eurealist.co.uk

Kissinger believes EU losing will to go to war

PARIS - The reluctance of Europe’s leaders to risk soldiers’ lives in Afghanistan is rooted in the emergence of the European Union and the decline of nationalism and patriotism here, former U.S. secretary of state Henry Kissinger argued in an essay published Tuesday.

I have not read this essay but if the report is anything to go by perhaps Kissinger has a certain point but then on the other hand the EU is not actually asking us to go to war. Now he know who to call perhaps he is realising there is not much point calling?

A new report of a study for the WWF this morning detailing the windfall profits to power companies from the European emissions trading scheme (ETS) the EU’s flagship market-based mechanism for a progressive reduction of carbon emissions.

Power companies in Spain, Italy, Germany, Britain and Poland are all set to make massive profits from their gifts of free emissions permits. The trick is these companies can pass on the costs of the emissions permits based on the trading figure even though they did not buy the permits in the first place.

The figures are staggering, the companies are set to make 71Billion euros profits, British supplies are set to make between €6 and €15 billion Germany between €14 and €34 Spain between €1 and €4 billion Italy between €6 and €9 billion and Poland €2 and €9 billion.

The idea behind the scheme is that it delivers additional revenues to low carbon forms of generation and they are a benefit because they do not incur any additional costs themselves by having to purchase pollution allowances.

A further benefit to reducing carbon is that increased prices to the consumer will cut demand for power and also boost the sales of energy efficient measures.

Even more good news for power generators was released this morning when Carbon Positive reported that the prices of EU carbon allowances have seen an upward trend over the past month, climbing 13 percent since a low point in early March. Prices are now at their highest levels since the early days of January.

I am probably missing something important here, but I am quite sure that if our old government - you know the one we used to elect to run this country,- came up with a hair brained scheme that penalised us the consumers and incidentally the voters, whilst at the same time rewarding the main polluters, in order to reduce carbon so that we can all save the world. Ignoring the fact that no matter what cuts we do, or do not make, will make not the slightest difference, because the overall world production of carbon will increase, because countries like China can produce as much as they like, if our old government were to come up with such an idea, there would be a massive political price to pay, come the next election.

It cannot therefore be an unconnected factor, that the EU, by not having to face the voters, can do anything is likes without any political fallout accruing to itself. And of course we are all supposed to applaud the EU for taking such action and happily stand by and see our industry hobbled on the world stage, in the cause of equalising our relative standards of living.

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Elmar Brok MEP, EP Rapporteur on the Enlargement Strategy, sees a high degree of agreement with regard to its future implications.

The EEA model also offers a visible political and economic added value for ENP states but also for example with respect to their internal security. In addition, the EEA model provides an enormous flexibility as an intermediate stage between the previous neighbourhood policy and full membership. At the end of this process, a far-reaching transfer of the EU acquis can be possible, such as in the case of Switzerland or Norway, Brok concluded.

The EU is to invest in operations of spas in the Asia-Pacific region by training up to 1,000 spa therapists over the next two years.

The programme has two key objectives. The first is to improve the business potential of 50 spa operators from each of the four participating countries by providing spa services that conform to European standards of spa operation.

The second is to enhance business relationships between spa operators and travel agents in the participating countries, in order to increase spa visits by European travelers.

I suppose they will tell us they need to spend this money to protect EU Citizens. But I cannot see what benefit it can be for British taxpayers to assits turism projects in the Asia-Pacific region. Perhaps EU Eletes spend their time in spars in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, but do the majority of the rest of us have any money spare for the air ticket.

The EU has also given another a €61million grant to the Philippines.

The money is to help towards funding a series of reforms recently planned by the Philippines government for the health service, better protection of human rights and efforts towards finding peace with Muslim rebels.

In the last couple of days the Telegraph has printed two articles about the economic affairs committee of the House of Lords report into the impact of mass immigration.

Put together the reports total 1500 words, it is quite amazing that in all those words they could not find room for just two more “European Union” to be fair one of the articles sort of alludes to the EU where it says:

In truth, this has never been a policy in the accepted sense. The exponential increase in immigrant numbers has never been debated in Parliament, nor has it been the product of proper ministerial process.

But take note this is the Labour governments immigration policy a point hammered home with:

The record levels of immigration since Labour came to power have had “little or no impact” on our economic wellbeing, while the Government’s assertion that immigration is essential in preventing labour shortages is “fundamentally flawed”.

And

It has happened by default because the Government lost control of our borders. This was not so much a policy, more a failure of political will and governing competence.

You bet they lost control of our borders but to whom? Does not seem an important issue as far the Telegraph is concerned, not when there is the opertunity to attack New Labour for its failings.

Britian was one of only three countries to open their borders to workers from the Eastern European EU member states (these are: Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary) any one from these countries has the right to live and work in Sweden, the UK and Ireland.

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The Scotsman - Opinion - Weak state of EU economy is a threat to British prosperity

AS SHERLOCK Holmes often explained to Dr Watson, the most important clue is often the thing that did not happen. This week, the general election campaign covered everything from school meals to Tory spending plans, from abortion to Iraq. The one subject strangely absent was a certain European Union to which we belong, despite a major EU summit in Brussels.

“Fog in the Channel: Continent cut off” is an old joke about British myopia concerning our European neighbours. It seems this traditional British political amnesia has returned with a vengeance. For the week past saw a major political and economic crisis in the EU that, once upon a time, would have dominated the centre of ordinary debate, never mind during an election warm-up.

The EU summit decided two things of immense consequence for the future of Europe - and got them disastrously wrong. First, it agreed to tear up the so-called stability pact - the set of rules governing how members of the eurozone organise their borrowing and spending. Fines on member countries who break the rules - basically France and Germany - were scrapped, and overdraft rules rewritten to the point where a government can print as many euros as it wants. Governments will now find it easier to run up long-term debt rather than make their economies more efficient by cutting red tape and taxes. As Europe’s population ages, a combination of debt and slow growth will lead to political instability, crippling interest rates, and, eventually, to a flight from the euro.

The reason these shenanigans passed the United Kingdom by is that we are not inside the eurozone, although the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has promised us a referendum on entry whenever the turkeys can be persuaded into voting for Christmas. Britain’s decision to stay out of the euro has been vindicated on many occasions. It has allowed the Bank of England to set monetary policy strictly in line with the needs of the British economy, thereby ensuring stability, low inflation and a predictable climate for investment. The result is that current UK growth is around twice that of the eurozone, while unemployment is around half.

The second major error of the Brussels summit was to scrap a proposal from the European Commission to let service providers operate freely across the EU. Countries like Germany impose severe restrictions on who can operate a service business (eg be a hairdresser or run a shop) and did not want nimble, hard-working Poles undercutting them. So the French and Germans (with the support of Sweden) ganged up to strangle free trade. This was a snub to new EU members in eastern Europe, but it also dealt a blow to the Community’s so-called Lisbon Agenda. Drawn up five years ago, it set an ambitious target for the EU to become the world’s most competitive economy by 2010. Instead, the EU is being eclipsed not only by the United States, but by China.

These regressive developments did not intrude into the UK general election campaign because of the current strength of the economy. One major fear of the UK not joining the eurozone was that our financial services industry would be crippled as exchange and investment markets switched to places like Frankfurt and Paris. Far from that happening, the efficiency of UK financial markets has allowed the UK financial sector to grab the lion’s share of euro transactions. The City has 40 per cent of all EU funds under management - more than France and Germany combined. That can only increase the longer France and Germany cling to their protectionist ways.