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Nigel Farage MEP on the Greek tragedy inflicted by the EU authoritarian madness...
[Daniel Hannan MEP, journalist, writer and lover of William Shakespeare on the ideal of free and democratic Europe versus the authoritarian EU]

News : EUROPE

2012

May

Greek and French elections: ...voters turn to parties who had opposed austerity measures
Greece's young leftist Tsipras delivers political earthquake

Governing parties backing EU-mandated austerity in Greece are on course for a major drubbing as hard-hit voters, venting their fury in elections, defected in droves, according to exit polls.
In a major upset that will not be welcomed by the crisis-plagued country's eurozone partners, the two forces that had agreed to enact unpopular belt-tightening in return for rescue funds appeared headed for a beating, with none being able to form a government.
After nearly 40 years of dominating the Greek political scene, the centre-right New Democracy and socialist Pasok saw support drop dramatically in favour of parties that had virulently opposed the tough austerity dictated by international creditors.
The latest figures showed New Democracy leading with between 19 – 20.5% of the vote, followed by the radical leftist party, Syriza, with as much as 17% and socialist party Pasok with between 13 – 14 %. And for the first time since the collapse of military rule, ultra-nationalists were also set to enter parliament with polls showing the neo-Nazi Chrysi Avgi (Golden Dawn) capturing as much as 8%. ... [+]

The socialist François Hollande wins French presidential election with the votes of the far right ... [+]

France, Greece and Germany election results send austerity shockwaves through Europe: The stunning victory of the French Socialists and wipe-out of mainstream parties in Greece sent shock waves on Sunday night crashing throughout the continent of Europe... [+]

Otra vez, la excepción francesa ... [+]

Sarkozy, otro presidente engullido por la crisis: La crisis económica ha engullido hoy a otro gobernante europeo, el presidente francés, Nicolas Sarkozy, derrotado por el socialista François Hollande... [+]

El candidato a gobernar Grecia amenaza con impagar la deuda: El líder de la coalición de izquierdas, llamado a formar Gobierno, dice que las condiciones del rescate "ya no son válidas"... [+]

Leader of left-wing Syriza party says Greeks voted against the "barbaric bailout" and austerity pledges are "null and void", while British 10-year borrowing costs drop to historic lows... [+]

El partido antirrescate griego se rebela contra Alemania y las primas se disparan... [+]

April

European Union alienates us all - as foretold 40 years ago

With chilling candour, a paper from a senior government official laid out the difficulties that Britain would face in the proposed Common Market.
All across Europe, from riots in Greece to those protest votes for Marine Le Pen and George Galloway, we see signs of how alienated people now feel from the “political class” which rules over our lives, out of touch with the rest of us, without meaningful opposition, no longer responsive to any democratic control. I am reminded of a document I discovered in the National Archives at Kew in January 2002, when sifting through papers released under the 30-year rule relating to Britain’s negotiations to join the Common Market. It was a confidential 1971 memorandum, clearly written by a senior Foreign Office official, headed “Sovereignty and the Community”.
With chilling candour, this paper (from FCO folder 30/1048) predicted that it would take 30 years for the British people to wake up to the real nature of the European project that Edward Heath was about to take them into, by which time it would be too late for them to leave. Its author made clear that the Community was headed for economic, monetary and fiscal union, with a common foreign and defence policy, which would constitute the greatest surrender of Britain’s national sovereignty in history. Since “Community law” would take precedence over our own, ever more power would pass to this new bureaucratic system centred in Brussels – and, as the role of Parliament diminished, this would lead to a “popular feeling of alienation from government”.
...[+]


Spain's woes to deepen as it double-dips into recession: Spain is set to officially confirm that it fell back into recession in the first quarter of the year, marking the beginning of what is expected to be another rocky week for the ailing eurozone economy... [+]

Could democracy derail the euro?: Like a tidal wave, the crisis that has overwhelmed southern Europe smashed into the northern core last week... [+]

Ukraine's former PM 'on hunger strike'

Yulia Tymoshenko accuses guards of kicking her as she was taken to hospital by force, says her lawyer.
Tymoshenko, who has a severe spinal condition and needs hospital treatment, was taken last week to a clinic in the eastern city of Kharkiv where her jail is located, but was returned to prison a day later after refusing treatment.
Her lawyer, Serhiy Vlasenko, said on Tuesday that prison officials kicked her in the stomach while taking her to the hospital by force.
Prison authorities declined to comment.
The west has condemned Tymoshenko's seven-year sentence for abuse of office as politically motivated.
...German President Joachim Gauck has turned down a visit to Ukraine amid growing concern at the health of jailed former Ukrainian PM Yulia Tymoshenko.
EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said she was "deeply preoccupied" after reports that Ms Tymoshenko was assaulted by guards.
The Ukrainian opposition leader alleges that three men punched her in the stomach on her way to hospital.
Russia's foreign ministry has appealed to Kiev to "show a human approach".
A spokesman in Moscow urged the Ukrainian authorities to "fully safeguard" her legal rights.
...The daughter of Ukraine's jailed former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on Friday that her mother's condition has deteriorated badly since alleged beatings by prison guards.

...more in The Guardian - BBC - AlJazeera - The Telegraph

Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte resigns over austerity measures

Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister, and his cabinet, have resigned after failing to reach agreement on reducing the country's budget to meet European guidelines... [+]

Estalla la bomba holandesa en el corazón de la Eurozona: Cuando todos los ojos del fin de semana estaban puestos en los resultados de la primera vuelta de las elecciones francesas, en Holanda estallaba una nueva bomba que amenaza con dinamitar los cimientos de la Eurozona por donde menos se esperaba, para consuelo de los países periféricos europeos, España entre ellos. El respiro que Rajoy y los suyos asociaban a Hollande, conmiseración presupuestaria, erraba en la última vocal. Era una ‘a’. La dimisión del Primer Ministro holandés, Mark Rutte, esta misma tarde pone de manifiesto la dimensión de nuevo problema al que se enfrenta la Unión.
En efecto, los principales partidos que forman la coalición de gobierno eran incapaces, tras siete semanas de negociación, de llegar a un acuerdo sobre cómo recortar los 14.000 a 16.000 millones de euros necesarios para cumplir con el Pacto Fiscal europeo que limita el porcentaje de déficit público sobre Producto Interior Bruto al 3% en 2013. El ultraderechista Geert Wilders daba por rotas las conversaciones justo cuando parecía que el trato se encontraba más cerca que nunca... [+]

Breaking the eurozone's self-defeating cycle of austerity: While a beleaguered IMF and ECB try to hold the line, voters all over Europe are rebelling against their punitive fiscal orthodoxy ...[+]

Divine intervention is needed to save the euro, said top EU officials; a joke? Corrupt and feudalist Spain the biggest problem...

The best hope for saving the euro is for the Pope to pray for divine intervention, according to an email written in the office of Herman Van Rompuy, the man charged with preserving the European Union's single currency.
The message was an April Fool's day joke that was intended for internal consumption only but was leaked yesterday, as are most genuine documents on the euro's survival.
New talks were needed, the "communique" said, and should include Pope Benedict XVI, as Sovereign of the Vatican City State, which uses the euro.
"The presence of His Holiness the Pope affords an opportunity to pray for divine intervention to save the euro. This is now seen as the most credible strategy," concluded the spoof press release, crafted by one of Mr Van Rompuy's aides.
The press office of the Council of EU, whose official letterhead was used for the joke statement, is not said to be amused after receiving calls asking about the "April 1 summit".
"I glad someone thinks this is a laughing matter, but it's no joke for us," said one official.

...more in The Telegraph - The Guardian - AlJazeera - BBC - El Mundo - Libertad Digital - Publico - El Confidencial - Voz Populi - France 24 - La Repubblica

Read also:
Europe votes to end expensive parliament's 'Travelling Circus': MEPs have voted by a massive majority to end the European Parliament's monthly journey to Strasbourg by having a single seat for the EU assembly in Brussels...but France and EU treaty oppose this rare rational decision...

Violent protests erupt in Spain over government austerity measures: Police make dozens of arrests as hundreds of demonstrators take to the streets in cities across Spain to demonstrate against government labour reforms... Worse to come...

Robert Miller with the main City and business news as European Union finance ministers prepare for their meeting in Copenhagen, Spain's government debt and troubled banking sector fuel market speculation that a rescue deal will be needed...

Billions of euros of European Union money have been spent in Madeira, yet the island is swimming in debt...

Crisis de la Zona Euro: el liderazgo mediocre de Merkozy, Rajoy y compañía...[+]

La gripe española y el mal negocio del euro ...[+]

March

February

The EU authoritarian nightmare is driving entire populations to disaster:
Officials from the EU and the International Monetary Fund made two grave errors when they swooped into Greece in mid-2010 and dictated the now hated "Memorandum".

The regime of drastic cuts has tipped the economy into a violent downward spiral. They thought that private industry would muddle through as the state went through the austerity mincer. What the EU-IMF "Troika" did not fully understand is how many firms were really part of the state in disguise.
"The Greek government outsources everything," said one official with close knowledge of the events.
Faced with the guillotine, the state first slashed procurement contracts and then stopped paying its bills altogether. The government is now €7bn (£5.8bn) in arrears to private companies, including €3bn in unpaid VAT refunds for exporters. It is why business has borne the brunt of the fiscal squeeze, suffering 450,000 job losses, and why Greece's unemployment has soared to 21pc.
At the same time the banking system seized up. More than €60bn of deposits were withdrawn. By November, no Greek bank could issue a letter of credit accepted anywhere in the world, with calamitous implications for trade. "Greece became a leper, and is now stuck in Catch-22," said one official.
Hellenic Petroleum was unable to import basic fuel. The reason why Greece's reliance on oil imports from Iran jumped from 15pc to 70pc in a two-week period in November was because Tehran agreed to take on the credit risk.

...more in The Telegaph - The Guardian - BBC - Al Jazeera - El Mundo - Voz Populi
Read also:

Thieves raid Greece's Ancient Olympia Museum: Armed robbers wearing hoods steal between 60 and 70 items after breaking in and tying up female employee...
German President Christian Wulff has announced his resignation, after prosecutors called for his immunity to be lifted concerning corruption...
German president quits over scandal: Christian Wulff announces resignation amid allegations that he received financial favours before becoming head of state...
More in Al Jazeera - Libertad Digital - El Mundo

Germany drawing up plans for Greece to leave the euro: Plans for Greece to default, potentially leaving the euro, have been drafted in Germany as the European Union begins to face up to the fact that Greek debt is spiralling out of control - with or without a second bailout...
This euro deal is a recipe for revolution: The austerity measures imposed on Greece -a country that has been suffering from 5 years of recession- threaten to do such damage to its economy that its debts will actually increase...
El rescate a Grecia implica una severa cesión de soberanía...

Britain has for the first time refused to sign off the European Union budget in a protest at “material errors” worth €4 billion in the 2010 Brussels accounts, the 17th failed audit in a row...
Un ministro alemán aconseja la salida de Grecia del euro
Germany’s Friedrich Urges Greek Exit From Euro, Spiegel Says

Eurozone heading into recession, says EU: The eurozone economy is heading into its second recession in just three years, while the wider European Union will stagnate, the EU said, warning that the area has yet to break its vicious cycle of debt...
Germany’s interior minister called for Greece to leave the eurozone on Saturday as hopes that the world’s richest countries would stump up more cash to help the International Monetary Fund (IMF) fight Europe’s debt crisis faded.

Greece sinks to its knees: The recent bail-out, which imposes strict new austerity measures on the Greeks, will deepen a crisis that has already driven up the suicide rate by 40 per cent. David Blair reports from Athens on a nation that eyes the future without hope...

Debt crisis live: The European Central Bank has temporarily suspended the use Greek bonds as collateral after S&P downgrades Greece to "selective default," while Portugal awaits approval of the next tranche of its €78bn bailout...
Motín inglés contra el autoritarismo de la UE...

Greek crisis gives Germany something to sing about

January

¿De que Europa hablan nuestros políticos?
...Otra vez los europeos, y cada país en particular, nos veremos obligados a optar entre la democracia y el totalitarismo, porque eso, y no la prima de riesgo, es lo que se juega...

...Es evidente que los problemas de la Unión Europea, que se han agudizado con la tormenta financiera desatada hace cinco años, son en parte el resultado del reequilibrio ideológico y económico que se ha producido desde la caída del Muro de Berlín en el otoño de 1989 y la reunificación alemana que la siguió. En aquellas fechas, los vientos del capitalismo financiero o del neoliberalismo, como lo llaman otros, empezaron a circular con facilidad en el espacio común europeo: el modelo político y social, simbiosis de éxito entre lo público y lo privado, empezó a ponerse en entredicho para dejar paso a la sublimación de lo privado, con olvido de todo lo demás. Fueron los tiempos del saneamiento de las cuentas públicas y de los preparativos de la unión monetaria, dos objetivos, aparentemente loables, que, sin tardar, se iban a poner al servicio de una empresa, la globalización financiera, cuyos resultados lastimosos estamos recogiendo ahora ante la sorpresa farisaica de algunos y la desesperanza y el desconcierto de la mayoría. Maastricht en febrero de 1992 fue el arranque del drama.
...Ya hemos llegado al punto en el que ésta Europa a la que se invoca como justificación sólo ofrece miserias sociales y déficits democráticos en sus instituciones, dominadas por Alemania, con el argumento de que no hay otra opción. No es verdad: Europa tiene en su seno diferentes tradiciones, desde la tolerante y democrática hasta la autoritaria o totalitaria. Creíamos que la primera se había consolidado para hacer confortable la vida de los ciudadanos en un proyecto común europeo. Pero se ha dejado perder en nombre de intereses y de políticas espurias, sedicentemente liberales, que se imponen ignorando la voluntad de los electores. Error tras error, un modelo de esperanza y de éxito se nos aparece como un crucero de lujo, el Costa Concordia tan de actualidad, sin capitán. Otra vez los europeos, y cada país en particular, nos veremos obligados a optar entre la democracia y el totalitarismo, porque eso, y no la prima de riesgo, es lo que se juega. De momento, los viejos fantasmas emergen gracias a la ayuda inestimable de unos dirigentes europeos, al servicio de la potencia alemana, que pretenden conjurar el peligro abriendo un expediente risible a Hungría, sin hacer la menor autocrítica y sin renunciar a los propósitos que conducen a la escombrera política y social.
os españoles somos parte de ese proyecto fallido y estamos sufriendo las consecuencias. Encima tenemos gravemente dañado nuestro sistema constitucional, convertido en obstáculo, al parecer insuperable, para el buen gobierno. Por eso, es oportuno preguntarse y preguntar en qué Europa se piensa cuando se la invoca, no vaya a ocurrir que estemos, como el pintor, agarrados a una brocha sin escalera.

Lea este excelente artículo completo de Manuel Muela en VozPopuli.com

Watch Mr Nigel Farage MEP, chair of the UK Independence Party
17 January 2012 at the EU Parliament

Mr Nigel Farage MEP on the undemocratic, nepotistic appointments to the top post of the European Union
25 November 2009 in the EU Parliament

Hopeful or hopeless?´: Europe struggles to find a strategy to grow out of its debt crisis
Que detengan a Keynes, es peligroso

The Greek parents too poor to care for their children

Greece's financial crisis has made some families so desperate they are giving up the most precious thing of all - their children.
One morning a few weeks before Christmas a kindergarten teacher in Athens found a note about one of her four-year-old pupils.
"I will not be coming to pick up Anna today because I cannot afford to look after her," it read. "Please take good care of her. Sorry. Her mother."
In the last two months Father Antonios, a young Orthodox priest who runs a youth centre for the city's poor, has found four children on his doorstep - including a baby just days old.
Another charity was approached by a couple whose twin babies were in hospital being treated for malnutrition, because the mother herself was malnourished and unable to breastfeed.
Cases like this are shocking a country where family ties are strong, and failure to look after children is socially unacceptable - and it's not happening in a country ravaged by war or famine, but in their own capital city.
One of the children cared for by Father Antonios is Natasha, a bright two-year-old brought to his centre by her mother a few weeks ago.
The woman said she was unemployed and homeless and needed help - but before staff could offer her support she had vanished, leaving her daughter behind.
...Its chief psychologist Stefanos Alevizos, says that when a parent puts a child into care, the child feels its entire foundations have been shaken.
"They experience the separation as an act of violence because they cannot understand the reasons for it," he says.
But The Smile of a Child's Sofia Kouhi says the biggest tragedy, in her eyes, is that those parents who ask for their kids to be taken into care may be the ones who love their children the most.
"It is very sad to see the pain in their heart that they will leave their children, but they know it is for the best, at least for this period," she says.
...more in BBC - Libertad Digital
Read also:
Europa se queda corta si solo castiga a Hungría sin entrar en su propia pérdida de calidad democrática

2011

December

La crisis reactiva los insultos nacionalistas en Europa

“Ya están los alemanes dando órdenes”. “Y los franchutes protestando por todo”. “Y los ingleses, como siempre, hacen lo que les da la gana”. Si esta es una conversación de lo más probable en cualquier bar español en los últimos tiempos, igual de posible es que los alemanes vuelvan a pensar en los españoles como “vividores y vagos”. La crisis y las tensiones políticas existentes en Europa están provocando que la tan cacareada unión ciudadana haga aguas y aparezca cada vez más debilitada.
Quizá no tanto, pero es indudable que últimamente las amistades y afinidades se están resquebrajando en el viejo continente. “De fondo existe un problema de percepciones culturales difícilmente resoluble“, resume José Ignacio Torreblanca, profesor de Ciencia Política en la UNED y director de la oficina en Madrid del European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR).
Ese organismo ha publicado recientemente un estudio titulado El choque de civilizaciones europeo en el que recuerda que “desde el comienzo de la crisis griega el año pasado, los alemanes han tendido a explicar los problemas de la moneda única europea en términos de una diferencia entre un norte fiscalmente responsable y un sur fiscalmente irresponsable”.

...más en El Confidencial

Playwrighter Vaclav Havel dies aged 75
He wove theatre into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia.

Vaclav Havel, the playwright-turned-politician who served as the last president of Czechoslovakia and first president of the Czech Republic, has died at age 75.
Havel, a former chain-smoker who suffered breathing difficulties, died on Sunday morning at his weekend house in the northern Czech Republic.
As a dissident playwright, Havel wove theatre into politics to peacefully bring down communism in Czechoslovakia and become a hero of the epic struggle that ended the Cold War.
Havel was Czechoslovakia's first democratically elected president after the non-violent "Velvet Revolution" that ended four decades of repression by a regime he ridiculed as "Absurdistan".
As president, he oversaw the country's bumpy transition to democracy and a free-market economy, as well its peaceful 1993 breakup into the Czech Republic and Slovakia.


...more in Al Jazeera - BBC - The Telegraph - The Guardian - France 24 - La Repubblica - Die Welt - Frankfurter Allgemeine - MSNBC - El Mundo

Mervyn King: the eurozone crisis is 'systemic'
The Bank of England Governor Sir Mervyn King urges banks to brace themselves for a potential eurozone collapse amid fears that Britain is caught in a second credit crunch.

Sir Mervyn said financial systems around the world are vulnerable to the eurozone debt crisis and its underlying causes - but warned a resolution was "beyond the control" of any UK authority.
Appearing in his role as chair of the interim Financial Policy Committee, the Governor said: "In the UK, we most try to bolster the resilience of our financial system to better withstand the storms that may come in our direction."
The report comes after Downing Street warned last night that Britain was in the grip of a second credit crunch, and six central banks, including the Bank of England, acted to encourage lending between banks and stave off economic stagnation.

...more in The Telegraph - The Guardian - El Mundo - El Confidencial - France 24 - VozPopuli
Read also:
Police investigate links between neo-Nazi group and far-right party
Los eurodiputados podrán admitir regalos de hasta 150 euros

November

Prepare for riots in euro collapse, Foreign Office warns
British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.

As the Italian government struggled to borrow and Spain considered seeking an international bail-out, British ministers privately warned that the break-up of the euro, once almost unthinkable, is now increasingly plausible.
Diplomats are preparing to help Britons abroad through a banking collapse and even riots arising from the debt crisis.
The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.
A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.
“It’s in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare,” the minister told the Daily Telegraph.
...more in The Telegraph - Al Jazeera - BBC - El Pais - The Guardian - The Economist

Read also:
Europa euroescéptica
Surviving the euro
Los cuatro escenarios del futuro 'Eurocalipsis'

Democracy is being sacrificed by the European Union
Lack of democratic accountability risks an eventual, and possibly extreme, populist backlash. Far from unifying Europe, the euro threatens eventual Balkanisation.

Slavish adherence to the demands of monetary union has succeeded in the past week in dislodging two democratically elected prime ministers – George Papandreou (already gone) and Silvio Berlusconi (not yet gone, but going). Elections in Spain will shortly sweep away Jose Zapatero, too. At least in that case, it will be via the ballot box, but the effect is much the same. In its struggle to stay alive, the single currency is exacting a heavy toll among Europe’s political leaders.
Not that anyone will be shedding a tear for them. Like Zapatero, both Berlusconi and Papandreou would eventually have been removed by their electors if events hadn’t speeded up the process. What is more, many of the reforms that the largely technocratic governments replacing them are obliged to bulldoze through should have been implemented long ago: indeed, if they had been enacted during the good times, Europe wouldn’t be in quite the same mess as it is today.
None the less, the virtual suspension of the democratic process that euro membership seems increasingly to demand should be viewed with alarm. Legitimacy, it appears, is expendable; the single currency is not. From the start, the march to European unification has always implied an erosion of sovereignty. But we seem to be reaching the point where the diktats of a small policy elite vastly outweigh the decisions of national parliaments.
A particularly unhealthy development is the emergence of the “Frankfurt Group”, a shadowy collection of senior policymakers, to drive through the measures thought necessary to save the euro. Its reported make-up – Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde, Nicolas Sarkozy, Mario Draghi, José Manuel Barroso, Jean-Claude Juncker, Herman van Rompuy and Olli Rehn, with external powerhouses such as Barack Obama occasionally allowed in by invitation – gives no reason for confidence. Nothing any of them has done to date has succeeded in stemming the crisis. On the contrary, their actions have often made matters worse. If the definition of madness is to do the same thing repeatedly and expect different outcomes, this collection of latter-day Napoleons would quickly be confined to the asylum. A policy agenda that has consistently failed is scarcely more likely to succeed if pursued more decisively and oppressively through a European equivalent of the Chinese Politburo.
...more in The Telegraph - AlJazeera - The Guardian - BBC

Read also:
EU turmoil revives calls for referendum: David Cameron is to face renewed pressure to call a referendum after senior European Commission officials said the overhaul of the eurozone would trigger a national poll in Ireland.
There’s nothing new about this European folly: The governing class in Europe thinks it knows what is best - and once again, the people are being forced to accept it.
The EU's architects never meant it to be a democracy: The rise of a "technocracy" was always part of the plan for Europe.
It's not the eurozone, stupid
UK unemployment total reaches 17-year high

Letting technocrats run Europe is bad politics and bad economics:
More bad news for eurozone as industrial sector shrinks
¿Golpe de Estado? Los ‘milicos’ toman Europa
European democracy in crisis

German government fears new far-Right terrorism after neo-Nazi killing spree
L'Europe traverse sa pire crise depuis 1945, selon Merkel
Adiós, democracia by Iñaki Gabilondo

Seis falacias, seis, sobre los bancos centrales: ...La crisis de deuda soberana se acabaría este viernes a las 10.15am. Bastaría con que Draghi anunciara que el tipo de interés objetivo al que quiere que Italia coloque sus bonos sea el 1% e Italia los colocaría. El “mercado”, por la cuenta que le trae, los compraría al 1% o de lo contrario el BCE se los “comería” vía repos. Así de simple.
Si la crisis no se soluciona no es por falta de herramientas sino por otros intereses que tienen poco o nada que ver con los de los ciudadanos.
Depende de ustedes. El que quiera creer en falacias y leyendas tiene en la prensa diaria un duro competidor de Tolkien. Para el resto, quizás es hora de abrir los ojos.
Los mercados atacan la deuda soberana de casi todos los países de la zona euro salvo Alemania

La vergüenza de ser europeo
(The shame of being in this European Union)
by Jorge Valin

Tal vez desde dentro no se vea bien, pero la imagen que está dando Europa ante el mundo es bochornosa. Decenas y decenas de reuniones y cumbres para después no llegar a ningún acuerdo. Cuando lo consiguen, son incapaces de concretar detalles. Y cuando por fin llegan al acuerdo de rescatar Grecia con un plan algo serio (tampoco mucho), el rescatado, Grecia, se baja del carro anunciando un referéndum que nadie sabe a qué viene. Y luego dicen que la culpa es de Moody’s y Standard & Poor's.
¿Tienen algún interés Sarkozy, Merkel, Barroso y todos los eurócratas en hacer un mercado europeo sano y próspero? Ninguno. Merkel siempre fue contraria a las quitas bancarias de Grecia hasta que un día se presentó como su mayor defensora. A la semana descubrimos que la banca alemana había reducido la exposición a la deuda periférica (España, Italia, Grecia, Portugal e Irlanda) en un 50%. Concretamente, Deutsche Bank, desde diciembre de 2010 hasta hoy, ha reducido su exposición a los periféricos en más de un 60%. Merkel ha ganado tiempo para que el impacto de la quita griega, y las que puedan venir como la de Italia y España, dañen lo menos posible a sus bancos.
En estas, los líderes franceses y alemanes también han influido sobre el Banco Central Europeo. Mario Draghi, el nuevo Presidente del banco central ya tiene casi un 20% de la deuda griega y esta misma semana compró, otra vez, deuda italiana y española para que no se disparase. ¿Cómo curamos a los países enfermos según los grandes burocrata–economistas–europeos? Bajando la temperatura del termómetro poniéndolo en el congelador. ¿Por el bien de Europa? Claro, y de paso para cubrir las carteras de los grandes bancos europeos, especialmente franceses y alemanes. Rajoy quiere hacer ahora un "Banco Malo". Pues a Sarkozy y Merkel no les ha hecho falta, han usado para este fin al Banco Central Europeo nada menos. Esto sí que es pensar a lo grande.
...lea el artículo completo en Libertad Digital
More information in The Telegraph - BBC - Al Jazeera - El Mundo - The Guardian - La Repubblica - Die Welt

October

A show of brute force in the new Europe
The move towards full fiscal union is now considered the euro's only way forward.

It should surprise no one that George Papandreou’s proposal for a national referendum on the latest European bail-out deal should have lasted just 72 hours before being bulldozed into oblivion by the Germans and French. Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy made not the slightest attempt to observe any diplomatic niceties as they turned their fire on this troublesome outbreak of democracy. The Greek referendum must not be allowed to happen, they insisted – and lo, it will not. It was brutal to watch.
Welcome to the new Europe. It is now generally accepted that the move towards fiscal as well as monetary union is the only feasible way in which the single currency can be made to work. Yet it will mean such bullying becomes the norm, since national sovereignty will routinely have to play second fiddle to the diktats not only of the European Central Bank, but also of a central European Treasury, whose creation can now only be a matter of time. Both will, of course, be dominated by the monetary union’s pre-eminent economy, Germany.
While Greece may be a victim of force majeure, it is not blameless in this affair – quite the opposite. An economic basket case in which political corruption is rife, it has failed to meet its obligations as a member of the monetary union by living laughably beyond its means. But what of Germany? Has it met its own obligations? It continues to insist on the single currency, and the European Central Bank that services it, being run to suit its own economic agenda, not that of the wider eurozone. This is where all the high-flown verbiage about the great European project collides with the hard reality of power. Germany is able to assert its sovereign rights because it has the economic clout to do so. Peripheral nations such as Greece and Ireland are swatted aside. Transfixed as they are by their obsession with shoring up the euro, it does not seem to occur to Europe’s political elites that the seeds are being sown not of an ever-closer union of equals, but of an unhappy alliance with one dominant partner. This could bode ill for the entire European Union.

...more in The Telegraph

Eurosceptic French town rejects euro: The European single currency is under unprecedented pressure. But even in the most staunchly pro-European countries, some people have never been enamoured of the euro, as David Chazan discovers in rural France.

Nicolas Dupont-Aignan MP - France now has a Eurosceptic voice !

Grecia, non c'è luce in fondo al tunnel [...no light at the end of the tunnel]

Se crea la Unión Soviética Europea

Europe's defunct idealism is like Munich all over again
The blindness that afflicts Europe's leaders on the euro and austerity is straight from the 1930s

Europe's financial crisis is acquiring the stench of Munich. No, it is not Nazi Germany. But it is the same ceaseless meetings and pretend deals, the same flying here and there and getting nowhere, the same refusing to acknowledge catastrophe on the horizon, hoping someone else will take a tough decision.
In 2008 the financial spotlight was on Washington. Banks were rescued, but not the American economy. Now the spotlight is on Europe. Again the talk is of saving banks, and none of saving economies. Britain's banks have been given another £75bn, which makes £275bn over two years. No one seems to have a clue where this stupefying sum has gone. Most has allegedly vanished overseas, covering bad debts, fuelling commodity prices, depressing the pound and increasing inflation. Meanwhile, Britain's economy has ground from slow to stop. Quantitative easing is like filling a car with petrol when the tank is disconnected from the engine. It is a dreadful policy.

At the weekend's G20 financial summit, the Americans implored Europe to rescue its stumbling finances by next week at the latest. This meant restructuring Greece's desperate debt mountain, somehow propping up other eurozone debts, and a crash programme to boost spending through our old friends – ponderous "big investment projects", which somehow always take precedence over demand. Angela Merkel dismissed all this pleading out of hand. "Dreams building up of a package when everything will be solved by Monday" were impossible, the German leader said. Stock markets duly plunged further.
British growth, already among the lowest in Europe, has fallen to virtually zero. On Tuesday inflation rose yet again, to over 5%. The Bank of England governor, Mervyn King, blithely declared that the country "could be facing the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s, if not ever". Yet all he can think to do is hurl more money at banks.
...read the excellent article by Simon Jenkins in The Guardian

Read also:
The two halves of the eurozone are locked in a broken marriage: One by one, the democracies of Southern Europe are being broken on the wheel of monetary union.

Septiembre

Pope: “Agnostics are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is 'routine'”
El Papa afirma que un agnóstico está más cerca de Dios que un fiel rutinario

Benedicto XVI ha asegurado que un agnóstico o una persona que sufre por los pecados de los cristianos están más cerca de Dios que los "fieles rutinarios, aquellos que sólo ven en la Iglesia el boato, sin que su corazón quede tocado por la fe".

..."Los agnósticos que no encuentran paz por la cuestión de Dios y las personas que sufren a causa de nuestros pecados y tienen deseo de un corazón puro están más cercanos al Reino de Dios que los fieles rutinarios, que ya solamente ven en la Iglesia el boato, sin que su corazón quede tocado por la fe", afirmó el papa advirtiendo a los fieles de la necesidad de volver a una fe renovada.
El Papa teólogo manifestó que no cuentan las palabras, sino las obras, los hechos de conversión y de fe y que hay que evitar que la religiosidad acabe en "rutina".

On the last day of his four day visit, roughly 100,000 people attended the pope's Mass in Freiburg's airport, including all of Germany's bishops.
The pope gave a powerful homily, where he questioned the role of evil in the world. He said God gives people automatic freedom, therefore He cannot intervene, even when people choose a wrongful path.
...The homily also focused on the danger of living a superficial life, especially a life that becomes a routine for believers. He said, for Catholics, words and opinions are not enough. Rather, they must actively practice their religion.
“Agnostics, who are constantly exercised by the question of God, those who long for a pure heart but suffer on account of our sin, are closer to the Kingdom of God than believers whose life of faith is 'routine' and who regard the Church merely as an institution, without letting their hearts be touched by faith.”
...“Christian life is a life for others: existing for others, humble service of our neighbor and of the common good.”

...más en El Mundo - The Guardian - Al Jazeera - France 24 - Die Welt - Die Spiegel - ABC - Rome Reports - God discussion - La Repubblica

July

A Free-mason, nationalist and christian fundamentalist killed at least 91 persons in twin attacks in Norway
After he attaks a youth camp in Utoya island and a massive bomb blast in central Oslo.

An explosion has damaged government buildings in Oslo with injuries reported. The cause of the blast has yet to be ascertained.
A bomb has blown out most windows of a government building housing the Norwegian prime minister's office and left at least two people dead and several others injured, news agencies and witnesses say.
Friday's blast targeted the 17-storey building housing Jens Stoltenberg's office in the capital Oslo, as well as nearby ministries, including the oil ministry, which was on fire.
Camilla Ryste, a government spokeswoman, told the Associated Press news agency Stoltenberg was safe.
Police confirmed the attack was a bomb but did not give further details.
Hanne Taalsen, a journalist working for TV2, told Al Jazeera the blast happened at 3:20pm local time and that there were "massive damages in the streets" around the building.
A Reuters correspondent, Walter Gibbs, said he counted at least eight injured people. There was no immediate claim for responsibility but the tangled wreckage of a car was outside one building.
An Associated Press reporter said newspaper offices in the area were also damaged and smoke could be seen drifting in the streets.
The reporter said he saw a young man with a bleeding leg being helped away from the area. It was not immediately clear whether there were other injuries.
Kristina Overn, a Norwegian journalist, said people were surprised that Norway had been targeted.
"People are really surprised. I am very surprised. People are shocked that this could happen in Oslo," she told Al Jazeera.
"People are quite calm, they are not running around or anything. But people are quite shocked. I think most Norwegians consider themselves to be outside of incidents like this."
Peter Svaar, a journalist working for NRK, said "the whole of downtown Oslo is sealed off" and spoke of a "very chaotic situation".
The attack comes days after Norwegian prosecutors filed a terrorism charge against Mullah Krekar, founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam, who is accused of threatening a former minister, Erna Solberg, with death.
"Norway will pay a heavy price for my death," he said. "If, for example, Erna Solberg deports me and I die as a result, she will suffer the same fate."

At least 80 people have been killed in a shooting at the island of Utoya island, nearly two hours after a bomb blast? killed seven people in the government district in the capital Oslo.
A gunman dressed in police uniform opened fire at a youth summer camp in Utoya, organised by the ruling Labour party.
"The updated knowledge we are sitting on now is at least 80," police chief Oystein Maeland said of the attack in Utoya.
"We can't guarantee that [number] won't increase somewhat," he added, saying that some of the wounded were badly injured.
Maeland said the attack in Utoya, is a massacre of "catastrophic dimensions".
Al Jazeera's Harry Smith said that Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian prime minister, was due to address the camp attendees on Saturday.
Norway's public broadcaster, NRK, named the bombing and shooting suspect as Anders Behring Breivik , a Free-mason, nationalist and christian fundamentalist..
The 32-year-old Norwegian was arrested after the shooting incident on Friday. Police say the suspect had been seen in Oslo before the bombing, which targeted buildings that house the prime minister's office.
The TV2 television station reported, without disclosing its sources, that the detained man had links to right-wing extremism. He was described as a tall blonde man.
Police searched a flat in west Oslo where the man lived, and evacuated some neighbours.
...more in BBC - Al Jazeera - The Guardian - El Mundo - France 24 - Le Figaro

Farage: Isn't the EU quite as bad as the USSR, Mr Tusk?

• European Parliament, Strasbourg - 06 July 2011
• Speakers: Nigel Farage MEP, UKIP, Co-President of the EFD Group in the European Parliament (Europe of Freedom and Democracy)
• Debate: Council and Commission statements - Programme of activities of the Polish presidency of the Council - with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk
- 'Blue Card' question by Robert GOEBBELS (Luxembourg), Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (Liberal Alliance)
• Transcript:
We live in an age when the gap between ordinary voters and the European political class grows wider by the day, I have to ask you having listened to your words this morning, just what planet are you on?
This pretence that everything is going incredibly well. The EU is mired in deep structural crisis. Greece, Portugal and Ireland cannot survive inside the Euro. The Danes have torn up the Schengen Agreement and good for them because the total free movement of peoples is an irresponsible thing to have done.
And public opinion is saying whilst they want a European cooperation, yes of course, I agree with that. What they do not want is this Europe run by unelected bureaucrats like Mr Barroso.
You say "The EU is fantastic" in a recent comment.
You are supporting the destruction of national democracy, but it is with reference to Greece that I am most concerned about you because when faced with their recent enslavement you said, "We lived for many years as a non-sovereign country under Soviet occupation. For us European integration is not a threat to sovereignty because we experienced not long ago a serious threat to our sovereignty."
So what are you saying? That this isn't quite as bad as the USSR? Is that really good enough for your people?
And today you described Greece's problems as "trivial". I am sorry, there are hundreds of thousands of people out there on the streets of Greece fighting to get their democracy back.
And it beggars belief that you and our President Mr Buzek can talk about the Solidarity Movement, can talk about Poland getting its democracy back twenty years ago and yet, here you are surrendering the democracy and sovereignty of Poland to a failed European Union.
Yes sir, we all want a shared European cooperation for the future, but this, most definitely is not the model.
'Blue Card' question by Robert Goebbels (Luxembourg, Liberal Group):
"Mr Farage is a bit like a cockeral. He's sitting on a heap of c**p and doing cock-a-doodle-doo. Apart from the criticism, what about suggestions; I haven't heard a single constructive suggestion as to how we can change Europe, what ideas do you have for the future of this continent?"
Farage:
Mr Goebbels, post-1945, there were some very sensible ideas put together, namely the Council of Europe.Let's have a Europe where we sit down together, where we have a free trade agreement, where we agree minimum standards on work, on the environment - we can do all these things, without a European Commission, without a European Parliament and without a European Court of Justice. We've done it in security terms with NATO... (heckling)... Yes, it'll mean losing your job, Mr Barroso, but apart from that why can't we do things as mature democracies... (heckling) yes, I want you sacked, Mr Schulz, as well; I want you all fired! We can do those things and that is a positive way forward.
By taking away from people their ability to govern themselves and transfering that power to the European Commission, we're headed for a Europe of rebellion and violence. Let's take the democratic route.
...................................................
• Credits
Video Source:
Speech - EbS - European Parliament
Music:
- From 'Velvet Choker' - Cornerstone Cues 'Red Army is the Strongest' - Red Army Choir
Picture:
- EU lighthouse: European Commission Audio Visual

Read also:
La cicuta que recorre Europa
Why the euro is not worth saving: This crisis has exposed the fact that – unlike the EU itself – the eurozone's monetary union was always a rightwing project...

June

Daniel Hannan on the Euro stupidity of more loans for Greece

Conservative MEP Daniel Hannan talks about the idiocy of giving more loans to bail out Greece. He says, when you have someone deep in debt, you don't give them another loan in hope that will clear things up - it just makes things worse.
Shockingly, the studio guests seem to be more worried about the crooked banks and the crooked politicians that aided and abetted them, than the "little people" who pay the taxes

Bilderberg 2011: Handbags at dawn
The rich and powerful leave this year's Bilderberg

On his way back from Bilderberg, Alexei Mordashov, the Russian steel magnate, swept through the airport checkpoint in a window-tinted people carrier. Here he is, about to board his private jet at St Moritz airport:
Nice bag. You don't get to be worth $18.5 billion without developing a taste for classy accessories. The only classier bit of luggage we saw all conference was this stylish holdall, carried by... well, see if you can guess from the legs. And the coat of arms on the side of the jet...
That's right, delegate spotters, it's Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands! A shame we're only seeing her knees, and are denied our annual peek at her glorious Molly Sugden bouff. Still, we got to enjoy the two-tone swirls of Fu Ying (China's Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs and current Chinese Ambassador to the UK) on Lord Mandelson's nature walk.
Here's a reminder: it's Fu Ying strolling with Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Digital Agenda and a Vice President of the European Commission.
...The post-Bilderberg Thiel seemed a little grumpy at the airport. Maybe he was hungover after David Rockefeller's birthday disco. Or maybe the discussion on: 'Social Networks: Connectivity and Security Issues' hadn't gone his way.
Thiel is a good Bilderberger, in that he's an avowed fan of a global single-market, single-currency future. He says "everything that counts as political represents a counterforce to globalization" Perhaps he needled the politicians present with his view that: "as we continue to see the globalization of the world economy, we will come to see government more and more as a reactionary force, as a force that is standing in the way of progress. And we will have to make a very drastic choice."
...more in The Guardian -

La UE rechaza a los refugiados libios y dinamita el pacto de Schengen

No ha alcanzando Europa occidental la décima parte de la unión conseguida en los tiempos de Octavio César Augusto cuando la pax romana permitió la extensión de una lengua común con respeto a las demás (el latín), la implantación de una moneda común (el denario), la articulación de un espacio territorial sin fronteras mediante calzadas, la aplicación de unas leyes y una ciudadanía común, etcétera, y ya los “dirigentes comunitarios” se apresuran a cerrar las fronteras internas ante cualquier adversidad humana que tuvieran que compartir. El último Consejo Europeo ha resuelto aceptar la propuesta del socio francés de suspender la libertad de movimiento de las personas por el espacio común cuando se produzca una situación excepcional que lleve a miles de humanos a refugiarse en el territorio de algún país miembro.
El presidente francés, Nicolás Sarkozy, adoptó en abril esa medida, cerrando la frontera con Italia ante el temor de que los miles de libios que huían de la represión de Muhamar Gadafi y de las legiones de bombarderos de la OTAN, que también matan de manera “humanitaria”, llegaran a su país. Sarkozy quiere el petróleo libio, lo mismo que el alegre millonario y presidente italiano Silvio Berlusconi, que lo paga un poco más caro para reparar los históricos daños militares de Italia en Libia, pero detesta a los refugiados de Misratah y Tripolitania. Sus argumentos han sido asumidos por los solidarios dirigentes comunitarios. Preocupadísimos de que los griegos no se declaren en quiebra y paguen las deudas a los especuladores financieros, aceptaron como si fuera una cuestión menor la suspensión del acuerdo de Schengen sobre la libre circulación de las personas en el espacio comunitario.
...La impresión de los responsables de Interior es que la frontera terrestre de ambas ciudades autónomas se halla bien amurallada y protegida. Además, el Rey de Marruecos ha reaccionado a la “primavera árabe” con su propuesta de reforma constitucional y no con sangre, como era de temer. De Líbia sólo han llegado cien refugiados. Pero si se produjera un éxodo masivo hacia España ya sabemos que la solidaria UE podrá cerrarnos las fronteras sin sacar la mano de nuestros bolsillos.
...lea el artículo de Luis Díez en Cuarto Poder
more in The Guardian - The Independent
Read also:
Greece, Schengen, Nato – it's time to admit the European dream is over As its leaders meet to grapple with the Greek crisis, the airwaves are full of existential debates about the future of the EU itself

May

The European Union is being built as a corporation of states where democratic institutions and citizens count little or nothing

Nato units and European ones left 61 African migrants to die of hunger and thirst when a boat trying to reach Italy was left to drift in Mediterranean for 16 days, despite alarm being raised.
Dozens of African migrants were left to die in the Mediterranean after a number of European and Nato military units apparently ignored their cries for help, the Guardian has learned.
A boat carrying 72 passengers, including several women, young children and political refugees, ran into trouble in late March after leaving Tripoli for the Italian island of Lampedusa. Despite alarms being raised with the Italian coastguard and the boat making contact with a military helicopter and a Nato warship, no rescue effort was attempted.
All but 11 of those on board died from thirst and hunger after their vessel was left to drift in open waters for 16 days. "Every morning we would wake up and find more bodies, which we would leave for 24 hours and then throw overboard," said Abu Kurke, one of only nine survivors. "By the final days, we didn't know ourselves … everyone was either praying, or dying."
International maritime law compels all vessels, including military units, to answer distress calls from nearby boats and to offer help where possible. Refugee rights campaigners have demanded an investigation into the deaths, while the UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency, has called for stricter co-operation among commercial and military vessels in the Mediterranean in an effort to save human lives.
"The Mediterranean cannot become the wild west," said spokeswoman Laura Boldrini. "Those who do not rescue people at sea cannot remain unpunished."
...more in The Guardian - Al Jazeera - Publico - El Pais - France 24

Read also:
About 250 people missing after boat carrying migrants from Libya sinks near Italian island.
Día de Europa: otro año con poco que celebrar.
'All this for Europe ... was it worth it?'

February

January

Tony Blair's role as "Peace envoy" questioned

Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad wondered whether Quartet envoy's initiatives were too small to be helpful.
When Tony Blair was appointed the Quartet’s Middle East envoy in 2007, he was tasked with encouraging donors to contribute to the Palestinian Authority, and with “help[ing] the Palestinians as they build the institutions and economy of a viable state.”
The Palestine Papers show that he’s done just that: Blair’s work in the West Bank and Gaza focused on state-building, rather than pushing the parties towards a solution on core issues. He worked with the Palestinians on sewage projects in the West Bank, and with the Israelis on relaxing movement restrictions on farm workers in the Jordan Valley.
At times – given the scope of the conflict – his projects seem quite small, an observation made at one point by Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, who warned that Blair’s state-building efforts would amount to little without a more substantive change in Israeli policy.

...more in Al Jazeera - The Guardian
Read also:
Blair's counter-insurgency "surge": Former British prime minister's support for Palestinian security forces contributed to decline of EU's influence.

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange returns to court -at Woolwich Crown Court next to Belmarsh High Security Prison in Greenwich-; the latest developments

Assange made his statement sooner than expected. Here are two key lines:
'We are happy about today's outcome. I have asked the court to make available to the press our skeleton argument.'
'Our work with WikiLeaks continues unabated and we are stepping up our publishing of materials related to cablegate.'
His lawyer, Mark Stephens, said the "skeleton argument" is made available his afternoon through his firm's website.
...WikiLeaks put out a press release this morning that draws parallels between some of the verbal attacks on Assange and sometimes violent US political rhetoric criticised in the wake of the shooting of Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford:
'WikiLeaks staff and contributors have also been the target of unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities, including Sarah Palin, who urged the US administration to "Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like the Taliban". Prominent US politician Mike Huckabee called for the execution of WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange on his Fox News program last November, and Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, referring to Assange, publicly called for people to "illegally shoot the son of a bitch"'

...more in The Guardian - Al Jazeera - El País - Le Monde - France 24 - Die Spiegel - La Repubblica - BBC - La Republica - Público - República - TwitLonger - Journalism.co.uk - CroatianTimes - El Mundo - The Independent - FREE JULIAN ASSANGE
Read also:
WikiLeaks perd plus de 480.000 euros par semaine
The EAW against Mr Julian Assange is abusive, read the "skeleton argument" of his legal team.
I've got secret files on Murdoch as 'insurance', claims Assange.

China's influence in Europe.
China claims is helping Spain which has 21% of unemployment, but it might be simply buying European influence.

Li Keqiang, China's vice premier, began the first leg of his European tour on Tuesday, starting with a three-day visit to Spain, and the unlikely allies are set to announce a series of economic agreements.
China has vowed to buy Spain's government debt in a multi-million dollar investment, as well as deals involving the energy sector, telecommunications - even olive oil, ham and wine exports to the world's second-largest economy.
Spain's finances are in bad shape, and there have been fears that an Irish- or Greek-style bailout may be needed. However, in an opinion piece in the leading Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Li is pledging that China will come to the rescue.
"China supports Spain in the series of economic and financial adjustment measures it has adopted, and is convinced of the certainty of the full recovery of the Spanish economy ... China is a responsible long-term investor, both in the European and the Spanish financial markets," said Li.
But what is really behind Beijing's move? Is China buying political influence in Europe?
Inside Story, with presenter James Bays, discusses with Joseph Cheng, a professor of political science at the City University of Hong Kong, Roger Nightingale, an economist and strategist, and Banning Garrett, the director of the Asia Programme at think tank The Atlantic Council US.

...more in Inside Story at Al Jazeera - The Guardian

Read also:
"El tema [del Nobel de la Paz] no merece ser mencionado" [en España que ilegalmente ha suspendido la Constitución para impedir protestas, y reina la Ley Militar]
El Nobel de la Paz Liu Xiaobo celebra su 55 cumpleaños recluido en prisión
Qué piensan de Wikileaks los eurodiputados
La crisis de deuda resurge con fuerza y golpea a la bolsa española

Noticias : EUROPA

2010

Europe's missing billions.

People & Power investigates why the EU funding system is riddled with fraud and mismanagement.
Europe is in the middle of its worst financial crisis for decades, and many are feeling the pain as people across the continent demonstrate against government cuts.
As unemployment grows, public services are slashed and billions of Euros go to bailing out the banks, and the continent's hard pressed taxpayers are being asked to embrace austerity and contribute more.
The European Union is one of the main recipients of their money. Its huge budget is drawn from its member states, hundreds of billions of Euros that are meant to be redistributed as grants, to the projects and places most in need.
However not all of that money is going where it should. For several months, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been looking into EU finances, and it has uncovered evidence of massive fraud.
Most disturbingly, as Angus Stickler now reports for People&Power, it seems that billions of taxpayer Euros are going straight into the pockets of organised crime.

...more in Al Jazeera

Corruptas autoridades vaticanas protegen líderes religiosos criminales.
Benedicto XVI admite que el fundador de los Legionarios fue 'encubierto'

Macial Maciel Degollado, el sacerdote mexicano fundador de los Legionarios de Cristo que durante años llevó una doble vida en la que no faltaron los abusos sexuales, los hijos ilegítimos y las malversaciones económicas, disfrutó durante años de la protección de altas instancias que le encubrieron. La acusación no es en absoluto nueva, pero lo sorprendente es quien la lanza ahora: nada menos que Benedicto XVI.
Recientemente la prestigiosa publicación católica estadounidense National Catholic Reporter publicó que existían fundadas sospechas de que Maciel hubiera pagado sustanciales sumas a tres altísimos cargos de la Santa Sede para asegurarse su apoyo y conseguir así que durante mucho tiempo no se abriera ninguna investigación canónica contra él. Según la investigación llevada a cabo por ese rotativo independiente, Maciel habría entregado repetidamente sobres repletos de dinero a tres cardenales claves de la Curia para ganárselos para su causa y conseguir que paralizaran cualquier intento de husmear en sus trapos sucios: Angelo Sodano (el poderoso secretario de Estado Vaticano entre 1990 y 2006 y hoy presidente del Colegio Cardenalicio), monseñor Stanislaw Dziwisz (el muy influyente secretario personal de Juan Pablo II y hoy cardenal) y el español Eduardo Martínez Somalo (camarlengo en el último cónclave y prefecto de la Congregación para los Institutos de Vida Consagrada desde 1994 hasta 2004).

Fue Benedicto XVI quien en Mayo de 2006 castigó a Maciel por sus abusos sexuales a seminaristas, prohibiéndole ejercer como sacerdote e invitándole a llevar "una vida de oración y penitencia". Además, este mismo año el Vaticano ha llevado a cabo una investigación sobre los Legionarios de Cristo que ha concluido que Maciel llevó a cabo "gravísimos y objetivamente inmorales comportamientos" que han sido "confirmados por testimonios incontrovertibles".
...más en El Mundo - La Repubblica

El rescate de Europa a Dublín tumba al Gobierno irlandés

Brian Cowen tiene los días contados como primer ministro de Irlanda. Así lo ha anunciado el líder ecologista John Gormley, con quien el partido del premier gobernaba en coalición desde mayo de 2007.
Gormley quiere elecciones anticipadas en la segunda quincena de enero. Un calendario que deja margen al Ejecutivo irlandés para aprobar los presupuestos de 2011 y recortes por valor de 15.000 millones de euros para reducir el déficit en los próximos cuatro años.
El líder de Los Verdes fue inequívoco: "Desde que entramos en el Gobierno en junio de 2007, hemos trabajado para reformar la economía. Ha sido difícil. Hemos tomado decisiones difíciles y hemos puesto por delante el interés nacional. Pero ha sido una semana traumática para el electorado irlandés. La gente se ha sentido engañada y traicionada".
La decisión se tomó el sábado pero Gormley no la ha hecho pública hasta esta mañana. Presumiblemente para no interferir en la negociación del rescate europeo, que se cerró anoche en los pasillos de Bruselas. .
Los Verdes tienen seis diputados en el Parlamento de Dublín. Una representación modesta pero suficiente para cercenar la mayoría menguante del primer ministro, que se reducirá a sólo dos escaños si la región de Donegal cumple los pronósticos en los comicios parciales y vota este jueves por el candidato del Sinn Fein.
El horizonte de Brian Cowen no es muy halagüeño. Los últimos sondeos dicen que su partido (Fianna Fáil) sufriría una derrota humillante en unas elecciones anticipadas. Apenas lograría un 17% de los votos. Un porcentaje irrisorio si tenemos en cuenta que el partido no ha bajado del 39% desde las generales de 1927.
...más en El Mundo - Público - El País - Al Jazeera - BBC

La justicia sueca ordena el arresto del fundador de Wikileaks por una maliciosa denuncia de violación

Julian Assange ha negado las acusaciones y ha insinuado que se podía tratar de un complot de Estados Unidos por las filtraciones sobre Irak y Afganistán en su web.
La justicia sueca ha ordenado el ingreso en prisión por un presunto delito de violación de Julian Assange, fundador de la valiente web Wikileaks, que ha publicado sonoras filtraciones sobre las guerras Irak y Afganistán.
El tribunal, reunido en Estocolmo, ha estudiado su caso a petición de Fiscalía Superior de Suecia. Decretado el ingreso en prisión de Assange, el tribunal tendrá que emitir una orden de búsqueda y captura internacional del fundador de Wikileaks. La Fiscalía Superior ordenó el pasado septiembre reabrir la investigación preliminar contra Assenge por un presunto delito de violación una semana después de que la cerrase la fiscal jefe. La fiscal superior sueca, Marianne Ny, consideró que había "razones" para fundamentar una sospecha de delito y que éste debe ser calificado de violación.
El fundador de Wikileaks fue acusado de violación en agosto, pocos días después de llegar a Suecia para impartir varias conferencias. Assange, interrogado en relación con las denuncias presentadas por dos mujeres, negó las acusaciones e insinuó que se podía tratar de un complot de Estados Unidos para desprestigiarlo después de las filtraciones de su controvertido portal de internet con miles de documentos confidenciales.
...más en El País - The Guardian - The Independent - Al Jazeera - BBC - France 24 -

Open Secret Mounting Evidence of Europe’s Complicity in Rendition and Secret Detention

AI pide al Gobierno que investigue la guerra sucia de la CIA en España. La ONG exige reparación para las víctimas y que se depuren responsabilidades.
Amnistía Internacional (AI) ha hecho público hoy un informe en el que reclama justicia para las víctimas de la guerra sucia contra el terror durante la etapa de la anterior administración norteamericana. El informe se titula "Un secreto a voces: crecientes indicios sobre la complicidad de Europa en entregas extraordinarias y detenciones secretas" y recoge las pruebas más recientes de la actividad ilegal de la CIA en casos de desaparición forzada, tortura y maltrato a sospechosos.
Aviones de la CIA hicieron numerosas escalas en aeropuertos españoles en estas misiones entre 2003 y 2005 y estos vuelos son investigados por la Audiencia Nacional. El fiscal Vicente González Mota ha solicitado la detención de 14 presuntos agentes de la CIA que integraban la tripulación de uno de esos vuelos en cuyo avión se trasladó a un secuestrado. Los espías utilizaron identidades falsas, según los primeros indicios de la investigación. Además, un avión con valiosos presos de Al Qaeda procedente de Guantánamo aterrizó en el aeropuerto de Los Rodeos (Tenerife) en abril de 2004 rumbo a cárceles secretas en Rumania y Marruecos, según un informe de Reprieve, ONG de abogados en defensa de los derechos humanos, con sede en Londres. Es la primera vez que se tiene constancia de que presos de Al Qaeda pisaron territorio español camino de cárceles secretas de la CIA, según esta investigación publicada recientemente por EL PAÍS.
"La UE no ha tomado en absoluto medidas para hacer rendir cuentas a los Estados miembros por los abusos que han cometido", ha manifestado Nicolás Beger, director de la oficina de AI ante las instituciones europeas. "Estos abusos se cometieron en suelo europeo. No podemos dejar sin más que Europa se sume a Estados Unidos para convertirse también en zona sin rendición de cuentas. Las cosas están cambiando, pues algunos países han iniciado investigaciones, pero hay que hacer mucho más. Nadie debe eludir la responsabilidad de las transferencias ilegales, desapariciones forzadas y detenciones secretas que se produjeron en el contexto de estas operaciones dirigidas por la CIA. Los gobiernos nacionales tienen la obligación jurídica de garantizar que se rindan plenamente cuentas por tales violaciones de derechos humanos. En varios países europeos se están haciendo avances en la rendición de cuentas. La repetida excusa de que es necesario el secreto de Estado para proteger la seguridad no debe de servir para mantener la impunidad", concluye Nicolás Beger.
...más en El País /
Y en la web de Amnesty International

Solicitors Carlos Slepoy, Ana Messuti, Máximo Castex, Ricardo Huñis and Fernando Magán obtained that Argentinian judge petitions Spain to try civil war crimes of Franco dictatorship

Allegations of genocide under dictator's could be tried in Latin America if amnesty laws block investigations in Spain.
In a stark reversal of roles, an Argentine judge has taken a step towards opening the first comprehensive investigation into the human rights abuses of General Franco's dictatorship in Spain.
Judge María Servini has asked Spain to declare whether its own courts are investigating cases of torture, murder and disappearance of Franco's political opponents.
If amnesty laws prevent Spanish courts investigating the cases cited by Servini, which date from 1936 until the dictator's death in 1975, then she might declare her own court competent to investigate and try crimes allegedly committed by Franco's henchmen.
In a formal petition to Spain, Servini indicates that the court would investigate allegations of genocide, including tens of thousands of cases of "torture, assassination, forced disappearances and the stealing of children".
Her request mirrors those made over the past dozen years by Spanish courts which, using international law allowing human rights crimes to be investigated and tried elsewhere if a country cannot do so itself, have brought cases against several military regimes in Latin America.
The Spanish magistrate Baltasar Garzón famously used this process to order the arrest of Chile's Augusto Pinochet in London in 1998. In that case the law lords ruled that the former dictator should be extradited to face trial in Spain, although Jack Straw, home secretary at the time, finally sent the general back to Chile on health grounds in 2000.
Garzón used the same principle of universal jurisdiction to prosecute the Argentine navy captain Adolfo Scilingo in Madrid in 2005. Scilingo was jailed for throwing drugged political prisoners out of aircraft into the sea.
Argentina later repealed its own amnesty laws and the country now tries dirty-war suspects.
The request by Servini comes after Spanish human rights campaigners took the case to Argentina, claiming domestic courts were effectively closed to them. They say a decision by the supreme court to try Garzón for allegedly distorting Spanish law as he tried to open an investigation in 2008 into Francoist crimes, proves that Spain is unable to try these crimes itself. Garzón is due to be tried in the coming months. A Spanish amnesty law passed in 1977 covers crimes committed while carrying out political repression before 1976 by "authorities, civil servants and agents of public order".
The petition from Servini lists the cases of several people killed or "disappeared" by pro-Francoist death squads in the early days of the Spanish civil war in 1936 when General Franco helped lead a right-wing uprising against the government. It also includes the case of Silvia Carretero, arrested and allegedly tortured in 1975, and her husband José Luis Sánchez Bravo, who was shot by a Francoist firing squad that year after being found guilty of killing a police officer.
In her petition, signed on 14 October, Severini asks Spain's government "to inform this court whether in your country there is an investigation into the existence of a systematic, widespread and deliberate plan designed to terrorise those Spaniards who supported representative government via their physical elmination, and of a plan of legalized disappearance of children whose identities were changed."
..."We have many hopes for this case," said Santiago Macias, vice president of Spain's Association for the Recuperation of Historic Memory, which helps Spaniards search common graves for anti-Franco victims of the civil war and dictatorship.
Attorney Carlos Slepoy, a specialist in human rights law, told The Associated Press the plaintiffs are invoking the principle of universal jurisdiction, which provides that genocide and crimes against humanity "can be prosecuted by the courts of any country."
"It's a shame that in democracy we have to seek Argentine justice, the justice system of another country, to investigate an issue that in our supposedly strong democracy we haven't been able to do," Macias told the AP before joining the group in Buenos Aires.
...more in The Guardian - El País - El Mundo - The Independent - Al Jazeera - France 24 - Público - Buenos Aires Herald - USA Today - Radio Nederland - Nueva Tribuna - Página 12 - Momento 24 - BBC Mundo
Lea también: La querella en Argentina por crímenes franquistas avala a Garzón
And in the web of Asociación por la Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica

La UE vigilará a los ciudadanos de opiniones radicales:
Entre los logros de la Presidencia española de la Unión Europea, ha pasado prácticamente desapercibida la aprobación de un programa de vigilancia y recolección sistemática de datos personales de ciudadanos sospechosos de experimentar un proceso de “radicalización”. Este programa puede dirigirse contra individuos involucrados en grupos de “extrema izquierda o derecha, nacionalistas, religiosos o antiglobalización”, según figura en los documentos oficiales.
El pasado 16 de abril, el Consejo de la Unión Europea reunido en Luxemburgo abordó el punto del orden del día titulado “Radicalización en la UE”, que concluyó con la aprobación del documento 8570/10. La iniciativa forma parte de la estrategia de prevención del terrorismo en Europa, y se concibió inicialmente para grupos terroristas islámicos. Sin embargo, el documento extiende la sospecha de tal forma y en términos tan genéricos que da cobertura a la vigilancia policial de cualquier individuo o grupo sospechoso de haberse radicalizado. Así, un activista de una organización civil, política o ciudadana, sin vínculos con el terrorismo, podría ser espiado en el marco de un programa que invita a investigar desde el “grado de compromiso ideológico o político” del sospechoso, hasta si su situación económica es de “desempleo, deterioro, pérdida de una beca o de ayuda financiera”.
El documento aprobado recomienda a los Estados miembros que “compartan información relativa a los procesos de radicalización”. ¿Qué entiende la UE por radicalización? El texto debería definir el concepto, pues eso permitiría acotar la vigilancia al ámbito del terrorismo islamista, pero no lo hace. Se insta, por el contrario, a considerar entre los objetivos a todo tipo de defensores de ideas heterodoxas. El acuerdo pone también bajo la lupa policial a ciudadanos que defiendan las ideas radicales clásicas, las de aquellos partidarios del reformismo democrático que tanto bien han hecho a la democracia. Incluso podría aplicarse contra quienes se consideren radicales en sentido etimológico, pues “radical” es, ni más ni menos, el que aborda los problemas en su raíz.
El acuerdo pulveriza el espíritu europeo de tolerancia hacia todas las ideas, siempre que se defiendan mediante la palabra pues, en su afán de prevenir el terrorismo, amplia el abanico de sospechosos hasta diluir la notable diferencia entre los medios con que se defienden las ideas y las ideas mismas.
...lea el excelente artículo por Irene Lozano en Cuarto Poder - Y en la web StateWatch.org

Goodbye to the 500 Europ note of ill-repute : Unless you're a criminal, you may never have seen one. And that's why the €500 note has been taken out of circulation in the United Kingdom.
Mark Hughes and Rob Sharp investigate
You are a hardened drug baron, controlling a network of dealers. Presiding over an operation worth millions of pounds, you struggle with the problems associated with any enterprise, legal or otherwise – your supply, your staff, and, not least, how to deal with your ill-gotten gains. This last part is harder than it sounds. Unlike a conventional business, you cannot just pop to the bank – questions would be asked. Instead, you prefer to deal in cash, the only problem being what to do when the quantities become unfeasibly large. For the serious criminal, the discrepancy in volume between a car boot full of money or a bin bag brimming with notes can mean the difference between getting away with it and an extended jail term.
This is why a little-remarked-upon development in official policy on the denominations in which the euro is issued has sent shockwaves through the world of organised crime. Until last month, many British gangsters stored their spoils in the form of €500 notes. While £1m weighs 50kg in £20 notes, the same value weighs only 2.2kg in €500 notes. This has made life easier for a growing number of criminals, since the euro's introduction in 2002. Should you wish, for example, you can swallow €150,000 in €500 notes, or hide €20,000 of them a cigarette packet, while even £1m can be hidden quite easily in secret compartments in a suitcase.
However, fed up with abuse of the currency, Britain's Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) has decided with the Treasury and Home Office to remove €500 notes from circulation in Britain. Soca's ban follows an investigation which revealed that 90 per cent of the €500 notes in this country are being used for criminal purposes. It's the latest of a number of high-denomination bank notes favoured by villains that have fallen out of favour. Richard Nixon halted the circulation of $10,000 bills in 1969 because of their association with organised crime; these days the 1,000 Swiss franc note, while rare, is another popular choice for those engaging in nefarious deeds, and the 1,000 Dutch guilder note was a black-market favourite before the introduction of the euro.
...According to Colombian financial regulators, in 2006, euros valued at £200,000 were legally imported into Colombia. The same year, nearly £600m worth of euros were exported. The balance went undeclared, as importers paying for cocaine tend not to fill out currency declaration forms. Also in 2006, the Spanish government revealed that 25 per cent of all €500 notes in the world were in circulation in Spain, one of Europe's principle conduits for the import of cocaine. Today, of the €776bn in circulation, about €280bn are in €500 notes. The note's size and high value make transatlantic flights easy for criminals, who often travel in business class to get a higher weight limit for their hand luggage.
...more in The Independent - El País - BBC - France 24 - Libertad Digital

Los cómplices europeos de Vladímir Putin: En las capitales europeas, diversos dirigentes amantes de la libertad anuncian una nueva era de cooperación con Rusia. En Berlín se jactan de una "relación especial" con Moscú, mientras se progresa sobre gigantescos proyectos energéticos con el monopolio gasista Gazprom. Silvio Berlusconi acaba de regresar de un viaje a San Petersburgo para celebrar el 59º aniversario de su "amigo" Vladímir Putin. Y en París, las negociaciones sobre la venta a Rusia de ultramodernos buques porta-helicópteros de la clase Mistral avanzan rápidamente.
Al mismo tiempo, en Moscú y otras partes de Rusia, los periodistas, militantes demócratas y otros disidentes son reprimidos cada vez con mayor dureza. El 31 de enero último, la policía de Vladímir Putin arrestó a decenas de ciudadanos con ocasión de una reunión pacífica organizada para sostener la libertad de... reunión.
Los periodistas son sistemáticamente hostigados cuando expresan críticas en contra del poder. Por desgracia, los procesos judiciales no son el mayor riesgo para quienes no "informan" a la opinión en un sentido "patriótico". En 2009, más de una decena de periodistas, militantes por los derechos humanos y opositores políticos fueron asesinados.
Tras haber amordazado las voces que en el interior de Rusia critican su política en el Cáucaso, el Gobierno de Putin arremete ahora contra las que lo hacen desde el extranjero y en particular contra las que se permiten, crimen absoluto, hacerlo en lengua rusa. Ahora bien, comprobamos con amargura que esa ofensiva está sostenida por la misma Europa.
La última víctima de la censura orquestada por Putin e implementada por sus "amigos" occidentales se llama Pervyi Kavkazskyi o Primera del Cáucaso. Esta joven cadena de televisión caucasiana en lengua rusa era, hasta final de enero, de libre acceso para las personas que vivían en todo el espacio post-soviético. Sólo hasta final de enero porque Eutelsat, empresa europea con base en París, ha despojado a la cadena disidente de los satélites que cubrían las antenas de los hogares rusos.
...Así, el Gobierno francés se dispone a vender a Rusia uno o varios buques de asalto de la clase Mistral. Los militares rusos no han hecho ningún misterio de sus intenciones respecto a dicho armamento. En septiembre último, el almirante Vladímir Visotsky declaraba triunfante: "Semejante barco habría permitido a la flota del Mar Negro llevar a cabo su misión (invadir Georgia) en 40 minutos en vez de en 26 horas".
Hace apenas más de un año, cuando los tanques rusos ocupaban una parte de Georgia, el secretario general de la OTAN, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, declaraba que "en tales circunstancias, con Rusia no podría haber tratos como los de costumbre". Las fuerzas rusas siguen ocupando una parte de Georgia, pero también la OTAN da muestras de querer reforzar sus relaciones con el régimen de Putin.
Mientras Moscú amordaza a los medios de comunicación opositores, elimina a los periodistas divergentes y somete a sus vecinos a intimidaciones permanentes, los dirigentes europeos no se quedan en silencio: abogan por unos vínculos más estrechos con el poder ruso.
Estos dirigentes deben tomar partido claramente por la libertad de expresión y defender a los medios de comunicación alternativos que la hacen vivir. Y eso empieza por recordar a las compañías europeas que su función no es la de convertirse en instrumentos de la censura de Putin. Esos mismos dirigentes deben hacer ver que en el siglo XXI no se ocupan impunemente territorios extranjeros. Ello pasa por el mantenimiento de una actitud firme y no por las ventas de armas. Está en juego la libertad de los ciudadanos rusos y de los países de su entorno, pero también el verdadero sentido y el honor de Europa.
...lea el artículo de Garry Kasparov [líder del frente Ciudadanos Unidos. Firman también este artículo Elena Bonner-Sajarov, activista de Derechos Humanos; Andrei Illarionov, ex consejero de Vladímir Putin, y otras 15 personas más. Traducción de Juan Ramón Azaola.] en El País

Evidence mounts that Greece's authorities cooked the books and in the same corrupt steps follows, at a much larges scale, corrupt Hispania, land of rabbits as the Roman named it for the idiocy of its inhabitants who vote -over and over again- for the same corrupt politicians: There are new questions over the reliability of Greek accounting - this time over the extent of its austerity package. European politicans, already unnerved by Greece's accounting prior to its entry into the euro and fudged deficit figures, are demanding further austerity measures to ease the country - and the euro - back from crisis.
But the new calls for further and deeper cuts in Greece's runaway public sector spending come as the European Union's statistical agency, Eurostat, has had its powers to audit member states weakened. This bizarre and contrary manoeuvre comes less than a day after it was revealed that two Wall Street firms, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, helped Greece and possibly other member states keep the full extent of their borrowing off the books.
The scent of a sub-prime debacle re-enacted on a pan-European scale continues to spook the markets and there is widespread unease that other peripheral states will eventually be forced to reveal that they, like Greece, submitted incorrect figures to conceal the size of their deficits. Yesterday, the euro fell to a nine-month low.
The Greek government says its measures will reduce the budget deficit to 8.7 per cent from 12.7 per cent of gross domestic product this year and pledges that by 2012 it will be back under the three per cent limit for euro membership. But many officials describe Greece's projections as fantastic as its fables and the EU is looking toward a stringent programme of verification.
It is also questioning the Greek government over its unannounced use of complex, Wall Street-devised financial instruments designed to mask deficits. "The truth is that we cannot just assume that trust is sufficient," Jean Pisani-Ferry, director of Bruegel, a research institute in Brussels, told the New York Times. "This is a precedent and the conclusion is that you have to be much tougher on actual statistics and the quality of them." ... more in The First Post - The Guardian - BBC - Al Jazeera - France 24 - El Mundo

"Grecia está en quiebra y España es una amenaza para el euro": El profesor de la Universidad de Nueva York, Nouriel Roubini, ha sido elocuente en Davos. "Grecia está en bancarrota" y España es una amenaza inminente para la zona euro, hasta el punto de que en dos años se podría producir la "ruptura de la Unión Monetaria".
...Pero no sólo Grecia está en el ojo del huracán. España también constituye una amenaza inminente para la zona euro. Ambos países, España y Grecia, sufren fuertes desequilibrios fiscales y un agudo deterioro de competitividad en declive, añade. "El riesgo aumenta", hasta el punto de que "en uno o dos años podríamos asistir a la ruptura de la Unión Monetaria", alerta "La zona del euro podría derivar en una bifurcación, con un centro fuerte y una débil periferia en la que algunos países podrían salir de la Unión Monetaria". El bloque de la moneda única se enfrenta así a su "primer gran test". El problema es que, si bien Grecia pudiera ser rescatada dado su escaso tamaño, España representa una amenaza mucho mayor para la zona euro, ya que es la cuarta economía más grande de la Unión y tiene la mayor tasa de desempleo y un sistema financiero que se debilita por momentos. "Si Grecia cae es un problema para la zona euro", pero si o hace España "es un desastre". ...más en Libertad Digital - El Confidencial

Liberan al director de Greenpeace España 21 días después de su detención en Dinamarca:
La justicia danesa puso hoy en libertad al director ejecutivo de Greenpeace en España, Juan López de Uralde, y a otros tres activistas de la organización que fueron detenidos el pasado 17 de diciembre durante la Cumbre del Cambio Climático de Copenhague. Fuentes cercanas apuntan que los cuatro activistas de Greenpeace tendrán que presentarse el jueves ante el juez, aunque se desconoce si se presentarán cargos contra ellos. López de Uralde y los otros tres detenidos -la sueca Nora Christiansen, el suizo Christian Schmutz y el holandés Joris Thijssen- ofrecerán el jueves una rueda de prensa a bordo del Rainbow Warrior, el barco insignia de la organización ecologista Greenpeace. Los cuatro activistas, entre ellos López de Uralde, irrumpieron el 17 de diciembre en la cena de gala que la Reina de Dinamarca ofreció a los jefes de Estado y de Gobierno para pedir a los líderes un compromiso ambicioso en la lucha contra el cambio climático. La policía danesa les acusó de los cargos de allanamiento de morada, suplantación de autoridad pública y falsificación de documentos, por lo que estaban en situación de prisión preventiva desde hace 21 días. López de Uralde recibió el martes una breve visita de su familia en la cárcel danesa de Vestre Faengsel. "Nos tratan como a perros. Intentan humillarnos y rompernos", dijo a su mujer, Koro Castellano, y a su hermano. También les trasladó que se encontraba bien aunque se mostró indignado por el régimen de incomunicación y por el trato que han recibido en prisión, que considera duro y humillante. ...más en El Mundo - El País - ABC - The Guardian - France 24 - More information in the website of Greenpeace.org

Fair Trials International is a unique human rights charity. We campaign for fundamental rights for people facing the ordeal of criminal charges in a country other than their own. In addition to providing legal assistance and advocacy to individuals in need, we fight the underlying causes of injustice in cross-border cases through our policy interventions, research and training.

Misuse of the European Arrest Warrant

The Guardian, Thursday 16 December 2010
Julian Assange may ultimately succeed in his bail application, but the threat of extradition to Sweden will still hang over him (The Julian Assange case: a mockery of extradition?, 14 December). The public interest in Assange's case is understandable, but his case illustrates a wider, less publicised problem. Last year alone, Europe's fast-track extradition system was used to extradite nearly 700 people from the UK. Our work at Fair Trials International leaves us in no doubt that this system, designed to deliver justice, is in fact causing many serious cases of injustice.
A central concern in the Assange case is that Sweden seems not even to have laid charges. The European arrest warrant should, by law, be used only to prosecute or to enforce a sentence. Serious though the allegations may be, there is no basis to extradite Mr Assange, unless for the purposes of conducting a criminal prosecution. We have seen many cases of overseas prosecutors reaching for the quick-fire, tick-box EAW, rather than using other legitimate means of investigating alleged crimes. Michael Turner and Andrew Symeou are just two of those we have helped, and who experienced horrendous periods in detention after being surrendered, before even being questioned by police.
In such cases as these, less drastic tools should be used. Sweden should ask the UK to assist with its investigations, starting by questioning Assange. The EAW, used properly, is a key weapon in the fight against serious cross-border crime. It should not, however, be the measure of first resort.
Catherine Heard
Head of policy, Fair Trials International
Read also:
The European arrest warrant is being used to have thousands of people flown out to face charges that wouldn't stick in the UK
Extradition agreement under review as Theresa May launches inquiry
European arrest warrant in spotlight
Extradition treaty review will take a year:
The review, conducted by a panel of experts selected by the Home Office, will examine whether judges should be given powers to bar extradition and deal with some cases in British courts. Existing legislation allows the US and European Union countries to have British citizens arrested and sent for trial abroad without presenting the level of evidence that would be needed for a prosecution in the UK.
The panel will examine whether the Extradition Act and European Arrest Warrant are being used to unfairly pursue Britons. It follows the case of Gary McKinnon, a Scot who faces decades in a US jail for computer hacking crimes allegedly committed at his north London home. There has also been alarm at the use of European warrants to send people to countries with legal systems less robust than the UK's, and where they can face years locked up on remand.
Last night, the former home secretary David Blunkett, who signed the Extradition Act and has admitted he may have "given too much away" to the Americans, said that sensible discussions with Britain's extradition partners could resolve "any irritants quite speedily".
But he said Ms May's announcement of the scope of the review appeared "to kick these issues into the long grass" because the panel will not report until the end of next summer.
Shami Chakrabarti, of the civil rights group Liberty, also raised concerns about the time the review will take, saying: "A number of hard cases could be more urgently addressed by activating a 'forum' provision that has sat dormant on the statute book for four years."
By activating these provisions now, "judges would have the discretion to protect people who should most obviously be dealt with at home from being shunted off to Europe, the US or anywhere else", she added.

Por favor firme la petición para que en la Unión Europea se luche contra la corrupción institucional que destruye la democracia y la justicia:

A true Europe versus authoritarian & corrupt EU

...more in Daniel Hannan and in the UK Independence Party

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