollande promised in his campaign to focus more on growth in Europe and to renegotiate the fiscal treaty. Merkel, however, still insists on fiscal control and says that the treaty, signed by 25 out of 27 EU member states is not up for renegotiation. The markets are watching closely as these two leaders meet, since their future relationship seems very important for the future of the European economy.
Greek President Karolos Papoulias proposed yesterday to gather the countries struggling political parties today and form a technocrat government, like the one in Italy, to ensure that Greece will not be cut off from international aid and that the country will remain in the eurozone. But it doesn’t look like the parties in the fragmented Greek parliament can agree on anything, despite the growing pressure to find a solution, and some of the parties refuse to accept technocrats in office. Leader of the Democratic Left party, Fotis Kouvelis puts it this way: “A government consisting of technocrats is proof of a defeat of the political system”.
The political limbo in Greece is moving the country very close to an exit from the eurozone. EU finance ministers warned Greece yesterday that if they do not form a government and stick to the austerity terms of their bailout deal with EU, they will risk being ejected from the eurozone. Though most member states of the eurozone, especially Germany, have insisted until now that a Greek exit was not an option, this rhetoric seems to have loosened up recently, also in Germany, and it sounds like a Greek exit may be tolerated. This puts even greater pressure on politically chaotic Greece if they want to keep the euro currency.
In a statement released yesterday, the EU announced new sanctions against Syria and warned of further sanctions if Bashar al-Assad’s regime does not abide by a ceasefire. By freezing assets of two entities that support the Assad government financially, the EU Council has implemented its fifteenth package of sanctions against the Syrian government.
The EU’s 27 foreign ministers met yesterday in a discussion on whether to boycott the Ukrainian football games when they co-host the European Championship with Poland in June. While many ministers, commissioners and European leaders are expected to boycott the event, the foreign ministers did not come to an agreement on the issue. EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the meeting: “We are not at a stage to make a decision on attendance but will follow developments carefully”.
Posted on | May 14, 2012 | No Comments
The leader of the Socialist PASOK party, Evangelos Venizelos also failed his bid to form a government in Greece, since the moderate Democratic Left party said it wouldn’t join the two pro-bailout parties of PASOK and New Democracy without the radical left Syriza party. The Greek president has called in the four main parties to try to form an emergency government and avoid new elections. But the Syriza party wouldn’t attend this meeting, saying that they cannot back any coalition which supports austerity. Eurozone finance ministers are due to meet in Brussels to discuss the Greek crisis later today. The EU fears a new election in Greece because it is probable to back the anti-austerity parties even more, and with the EU unwilling the renegotiate the deal of austerity for bailouts, Greece is becoming very likely to leave the eurozone.
In the large German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union party suffered a great set-back in elections yesterday. The CDU party’s loss was much greater than expected, declining form 35% to about 26%. Despite Merkel’s great popularity in Germany, some commentators view that she is weakened by a string of losses in state-elections the past few years, and that the next national election in 2013 will not be an easy win.
It seems the German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble eyes a chance to lead the Eurogroup of eurozone finance ministers when current head of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker’s term finishes in June. Schäuble syas that “as the German finance minister, I must fully commit myself, one way or another”. As mentioned above, the Eurogroup will meet later today to discuss the critical situation in Greece.
Spain’s ‘indignants’ (Indignados) are demonstrating all over the country these days in protest of economic injustice and to mark the first birthday of the grassroots movement which inspired “Occupy” protests in the US and around the world. Tens of thousands of people have joined the four-day protest, starting Saturday and ending tomorrow, May 15, the birthday of the movement. The indignants say that not much has changed for the better since they started protesting a year ago, and they feel they have even more to protest against now, due to huge unemployment rates and austerity cuts.
On May 31 the Irish will vote in a referendum on the EU fiscal treaty. The coalition government and the main opposition party are both for a ‘Yes’, calling it the ‘Stability Treaty’. There is also a large group of ‘No’ voters in the opposition, however; they call it the ‘Austerity Treaty’. It is difficult to say what the outcome will be of the referendum, especially because so many voters in Ireland are confused by it. The ‘stability’ is welcomed since Ireland has suffered greatly from the financial crisis, but the ‘austerity’ is feared since they have already been through much of this in order to receive bailouts from the IMF and the ECB.
Posted on | May 11, 2012 | No Comments
Speaking to Parliament yesterday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel compared Ukraine to the neighbouring country of Belarus, known as ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’. She said that people living in those countries are still living under dictatorship and repression. There was no official comment by Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, but an anonymous source in the Ministry said: “We are shocked by such statements since one should be blind not to see that in Ukraine there is quite a sustainable democracy with lots of political parties”.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is trying to build a strong relationship with Germany and position Italy as a mediator between Germany and weaker eurozone countries. This is apparently an attempt to broaden Europe’s decision-making beyond the French-German axis which has called the shots in fighting the crisis until now. Monti also wants to convince Merkel that investment in big public projects is the answer to the weak economies in the eurozone. Monti’s government calls for a compromise between the German preference for budgetary rigor and fiscal stimulus. Italy’s Minister for European Affairs Enzo Moavero says that discipline will not be enough to relaunch the EU economy. “You need rigor, but you also need something that gives people hope”, he said in an interview.
President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz says that Romania must be allowed to join the Shengen area. The Dutch government have earlier vetoed against allowing Romania into the free-movement area, but Schulz says that no other EU member states can keep Romania out of Shengen. Schulz says that the “European Parliament’s position is that Romania has fulfilled its criteria, and should be allowed to join the Schengen area. Romania has this right”.
By a huge majority, the European Parliament have passed through regulations that make it significantly cheaper to use a mobile phone abroad. Included in the plans are imposing a price cap on operators and the possibility for mobile users to choose a different operator abroad from the on they use at home. It is hoped that this will encourage greater competition, and the regulations are also a way to prevent a shockingly huge phone bill when returning from holiday or business trips. One member of the European Parliament, Ivo Belet says that “in a borderless Europe, there is no place for charges that diverge so much at home and abroad”.
Posted on | May 10, 2012 | No Comments
Who do I call if I want to speak to Europe? – Henry Kissinger
This is the fourth post in our series “A united Europe?”.
So far in this series we have been looking at the French-German relationship and then the relation between the East and the West in Europe.
This time we will try to determine the European Union’s role in the rest of the world.
Catherine Ashton during a debate in the European Parliament. (Photo by European Parliament, on Flickr)
Let’s begin with the high representative on foreign relations in the council of the EU, Catherine Ashton.
She’s the person that Henry Kissinger should call if he is still interested in Europe’s opinion – at least on foreign relations issues. Or at least, that’s what some hoped Catherine Ashton, EU’s high representative on foreign relations, would be.
Ashton has taken a job that is practically impossible to perform without disappointment.
The criticism of Catherine Ashton already began just 100 days after she took office.
She didn’t have enough dedication, stature or independence – which was exactly why she was chosen to become high representative in EU, where 27 countries have to agree on one person.
Few months later she was met with even more criticism. This time from the EU Parliament who wasn’t sure that she could manage to set up EU’s new diplomatic service.
Now she has been in office for nearly two years, and the diplomatic service is still far from fulfilled, but the criticism of Catherine Ashton isn’t as harsh anymore – and maybe that’s because the conditions of the European Union’s foreign policy have changed.
Now EU is the problem
In the annual European Foreign Policy Scorecard published by think-thank European Council on Foreign Relations the foreign policy of the EU is analyzed.
One of the new findings, and probably the most remarkable in this context, is that the European Union isn’t helping to solve the world’s problems so much – Europe, itself, has now become a problem.
With the Eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis, the power of the European Union has changed. The crisis has led to a loss in soft power, the scorecard concludes.
They argue that the euro-crisis has constrained Europe’s ability to react to revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.
The European Union simply had to deal with their own problems first in 2011 before they could act on problems outside Europe.
Although the report concludes that the muscles of the European Union on foreign policy have become weaker, they do notice a few successful events in last year’s foreign policy, such as Libya and the deal on climate change in Durban.
Ukraine and Turkey
This year EU did succeed with an enlargement. Croatia is now to become a member state of the European Union within the nearest future.
But most remarkable here is two other countries that have been in negotiations with the EU for a long time.
One of the hot topics right now is whether EU leaders should participate in the Euro2012 football tournament, which will be held in Poland and Ukraine.
This comes as the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoschenko has been jailed and on hunger strike, and who is now under treatment.
The case of Tymoschenko has delayed any process of further integration between Ukraine and the EU dramatically.
Also, discussions on a Turkish membership of the EU has been chilled, while Turkey is also less engaged in becoming a member after the crisis.
Myanmar
The EU still has political power in case of markets and has used it in the case of Myanmar, where they’ve suspended the sanctions against the country as Myanmar have opened up for reforms and allowed Aung San Suu Kyi to enter the parliament after elections.
In this matter EU have reacted more effectively and quickly than the USA.
Whether the suspension of sanctions is a good idea or not we will leave to others to answer, but the EU and Ashton’s office did succeed in acting on this issue.
Whether the EU stands more united in foreign relations – the answer would probably be yes. But the power is less worth after the troubles with finding solutions to the internal problems and the debt crisis.
Posted on | May 10, 2012 | No Comments
After both the radical left Syriza bloc leader, Alexis Tsipras and centre-right New Democracy leader, Antonis Samaras have both failed to use their mandate to form a coalition government in Greece, as we wrote in yesterday’s Daily Digest, it is now the centre-left Socialist party, PASOK’s turn to try. PASOK leader, Evangelos Venizelos says he expects to be handed a mandate to form a government today. But after aligning with the New Democracy party and pushing through severe austerity measures, the PASOK party is highly unpopular among the Greek population, and it does not seem likely that Venizelos can build agreements which the other two party leaders couldn’t. He does say, however, that “we must continue this effort”, and that his mandate has “substance and importance”. If no solution is found, all leaders will meet in a last attempt to form a coalition, and if that doesn’t work either, new elections will be held in June.
Following the Greek election and the political instability in the country, the eurozone’s rescue fund has decided to hold back 1 billion euros of the latest 5.2 billion euros installment of its bailout to Greece. Officially, it is said that Greece does not need all the money until next month, and the European Stability Mechanism says in a statement that the 1 billion euros will be released later “depending on the financing needs of Greece”. The Greek situation is a cause for worry for EU officials and especially Germany who fear they will not meet the expectations and agreements of austerity. German Finance Minister Guido Westerwelle said yesterday that “Germany would like to keep Greece in the eurozone, but Greece’s fate is now in its own hands”.
In Ukraine, the jailed former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko was moved from prison to a hospital yesterday which caused her to end her hunger strike. Tymoshenko is to be treated at the hospital for her back condition under supervision of a German doctor. The opposition leader has earlier rejected treatment from Ukrainian doctors and has insisted to be treated in Germany. The Ukrainian government will not let her leave the country, but they have now given in to her demand of being treated by a specialised German doctor. This concession is seen as an attempt to meet the EU’s scepticism of the government’s treatment of Ms. Tymoshenko, and as a reaction to the EU boycott of the Yalta summit which we also wrote about in yesterday’s Daily Digest. Tymoshenko has been on hunger strike since April 27 in protest of her treatment in prison, but she has now called of her 3-weeks hunger strike.
During a conference of European policy makers and central bankers in Florence yesterday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti proposed a compromise between the German preference for budgetary rigor and new voices across Europe demanding fiscal stimulus. Monti said that Europe should invest in public projects like cross-border electricity grids to trigger growth. Hoping to form what he called “a coalition of the willing”, Monti says he wants to create greater demand in the European economy, saying that “if there’s no demand, it’s not all that clear what we’re going to do with greater competitiveness”.
European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule pledged yesterday that the EU will “keep up the level of progress in accepting new members”. He pointed out that enlargement was not the reason for the economic difficulties that the EU are currently facing; “in fact”, he said, “a part of the solution”. At the same time he reassured all aspiring countries that “the EU’s present challenges has nothing to do with enlargement”.
Posted on | May 9, 2012 | 1 Comment
Leader of the Greek leftist Syriza bloc, Alexis Tsipras is to meet with the leaders of the leaders of New Democracy and PASOK today in an attempt to form a new government. The Greek election on Sunday was a huge blow to these two, traditionally mainstream, parties, and this has left Athens in political disarray, with no clear path to form a government. Meeting with the two party leaders separately, Mr. Tsipras says he will demand a rejection of austerity measures. Such a rejection, however, is unlikely to be accepted by any of the party leaders. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras has said, “Mr. Tsipras asked me to put my signature to the destruction of Greece. I will not do this. The country cannot afford to play with fire”. If no politician is able to form a new government, a new election in Greece is to be held within weeks. And it seems very unlikely that Tsipras will be able to form one. He has only been given three days, starting yesterday, to do so.
Ukraine called of the Yalta summit yesterday. The Central European summit which was to be hosted by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has suffered a boycott from several European leaders, starting with Angela Merkel in Germany and followed by Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy and Slovenia. This has caused Kiev to cancel the summit, avoiding an embarrassingly lonesome meeting for Mr. Yanukovych. The boycott is a protest against the Ukrainian government’s treatment of jailed opposition leader, Yulia Tymoshenko.
In an analysis of ‘mafia-states’ by a Dr Moises Naim, Ukraine has been labeled a mafia-state, along with Bulgaria, Montenegro, Guinea-Bissau, Myanmar and Venezuela. The analysis is published by Foreign Affairs Magazine, and it points out that not only have criminals penetrated governments to an unprecedented degree, but that also some governments have taken over illegal operations from the organised crime.Dr. Naim defines a ‘mafia-state’ as a state where “government officials enrich themselves and their families and friends while exploiting the money, muscle, political influence, and global connections of criminal syndicates to cement and expand their own power.
In Estonia, the Supreme Court opened a historic session yesterday to rule on whether parts of the European Union’s new bailout fund are in line with the Estonian constitution. According to several constitutional experts, the European Stability Mechanism violates Estonia’s constitution. The Estonian government defends the ESM, and Finance Minister Jurgen Ligi argued in court that the fund “is a totally new international organization and parliaments cannot govern any international organization”. Estonia’s Ombudsman Indrek Teder, however, says that “the situation where some bigger states can make decisions on how other states run their finances has previously been termed colonization”.
The EU’s recently implemented Citizen Initiative, which we wrote about in an earlier Daily Digest, has now been utilised. A group of citizens from Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania and Spain want to “enhance EU exchange programmes” such as Erasmus or the EU voluntary service, and the EU Commission will register this very first ‘Citizens initiative’ on May 9.
Editors pick of interesting EU-articles from other websites:
Eurozone crisis: What it means for East and West – BBC News Magazine
A hashtag revolution – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Presseurop.eu
Ukraine Retreats to a Dark Past – Der Spiegel International
Europe Cautiously Signals Its Displeasure Over a Prosecution in Ukraine – The New York Times
Is Germany’s Finance Minister Going Rogue? – Der Spiegel…
News from presseurop.eu News from EUobserver.com News from Bloggingportal.eu
